We started buying Corison about a decade ago after finally visiting the tasting room but have barely opened any, and now we've accumulated enough that it seems like the right time to drop the club, reallocate the funds, and start drinking the wine, already. So I seared some NY strips and we popped a Corison 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley. I poured us small tastes and decanted the rest. This was extremely tight and unyielding at first, showing only an intriguing whiff of wild blueberry in front of an armored wall. After two hours, it became a lot more expressive: flowers and the same blueberry note, cassis too, edged with mint and sliding into a medium-long back end of black fruit and a little cedar. The overall impression is at the cool, blue end of the flavor palette. This has great depth, texture, and balance, but it's still reticent and really young. Next time, I'll decant a lot further in advance.
Much more friendly was a just-arrived Enfield 2022 Cabernet Franc, Sonoma Coast. Possibly their first varietal Cab Franc? No, I'm seeing a 2021 listed on the web too. Anyhow, this strikes me as surprisingly ripe for a Sonoma Coast bottling, with sunny red fruit and a bit of varietal graphite or bittersweet chocolate signature, on the plush end of balanced. I liked this but I didn’t get much of a sense of personality. Some time in the cellar might bring out more distinctiveness.
Tonight, with a sausage and mushroom pizza, Andrea took a first crack at using our "wine list" (I'm leaning in to the CT features) and picked a Franck Balthazar 2018 Crozes-Hermitage. I started buying Balthazar in Chicago, after learning (here, from Jeff G.) that he'd gotten the Chaillot parcel of Verset's holdings. Then it turned out that a local shop in Ithaca regularly offered them too, so over the next few years I grabbed some Cornas, this Crozes-Hermitage, a fine Côtes du Rhône, and some closeout Vin de France from 2017 that is still holding on, remarkably. Haven't touched the Cornas but I think this was our second and last bottle of C-H, and it was in a very nice place. Very aromatic, with surprisingly red-toned fruit at first, but it quickly expanded to incorporate darker elements. There are some meaty-bloody notes as well as black and green olive. Lots of intensity of flavor relative to the medium body. I expected this to be more backward but am pleased that it came out to play so quickly. I also seem to have a note that this cost me $24, which I find impossible to believe; I'd buy it again at twice that. Definitely the wine of the week, but it's still only Thursday.