Tons...

Lots this week... The 2002 Francois Villard "DePoncins" Condrieu is awesome... totally honeysuckle and tangerine rind. The 1999 Jaboulet Hermitage "Sterimberg" Blanc was a touch oxidized, but still had a ton of minerals. Very lean and unwieldy... perhaps a different bottle would be better? The 1996 Chateau Lagrange is outstanding... too bad it was the last bottle... classic St. Julien, and I don't see how the bottle could improve as it was near perfect for the Chateau. The 1983 Chateau Leoville Las-Cases Jerobaum (that's 5 liters in Bordeaux, folks), that I have been dying to try for several weeks, was (loud gasp here) corked... who likes screwcaps now? The 2003 Harlan Estate is big, brash and bold, but starting to soften some. It's still not the 01 or the 02. The 1996 Beringer Estate "Third Century" Cabernet Franc was mature, soft and very peppercorn and cassis oriented. Nice wine. The 2005 Dutton-Goldfield Freestone Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir is delicate and elegant. A beautiful bottle of wine. The 2005 Blackbird Vineyards Merlot is stunning... like drinking pure silk... move over Pride, Paloma, Duckhorn and Switchback... I think this is the best merlot in California right now. Next came an opportunity to taste 4 different Bond bottlings side by side. First, the 2003 Bond Vecina showed more weight than it had previously. Lots of anise and graphite wrapped in a cassis and black plum blanket. The 2003 Bond Melbury showed softer this evening... not quite the power that I have experienced with this bottling. Very nice though. The 2003 Bond Pluribus was spectacular - very jammy and ripe, with a bit more earth than the other 3. The 2003 Bond St. Eden was the star of the show for me. Ripe, concentrated, powerful, but completely balanced. I think this was the wine of the night for me. The 2002 Bond "The Matriarch" was beautiful and classic in the 2002 power-packed style. Nice. The 1996 Penfold's Grange was almost salty... lots of ripe raspberry and black plums with loads of black pepper and earth. The 1997 Penfold's Grange was light and uninspiring. It was almost like it was weak and had VA at the same time... not my favorite. The 2000 Penfold's Grange on the other hand was stunning. Powerful, yet balanced and a bit of elegance on the long, long finish. Went on for minutes with earth and raspberry. The 1993 Stags Leap Winery Petite Syrah was cedary and lighter, but still PS. The 2001 Hartford Court Highwire Zinfandel was hot, ripe, but beautiful balanced and a wonderful wine to drink...

Ummmm Beer...

The five true Trappist ales are Orval, Chimay, Westmalle, Rochefort, and Westvleteren... After today, I only need to try one more... I found a bottle of Rochefort "8" (9.2%, 11.2oz) today and had to buy it... wow!!! What flavor! A heady nose of alcohol was quickly followed by chocolate, leather, raspberry spice and earth... a long, chocolately, mocha/ toasted almond finish went on forever... now I just have the mythical Westvleteren 12 to try...

Hmmm

The 1998 Chateau Batailley is bretty, earthy and wonderful... really nice, drinkable Bordeaux here. Some mocha and cedar on the finish of the 5th Growth... The 2001 Chapoutier St. Joseph "Les Granits" is the finest example of this appellation I have ever encountered. Incredible structure, beautiful balance, fabulous hanging meat and black olive nose....

Big Names

But not big quality... The 1983 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Grands-Echezeaux seems to have finally met its end. I've tasted this on several occasions and this one was it... lots of brown, maderized fruit. Toast. Kaput. The 1993 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti La Tache was not much better... I see lots of high scores on this wine, but all it is giving right now (and I doubt that it will change) is high acid with very tart, sour fruit and no midpalate, and even worse, no weight at all (and I don't mean this in a good way). The finish just drops off a cliff... The 1994 is better! The 2006 Penner-Ash Dussin Vineyard Pinot Noir is hot, ripe and poweful. This needs a good year or two to really come down.

This week I tasted through the 2006 Louis Latour White Burgundies (18 of them!)... the highlites were Puligny-Montrachet across the board (the Folatieres was stellar, but even the village was great), the Corton-Charlemagne (which will put on more weight and the overt alcohol should become better integrated once it's bottled - oh yeah, this was a barrell sample), and without question the Batard-Montrachet, which is a perfect, textbook example of this meaty, fat, round, rich and stony Grand Cru. Needs time, but is drinkable now (again, barrell sample). For the Chablis, I thought the Clos was not as rich as I usually find it - a bit more spread out rather than focused, but the Preuses was awesome...

Sad, Busy Week.... lots of news and wine...

I'll always admire your courage, your will, your fight. You're amazing and I'm better for having known you. I'll always remember the bottles we shared, my first day, the beach, the fun. Thank you...

So, there were 9 new Master Sommeliers!!! Congratulations to all!!! Enjoy...

This week was busy.... the busiest of the year... I'll do them somewhat in order. The 1990 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne was an unbelievable bottle. Certainly the best I've had since the first one several years ago. Pure honeysuckle, caramel, wet stones... an amazing and powerful wine with an exceptionally long finish. The 1989 Remoissenet Gevry-Chambertin 1er Cru "Les Cazetiers" is still one of my absolute favorite wines to drink right now. It's full of earth, nicely mature (but not overly mature). Still needs 1/2 hour to open up and show its beautiful underbrush, dried wild strawberries, black plum and spice box. Very long... The 2000 Guigal Cote-Rotie "La Mouline" is as it was a few weeks ago, but maybe this bottle was a bit more open? Lovely black olive, cold meat (had a steak last night that was the exact note in this wine), black pepper, cilantro (?!) and lots of black cherry, black plum, raspberry... like eating smoked rocks... Awesome finish. Needs time, though. The 1937 Quinta do Noval Colheita continues to be one of the great ports I've ever tried... I try this all the time and often overlook it... but it's incredible!!!! The caramel popcorn, butterscotch finish starts out nicely, with the alcohol taking over to start, then fades, then POW! all of the flavor comes back in wave after wave to an incredible finish. The 1995 Gaja Sori San Lorenzo (Barbaresco) was fabulous... so much tannin, though... lots of sotto bosco, black cherries, etc, but I wonder if it will be overwhelmed by the tannin in the years to come. The Krug Grand Cuvee is, well, Krug. Better than the Piper Heidsieck Cuvee Rare, though completely different animals... as we say, the Krug is great and the the Rare, well, it doesn't suck. Two bottles of 1988 Chateau Haut Brion were completely different. One, a bit tired, the other just coming into adulthood. The tired one was smokey earth with cedar and tobacco leaves... little fruit. The other was packed with black plums and exotic spices and full of the beautiful smokey-bacon fat covered gravel that is without question Haut Brion. The 1990 Chateau Prieure-Lichine (one corked, the other in good condition) is really beautiful and shows just how underrated this 4th Growth Margaux can be... Wonderful violet and silky plum nose with lots of cedar and cigar box. Mature, but will hold on for a long time. The 1990 Chateau Pavie-Decesse, a wine I've always been completely underwhelmed by, was a bit better than the other bottles I've had. Very stony and spicy with some black fruit and cedar notes. Ok... Next were two bottles of the ultimate garagiste wine, and a wine I've never been impressed with, the 1988 Chateau Le Pin. These two bottles were much better than I'd had before (and both showing nearly identical), but still underwhelming. Yes, the vintage was light, but these wine still showed beautiful typicity. Some anise gave way to a very exotic smoke on the palate and nose after about 30 minutes. The wine tried to mount an attack on the palate, but started dying off before it could gain any momentum... A long, silky finish though to a very rustic wine. The 2005 DuMOL Gary's Pinot Noir, Green Valley, RRV was awesome... made in a Kosta-Browne style, but not to that extreme, the wine is perfectly balanced with wild strawberry, ripe cherry and raspberry. Some Jolly-Rancher type fruit in here as well making it easy to drink now, but with sufficient acidity to lay down for a few years and develop some more nuances. The 2004 Vieux Telegraphe "La Crau" Chateauneuf-du-Pape rocks... spicy, raw, angular and powerful, this wine will (eventually) settle down... watch out! The 1982 Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva was all underbrush, balsam wood, dried cherry and dried leaves. A nice, medium-length finish from the awesome vintage and one of the longest lived Chiantis around... The wine of the week though, and the best bottle of this I've ever had, was the 1990 Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Lafite, but maybe not as much as Haut Brion or Latour. Except in this case. Rivaling the Chateau Margaux as the best 1990 on the block, this wine was pure Lafite - tons of cedary dried tobacco leaves in a Cigar Box... Chinese spices out the wazoo... a finish that goes on forever (I could literally still taste the cedar and tobacco 30 minutes after I tasted the wine). So elegant - all that is Lafite.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

4 new Master Sommeliers yesterday!!!! Awesome job!!! They just had tasting to finish... we'll see how many by the end of the week!!!

The Best

Ok, so I haven't done this in a while and I know I'm going to miss a few here and there, but I felt it was time to recap my favorite wines I've ever tasted... There's only a handful that could even make the top... This differs from my annual lists in that this takes into account potential...

1961 Chateau Latour, 1982 Chateau Latour, 1990 J.F. Mugnier Musigny Vieilles Vignes, 1999 DRC Montrachet, 1955 Chateau Haut Brion, 1990 Guigal Cote-Rotie "La Turque", 2001 Harlan Estate, 1982 Chateau Cheval-Blanc, 1982 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, 1982 Chateau Lafite- Rothschild, 1955 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, 1990 DRC Romanee-Conti, 1990 DRC Echezeaux, 1995 Leroy Richebourg, 2003 Domaine de la Mordoree "La Plume de Pientre" Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 1990 Krug en Magnum, 1990 Trimbach Clos Ste. Hune Riesling, 1964 Eitelsbach Karthauserhofberg Riesling feinste Auslese, 1953 Chateau d'Yquem, 1982 Chateau Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, 1990 Chateau Margaux, 1988 DRC Richebourg, 1989 Chateau Haut-Brion, 1989 Chateau La Mission Haut Brion, 1995 Kistler Cuvee Katherine Pinot Noir, 1985 DRC Echezeaux, 1975 Petrus, 1998 Penfold's Grange, 1990 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne, 1990 Krug "Clos du Mesnil", 2004 Sea Smoke Southing Pinot Noir.

There you are... the order??? Well, know that the 1990 Guigal La Turque, 1961 Latour, 1982 Latour, 1990 JF Mugnier Musigny, and 2001 Harlan Estate make up the top 5 (though not in that order...)

Good Luck!

The Master Sommelier exam started today... good luck to everyone!!! Hopefully we'll see a few new Masters...

Can't Win for Trying...

Rough night last night... only bottle I tried that I loved was the 2004 Craggy Range "Le Sol" Syrah... and I've already written about that many times.

Goin Back to Cali...

Two beautiful, but extremely different young California Cabs last night, plus a few older bottles, a not-so-great bottle of Hermitage. First, the 2005 Lewis Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon (not sure if I wrote about the other bottle of this I tried a few weeks ago)... anyway, I love Lewis wines... and this thing is a monster. Certainly the most powerful regular bottling of Lewis I've ever had... Tons of mocha, dusty earthiness, black jammy fruit. Needs a year or so... The 2002 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon is quite different. While still very concentrated, the wine is elegance to a "t" in modern-styled California wines. Lots of dust, with round, soft tannins, and tons of anise and black currant. The 1995 BV Georges de Latour was rustic, though it still had some good fruit to it, was not as refined as the 1994 BV Georges de Latour - though the 94 was a bit more elegant, it didn't show as well from 2 different bottles last night. Nod to the 95... The 1999 Jean Luc Columbo Le Rouets Hermitage Rouge was very closed, but appeared to want to open up... not sure if it ever was going to.... and ultimately determined to be raisiny... a dissapointment to be sure.

Now that's better...

One of my all-time favorite bottles tonight... but first, one that certainly didn't make the list... the 2004 Pavillion Blanc du Chateau Margaux was (hopefully, at best) closed... at worst... not a very good Pavillion Blanc. Some light grapefruit notes, but really a hint of cheese (which could be expected, instead of the full-blown fromage one gets as these wines age), with some clove, lime zest, lemon rind and white flowers. There was just no depth to the nose or the palate... The 1999 Opus One was tired... all tannin, little fruit. Granted the bottle had been open 2 hours when I tried it... but still... this is Opus??? It's NOT cheap... The wine of the night and currently in a race for best wine of the year so far was the 1955 Chateau Haut-Brion. Tried many times (I'll have to get an exact count, but at least 6 or so) in the last few years, this wine was simply stunning. Like the others, pure bacon-fat, gravel-fed smoke. The palate is intense, yet elegant... this wine could be nothing other than Haut-Brion... and a great one at that.

Ok, I Promise

To write more... this is really getting out of hand now. Tonight saw two great bottles... the first, the 1937 Quinta do (I always forget if it's da or do) Noval Colheita... always mindblowing, I seem to take this one for granted as I try it so frequently (at least once a week, in general). Such an utterly mindblowing wine on the palate. It's expensive, sure. But it's completely worth it (and I don't even like port that much!!!). The other great wine tonight, and the wine of the year so far, is the 1990 Chateau Latour. The wine has evolved and opened over the last few years. Not the best bottle I've ever had of this vintage, but it was the most open. Showing tons of power with loads of cedary-cigar box quality (actually one of the most aromatic Latours I've ever had). The finish was pure power.... awesome, awesome stuff.

Been a while...

I'm sorry for not writing more often... it's been a very, very busy time... Last night was the 1997 Bollinger Grand Annee - a textbook example of the 1997 vintage (as seen through the eyes of Bollinger). Very steely, knife-like acidity. This wine needs a lot of time to unwind and show its full richness. Great stuff. The 1985 Chateau Latour was beautiful. Classic Latour with a wonderful cedary, pencil lead and black currant nose. Nicely dusty, but not overly so. The 1998 Chateau Pichon Lalande was still tight. Lots and lots of mocha and anise. Very good for the vintage on the left bank. The 2005 Ridge Paso Robles Zinfandel was amazing. One of the great zins I've had in a long time. Nothing more than an appellation bottling, the wine had tremendous depth, classic bramble and red berry fruits, with notes one can only describe as the "Ridge Nose". Wow...