1998 Mumm Napa DVX Sparkling Wine (Napa Valley) Nose is brioche and unsweetened cocoa powder. Lots more pinot is starting to come through in the flavor as this wine ages. Ripe cherry with a hint of citrus. Way more interesting than when this was first released. Even so, it’s not as good as similarly priced grower champagne.
1999 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco (Piedmont) Consistently a very good qpr barbaresco. Starting to developing very attractive tar and dried violet aromas. There is plenty of dense sweet dark fruit and solid fine grained tannins. The acidity is low as you’d expect with this vintage but this wine is really quite yummy. Drinks well now with some decant time but should get better over the next 3-5yrs (not a long term ager).