A Gusty (sort of) Day

Well that was a big pile of nothing... better safe than sorry, I guess. Drank a bottle of NV Roederer Brut last night... my favorite of all of the house cuvees. Nice toastiness, crisp finish, not too rich, but just a little hint of creaminess. The right price too...

Yahtzee!

Not a night for great wines (though a few went out, I didn't taste the 1997 Gaja Costa Russi again)... the 2000 Keenan Chardonnay was done... very bitter, not a nice bottle of wine. It's a shame this estate went where it did, but my goodness - these wines have come back since 2002. Try the '02 reds - spectacular stuff. Just down Spring Mountain Road from Pride... The 1996 Chateau Smith-Haut-Lafite (rouge) was good - a beautiful Graves nose with cedar, crushed stone and black fruits. Unfortunately, the finish was a touch rough - a bit of underripe tannins. The 2005 Patz & Hall Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is ripe, jammy and powerful. Not quite as balanced as the 2004 which was superb, this wine needs a good year for things to start to come together. The 2003 Patz & Hall "Hyde Vineyard" Chardonnay (magnum) displayed lots of butterscotch, peach, ripe apples and clove. The oak needs to integrate better as the finish was a bit dry with loads of oak spice. I think in a year or two this wine will eventually sort itself out and become fabulous. The 2000 Domaine Serene "Evenstad Reserve" Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon (3-Litre) is fully mature and was beautiful... lots of black and red fruits, though much more earth-driven at this time - clove, black earth and cinnamon. Great stuff, especially out of the big bottle.

Yummy

The 2002 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley is starting to shine... tasted a few months ago, this wine was closed, but the potential was there. Now the wine is opening and showing beautiful graphite and anise notes along with very concentrated black plums and currants. Great wine with a very, very long finish. The 2003 Flor de Pingus, Ribera del Duero, Spain is an amazing wine... I haven't had this before last night and I am completely blown away. Though a thin-skinned grape, the amount of extraction in this wine is immense. Very, very floral - it seems like it should be an extremely powerful wine, but along with the power is very refined elegance. Lots of violets on the nose - an extremely floral wine - with lots of smoke as well. Beautiful!

Viognier

2002 Francois Villard Condrieu Le Grand Vallon was a tangerine & honey fest in a glass! Almost too powerfully tart in the beginning... gave way once it warmed and opened up. An ok wine, not my favorite from this incredible producer.

Champagne

The 1995 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rose was, for lack of a better descriptor, dissapointing. Some nice yeasty notes on the nose with hints of strawberries, but on the palate, the wine is simply flat (not literally, it still has tiny bubbles). No life, no pizzaz, pretty boring actually.

Nightfall of Diamonds

2000 Patz & Hall Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay (magnum) is a cloudy, oaky, rich, minerally Chardonnay from one of my favorite producers. I think they have gotten better since the 2002 vintage, but this bottles shows what they can do. Great stuff... The 2003 Louis Jadot Chateau des Jacques Clos de Rochegres Moulin-a-Vent is showing more and more Beaujolais-esqe signs, though it still possesses a large amount of oak spice on the nose and palate. A powerful, concentrated, outstanding wine! The 1998 Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvingon (magnum) could be the best wine I've had from this vintage. Just a little hint of green pepper on the nose, with lovely cedar and black currants with classic Special Selection silkiness. I think it has held up nicely out of magnum. The 2002 Bond "Melbury" however, completely blew it away. This wine is starting to shut a tiny bit, but otherwise, the tasting notes are the same as they have been.

Somefolks Look For Answers...

others look for wines! The 1996 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne was pretty. No where near the complexity and overall power of the 1990, but still a pretty wine. Very nutty with lots of butterscotch and honey. A rich, minerally finish with tons of lemon (a LL hallmark...) The 1990 Chateau Certan de May, Pomerol was good, but very, very cedary. Almost so cedary that I believe that it masked a slight bit of corkiness... It didn't smell like cork, but the mid-palate was short and the finish lacked the usual Pomerol finesse. The star of the night (as it is pretty much whenever we get a chance to open one) was the 1955 Chateau Haut-Brion. While not the best bottle we've had (we put this one at number 3), this wine continues to astound me. Full of smokey bacon-fat and gravel. This just blew up after 15 minutes into pretty cedar and had a tremendous, powerful finish. Awesome stuff... always a treat.

Here we go...

Sorry about the delays... been a busy few weeks. Last night, the 2001 Joseph Phelps Insignia was big and bold - a very extracted, full-throttle, Cabernet Sauvignon dominated blockbuster. Very intense... showing much better than the 2002 right now. Thursday night... the 1997 Jarvis Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon shows what a little restraint can do for a great wine. While I still completely feel that the 1997 Vintage in California could be the single most over-rated vintage ever, there are some wines that are still showing their stuff. This is one of them. Good extraction, but not over-the-top with alcohol. Lots of black fruits with hints of cedar and dried leaves. Soft, ripe tannins. Good, but drink them soon. From Tuesday, one wine that still has years and years left in it is the mind-boggling 1990 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne. Still the greatest Chardonnay I've ever had, this wine continues to evolve - slowly. Loads of butterscotch, honey, minerals, hazelnuts and lemon and a very long, intense finish. Beautiful!!! The 2002 Quintessa is as it's been the last few months - the best Quintessa made to date. I won't re-hash the same review. If you have these wines, drink them young! The 1986 Chateau Cos d'Estournel is showing beautifully. I've tasted this wine upwards of 10 times, but this was clearly the class of the bottles I've had. It took a good 45 minutes to open up, then showed notes of forest floor, cassis, dried leaves, black plum, and cedar. A classic St.-Estephe wine with the typical rustic character. A good wine, especially at 20 years of age! The 1982 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild is generally my least-favorite of all of the 1982 First Growths. While the wine is definitively Lafite with loads of cedar and cigar box, after an hour, this wine just sort of went "plonk" - and was gone! This bottle was not as good as many others I've had, but still... it just wasn't incredible. It was at first, with tremendous elegance and a long, long finish. But then the finish shortened up, the mid-palate went away and I was sort of dumbfounded. Nice to try it again though... In case you were wondering, of the "Great 7" red Bordeaux wines, here is how I rate them in the 1982 vintage... 1. Chateau Latour 2.Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 3.Chateau Cheval-Blanc 4.Chateau Petrus 5.Chateau Margaux 6.Chateau Haut-Brion 7.Chateau Lafite-Rothschild

Back In The Saddle Again...

Tomorrow look for tasting notes on... 1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, 1990 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne, 1986 Chateau Cos d'Estournel, 2002 Quintessa, and 1997 Jarvis Reserve Cabernet Sauvingon, plus thoughts on German and Austrian wines...

A busy week...

And a great night... Did a 4 course wine pairing this evening, where I got to choose the bottles... one of my absolutely favorite things to do. The 2004 Rudi Pichler Hochrain Gruner-Veltliner Smaragd, Wachau, Austria is a ball of white pepper waiting to be unwound... Pears, apples, apricots on the nose with hints of the "pepper"... on the palate, it's all pepper. An amazingly spicy wine, but killer stuff from one of the Austrian greats. The 2002 Archery Summit Red Hills Estate Pinot Noir, Oregon is good... it still needs time. I am still waiting to be completely blown away by an Oregon Pinot Noir. This is not it, though it is very good and went nicely with the dish. The 2003 Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley is amazing wine for being his "low-end" Cab. Dense like Lewis, but not quite as intense and a much longer, drawn-out finish. The mid-palate on this wine is mind-blowing. Amazing extraction. What do Paul Hobbs, Heidi Barrett (Screaming Eagle, Jones Family, etc), Helen Turley (Marcassin, Turley), Bob Levy (Harlan), Philipe Melka (Bryant Family, Lail, Vineyard 29, etc) and Bob Foley (Pride, Switchback Ridge, Hourglass, etc) have in common? They are the top six Cabernet Sauvignon winemakers in California right now...