Thanksgiving. A day of pig-out pleasure for many Americans. Unfortunately, some of us Foodies cannot host our own Turkey dinner, instead traveling across state lines in bumper-to-bumper traffic in order to eat a turkey that requires a reciprocating saw to carve; cranberry sauce that shivers unquiet, colloid in its can shape; gravy so lumpy that it could be read like a Braille text - the list goes on…
In response, Mr. and Mrs. Offline-Lawton had the great idea to have a Foodie Thanksgiving to make up for all the nasty crap we’d be forced to endure over the holiday. Enthusiastically answering the call was Charles and Glenna Weiss, Dan and Michelle McQuillen, Trung and Martha Nguyen, David and Laura Bueker, PMAC, Amy and myself.
The dishes were excellent. We had grilled turkey, turkey confit, oyster casserole, cornbread dressing, corn salsa cornbread, jerk steak tips, thanksgiving Spring/Fall rolls, REAL sweet potato pie, REAL cranberry sauce, and more. It was one of the few evening when we were stuffed with food long before we were full of wine. As such, I passed a number of wines simply for lack of room in my stomach.
As Thanksgiving is PMAC’s favorite holiday, he was generous enough to supply nearly every wine on the table. To keep track of his wines, PMAC wrote his name in the corner of the label on his bottles. This stamp was a symbol of quality all night long.
Gimonnet “Cuis 1er Cru“: Gimonnet is one of my favorite producers of elegant Champagne. This bottle was typically light with zinging acidity and crisp notes of green apple and lemongrass.
1996 Pierre Peters “Cuvee Speciale” (en magnum): Quite the contrast from the Gimonnet, this was rich and full-bodied. Moderate acidity, with crouton notes on the palate. After some air, the palate took on a distracting note of caramelized onions. Nice, if a bit funky.
2004 Nicolas Joly Savennieres "Clos de la Bergerie": Joly and I have an “off” and “on” love affair from bottle to bottle. This bottle brought out the lust in me. Seductively round bodied with notes of white currents, cinnamon, and a rich long finish. The acidity might have been a touch lactic, but for the most part it was quite complimentary.
2006 Reverdy Sancerre “les Coutes”: Nice and easy to drink with some sweet notes. Though I have never encountered it before, I swear there was the slightest hint of candy cane in the finish of this wine.
2005 Dauvissat-Camus Chablis “La Forest”: Well-made wine with very primary Chardonnay flavors and a balanced body. My feelings on Chablis are well known, but there is no disputing the quality of a wine like this. It should age well.
1997 Brundlmayer Grüner Veltliner “Alte Reben“: The 1997 Alte Reben is my all-time favorite Gruner. It’s a bit bigger and creamier than other vintages of Alte Reben, but it just delivers so much power and complexity. Ripe grapefruit, creamy old-oak texture and the perfect cornmeal match for cornbread. Typical white pepper finished up the wine. Excellent.
Mystery: I brought this mystery wine. Charles Weiss decided to play 20 questions with me before tasting it.
“Is it red?”
“no”
“Is it Spanish?”
“no”
“Is it Lebanese?”
“Damn.”
I’ve never brought a bottle of white Musar before, yet, somehow, I have become predictable enough to guess within three questions. Next time I’m bringing a Cakebread Chardonnay. David Bueker’s favorite wine of the night (“Lively and full of flavor! Did Helmut Donnhoff make it?”), this was my first time tasting a white Musar. The nose of this 1998 Musar Blanc had a mix of musk, brine, oxidization and old oak (which I dig). This wine was a bit slack in the mid-palate, but there was a decent amount of acidity for this kind of thing. On the finish, there was the undeniable presence of tannin. I’d buy again at $30 just to see what happens (I’ve got one bottle that I’ll sit on for ten years) but within the same vein of wine, I think R Lopez de Heredia Tondonia Blanco Reserva is a much better choice. Of course, this opinion is based on numerous bottles of Tondonia Blanco Reserva that I have tasted, versus only one bottle of Musar.
1994 Trimbach Clos Saint Hune: It has been too long since the last time I have tasted a dry CSH. Of course, once I started drinking this bottle it was obvious why we haven’t opened a bottle in a while - it just needs so much time! This was one of those wines that somehow managed to be complex while seeming primary at the same time. Unsettling, it drank like moving through an M.C. Escher image with the paradox of depth and angular youth.
1996 Vietti Barbera Scarrone Vigna Vecchia: The best Barbera fruit you could ever imagine. 2.8 ha in size with 65 year old vines, the fruit in this wine shows the potential for greatness in Barbera. Of course, the oak is intrusive enough to totally screw over the profile. Pisses me off. When you consider the price and oak, the regular Scarrone Barbera fares much better in comparison. Maybe ten more years might allow the oak to integrate, but until then it's just shooting at the walls of heatache. I wont drop another $70 to find out…
Check that. I thought I brought this Vietti, yet as I scratched my notes I spotted “PMAC” written in the upper left hand corner of the label. Hmmm.
1996 d’Angerville Pommard: The misty memory of Burgundy, this bottle had high acidity and not much else.
2000 Allemand Cornas Sans Soufre: Cigarette ash, junipers, violets, lavender, beets, spritzy acidity… here’s a wine that hit’s the palate like a dropped jigsaw puzzle. Previous tastes of this wine have been entirely pure, and yet here is something much different. These SS are interesting wines. God only knows what this will be like next time I taste it.
2000 Albert Mann Gewurztraminer Steingrubler: Kicking off the long line of dessert wines, this bottle might have had moderate acidity, but the sweet fruit was exciting and voluptuous. Lychee heaven, this wine kicked ass.
1998 Gerard Schueller Riesling VT: Bad dates.
2006 Willi Shafer Graacher Domprobst Kabinett: Eh. Pretty flabby and uninspired.
1989 Foreau Moelleux Reserve: What is not to love about Foreau? Huet might get its Huet-a-thons, Huet-apaloozas, and praise from all angles, but when it comes to the Moelleux and Moelleux Reserve, I’ll drink Foreau any day. I’ve had this wine a number of times over the past seven years, and it is just now starting to budge: dropping a bit of that bitter Earl Gray Tea that comes from the botrytis. One of the many reasons why I love these wines so much is that they are sweet without being clumsy; maintaining a real sense of grape and terroir despite the botrytis.
2003 D’Olivares Dulce: Candied beets and dog vomit. What was Barry thinking?
2001 Schloss Serringer Saarstein Auslese: Clean and nice with confectionary notes of lemon meringue pie on top of the usual.
NV Domecq Venerable VORS Pedro Ximinez: Blackest wine I have ever seen, and the most viscous PX (!) to date. Toffee, caramel, molasses, fig and the hint of nutty rancio that would almost make you think there was a bit of Palomino Fino in there. Certainly, this wine takes PX to the next level. Alvear and Toro Albala might claim old Solera vintages on the label of their bottles, but the proof of VORS was in the sticky pudding of this wine. There was also a remarkable amount of acidity, which combined for a two-pronged searing attack on the back of the palate with the sugar. This isn’t the type of wine that can be consumed in any kind of quantity. Five years ago, I might have flipped over this bottle. For me, at this point, these are nothing more than novelties and conversation fodder.
1977 Warres Vintage Port: Another wine I’ve had a few times over the years. The tannin has integrated in the 1977 Warres, giving the fruit the center stage. Medium in profile (for a Port), I can’t imagine these getting much better with any more time in bottle. That said, this will fulfill (with a sigh) any pent up jonesing for vintage port that you might have. Very solid stuff.
I apologize to my fellow diners for not tasting all the wines. I blame Charles Weiss. A special thanks to the Lawton’s for hosting. I can’t wait for next year.
Best,
Joe
