WTN: Weekend with Fredrik from Sweden

More belated notes from May 2006. On the day after the Gupf dinner, at my place. Guests included Fredrik, Marc, Rainer and Victor.

Gantenbein Pinot Blanc Feine Auslese 2000
From half bottle. Softer and seemingly lighter as it gets older, otherwise barely different. Pale yellow-green. Fresh Riesling-like pineapple, apple and stone dust. A pretty little wine, harmonious, smooth and refreshing, uncomplicated, too bad the Gantenbeins have completely given up on growing Pinot Blanc. Ageworthy, of course, it is not. Rating: 90-/89

Château de Fesles Bonnezeaux La Chapelle 1988
Perhaps the last truly breathtaking and ageworthy Fesles (from the great Jacques Boivin era), one I had wanted to show Fredrik and Victor for some time. Fairly deep gold with soft green reflections. Quince, banana, chalk, deep yellow fruits, tropical and poached, huge lemony acidity, minty, balm-minty, citrusy. Good body, with the alcohol perfectly integrated. Somewhat broader the following day, but also showing the baby fat and sweetness a wine like this needs to live off, the wine’s tuckerbag, so to speak. Tighter again with another day’s airing. A similar level of concentration of Huët’s 1989 Le Haut Lieu 1ère Trie, probably not quite that of the more botrytised and dried-fruity 1990 Le Bourg 1ère Trie, but the freshest and most floral of these three. Even so, I am asking myself the same question each time I taste this: is this a modern-day legend in the making? Certainly a wine in need of many more years of bottle age. Rating: 96+/97+?

Disznókö Tokaji Aszú-Eszencia 1993
One of the top three AEs of this great vintage, thanks to Fredrik this time. Full orange colour. Dried orange, tobacco, faint rancio (still in this in-between phase, needs more time to grow into itself again), quince, butterscotch botrytis. Extremely intense, strong wine. Still youthful sweet paprika and smoke. Zingy acidity. Long, firm finish. Rating: 96+

Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Séléction de Grains Nobles Rangen de Thann Clos St-Urbain 1993
Thanks to Fredrik. From half bottle. Rather atypical Z-H late harvest sticky. Quite deep orange colour with copper and amber reflections. Like a medium-light, somewhat old-styled Tokaji Aszú-Eszencia: Fruits confits with an emphasis on black tea, date and fig, plus faint apple and tangerine oxidation. Not too sweet or powerful, lacks texture, freshness and cut. More acidity would not have hurt either. Rating: 91-

Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes 1999
Thanks to Victor. Deep ruby, raspberry-red towards the rim. Blackberry and faint brett to raspberry cotton candy. Some blood orange. Nicely concentrated, quite firm and tannin. The 13.8% alcohol integrates well. Gingerbread and nicely floral lavender and clove to the tannin and nice, soft metal to the acidity. Still piney-petrolly to some extent (an effect a number of people complained about at an arrivage tasting five years ago). Seemingly put on weight with airing. Rating: ~93?

Château Ausone St. Emilion 1982
Thanks to Victor. Deep ruby with a soft pruney hue, faint watery orange rim. Cabernet Franc leafiness and green bell pepper, aged tobacco, air-dried, cured horse meat. Ever so faint peat aroma. Reminded me, curiously enough, of Foucault’s Saumur-Champigny, especially on the nose. Red berries with a touch of tomato, getting more precise, sweeter and longer with airing, slowly but inexorably, though never fully so. More tobacco, leather and green banana leaf. Still tight, especially on the finish, this can still use more bottle age. A touch brittle on the back end, Marc noted. Cool character for a 1982, I thought. Furtively stole Victor’s glass when I noticed he poured himself the rest the following day (claiming later that we were unduly interested anyway – not true at all!): very interesting wine in terms of style and especially terroir, but not one of the handful greatest 1982s. Rating: 94+

Dominus Napa Valley 1991
A blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, aged 15 months in French oak, 40% of which new. Quite lovely coconut oak, by the way. Less evolved from my cellar today than a bottle Erik opened a few years ago. Glossy opaque purple-ruby. Top notes of brett and faintly green tobacco, truffle, iodine, lead pencil, graphite, peat, violety coffee. Could have retained more florality. Minty dark chocolate and dried jam. More power and Crème de Cassis sweetness than the 1994 the night before. Very concentrated, sweeter and rounder. On the first day a bit hot on the back end, and the acidity tasted a bit artificial, too. Fredrik, Rainer and I liked this rather better after 12 hours’ airing. Nicely firm. More glyceric, better integration of acidity. Somewhat more depth to the tannin. Finesse notes of eggplant, pumpkin. Smokier and more minerally on the finish and aftertaste. Best bottle I have ever had of this wine, still seemed to show upwards potential. Rating: 94+?

Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Howell Mountain 1993
Thanks to Rainer. Although he and I once again loved the 1993, a rather fruit- and charmless vintage, far from ideal, to introduce Victor and Fredrik to the hedonistic (or merely intellectual?) pleasures of Dunn, or so it seemed. Very deep, nearly opaque pruney ruby. Toothpaste freshness, medicinal soil notes, Glauber salt, oyster, sea salt, iodine, rosemary, pine needle, soft dried lavender, quite strong resin, freshly fermented tobacco and – however ironic, a fitting suggestion, so it must have been Rainer’s – rhino dung. Precise and beautiful fruit, just not dense, sweet and rich enough in this vintage to cover up the insane soil notes and (not too rough) tannin. Incredibly intense, cough syrup-like Napa Cabernet. At its best after 12 hours in the decanter: iodine- and oyster-tinged roasted American blueberry, now longer than the 1991 Dominus and 1982 Ausone, salty and extremely fresh, mouthcoating if still hard tannin. But the texture now seemed quite smooth at the surface. Rating: 94

Romano Dal Forno Amarone della Valpolicella Monte Lodoletta 1995
A bottle I mainly opened to please Fredrik, as I feared the wine might be closed. Opaque pruney ruby-red. Pine forest and sweet Rhône-like aromas. An impressively ethereal nose, now slightly closed compared to five years ago, but far from impenetrable. Blossom and flower essence, violet, lavender and pansy. "Magnificently brutal" is what Rainer said about the palate impact. Quite well-balanced, if on a surreal level. Hot but the 17.5% alcohol is not noticeable as a separate entity, let alone sticks out like a sore thumb. A yet greater surprise was the way some obvious residual sugar seemed to impose itself almost as if this were a Recioto. Some airing revealed anise, Syrah-like spice, black tea tannin, viscosity, well-integrated alcoholic heat, a more open floral essence component, almost the same yoghurt-like texture as the 1997 Recioto, roasted red berries and a top note of lardon. As I had already felt five years ago, the 1995 offers greater fruit density than the 1990, and despite the huge body is smoother, more viscous and balanced than the 1989 (plus it became rather smoother with airing). This mammoth wine should age very well, but is clearly not made to please everyone. Marc did not stop complaining it has got too much of everything, intensity, concentration, whatnot, and Victor started musing over whether this wine would not have been better with less alcohol, until Fredrik interrupted both and said to the latter that with less alcohol it would not be the same wine, and to the former he thought "too much of everything" was really the concept behind the very making of this wine. I guess he hit it right on nail! Like it or not, this is what Dal Forno Amarone is about. Note it turned out later this was Fredrik's favourite wine of the entire three days we spent together, much to Victor's surprise ;^) Rating: 97+

Romano Dal Forno Recioto della Valpolicella Monte Lodoletta 1997
From half bottle thanks to Fredrik. Still as deeply coloured as it gets, yoghurt-like, lactic perhaps like hot milk with honey (and it got even more honeyed with airing, too), a bit more viscous now than I remember (although this is evolving at a snail's pace, apparently only preparing now to end its primary fruit phase), with a touch of tomato extract to the complex berry and raising fruit, extremely long on the finish. The essence of wine, hyper-concentrated yet with an almost eerie balance and focus, neither sweet nor in the least alcoholic at 14%, just complete, perfect wine, and my favourite of all we had during the three days of Fredrik's visit. Rating: 100

Then, opened the following day:

Jean Royer Châteauneuf-du-Pape Hommage à mon Père 2001
Thanks to Fredrik. Bottle-# 846 of 1800. From 120 years-old vines. Full, a bit evolved ruby. Some garrigue, green pepper and a touch of green licorice stick to what seems mainly if not pure Grenache fruit. Tannin is a bit dry. More expressive and candied with airing, medium sweet licorice, more Kirsch. A suggestion of latex Rainer said (no, I did not care to ask what the heck he was thinking of ;^) If we thought this disappointing, then only because it cost roughly 120 dollars and tasted like many average-priced, excellent to outstanding quality CdPs. A well-crafted, balanced, nicely concentrated wine, seemingly made in a quite traditional style, it just lacks the extra dimension and depth Fredrik had hoped for. A fraction more complexity after three days in the decanter, barely prunier by then, impressive oxidation resistance. Bitter chocolate, sage, lavender, rosemary, tomato. Sweeter by then, with the tannin still youthfully bitter. Rating: 90+?

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

Dave,
Thanks for the lovely notes, as usual.

Not much to add really. One TN struck me. The 1997 Recioto got 100 points in your book? Wow! I just checked my own TNs:

Almost black-coloured; tremendous fruit concentration and sweetness on the protracted finish. Licorice, coffee, accompanied by notes of yoghurt, hot milk and honey, as you say. The texture was thick and viscous. As it developed in the glass, I found that the wine assumed a character akin to a young vintage port. A formidable winemaking achievement, if not necessarily a wine that I could sip all night long and wish I had a second bottle to open... (rated 96).

Cheers, victor

We already had this discussion the first time round when Erik brought along a half bottle to the 2002/2003 New Year's Eve dinner, remember? I have had the wine several times since then, and have found it to be consistently perfect.

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

I don't recall you being deliriously elated at the time, as you should (!!!) have been. My 100 pointers always had me in a state of unaccountability.
cheers, victor

I wasn't even "deliriously elated" over the 2003 Chave or 2001 Yquem (to quote other recent perfect ratings of mine), remember?

Some wines simply put me in a state where there are no more questions to be asked except: will I be lucky enough to be able to taste this again when this reaches maturity? From that perspective, also given the fact that tasting young wines is by and large an academic exercise to me and the real fun in drinking mature ones, one might want to give young wine potential scores only (pluses). Confronted with a potentially perfect wine, however, I wouldn't know what "other" score to give it. That, to me, would merely be another academic exercise.

The Dal Forno Recioto is different: I found it perfect already back when Erik opened that first half bottle at your place a few years back, and in the meantime have tasted it so often, I really am no longer surprised by its consistent showings. It is true I tend to pay most attention to, certainly ask and talk most about, wines I have not had before, such as your 1982 Ausone. Even given the choice between a great wine I know and one I've never had, I'll usually ask that the to me unknown wine be opened, never noticed?

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

Now that you know both.... does that mean you'd prefer a (much less than perfect) '82 Ausone to your (perfect) '97 Recioto?

BTW, guess what I'd go for

Seriously, I do expect some kind of subtle emotional reaction the next time you clandestinely award a wine 100 points, OK?

cheers, victor

Hey! Are you accusing me of not being particularly emotional? Probably true, though, I'll have to admit that...

As to your question which I would choose: I'll stick to my qualitative impressions, but note they have little to do with purpose, nor even personal preference. One's a dry red that will match a variety of dishes, the other a sweet wine, I would say in the meditation wine category, as it will hardly fit any dessert (note I have never been a believer in wine/chocolate combinations - not with wine as good as this).

Also you seriously underestimate the rarity factor: I am ever so grateful when someone opens well-stored wine I like or am curious about and don't own like that Ausone!

Greetings from Switzerland, David.