Notes from a general brown bag tasting.
1983 Guntrum Oppenheimer Sacktrager Gewurztraminer Auslese – we rarely serve German wines and I figured this would stump them because they wouldn’t expect it, and they wouldn’t think it was as old nor as sweet as the designation indicated, nor would they get the varietal. All turned out t be true and they even had trouble getting country. It was a light amber colour belying its age, and had an initial sweet fruit nose that with time in the glass opened up to reveal a lovely apricot element. Only medium sweet on palate – probably much less sweet than it would have seemed on bottling, and a superb acid balance with good length. Everything these wines should be. BTW, it is very hard to call Gewurz in a sweet late harvest wine and the varietal clues are quickly lost with time. No rush on this one.
1986 Nederberg Private Bin R163 Cabernet – sadly this Cape wine was corked. I have some myself and it normally shows very well. Even this maimed example was bravely showing some fruit, but that was about all you could tell.
1994 Shafer Stags Leap Cabernet – in many vintages I think you can do very well with the regular cabs as opposed to the reserves. My recent opening of a 1990 Mondavi regular and this wine tend to confirm that in some years the gap between normal bottling and reserve isn’t as great as in others. This dark wine showed a deep ripe fruit nose, and not too much of the ripe character carried over in the mouth where it was very well balanced and had good length. I couldn’t help thinking about the 90% of owners of this wine who no doubt popped their corks in the first 5 years and how much they missed by not waiting. I have the same vintage of Hillside – must see if he has any more of this as a side by side might prove interesting.
1994 Stags Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet – this Winiarski wine seemed simpler than the previous one with bright young fruit, medium weight and good acidity, ready and pleasant to drink. It picked up some secondary characteristics with time in the glass but never to the same degree as the Shafer.
1998 Ch. Bel Air – a shift to Bordeaux with this Pomerol. Hint of vinyl and mint with the good fruit in this unmistakably Bordeaux nose, and a mature smooth well balanced wine that is at peak now. Very pleasant.
1998 Ch. La Lagune – had to work at this a bot but I finally nailed it. A surprising lot of wood in the nose – almost reminded me of the 1978 Margaux. Perhaps they hit the lottery the year before and invested in all new barrels or maybe the winemaker forgot to rack it or something. In any case, this one was certainly characterized by its wood., to the point that I felt it was intrusive. There was good fruit underneath and perhaps enough to merit a better assessment if the wood ever abates, but right now, I am glad I passed on buying this wine. I’m betting it isn’t going anywhere (not anywhere good, at least).
2001 Nederberg Private Bin Cabernet – the back-up bottle of the bringer of the corky Nederberg. This one showed very well, dark with deep edges, a big deep fruit nose, developing notes of cocoa and mint with time. In the mouth, sweet but the acidity exhibited up front and it had nice length. No rush on this one.
1995 Clos des Papes – I fooled them all with this Chateauneuf, for some reason. Maybe it was what they had been tasting, but it took them a long time by process of elimination to find themselves at last in the Rhone. This wine had been sitting in my cellar but my tasting of the 1995 Les Cailloux last week prompted me to give this a try. Sweet fruit and a hint of black pepper in the nose, almost a bit candied, and smooth on palate with good length. Drinks well now but no rush. I find that I am liking the 95 CNduPs quite a bit right now. Further experimentation is called for!
2005 Tagaris Alice Vineyard Mourvedre – this one was really out of the blue. We worked our way down to Mourvedre but then stalled out when told it wasn’t Spanish or French (it wasn’t Aussie style). Dark, ripe and juicy, and the nose had a ton of fruit. It was basically a bottle sample from a Columbia Valley winery. I don’t recall seeing this varietal from the area before – it may bear watching. Interesting.
2005 Ch. Haut Vigneau (Pessac) – this probably should have come earlier. Definite cabernet nose with hint of spice, young but drinking well already. I don’t think this will make old bones and it should be drunk young.
1994 Taurino Patriglione – a controversial wine. This ripe Sicilian single vineyard Negroamaro showed a road tar and ripe fruit and anise nose that put some off. Slightly sweet on palate (I used it as a cheese wine) and troublingly slightly sour at the end. This may have been an ‘off’ bottle, but I think part of it was that it was a strange style for many.