A good friend and a Sichuan dinner meant a few wines…
1998 Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Spätlese
This was aging and mellowing and not the most exciting at the moment. It remains to be seen whether extra complexity will emerge with time. But, for the moment, it shows nice enough mid-range mellowing Ruwer fruit.
2006 Gysler Silvaner halbtrocken
This was pretty bland and neutral. I understand some like this for the low price and the drinkability. That may be true. But, there is other stuff more interesting to my palate.
2002 ESJ “The Shadow” Syrah
This was tough with the spicy Sichuan food and furthermore on the first night it was pretty difficult to drink with shut down flavors, even with several hours of air. On the second night it speaks more of syrah, but still not as expressive as several months ago. I’m guessing the best thing is to let it sleep?
The next night, a bunch of us converged on Cook’s for a rosé tasting in the full bloom of cloudy cool May Bay Area weather. And, there were at least a dozen rosés on offer, so I can’t be responsible for all of them. But, my favorites were the 2006 and 2007 Domaine du Bagnol Cassis Rosé, which both showed such crisp mineral freshness and poise. The 06 was ready to go and drinking beautifully from the corkpull. The 07 needed a few hours of air to get to the same point, but, it also showed such fine mineral precision. Nice. I could drink these with fish all night. And with all the Bree-Concocted treats…
My other favorite rosé was the 2007 Ameztoi Rubentis Txakolina, such spritzy light pale goodness, yet with plenty of flavor interest.
There were tons of other rosés, so I can let other people advocate for their favorites. But, I was also interested in the red wines. One fierce bottle was the 2003 Bouchard Père & Fils Le Corton, which was difficult to taste after the rosés but was not as Californicated as some people claimed. Sure it was ripe, but it was not vulgar. There was pleasure to be had.
That said, I was more interested in the 1983 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 804, which showed plenty brown and rusty from the first pour. But, it tasted much firmer than we feared. Sure it was not the richest wine, or the most complex wine, and this bottle might have been better one or two years ago, but, it was a nice refresher after the richer red wines.
Because, we had a few Southern Rhone wines, led by the 1995 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf du Pape, which started a bit tannic but was so elegant and fine and even mineral that I was almost convinced that Southern Rhone wines were worth drinking. The 1995 Château de Fonsalette Côtes du Rhône was a good wine, that only got better with air, but it suffered a bit next to the Beaucastel as it seemed crude in comparison. Of course that was before we compared it to the Yaniger Jokes. But, that’s a different story…
Holding its own and more was the 2003 ESJ Shell and Bone Paso Robles Red Wine, which spoke of California in a rich elegant way. It had plenty of sunny fruit, and a lovely blend of the GSM grapes. Not the same detail of the Beaucastel, but, it was singing its own song in a lovely way.
A bit more awkward was the 1992 Ridge Pagani Ranch Late Picked Zinfandel. Which led to plenty of jokes about filling the quota of zinfandel for my last CA days. And there was plenty of inside discussion about 92 vs. 91 and Pagani Ranch vs. Geyserville. I didn’t follow all of that, but, I noticed that it was a bit rich and alcoholic (15.8% on the label) yet seemed to be losing a bit of fruit on the palate. Tough.
1999 Erben von Beulwitz Kaseler Nies'chen BA Goldkapsel
This on the other hand was not tough. Rich but precise and well-defined, such lovely acidity and focus. Was delicious before and after the Key Lime pie. I went back for more and more.