My Dinner with Normand......Prosecco, Musar, Borgogno, Cayron.

Spent an excellent evening at local game restaurant Normand with some friends, Mishy and Mike B. Six of us and some excellent wines, no corkage!!

Prosecco VecchieViti-Ruggeri.

Sure not worth the $34 Cdn I paid. Average stuff, big bubbles, short finish and no great depth.

`92 Musar white.

Oaky, butterscotch, marzipan. Not ozidized! Musky type nose, decanted as per Otto. Needs food, hint of pear. Nose is a double plus, nice mouthfeel but dies off.

`90 Barolo Borgogno

Very expressive, tar, roses. Grainy tannins, cherry, dusty, nice grip. "Halting acidity" thought Mishy whilst Ed thought"I like the purity, does not show as an old wine". 5yrs left with this.

`98 Gigondas Cayron.

14% smells like a good barn! Tastes sweet after the Barolo, still has good tannins. Uplifting nose, lots of fruit. Decanted for an hour and found blackberry as it aired. Great structure, trad nose but modern palate.
I found an almost spritz character, raspberry and licorice. Geat with kangaro and bison tenderloin.

`01 Cornas Sarah-Perraud.

See notes on Wine Focus forum here.

`00 Grand Veneur Chateauneuf du Pape.

Mike B`s mystery wine!! This is how the conversation went........

Old World, might be!
This is new world?!!
French!!
`00 I think, not big tannins.
(Bottle cover removed)This is Chateauneuf?!!
Not my idea of CdP.
Wont buy this again!!
I like it chilled!

So there you go, interesting evening eh.

Good stuff Bob. Some of my thoughts:

I think the Prosecco wasn't given enough credit. It was crisp and clean with a nice acidity. It might not have been worth the price (I think $10 less would be about right), but it was still good.

My first contribution - the white Musar was intriguing, as I find Musar to be (props to Otto). It drew a lot of study and comments. It's one of those wines I love to try to figure out and always gets an interesting reception.

I was struggling for the right descriptor and Ed nailed it when he said marzipan.

The Barolo was fantastic and my second place WOTN. Just wonderful Barolo-style cherry nose and flavours. It developed well in the glass, with tar showing up as well. I definitely could see this lasting years longer.

Mishy's Gigondas was good, too. The owner recommended against decanting it, but I think it would have benefited with more exposure to air. Wow, did it ever smell like manure when it was opened. I definitely had some of that spritz and it threw me. But it was singing after a couple of hours.

The Cornas. Ahh, the Cornas. A fine, elegant, beautiful wine. Blueberries, violets. Oh so soft yet supple. It was the perfect match to the blueberry demi-glaze on my bison tenderloin and kangaroo loin.

The second bottle I brought, the Grand Veneur, wasn't as impressive as the Musar, though I might have been too hard on it on first judgment. It was very alcoholic on the nose and palate and seemed to be much more New World in style. To be fair, though, the restaurant was getting hot at that point and all of the wines were showing elevated alcohol as a result.

Mishy cooled it a bit in the bucket and some of the fruit started moving to the forefront. Still, not typical of a CdP, which is what I was hoping for.

`92 Musar white.

Oaky, butterscotch, marzipan. Not ozidized! Musky type nose, decanted as per Otto. Needs food, hint of pear. Nose is a double plus, nice mouthfeel but dies off.

Not oxidized! Send it back for a replacement - obviously an off bottle

`90 Barolo Borgogno

Very expressive, tar, roses. Grainy tannins, cherry, dusty, nice grip. "Halting acidity" thought Mishy whilst Ed thought"I like the purity, does not show as an old wine". 5yrs left with this.

You lucky Bar Steward you! Borgogno seems hard to come by in UK and whilst I've seen it in Italy, I've always ended up with other stuff instead. Borgogno is normally a long, long ager, so you might be able to add 10 or more years to your 5yrs left. The riserva more so.

`98 Gigondas Cayron.

14% smells like a good barn! Tastes sweet after the Barolo, still has good tannins. Uplifting nose, lots of fruit. Decanted for an hour and found blackberry as it aired. Great structure, trad nose but modern palate.
I found an almost spritz character, raspberry and licorice. Geat with kangaro and bison tenderloin.

Cool, we've got one of these and had it scheduled for sometime around it's 10th birthday. Based on the structure mentioned and the comment about decanting, it sounds like 2-3 years shouldn't do it any harm.

Nice notes - sounds like a good session with some thought provoking wines.

regards

Ian

Hi Ian, good to hear from you. I was sort of unofficial note taker and just wrote it all down. As usual Mike B summed up very well.
There was 6 of us all wine geeks, all wines from cellars. The Musar was very good, my first white from this winery. Good to hear that you have some in the cellar at chez Ian.
This afternoon, gonna try track down some more wines from Lebanon. Have one place in mind but dont tell Mike B!!

This afternoon, gonna try track down some more wines from Lebanon. Have one place in mind but dont tell Mike B!!

I'll share mine if you share yours, Bob! At least tell me what you find.

I know the 123rd Street store has plenty of the Musar rose and Pere & Fils. I've been around the city and the only other Musars I can seem to find are the '93 and the '96, and I scooped those up right away.

I regret waiting a week to get the bottles of the '64 I came across. Someone beat me to them and it was supposedly Musar's best vintage. At least I got two of the '77s and the two '92 blancs.

Thanks to Ed at deVine and Otto here, I've become a bit obsessive about Musar.

Watch out Mike B..Otto is back!!!!

Thanks for all the notes, and on the Musar especially of course! I've never tasted the 1992 white. The red was never released because the Hochars felt it wasn't up to their usual standard - it was a very rainy year. Usually in such cases they've vinified and bottled it anyway but haven't released it to the market. If I understood correctly, they were so dismayed with the outcome of the red '92 that they dumped the wine.

Their white comes from a rather different terroir and is situated higher in the Biqa'-valley than the vineyards for the red. But I guess the lack of aftertaste might indicate the wet summer anyway? But I'm glad the nose seemed nice. Did you save any for the next day? Did it survive or improve?

-Otto-