An Fabulous Quintet

First, from Friday... The 1995 Chateau Pape-Clement is just a classic earth-and-gravel Bordeaux from Pessac-Leognan. So rustic and pretty, this is still a baby. The 1996 Chateau Pichon-Lalande makes me wish I had one in my cellar... loads of mocha, coffee, tobacco, leather and black fruits. A long, elegant finish. The 1996 & 1997 Cain 5 tasted side by side... the 1996 is the superior wine. The 1997 has lost it's fruit and is all tannin... the 1996, while having hints of mint and a little green pepper, still has tons of fruit and is a wonderful wine...

Now, on to last night... started with the 2000 Trimbach Clos Ste. Hune Riesling (from the Grand Cru Rosacker in Hunawihr, Alsace)... wow. A stunner. Simply unbelieveable. So much petrol, but amazing depth of flavors - rose petals, crushed stones, pears, apricots - layer upon layer... it is a very difficult wine to really understand and express, because the wine is so subtle. One of the greats... The 2002 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon continues to blow me away... nothing more needs to be said. The 1998 Penfold's Grange was showing a touch better last night than it did a week ago... this bottle was less developed and hadn't closed up yet. Raspberries!!! The 1900 Borges & Irmao Colheita Port (bottled 1947) was a mind-blowing experience. This wine went through so many phases in the 2 hours it was opened... The color was a very light brownish/ruby that was perfectly clear... the first taste was incredible - very powerful with caramel and citrus notes on a long, long finish of hazelnuts. As it opened up, the intense caramel flavors softened revealing an unappealing citrusy- overly acidic port... we had given up. After another hour, the wine had evolved... the citrus was there, but then the nutty finish came through offering balance to the acid... I love wine... Also had the 1998 Dom Perignon last night, which is nothing special.

Hmmmm

1995 Chateau Pape-Clement, 1996 Pichon-Lalande, 1996 Cain 5, 1997 Cain 5, 2000 Mommessin Pommard

Big Post - Saturday & 2004 Bordeaux

Ok, first Saturday night... The 1994 Opus One could be the finest example of this wine I've ever had (that's Opus One in general)... could this be the last of the quality, agable wines from this estate? Full of cedary spice with black plums and a freshness I've never experienced from Opus ever before. It has the classic anise quality to it as well. I wouldn't sit on this much more, but it's a great wine. Tasted side by side was the 2002 Opus One. This is a blockbuster, young, full-throttle 2002. I don't think it has a future after the next few years, but it's a good wine that was made to drink young. All black fruit and anise. Good, but not amazing. The 2000 Banfi Chianti Classico Riserva was good, but not special. I tasted this just to refresh my palate to Chianti Classico Riserva quality wines. Dry, dry, dried fruit... cranberries and cherries with dusty earthiness. A good example, but not a great wine. The 2000 Roumier Morey St.-Denis 1er Cru (the vineyard escapes me) is a wine that is ready to drink... black earth, mushrooms and rhubarb. Very good, but not the best. A nice food wine. On to the greats... The 1998 Penfold's Grange is amazing... the best Grange I've ever had, and it makes me glad I have it in my personal cellar. At 9 years old, this wine is just starting to unravel. After going through a bit of a dumb period, this wine has emerged with glorious cedar and raspberry notes with an earthiness not found in any other South Australian wine... this has always been a unique wine. I won't open mine for at least another 10-20 years when it really starts to show its stuff. After 4 hours of decanting, the wine shut completely again. I will bet that in another 3-4 years the 1998 Grange will go into another slumber - a very long slumber - and will come out of it with mind-blowing length, depth, and bredth. A stunner. Equally as stunning, and finally showing true character was the 1998 von Buhl Forster Ungeheuer Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese, Pfalz, Germany. It finally turned a dark-goldish brown color and has the intensity like no other sweet wine I've ever had. The finish of sweet apricots and honey lasts for minutes - I didn't eat or drink anything for 20 minutes after my last sip and I could still taste it. One of the great sweet wines I've ever tasted. Amazing... Also tasted the 2002 Veraison Stagecoach Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon - a great wine for the money and the mountain characteristics of this vineyard really came through with it's inky color and sweet-extracted fruit.

Had a whirlwind day yesterday. Went to the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove yesterday for a tasting of the release of the 2004 Bordeaux. While there were unfortunately no first-growths represented, there were some amazing wines and I came away with a good impression of the quality across all of the areas of Bordeaux in 2004. I won't go through them all (I tasted 70+ wines in 1 1/2 hours), but rather hit the highlites (and lowlites). The Graves whites were on the whole very good. It seemed like most producers toned the oak down a little bit on the whites and therefore the grassy-grapefruit of the Sauvignon was more clearly deliniated. The 2004 Chateau Smith-Haut-Lafite was the highlite with a complex, slightly cheesy nose. The reds were not my favorite. Though nice enough, there was not wow factor. I tasted quite a few wines from St.-Emilion, and in general, the quality was mediocre. The 2004 Ausone hadn't come together yet, but I can already tell this is not a great wine - a green note predominated the nose and palate. Pomerol fared better... the 2004 Chateau Clinet was pretty - had great color, a beautiful chocolatey-nose and a long, lingering finish. A winner. I also enjoyed the 2004 La Conseillante - this is a powerful Pomerol! On to Margaux, which I thought did very well in 2004. The 2004 Chateau Dufort-Vivens was marvelous... so sweet, silky and floral. Great wine. The 2004 Chateau Kirwan rocked... one of the best wines of the day, this has everything Margaux is supposed to offer. I thought the 2004 Chateau Lascombes was good - if you're not a fan of Bordeaux - more like California Cab than Bordeaux - you can have it. I was very interested to taste this wine as this has become a "Parker darling" since Michel Rolland took on a consulting role here... you can tell it's one of his wines. I didn't taste enough St.-Estephe to form a full opinion, but on the whole, they were ok, not great though. The 2004 St.-Juliens were very good... my favorite was the 2004 Chateau Gruaud-Larose. A powerful, tannin, classic example from this estate with one of the longer finishes... The 2004 Chateau Talbot was notable because it was a very poor example... green and lacking any real fruit and any real depth. The 2004 Pauillacs were a mixed bag- many were very good (Chateau Pichon-Baron - thick and powerful) and many were very bad (d'Armaillac & Clerc-Milon - neither had any depth and zero mid-palate.) The Sauternes, I thought, were generally good. The 2004 Chateau Coutet was outstanding. Some suffered from being unbalanced, others thin, but most were rich and wonderful.

So, I liked Margaux, Pauillac, and Sauternes - all in patches. It's a "be careful what you buy" vintage and don't buy anything you haven't tasted first...

Last night was the 1999 Antoine Rodet/ Jacques Prieur Volnay-Santenots Premier Cru. The nose on this wine is gorgeous... earth, rhubarb, strawberries - it's a silky, sexy wine that needs food and screams escargot. I wish I had some at home...

Ok... so... what?

The 1998 Frigalli Brunello di Montalcino is good, but this bottle had a bit of a volatile acidity problem last night. Dried fruits and power... ok for a 1998. The 2004 Lewis Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon is a big burly wine (as R said "I don't know how you can DRINK this stuff"... well, I can't... I have a lot of California Cabs in my cellar - which might suprise many of you - but they are there for a reason. My guys like them when we go on our wine trips...) Give it another 3 or 4 years and let it soften. The 1995 Chateau Leoville Las Cases was not a great example of this bottle. It was a bit rustic, and though the 1995s still need a lot more time, this didn't show any sense of Las Cases silkiness.

Went to a Spanish tasting yesterday morning and all I can say is WTF? I am all for modern winemaking techniques and all, but when you start aging the floral, clean, and crisp Albarino in barriques for 8 months and batonnage all the time, you end up with an oaky piece of shit. An expensive oaky piece of shit. Of the 35 wines I tasted, maybe three showed where they were from (one Albarino, one Verdejo from Rueda, and a vintage Cava). Everything else had Chardonnay or Sauvignon blended into it. It's a shame that the grapes of the region can not be respected for what they are. This tasting made me angry, especially after the Consejo Regulador for Rioja announced that Chardonnay and Sauvignon are now permitted varietals for white Rioja. That's one of the stupiest decisions I've ever heard of... but wait a few years and Cabernet Sauvginon and Syrah will be given the OK for red Rioja too. Rioja should taste like Rioja... not an extracted mass of crap. That's what the Vino de la Tierra system was created for... it's like a Super-Tuscan for Rioja. I'm ok with that. Just keep the integrity of the DOCa in tact, please?

Weekend Wines

A nice set of some really nice stuff... The 1997 Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvingon from 3-Liter was very good. As a good number of the 97s are continuing to dye off, this wine is till drinking so well. Cedary black currants... The ZD Abacus is a great wine... a blend of every vintage made of ZD Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Its not a blockbuster wine, but rather a soft and silky Cabernet that shows grace and beauty. Expensive? Sure... but it's really good. The 1952 Chateau Margaux goes to show you what fill level really means to great wine... The fill was the lowest of 10 bottles we've opened and this was certainly the 2nd or 3rd best bottle of this. Amazing how that works... All cedary flowers... it's like walking into a great cigar store. The 2004 F.X. Pichler Riesling Smaragd Loibner Berg, Wachau, Austria is so pretty... a petroly, apple and pear driven youngster. Already showing that beautiful oiliness that defines riesling, this wine has a long way to develop, but was a joy to drink on its own. My favorite wine of the weekend though was the 2004 Sea Smoke Pinot Noir Botella Vineyard, Santa Barbara... wow. This is about as great as SB Pinot gets... smokey rhubarb and strawberries with a sweet, earthy finish. Powerful but elegant... a beauty!

Yum

Some great wines yesterday... First, the 2004 Joseph Drouhin Chablis "Les Clos" Grand Cru is awesome... they stopped using new oak on any of their Chablis starting with the 2004 vintage and the result is a full, round, fabulous chardonnay with piercing acidity and laser-like minerality. A stunning example of this, the greatest of all Chablis Grand Crus. This will start to open and round in a few years and will eventually be a mature, beautiful Chablis (give it maybe 10 years or so). Far superior to the 2003 Les Clos... The 2003 Joseph Drouhin Clos des Mouches Blanc is fat and round with loads of hazelnut, popcorn and oaky richness. The 2003 Joseph Drouhin Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru is good, but I've never been blown away by this wine. I don't love Clos de Vougeot... never have, probably never will. The 2004 Joseph Drouhin Musigny Grand Cru however, is divine... if I could old have one wine in my cellar for the rest of my life, it would be without question Musigny. The most seductive, silkiest, and sexiest of all Grand Crus (even more so than La Tache and Romanee-Conti), the texture never fails to amaze. It's like drinking satin. Clove, cinnamon, strawberries, smoke and rhubarb are the dominant flavors, but this is a texture wine. I can't do it justice...

The 1996 Quintessa was good and certainly much better than I remember it to be... Just a hint of green steminess that I associate with older vintages of this wine. Will last a good while longer... The 1985 Domaine Leroy Volnay 1er Cru is so pretty... a very, very light wine that is still a decade away from maturity. Very soft earth notes with sweet cherry and strawberry fruit. Volnay tends to be powerful in its youth, then shed the power quickly... Pommard tends to keep its power.

Joseph Phelps

Had a nice dinner last night featuring the wines of Joseph Phelps - one of the most consistant, if not overly glamourous, wineries that have ever existed in California. The 2005 Sauvignon Blanc is nice and crisp with perhaps a little bit of maloactic fermentation and a little of of lees stirring (both promote a creaminess and a richer texture in wines). Nice fruitiness with a grapefruit punch. Really nice, not an in your face style. The 2004 Le Mistral was my least favorite wine of the night. To me, this syrah based wine, was a bit too "Pinotage" for me... tasted like there was a little too much sulphur and had a rubber-boot character to it. The 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley was a nice effort. Classic black currant and cinnamon with notes of anise and plums. This wine needs a little time to settle down, but the soft tannins and ripe finish make this a very nice wine. The 2003 Insignia was showing very well last night. I had tasted it before, but had never been overly impressed by it. It is quite a bit lighter than the 2001 and 2002, but it has an elegant streak that those wines don't show right now. Has a long, cedary finish with plums and violets. The 1996 Insignia (magnum) was pretty. The last 2 of the 3 magnums showed more fruit than the first. Plums, cherry candy, cedar with an elegant finish. The wine is very, very good, but I wouldn't be holding these wines any longer.

At This Rate...

It's going to be one heck of a year... worked 3 nights, had quite a few memorable wines already!!! Can't forget about the 2004 Didier Dagueneau Blanc Pouilly de Fume "Silex" is amazing... simply the best Sauvignon I've ever tasted (and I've tasted it a few times now...) Last night was the last bottle of 1994 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon - this has developed into a Bordeaux-like behemoth. This wine is still massive, but has so much cedar and earth... wonderful. Last night saw the first bottle of 1994 Bryant Family Vineyards "Pritchard Hill" Cabernet Sauvignon go out and though I've had this in the past, I don't remember it being quite like this. I used to always like Bryant better than Harlan (but let's first talk about how crazy that statement is...) and I think I still do... this wine is phenomenal. Could be the greatest Cabernet Sauvignon I've ever had (perhaps even eclipsing the monumental 2001 Harlan Estate)... So much mint with sweet cherries, cedar, black currant and a finish that keeps on going and going... Eucalyptus and such a silky, sexy wine. This is so soft and velvety... The way I described it was like a great Chateau Margaux (California-ized, for the record). Which made me think - all of the great cult wines of California behave differently - so, how to they compare the the great Bordeaux Chateau?

Bryant Family Vineyards = Chateau Margaux
Harlan Estate = Chateau Latour
Shafer Hillside Select = Chateau Haut-Brion
Screaming Eagle = Chateau Mouton-Rothschild
Colgin = Chateau Lafite-Rothschild

Just my opinion though...

It Only Takes One...

(or in this case, two - bottles, that is)... tried two different bottles of the absolutely stunning 1995 Chatau Latour... though the lowest rated of the first growths in 1995, I think that this one is a monster waiting to be unleashed. The bottles were quite different, despite coming from the same case (I have always experienced a tremendous amount of bottle variation amongst the first growths, despite the vintage). The first time I tried this wine was last February and I noted at the time (on two separate occasions) that this wine was closed and note very giving. Well, the sleeping giant has started to awaken... giving beautiful notes of cedar and mocha with sweet currants, plums, black olives and amazing concentration. I still don't think this is the 82 or the 90, this is certainly along the lines of the 85 or 86, and quite a bit better than the 83. One bottle was more developed than the other. Such pretty, pretty wines... Chateau Latour is my favorite Bordeaux Estate by far...

A Great Start

to '07... The 2002 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley is a fabulous wine. It opened up a little bit and is now displaying gorgeous fruit and a nice mocha nose... awesome. The 1995 Chateau Angelus is always a winner, though it appeared, as most of the 1995s do right now, to be a bit tight and closed. Nice cedar coming through. The 2000 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Echezeaux is drinking so pretty right now. If you have the 00, 01 and 02, drink the 00 while the other two develop. Cherry, cinnamon, and clove... beautiful. The 1989 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Grands Echezeaux is mind blowing and goes to the top of the 2007 list. An immense, powerful wine, this is all earth, cedar and black cherries. It took about an hour or so to open up, and then blossomed. It has a lot of earth, but is so pure with its fruit. This is what makes GE so much better than the E... One of the great Burgundies I've had...

Darn it...

I FORGOT THE 2002 HARLAN!!! ARGH!!! If it was really that great though, shouldn't I have remembered to put it in there? Well, it is, and I did, so it goes it at... 8 1/2... It's my list and I can do what I want...

Top 31 of 2006

1 -2001 Harlan Estate
1 -1982 Chateau Latour (bottle #5)
3- 1999 DRC Montrachet
3- 2002 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignin
5-1955 Chateau Haut-Brion
6-1982 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild
7-1990 Krug (magnum)
8-1975 Petrus
9-1990 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne
10-1989 DRC Romanee-Conti
11-1999 Guigal Cote Rotie "La Mouline"
12-1990 Guigal Cote-Rotie "La Mouline"
13-1989 Paul Jaboulet Aine Hermitage La Chapelle
14-1994 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon
15-1994 Vega Sicilia Unico
16-1985 DRC Echezeaux
17-2000 Bouchard La Romanee
18-1988 Krug (Magnum)
19-1953 Chateau d’Yquem
20-1982 Chateau Cheval Blanc
21-1998 Penfold’s Grange
22-1996 Gaja Sperss
23-1976 Leroy Romanee-St.-Vivant
24-1989 DRC Romanee-Saint-Vivant Morey Monge
25-1995 Araujo Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
26-1990 Herm Donnhoff Niederhauser Hermannshole Riesling Auslese
27-1976 Schloss Johannisberg Riesling Auslese
28-2004 Dagueneau Blanc Fume de Pouilly "Silex"
29-1985 Louis Roederer Cristal (Magnum)
30-1985 Domaine Leroy Volnay 1er Cru
32-1999 Louis Roederer Cristal
33-1990 Dom Perignon Rose (Magnum)

Happy New Year!

Wow... a great night last night to close out 2006... Quite a lot of great wine... Where to begin... the 1995 Mastrojanni Brunello di Montalcino was good, not great, but lots of dried cranberries and a sweet, oaky finish. The 1995 Mastrobernardini Radici Taurasi is so earthy and dried (as Aglianico is) but with a good bit of power. Pretty. The 1995 Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill is as it was the night before. The 1999 Louis Roederer Cristal is finally showing some age... this wine has started to soften and the tightly-wound character and harder-edges is gone. Brioche and spiced pears... amazing length. The 1998 Ornellaia was good, but I'm not upset this was the last bottle... The 1996 Opus One is fading... still a pretty wine with plenty of anise and blackberries, but the cedar and brown-earth notes are starting to become more prevalant. If you have some, I would drink up. We had two bottles (again!) of the 1995 Araujo Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, giving us four bottles in the last two days. I thought it the night before, but last night confirmed it. This wine is amazing... still massive at 11 years old, this is just starting to show signs of opening. Simply gorgeous with a long life ahead... both bottles were similar, and this now makes it onto the list... Finally, we did a mini-vertical of Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon - 1994 and 2002. While I thought this was the weakest of the 1994s we've had so far, it was still gorgeous, but the 2002 simply overpowered, out-finessed and completely blew away the 1994. The 2002 deserves its spot, while the 1994 makes the list as well. Cheers, and thank you for reading.