Guests included Márta, Albino and Andrea, and Rainer.
Egon Müller Riesling Kabinett #12 Scharzhofberg 1999
Thanks to Rainer. Medium-pale green. Very slatey indeed, noble aged apple, with a minor superripe if half-dried blackcurrant top note, has good cut despite merely medium-high acidity. Quite good body, medium dry, great food wine. Long mineral-dusty finish. Smokier-slatier with airing, complex fresh herbs, but I find the acidity a touch brittle. Surprisingly, Albino found the acidity prominent, although with him, it is often a question of how much residual sugar a wine holds. The lower Prädikate were not the main strength of this Saar vintage. Rating: 91+?
Served some leftovers to Remo and Dani a couple of days later. Remo loved it, the fact that it is “relatively dry” in particular. Dani found it “high-acid for the vintage and not yet petrolly at all.”
Egon Müller Riesling Spätlese #03 Wiltinger Braune Kupp 2005
Thanks to Rainer. Pale green. Great aromatic acidity that can be smelled as well as tasted, sweet blackcurrant cough drop, apple blossom, exotic apple juice, gooseberry, later a little lilac. A touch tannic, pretty minerality that is not quite as deep, concentrated but so elegant, lovely retro-olfaction on the aftertaste, a super Spätlese that is smooth enough but not particularly sweet, actually, Rainer expects this to go dry with age. He also noted the terroir, or depth and complexity of the slate notes, is what makes the Kupp wines less mesmerising, as great as the are. Beautiful, utterly natural tasting, light on its feet wine that Márta simply loved. An all too rare bottling in this vintage, though. Rating: 93
Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1995
I let Márta choose, and she picked this, wanting to taste a somewhat more mature CdP that is not too full-bodied. 14.3% alcohol. Deep, virtually opaque pruney ruby-black. Garrigue with an emphasis on pepper and slightly heavy laurel and thyme. Floral grappa, Rainer says. Well-concentrated, still fairly tight, but very well-balanced. Minerally, gunpowder and lightly rusty iron and steel. Some animal fur. Lovely grey pepper. Green banana, or banana leaf. Peppered strawberry. Quite full body. Minor bitterness to lightly powdery tannin, but is quite flavourful, too. Persistent and quite long. Quite palate-drenching wine. Better and better with airing, after two to three hours, the increasingly sweet strawberry fruit completely absorbed the bitterness of the tannin, quite harmonious 1995. Very tasty wine that is only just entering maturity. Since I bought very little, I am not going to open another until this reaches age fifteen. Rating: 92+?
Remo thought the Provençal herb notes almost too prominent when I served him some a couple days later, but soon asked me if I would sell him the remainder of my bottles (LOL!). Dani found this “a bit dry and not fruity enough” for his taste, while I noticed that the tannin had gained some promising finesse and Christmas spice box characteristics.
Fonseca-Guimaraens Vintage Port 1976
Extremely plummy-pruney deep ruby-black, minuscule watery-orange rim. Hyper-concentrated Port, but one of these wonderfully fresh and lively bottles that (at least initially) showed none of the drought vintage characteristics. Cherry liqueur. Very full-bodied, and yet, with rare alcohol integration thanks to the thick density. So thick, dense with fruit, sweet, rich and viscous. Very complex, though not too finesseful. Incredibly youthful and fruity, Márta says. But then, she got lucky – we have had this several dozen of times, it is not always this goood. But a bottle that tasted better than it smelled, at least the nose did not improve with airing. Minor oak and herb aromas and flavours after a few hours, Rainer noted. Andrea and I find it exceptionally Recioto-like for a Port. Not only the nose recovered with a couple of days airing, this seemed almost sweeter and smoother by then. Rating: 96-?
Remo almost fell off his chair tasting this a couple of days later and said he finally understood why we wine geeks had only smiled mildly when he mentioned a few weeks ago that he had bought and liked a bottle of Fonseca’s 2000. Dani found it once again “hyper-concentrated, creamy, with a touch of caramel, a super Port, with a minty freshness, quite spicy.”
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
cheers, victor