Best of the week

I guess you could say I tried a few good wines this week... Highlite? The 2001 Joseph Phelps Insignia (tasted 4 times in the last 8 days). This wine has "it" - that special something that makes your eyes open up, the sides of your mouth rise. Beautiful chocolate/cocoa/roasted coffee nose with loads of black fruits. Outstanding. Not to be missed. Other highlites? 2001 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (closed, but gorgeous mouthfeel), 2002 Joseph Phelps Insignia (which may end up being better than the 01 - it seems to have more guts, but the 2001 is so good, who cares? Tasted twice in 8 days - showed better the first time), 2001 Chateau Pichon-Baron Longeuville, and the 2001 Chateau Plince. Last and certainly not least... the 2002 Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir from Marlborough, New Zealand. Best pinot I've tasted from NZ yet... Earthy, ripe, rich and dark as merlot.

Back from California...

Well, I'm back. What a trip! I'll post the wines on here as soon as I get the list completed, and I'll post tasting notes on selected wines as I can get to it.

Last night was a bummer... big party, not great wine. The only upside was that while I was away we started pouring Krug Grand Cuvee NV and Jacquesson Cuvee 728 Brut by the glass so I of course had to try them... Krug is Krug - the best in the world. The Jacquesson was outstanding as well. Nice balance, lemony finish. Good stuff. Proud to be pouring them.

A highlite though was getting to taste the 2001 Chateau Rieussec (Saturnes, WS Wine of the Year 2004 - 100Pts.) Woah. What a wine. Huge, powerful and classic Sauternes. Beautiful nose of orange blossom, apricot, botrytis, and citrus. Hugely concentrated wine with a minute + long finish. This baby is tightly-wound and needs years (in half bottle) or decades (in 750's) to mature. Why is it that only Chateau d'Yquem gets recognition in Sauternes? A question to be answered later.

Going where those Chile winds don't blow...

2001 Domaine de la Solitude Chateauneuf-du-Pape... great for the $$!!! Classic French! Decent night last night... Peter Michael "La Cairiare" Chardonnay 2003 & Patz and Hall Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir 2000 - mighty nice stuff. Nothing of interest that I tasted... just a few slightly off bottles of Meursault.

Today, on my "day off"... and I say that with a smile, as despite the fact that I am not being paid for my time today, I spent most of the afternoon of a day off, where else? At work. Well worth it though. Tasted the 2002, 2001, 2000 and 1996 Almaviva (Concha y Toro X Chateau Mouton-Rothschild). Fabulous wines from Puente Alto in the Maipu Valley Subregion of the Central Valley. Mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, with bits of Carmenere (or was it Merlot? re: famous debate about whether the Carmenere is really Carmenere and Merlot is really Merlot) and Cabernet Franc. Bordeaux style. Beautiful purple wine with more and more orange and ruby as we tasted through the older wines. What's this? No signature green pepper? Ahhh... there it is in the beautifully mature 1996 - but not in any of the others. Killer stuff - silky smooth, earthy (god, the 2000 stinks - in a good way). Very pricy, but honestly, the best wines I've had from South America to date.

Off to California from Friday the 16th to Friday the 23rd. Will have lots to post then. Cheers.

New Zealand pinot's & Dinner with Kim Crawford

J, R and I headed down to Miami yesterday for an afternoon of New Zealand Pinot Noir with Kim Crawford. Now, I am a big fan of New Zealand Pinot - they have earthiness like Burgundy and candy-apple fruit like the Russian River Valley Pinots, but they never (ok, maybe not never) try to be something they're not. Kim set up a tasting of 5 regions of New Zealand Pinot's so we could taste the differences in the wines that NZ is producing - Marlborough (most consistent), Martinborough (nice), Central Otago (getting all the press for it's deep-colored, highly extracted earthiness), Waipara (Chambolle-Musigny like elegance), and Hawke's Bay (only 2 producers in the entire region...) And on to the tasting... Bubblegum? No... can't be... Yup. There it is again. Whole cluster fermentation. Oooooooooooh. Why not just suck it up and stop pretending and plant Gamay instead of the highly-expensive Pinot Noir? The Pinot's were ok, but as Kim described them as wines that the New Zealand wine producers would like to get people to just pop a bottle and drink, they fit that bill perfectly. Underwhelmed.

After a short break, an interesting tasting... 5 clones of Pinot Noir planted from the same vineyard, vinified the same (generally) way. UC Davis Pommard Clone 5 (the classic NZ Pinot Clone), Dijon Clone 114 (fermented with wild yeasts), Dijon Clone 115, Dijon Clone 667, and Dijon Clone 777 (the last 4 are from Morey-St.-Denis). I won't bore you (or myself) going through the differences, but there ARE differences! Very cool.

Kim made the comment that he thinks New Zealand Pinot Noir is 10 yrs behind Sauvignon Blanc... and I agree with him. The wines were ok, but not stunning.

Saturday, September 10th, 2005

Ahhh... What a night. Just when all hell was about to break loose, I hear the great words... "Andrew, we need the best '61 Latour you can find." R was thrilled... I was overjoyed! Of all the great wines I've had, I'd never had the opportunity to try the great 1961 Chateau Latour. And I found one with a fill half-way up the neck, with a pristine label. The cork was loose and spinning a little bit as R opened it up (he sold it, he gets to open it). He poured a touch in a glass after he decanted it. A beautiful garnet red towards ruby red then just hints of orange and brown on the rim. Amazing concentration for a wine that's 44 years old! The nose was gorgeous, if not a bit closed. Lovely cedar and cigar box spices, with hints of black plum and black currant still abound in this wine. Classic pencil lead and a touch of warm black turned earth finished out the backside of the prodigious wine. And that was just on the nose! On the palate, sweet black fruits gave way to that dark earthiness, cedar,truffles and hints of mint. What struck R and I both about this wine was the incredible concentration and amazing amounts of tannin still left in it after all of these years! Has many, many years to go. This was R's 4th time tasting this perfect wine, and in his words "by far the best I've ever tasted." This one goes right into my Top-5 wines I've ever had.

After that, the 2001 Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvingon was quite a disappointment. With it's deep purple color, sweet coconut and blackcurrant-filled nose, it is classic Silver Oak... But it's not 1961 Latour....

On the other hand, the 2001 Chateau La Nerthe Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc was spectacular. A lovely stony-melon quality with layers of rich honey (almost Viognier-like - even though this wine contains no viognier!). Bourbelenc, Clairette, Grenache blanc, and Roussanne. This wine was wound so tight... Even after 3 hours it was still closed. I'd love to try it again in a few years.

After work, R & I split a bottle of NV Roederer Estate Rose... A nice bottle of wine. A touch sweet, but a nice wine. "It is NOT Brut."