It was another embarrassment of riches for our monthly tasting group last night. While there were a couple of up and down performers, the up far outweighed the down. Short notes here, as I was focused on the sheer enjoyment of the wines. All wines were served blind (I knew about 1 of them – the Catoir), and double decanted about 2 hours before the tasting.
The 2011 J. J. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett was showing fresher/brighter than it has in the past. Perhaps some of the baby fat is peeling away. It’s still had a very leesy/sponti note but good fruit underneath. I would hold a few more years.
Two Petite Sirahs were our young red wines of the evening. The 2006 Ridge Dynamite Hill Petite Sirah showed solid structure and good balance for such a young PS. It needs years to reach any sort of maturity, but it’s not a forbidding drink at this point. The 2011 Ridge Lytton Estate Petite Sirah was blowsy/excessive in its flabby fruit profile, but deep underneath that wealth of fruit there was structure. Maybe a long sleep is what it needs. Both wines showed the typical Ridge oak profile.
We then moved on to older Bordeaux, with four wines, starting with an amazing bottle of 1966 Pichon Lalande that was my red wine of the night. It was nearly a perfect bottle with floral, cedar, red fruit and all sorts of other scents/flavors. It was a gorgeous, gentle, captivating wine. Unfortunately the 1966 Latour was not on form, probably a victim of TCA. There was plenty of stuffing/depth to the wine, but it had a moldy/musty element that made the wine generally undrinkable. This was unfortunate. Spirits were immediately raised with the next wine, the 1971 Petrus. Two months in a row for Petrus in our tasting group, as we had the 1973 last month. This showed the characteristic exoticism of Petrus, and I pretty much figured it out just from the nose. All the spice and floral notes just kept drawing me back to smell the wine. I did not care that much about drinking it, but it sure was lovely when I did. The final Bordeaux was another gem, the 1961 Latour. The particular bottle was fading just a bit, but it was still amazing. The majesty was evident, like Lawrence Olivier in his later years. I had a chance to revisit the wine a couple of time over the course of the evening, and it held its form, with still a core of fruit, and all the expected earthy/cedar aged notes. What was most remarkable about the wine was the depth and long finish. It just kept going.
Our host had invited us to provide bottles that met his very loose theme (wines from years ending in 1 or 6), so I brought along a bottle of 1996 Muller-Catoir Haardter Herzog Riesling Spatlese. I obviously knew what it was, but the group reaction was the same as mine – phenomenal wine. This bottling was a stunner when it was released, but went through a very sullen period for many years. It started to re-emerge in about 2010 or so, but last night was the unveiling of the revived, amazing, clear as a bell ur-Riesling. Perfect balance, absolute harmony, tropical notes with a bright(!!) dash of orange zest that overlaid the wine. The 1996 acidity was evident, but also perfectly balanced. Home field advantage acknowledged, but this was a stunning wine.
We then wrapped up with a bottle of 1991 Warre’s Port which started out very spirity but evolved very nicely with time in the glass. It had only been decanted for 3 or 4 hours, but it needed much more. It was ultimately a fine Port, but just not given the opportunity to show its best. I think it’s getting into a drinking window, but give it 6-8 hours of air. It would have been nice to spend more time with this.
Anyway…WOW!
