These are notes from a relatively impromptu get-together at a friend's house a few weeks back. He cooked up a storm and we tried to find some wines to match.
2002 J.C. Pichot Vouvray Domaine le Peu de la Moriette. This opens with some funk on the nose but quickly settles down to reveal notes of lemon peel, lanolin, dark honey, soft chalk and nutmeg. It is moderately dry on the palate, but with a bright squirt of almost sweet citrus fruits (pineapple, grapefruit) and browned apples drizzled with lemon. It is medium-bodied, slightly oily in texture, and offers spicy, generous layers of flavor.
2000 Trimbach Riesling Alsace. Notes of wet slate, beeswax, lemon peel, pine, kerosene and yellow pixie stick are found on the nose. In the mouth, it is crisply metallic with bright, almost jangly acidity lifting up the fruit. It is lighter-bodied and a touch austere, with a finish of white pepper and graphite.
2006 Chateau du Plessis Muscadet de Sevre-et-Maine Sur Lie. This wine is a very pale color and has a wide open bouquet of grapefruit, sea foam, lime pith and sweet concentrated tropical fruits. In the mouth, it is light and crisp, with grapefruit, minerality, melon and sea salt. This was a nice pairing with the sea scallops.
2003 Kistler Chardonnay Dutton Ranch Russian River Valley. The nose changes a lot over the first 20 minutes or so, revealing at times notes of smoke, bosc pear, lees, lemon and drawn butter. In the mouth, it is leesy-textured with good concentration, and with a soft layering. There is a gentle acidity that brings some freshness to the long, chalky, creamy finish.
2003 Ramey Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard Napa Valley Carneros. I really like the deep, complex and inviting nose of cool minerals, sharp lemon zest, peach pit, sweet tropical fruits and creamy custard. In the mouth, it is sharply powerful but in a surprisingly compact and somewhat metal-tinged package. It is tight and spicy, with a spiny backbone right through to the fresh finish.
2005 A.P. Vin Pinot Noir Rosella’s Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands. The color here is on the pale ruby side. Aromatically, it offers up notes of dried cherry, brambly berries, dried stems, and wet autumn leaves. It is wild-fruited and brambly, yet gently tangy on the palate, and seems to float effortlessly toward the finish.
2004 Morgan Pinot Noir Rosella’s Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands . Gentle red fruits and chalk, along with wild herbs, dried flowers, soft cola, spices, and later on, black cherry aromas weave in and out on the nose. It is a bit richer than the A.P. Vin in the mouth, with a more rounded palate feel and offers up a solid spice palette on the darkly tangy finish.
2005 Siduri Pinot Noir Amber Ridge Russian River Valley. The color is a cloudy dark ruby. Aromas of black cherry, cola, red raspberry compote, toasted brown spices and pine needle greet the nose. This is both creamy and sappy in the mouth, with red berries, cherries and spice flavors and a fine, long finish.
2001 Novy Syrah Rosella’s Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands. This wine opens with fascinating aromas of roast beef, blackcurrant jam, dried plum and a generally inky, corpulent sensibility that eventually pulls in notes of fruitcake and lead pencil. It is rich and warm and darkly-fruited in the mouth, with dark cherry liqueur and spice flavors. It has good weight and very nice texture throughout. There are still abundantly gooey tannins that dry out a bit on the long, darkly toasted finish.
1988 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. This bottle is corked. Peter dumped it into a bunch of glasses stuffed with Saran Wrap and the wine actually lost (at least to my nose) the corked aromas entirely. In the end, this was actually a very nice wine! Lovely aromas of mint, eucalyptus, sandalwood, dark plums, cassis and dark leather waft up from the creases of the Saran wrap. In the mouth, it is soft and generous, but with sneaky fudgy tannins still making their presence known. There is good density of flavor to the black cherry fruit through the mid-palate, but it does tend to dry out toward the finish.
2002 Chateau Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac. The nose here shows very nice aromas of sweet smoke, patent leather and turned earth, with lots of savory fresh herb and meat notes underneath. It is fresh on the palate, with taut black fruits and defining structure leading to a tangy, mineral-tinged finish. The tannins grow and grow throughout the evening. All in all, it is pretty much the same as I remember from a bottle 5 months ago—wait a few years to try again.
1997 Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon Cinq Cepages Sonoma County. This wine has a very nice bouquet that seems to grow and deepen, while growing more complex with time in the glass. My notes indicate aromas of dark raspberries, sweet cherry pie, smoked meat, dried blood, campfire smoke, soft leather, warm red currants and faint cedar and incense notes. In the mouth, it shows a lot of red currant flavor to go along with spiced berries, chalk and cedar. It has good intensity without being too big or overdone. Still, I think this will be better in a few years’ time, despite notes I’ve read suggesting it is either in the zone or going downhill. This was my WOTN, in which I stood alone, although it did garner 4 second-place votes.
At the end of the night, votes for white WOTN were split between the ’03 Ramey Hyde Chardonnay (3 votes) and the ’02 Pichot Vouvray (3 votes), with 1 vote for the ’06 Plessis Muscadet.
Red WOTN was the ’04 Morgan Rosella’s Pinot Noir (8 pts), followed by the ’97 CSJ Cinq Cepages (6 pts), the ’02 Pichon Baron (4 pts), the ’05 AP Vin Rosella’s Pinot Noir (2 pts) and the ’01 Novy Rosella’s Syrah (1 pt).
-Michael
