Sparse notes from memory:
The winery's in Dundee but the fruit was from Oregon's warmer Rogue Valley, a 2005 Dobbs Viognier was a beautiful match for a scallop and avocado tartare on Christmas Eve. Unmistakeable viognier flowers and white stone fruit with just enough acid.
The same night, a pale coral colored NV Duval-Leroy Rose de Saignee champers that I've kept in the cellar for two years had evolved wonderfully, really filling out in the midpalate from where it was when I first tasted it. Bone dry but with good fruit, very exciting and festive. I'd kill to have more.
We pulled our last 1999 Arrowood Cabernet Sauvignon last night to accompany a chinese beef stirfry. This wine was one of the wierdest young Cal Cabs I ever tasted, full of dirt and cardboard and vegetables, but has turned a corner in the last two years and this bottle was quite okay. Not exemplary, and the ride was too weird for the $44 a bottle paid and all the bottles wasted getting to this point, but finally it's a wine you can drink without complaint. Wouldn't hold any longer, though.
I took a 2002 Siduri Hirsch Vineyard pinot noir to dinner at a friend's on Christmas day. Considering the sad progression of other 02 Siduri's, a bad gamble on my part: rancid Hawaiian punch and Raid ant spray for fruit with searing acidity. Undrinkable. Really, is five years too much to ask? I can't believe how many Siduri's we've poured down the drain lately.
Thank goodness I brought a back-up, the regular 2002 Heitz Cabernet Sauvignon. Nice wine, nothing special: but it shows well for middlin' Cal Cab at $30ish. I liked it so well I took another bottle to another party and between the two, I'd say drink in the next year or two. The tannins are close to resolved and the wine isn't going to improve much from here.
Our host at this event had sought the advice of a local wine retailer who knows my tastes, and he fixed them up with the 2005 Gobelsberg "Renner" Gruner Veltliner from Austria. I *love* gruner, and I've had a number of them young (though this was my first from 05), but I don't think any were as good as this wine as this stage. WOW. Rich complex fruit, great color and acidity--it's all there. I adored this wine.