This has been a good eating and wine drinking weekend for me! Not to "excess," really, on any one night, but....
Tonight, good friends invited me to dinner because Donna wanted to try a new recipe that came with their (mine, too) wine club shipment from Elizabeth Spencer in Rutherford. The tasting room is conveniently located immediately across the road from Rutherford Grill, so this was their chef's recipe: Roasted chicken with a "salad" consisting of cannellini beans, fresh corn, garlic, olive oil, mint, Italian parsley, and capers. Fantastic food!
With the dinner, we had two wines:
Elizabeth Spencer 2006 Napa Valley Chardonnay. What a beauty of a wine. No oak, so this is more of a chablis style, I guess. Pure, piercing fruit=very citrusy. Nice motuh feel, too. Lovely acidity. Solid 4*-and I'm not a big chardonnay drinker.
For the red, I contributed the 2001 E. Guigal Chateauneuf du Pape. I was a little worried at first-the cork had a single, thin tendril of wine that had penetrated through to the foil, and there was definitely intrusion elsewhere. Weird. The wine was not ever stored warm (in fact, it was stored too cold).
However, all was well. This wine was singing tonight, even at only six years old! E. Guigal may "just" be a negociant and this may have not been a prestige cuvee, but this wine is helping my palate move along the road from too many disappointing Cabernets to the wonderful world of Rhone (and, having found some good California producers of Rhone varietals helps, too!)
Dark red in color, this had a lovely nose of Provencal herbs. The first few sips showed some nice licorice notes, but the red fruit (raspberrry) and plenty of delicious savory herbs became more dominant. Perfectly complemented the food! Very nice smooth, rich mouth feel-not over the top at all. Was 2001 considered a good year in the Rhone? Again 4*
I much preferred this to a bottle of Domain La Milliere Cuvee Unique tried earlier this year. That wine was too fruity, almost sweet in character.