Tonight a friend of mine (with rather different tastes to mine) put on a very intersting tasting of an area that I know almost nothing about. I understand that 1998 is supposed to be a relatively weak vintage, but that the producers on show should be among the better ones. As usual, we started with a couple fully blind wines:
Antonopoulos Chardonnay Varelia 2003 (Greece, Peleponnesos) which was a very oaky wine with a bit of citrussy fruit underneath. The fruit was so strong that I thought it might have a some RS - so the sweetness was not only a combination of ripe fruit and high alcohol? It was flabby and not at all to my taste. But I understand that they make an unoaked wine also - I would like to taste that one! Intriguing material which was wasted for my palate.
Petaluma Chardonnay Piccadilly Valley 2003 was rather similar except the nose was even more oaky, but the palate had much better acidity - it was more refreshing. It wasn't a wine to my style but at least it was wine.
Then we had a bunch of Californian 1998's half-blind:
David Arthur Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1998 was my favourite of the day. It was leafy and had nice lift to the nose, it was refreshing rather than cloyingly sweet. The palate was nicely delineated though it was big and sweet. Nice! I wouldn't mind drinking this - but I might honestly like it very much, if it weren't so alcoholic on the aftertaste. My favourite of the 1998's.
Jones Family Vineyard Napa Valley Cab Sauv 1998 was aromatically rather like the above except it was more masculine, not so elegant, riper and the alcohol came through more. I am sure that for anyone who isn't so sensitive to alcohol this will be a very fair wine. For me, it had some nice elements, but the whole was marred.
Geyser Peak Meritage Reserve Alexandre 1998 was ripe and plump with a curious lifted/rhubarby nose. It was drier on the palate than what the nose would promise with lots of blueberry-like oak and too alcoholic.
Lokaya Diamond Mountain Cab Sauv 1998 was a dark-toned, toffeeish, chocolatey and oaky mess, but it did have a lifted/high-toned, very-ripe, blueberry note to it also. It was thick and plump and was smothered in its fruit. Too alcoholic. This had little enjoyment for me.
David Arthur Elevation 1147 Napa Valley Cab Sauv 1998 started out rather unpromisingly with a lactic/youghurt note, but the malolactic(?) note went to the background with time and a prominent super-ripe cassis note came to the fore. The palate was too fat for my taste, but I do see that some tastes will like this very much indeed.
Stag's Leap Merlot Napa Valley 1998 had a nose of rubber and over-ripe strawberry. The palate was similar. Not clean IMO, and quite unpleasant.
Dominus Napanook 1998 had a nose of rye bread - too old IMO. The palate had some drying remnants of what I guess was once a nice fruitiness but the whole was rather too old to enjoy.
Is this a "second" wine, so to speak, of Dominus?
Mondavi Cab Sauv Reserve 1998 was a bright, red-toned, cassis-full wine that was rather jammier than what I hope to see, but certainly not bad on the nose. The palate wasn't bad either, and was true to the grape but it was a touch too jammy and alcoholic for my tastes. It held up well in the glass over several hours and turned into a more savoury wine with time.
Chateau Montelena Estate Cab Sauv 1998 had a nose full of blueberry and jammy cassis. It wasn't so sweet as some other Cabs today, but did have a more sugary outlook than I would hope for my tastes. Also the alcohol, like in all others, stood out too much.
Vineyard 29 (Grace Family) Cab Sauv 1998 had much chocolatey oak and blueberry - frankly I had difficulty finding anything but oak-related scents on the nose. The palate was soft on the attack, plumply fruity on the mid-palate and sharp and sugary on the finish. A rather schizophrenic wine IMO.
The we had a few blind tastes to finish with:
Domaine Cros "Les Aspres" 2004 is a Syrah and is full of super-sweet strawberry and yoghurt, oak, cola, jam - not really my type of wine. The palate is sweet and alcoholic, but has the saving grace of high acidity.
Domaine Cros "Les Aspres" 2001 is a much more interesting wine than the 2004 IMO. The nose, though it is very big and full-on, has an interesting and savoury peach-stone note to it reminding me of Côte-Rôties - except it is much more sugary. The palate is sweet and has too much fruit for my tastes. Interesting to taste, but not my style of wine.