Transition

Not sure what happened, but after a very lackluster week at the restaurant, I come home to this... The 1999 Gaja Barbaresco is still such a baby... lovely notes of rose petals, dried cranberries, dried black earth and huge tannins. Very good - very Gaja. The 2004 Darioush Cabernet Sauvignon was over-extracted and too big... the wine was not well balanced with the anise and extraction overpowing any sense of elegance. Not my style. The 2003 Domaine de Paillieres Gigondas is awesome... A slightly browning rim and deep spicy-garrigue/earth notes dominate the dried strawberries and raspberries. Very nice, especially for a 2003 - some of which are disjointed and overly alcoholic. The 1975 Bertani Amarone was stunning... a beautiful example of an incredible wine. Smokey-raisins and stewed prunes and cedary-dried leaves. A beautiful, long complex finish. Awesome, awesome stuff.

I'm Baaaack...

Wow... what a great trip. I'll post all of the wines and a few tasting notes, dining reviews, etc. in the coming days... off to work tonight though...

Well, Well, Well... you can never tell

Ahhh... the 1988 Chateau Lafleur... should be one of the greats from this vintage... but last night, two bottles were decidely not. The first showed signs of burnt toast, and a bitter astringent finish. The second was not much better... though without the burnt toast. Lesson? Be careful where your bottles come from... Also had a corked bottle of 1995 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild... not my night. Two other bottles revealed the wine has slowly started to emerge from its cocoon into a great Mouton... cassis, graphite, dried leaves and rich black cherries come from the glass. Beautiful. The 2003 Lewis Cellars Reserve is as it's been... a wonderful wine that's drinking well now. The 1992 BV Georges de Latour was a huge suprise!!! A beautiful nose of cedar, mint, eucalyptus, dill and sweet vanilla with beautiful black currants. A lovely, long finish. A knockout. The 2003 Smith Haut-Lafitte Blanc was a bit hot, lush, and ripe... but still a beautiful wine wine years ahead of it. Cheese, spiced grapefruit, lemon rind and orange peel really came screaming from the glass. Nice!

"There are two categories of cliff divers...

Grand Champion... and stuff on a rock." - unknown

The 2000 Chateau Lagrange (3rd Growth, St. Julien) is beautiful... Most of the time the hype doesn't match up to the reality. Not with the 2000 Bordeaux. These wines are incredibly concentrated - but exceptionally well-balanced. Still just babies. This was a half-bottle, decanted for 3 -4 hours. Coffee, graphite, cigar box, wet tobacco leaves, sweet black currants, ripe black cherries and plums. Beautiful mouthfeel - great balance and structure. Tannins nice and ripe, but still very prodigeous. Wonderful wine... give it another 5 years in 1/2 bottle (!)... 10 in full. The 2001 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Echezeaux continues to be one of my favorite wines. It's starting to loose some of its weight, but what it's loosing in power, it's gaining in elegance and finesse - two somewhat uncommon traits for a "lowly" Echezeaux. Sweet wild strawberries, clove, cinnamon, all-spice, black turned earth, dried leaves... just a beauty. The nose is amazing... continues my belief in the terroir-driven style of the 2001 vintage. The 1996 Gaja Sperss (Serralunga d'Alba, Barolo) continues to be one of my favorite wines... pure Barolo with its rose-petaled sweet red plums, dried earth and powerful tannins. Again... one of the most impressive Sperss i've ever tasted. I was literally without words last night when I tried it. That says it.

Love It

Clos de Tart may be the single most under-rated Grand Cru Burgundy there is... A monopole, owned entirely by Mommessin, and in turn by Boisset doesn't make flashy, powerful wine. The Grand Cru is instead elgance and finesse - now I'm not claiming it's a Le Musigny, but I'd give it a run against Romanee-St.-Vivant... the 2005 is spectacular, the 2001 is fabulous... a great wine. I love the 2001s... keep your eyes out for Sylvain Pitiot and his Clos de Tart...

Wines from the week...

Enough about beer and fake bottles... how 'bout some real ones? The 1995 Chateau Leoville Las-Cases is starting to open and is a beautiful bottle... lots of cocoa, mocha, black tar, graphite, bacon, black fruit, cedar - still a baby, but a blossoming, tannic, powerful baby... the 1985 Chateau Haut-Brion is as it's been - very nice, with lovely gravel, bacon fat, and smoke on the nose. Not the best HB, but still very good... Three bottles of the 1997 Paul Jaboulet Aine Cornas "les Terrasses"... very smokey with black olives, meat, dried tar, and smoke with a peppery, powerful finish. Beautiful wine. One was not as good as the other two.

The Joy of Cooking

I love to cook... to me, it's a relaxing and creative activity... and it's always better with a glass of wine. We got a beautiful, thick piece of Black Grouper (extremely fresh - I would bet it was caught that morning). Very basic sautee. We had a bottle of the 2004 Vincent Girardin Chassagne-Montrachet Vieilles Vignes... too young? Perhaps, but it was pretty with lovely underipe green apples and tons of minerals. A nice, if not great, bottle of wine to enjoy my time in the kitchen...

Beer, the other sparkling beverage

Ok, so aside from an unnatural love for all things grape (other than popsicles... can't stand grape popsicles for some reason)... I also have a love for all things barley. And hops. I love beer. I love the smells, I love the flavors, I love the complexity some of them can have. I love it. I certainly have my favorites, but there is one that I put on a pedestal far above any other beer on this planet... Alaskan Brewing Company's Alaskan Amber. Hoppy, rich, beautiful. The perfect beer. Better than my beloved Anchor Steam. Better than Chimay. If only I could find a few bottles!!!! It's been 8 years since I've had a bottle of this wonderful beer.

Counterfiet Wine

There's a lot of media attention being given to the dispute legendary collectors Bill Koch and Hardy Rodenstock are having amongst, well, themselves. Koch bought several bottles that Hardy had put up at auction that were supposed to be from Thomas Jefferson's collection (Jefferson was one of the great collectors of wine)... Are they? Who knows? Is there evidence that they are not? Yes. Is there evidence that they are? Sort of. Anyone know the answer? Can anyone know the answer? Doubtful. We are unfortunately in a time where the investment in rare bottles of wine is becoming a sport. What the bottle says and what the chemical composition is of the liquid in the bottle has become more important than the beauty and magic of wine itself. Can money be made by collecting then selling increasingly rare bottles? Absolutely. To me, that's not the important question. The real question is, why does money taste better than wine? For me, it's obviously all about the wine. I don't have 1 bottle in my cellar that I wouldn't drink because the memories are much more important than possessing a great bottle or bottles. Enjoying a legendary bottle with friends is more important than bragging rights... after all, isn't being able to say you enjoyed a bottle of 1921 Petrus better than saying I have a bottle, but I'll never open it? I'm not opposed to people selling wine because their tastes changed, but if you buy wines for the simple idea of selling them later, well, what's the fun in that? Have I had bottles that weren't what they said they were - I absolutely have my suspicions about a few. It is an increasing problem as the value of collecting wine grows more important than the value of enjoying wine... we'll see where all of this goes.