About two weeks back, a friend called a few of us out for an impromptu wine dinner with some of his friends who were in town from NYC for a few days. We headed out to Sweet Basil, which served as a fine host for our group. Below are my tasting notes on the wines:
NV Laurent-Perrier Champagne Brut L-P. It is always nice to start with a sparkling wine. The nose on this offering is full of flint, smoke, quinine, peach pit and apple skin aromas. It is medium-bodied in the mouth, with a fine frothy feel and a decent sense of palate presence. Flavors of soft ginger, poached apples, and a hint of minerality carry through to a soft finish.
2005 Domaine Michel Cheveau Macon-Fuisse Les Grandes Bruyeres. This is crisp and bright-smelling, with aromas of dusty chalk (and chalkboard), crushed seashells, peach, and lemon/lime pith. It is light and fresh in the mouth, seemingly gaining in body as it sits in the glass. It is a bit richer in the mouth than the nose would suggest, though the primary flavors are restricted to a narrow beam of pear and darker apple fruit. The finish is easy and clean.
2000 Trimbach Pinot Gris Reserve. There is a nice sense of musky fruits, decaying flowers, over-ripe apricot and a sort of copper minerality on the nose of this fine Pinot Gris. It is moderately full and round in the mouth, yet offering an excellent sense of palate delineation. There is a fine sense of balance here, too. The texture is generous and appealing, and the whole package has very good length. Everything is in harmony on the satisfying finish. A very solid wine.
2004 Weinbach Gewurztraminer Reserve Personelle. I was happy to find the usual intoxicating mix of spices, dried apricot, orange liqueur, rosewater and orange blossoms on the nose of this young Weinbach Gewurztraminer. It offers toasty fruit in the mouth, with all kinds of spices, orange and apricot flavors mixing together in a rich, rounded, smoothly-textured package with nothing overtly out of place. Indeed, if anything, it has a feeling of restraint at this young age, which bodes well for the future of this fine wine.
1997 Moris Farms Avvoltore Maremma Toscana IGT. Wow, this is good stuff. I can’t believe I had never heard of this Super-Tuscan before tasting it this night. It offers a fascinating bouquet of dark cherry, blackcurrants, fruitcake, and dusty earth that mingle together at times with scents of clean horse barn, leather, green tobacco, bell pepper and a tiny hint of sweetness way down in the deep core. It gives off a feeling of being dark, cool, and mysterious, yet oh so provocative. It is just as lovely in the mouth, where one again encounters the cool dark fruits, rich earth and an added note of dark chocolate. It is smooth, yet snappy crisp in the mouth, with fine delineation and chalky but just about totally integrated tannins. It finishes long and dark and is a clear WOTN in my book.
1996 Altamura Sangiovese California. 70% Napa fruit and 30% Monterey fruit. This wine has a nice candied nose, with scents of red Swedish licorice fish, lots of spice, caramel, soft leather and toasted herbs. Later, it brings in aromas of oaky vanilla, too. But on the whole, it all works together and there is no sense of being over the top. On the palate, it is quite nice, too, with good richness to the sweet cherry and black raspberry fruit. There are also nice spice accents. It has solid drive, and there are still plenty of woody tannins that make themselves known on the drying finish. This can go a while longer, but makes nice drinking now.
1997 Cantina del Pino Barbaresco Ovello. The aromatics are pretty shy here, but the bouquet does open up a bit with time and air to reveal crushed red berries, faint road tar, dried leaves, mushrooms and a kind of mossy undergrowth. In the mouth, it sports great intensity and has a distinctive presence, but is still pretty tightly wound. One can sense the velvety bottom bass note of dark cherry starting to fill in, but the overall sense is that this needs some time to come together. The tannins are fine, but grainy and really coat the teeth on the very dry finish. I would wait another 5 years on this one before trying again.
1996 Giacomo Brezza & Figli Barolo Castellero. Dark plums, prickly herbs, moss, raw coffee, chocolate and dark caramel notes are all present on the sort of richly “porty” nose of this young, brooding Barolo. In the mouth, it is tight, tannic and backward, with tons of rich, fudgy tannins throughout that feel like they are committing assault and battery on my tongue. Simply put, it is nowhere near ready to drink. Even trying it on days 2 and 3, it never really relents. This seems like one to bury deep in the cellar and forget about for a decade.
1999 Les Vins de Vienne Cote Rotie Les Essartailles. This Rhone offering is incredibly peppery on the nose. It also features a strong note of salami or dried prosciutto that sometimes seems more like smoky grilled kielbasa. In any event, there are also plenty of blue and black fruits, dried herbs and white pepper aromas, and a faint sense of rubber to contend with. In the mouth, it has depth and richness, but also solid lift and balancing acidity. The texture is a bit meaty and a touch chewy, but not what I would call rustic at all. The tannins are fine and modern-feeling, and not overly obvious right now. This is a solid offering that became more tightly acidic on day 2, but still made for good drinking.
1995 Chateau Pontet Canet Pauillac. Here we find a heady perfume of purple flowers, spice cake, creme de cassis, warm plums, dried blood and tobacco. It is rich and nicely balanced on the palate, with plenty of fine-grained tannins that make the finish feel a bit chewy. It tastes quite nice, with dark raspberry, dark chocolate and minerals. This wine somehow got lost in the shuffle for me, and I’d love to have another crack at it with fewer wines on the table. Still, my sense was that this could benefit from more time in the cellar and should be outstanding.
1992 Wittmann Westhofener Morstein Riesling Auslese Rheinhessen. The color is golden amber/orange. This wine is a lot of fun to sniff, with aromas of musky orange fruits, orange blossoms, burnished metal and fresh fig. It is rather mouthfilling, with its musky apricot, butter and citrus skin flavors. It shows very nice balance overall and has a nice refreshing quality to go with its pungent fruit.
1989 Huet Vouvray Moelleux Premiere Trie Clos du Bourg. Man, I could get used to drinking this stuff on a regular basis. The nose is a fascinating combination of beeswax, dried apples, sherry notes, copper minerality and quinine. It is gorgeous in the mouth, with an ethereal weight, yet plenty of body. It is delicate, yet deep, and it has finely-balanced sweetness to go with earthy pungent notes. The sweetness level is not too high, and if anything it turns drier on the finish, which leaves an impression of chocolate covered orange candies. Just a lovely package.
1985 Quinta do Noval Vintage Porto. The port ended this great trio of sweet wines. This one has intensely deep aromatics of walnuts, raisins, stony minerality and black cherries soaked in spirits. It has a nice spiciness in the mouth, with warming red fruits, fruitcake and a hint of alcoholic spirits. It is not too heavy, but has a great mouthfeel that drives through to a pleasing finish.
For an impromptu get-together, we did awfully well. It was a really fun evening. Thanks to all!
-Michael