A dinner for eight featuring four young burgs and a dowager spatlese. The first three of the burgs were acquired last month, and were tasted to decide if I should buy more.
2006 Rapet Pernand-Vergelesses Les Combottes
Subdued nose, hint of white flower perfume. Very mineral and fresh on the palate, with honey, vanilla and peach. Good typicity but medium pleasure. Wouldn’t buy more at $32. Served with green salad with brie, honey and roasted sliced almonds.
2006 Anne Gros Bourgogne Hautes Cotes-de-Nuits
Pale ruby, complex nose of leather, oak, and sandalwood. Classic pinot fruit, with some stemminess, cherry and pepper. Very nice flavors but somewhat lacking in body and a short finish. From a highly-touted producer, but won’t buy more at $34. Served with a terrine de foie and toast.
2005 Hudelot-Noellat Bourgogne
Cherry color, also cherry nose. Simple, tart cherry flavor. Good acid/fruit balance, longer finish than the Gros, quite pleasant as a quaffer but too simple, even for a basic bourgogne. Won’t buy more at $24. Served with veal mezzalune with mushroom sauce.
2004 Jayer-Gilles Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Hauts Poirets
I loved the 2002 of this, so decided to open the first of six bottles, knowing it would be premature. Wonderful and very complex aroma of glue, oak, forest floor, truffles, cloves and molasses. Good body, velvety mouth feel, perfect acidity. A lovely wine, highly recommended (even at $60). Served with filet mignon with herbs wrapped in filo dough.
1977 Kurt Darting Pfalz Durkheimer Spielberg Riesling Spatlese
My oldest Riesling so far, and eagerly awaited. The bottle was ex-estate, so the label was predictably pristine, but I was unprepared for the perfectly preserved, spotless cork. That had me in raptures and almost won me back into the cork camp until I realized (duh!) that it must have been recorked before leaving the winery. Beautiful pale gold color, almost alabaster. Extremely refined and complex nose of honey, peach, lychee, quince, dried apricots and some botrytis. In the mouth, the experience is less rewarding, as the acidity and fruit are no longer in balance and the fruit has begun to go downhill and a note of bitterness prevails. As it warmed, I detected a totally unexpected and strange note of animal fat or meat. In short, utterly deserving of respect, but the pleasure was more intellectual than sensorial. Served with a delicate apple pie, with which it did not go well.