Something I forgot to add to last week's note: The Joseph Swan 2012 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, Saralee's Vineyard has regularly been a favorite Swan Pinot and I thought the 2012 was especially nice, so bought a bunch. It turns out to have been the last vintage, as the property was sold. This bottle had the characteristic sweet fruit and florality, with some savory depth too, but was muted compared to memories of a previous bottle about six months ago; might be shutting down a little, or memory might have inflated the expressiveness of the earlier bottle. I hope this will get a second wind.
This weekend, a friend visited from Boston and between dinner at home Saturday night and dinner out at a BYO Sunday, we opened a bunch of stuff, including a Matthiasson 2013 Napa Valley White Wine, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Ribolla Gialla, Sémillon, and Tocai Friulano from the Ryans and Vare Vineyards. I had thought this was the same wine on which I posted a note a while ago, but when I went back to buy more I seem to have gotten the previous vintage. No matter: it's delicious again, ripe fruit flavors, even leaning slightly tropical, on a taut and structured frame, which gives the wine a lot of intensity and tension. Glad to know that it's consistent. Good match with a southeast-Asian-style kabocha-coconut soup.
Next up was a Wind Gap 2013 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, Sun Chase Vineyard. Intense aromatic strawberry backed by earth and a little tannin; mostly high-toned but balanced by some darker notes. The fruit-forwardness of it gives away its origin but it's focused rather than plump, which is just the combo I was hoping for to pair with homemade char siu bao.
Then, having had my one-third share of two bottles, I remembered that I'd been playing around with the idea of pairing Riesling with the bao and had put a Boxler 2001 Alsace Riesling Sommerberg L31E in the (forgive me) freezer for a twenty-minute chill... about five hours earlier. Yup: icewine; cork pushed halfway out. Guess we'll have to thaw it and drink it. Great stuff. Not bone dry but only the lightest touch of sweetness. Slightly honeyed around the edges but otherwise fresh, minerally, somehow both ripe and green, very vivid. Tastes like it has room to continue developing, but it's compelling now, too.
The next night, at Ruxbin, we opened two reds: first, a J.-F. Mugnier 2001 Chambolle-Musigny, for which I had only modest hopes, which it fulfilled nicely enough. Nothing leaps out of the glass at you but it doesn't taste tired, either. Silky texture, aromatics that lean cherry and anise, good length; the edges have been rounded off and it's not compelling, but it turns out to be a nice red match for some relatively delicate and mushroom-inflected dishes. Then, a Cappellano 2012 Nebiolo d'Alba, one of two bottles I managed to snag in Chicago a couple of months ago, for which I had very high hopes based on David's recent raves, and it fulfilled THEM nicely enough too. A lot of the interest here is in the play between different aromatic elements, some of which pull you up while others pull you down, but I'm also impressed with how delicate this seemed to be despite being declared 15% and having the stuffing not to taste even a little hot. It's like a big engine that hums quietly enough to let you hear the birdsong in the background. Our friend declared it to be "everything she could want" from a Nebbiolo (which is, I think, her desert-island red). I couldn't disagree.