Quick impressions from four days of hedonism with California visitors:
Some Washington wines:
2004 Beresan "Stone River", Columbia Valley, Washington, 65 Cab Sauv/30 Syr/25 Mer/10 CF, $35: pretty simple on day one with light cab flavor. Not a lot of depth and no apparent benefit from the combination of grapes, it's in the caliber of this state's "Red Table Wine" class of wines that generally runs $15-20. Mildly better on day two, and surprisingly weightier on day three but now tasting mostly of syrah skins and vanilla oak with a bit of alohol heat. Pass!
2004 Carriage House DuBrul Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Washington, $45: the owners of the DuBrul vineyard have decided to produce their own wine, and Carriage House is their label. More sophisticated than the Beresan with black cherry, tobacco, spice, and a finish dominated by sweet oak. Also, for me, a pass.
2005 Woodinville Wine Cellars Cabernet Reserve, $45: Stellar fruit and very restrained oak here. Juicy and big with blackberry, spice and tobacco, satisfyingly complex and concentrated without being over the top. Not a long-long haul wine, but there's enough structure here to support the wine for 7-10 years. Very classy, worth its price, and a definite Buy.
2001 Leonetti Caberrnet Sauvignon: From my cellar. Just when I convince myself that Leonetti's overoaked, overhyped and overpriced, this gem: gorgeous fruit more red than black with integrated creamy oak and very attractive secondary nuances of leather and iron ore minerals (our guests are both geologists) that fill the room. Drinks PERFECTLY straight out of the bottle and holds perfectly in the glass. If I owned more than this one bottle, which I don't, I'd be opening the rest every chance I get and not because one needs to be in a hurry to drink them, but because it's just so delicious.
2000 Dunham Cabernet Sauvignon, version VI, Columbia Valley: Although I'm not usually a fan of 100% new oak, the Dunhams always manage to appeal to me with their firm black fruit, cedar and spice. I can't figure out how to read this vintage, though, because of bottle variation: this is the third of five bottles I own opened since January. The first was savagely green and herbal, the second was not but instead what I'd hoped it would be and with many many years to go, and this one drank well but developed some jammy notes on the midpalate that might have been leading toward oxidation.
2006 Isenhower Red Paintbrush 67% CS/17% CF/11% mer/5%PV, $35: Typical Isenhower: a very well-made and modern style of fruit forward, somewhat-extracted new world wine, easy to drink but prizing drink-now Hawaiian Punch power over subtlety and improvement potential. Another pass.
For contrast:
1995 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma, California: Tart and tight on the first night, so much so that we put the cork back in and set it aside. The second day, it's rough and has developed some oxidative soy sauce and grit on the finish. We all taste it, make a face and move on. Third day: it's history. I have 95's from two different sources and they're all acting this way--haven't had a good bottle in years, and I've given up thinking I'm going to.
Some bubblies:
NV Beaumet, Epernay: I loved this. Traditionally styled with rich fruit and brioche toastiness. A fresh dirt earthiness on the finish gives it a rusticity that's not unattractive. I preferred it to the following, though our guests (who brought both) disagreed:
NV Henriot Souverain, Reims: Bright and taut with lemon, green apple, and a mild note of raw bread dough. Possibly a bit more elegant than the Beaumet, but shy and a bit harder to talk to.
NV Heidsieck Monopole, Blue Top: From my cellar, this full-figured old friend: freshly baked bread, butterscotch, red apple, pie spice and caramel.
1999 St. Innocent Brut, Oregon: It's sad, sad, sad that Mark Vlossak doesn't keep making bubblies as this final bottle of the case I bought years ago was the best bottle so far, and probably at peak but in a place it should hold at for years. Once pale yellow but now a pretty golden color, it has the kind of yeastiness one rarely encounters in domestic bubbly along with baked apple and pie crust, and texturally it's got the right tiny pin prick bubbles and creamy mousse. A superb example of what IS possible outside France, though rarely seen.
NV Gruet Rose: I find this wine simple and a bit on the sweet side, but it made a decent breakfast drink on the boat along with grilled breakfast sandwiches of mellow gouda and New Mexican green chiles.
NV Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noir: Drier than the Gruet and therefore more pleasing to my palate, but mostly just another example of why we will buy French sparklers as long as we can afford to.
2003 Yarrabank, Victoria, Australia: Bright lemon yellow and very lemony on the palate as well. Tight and awkward right now with cool climate chardonnay features and better nose than palate. Not as interesting as we expected, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this improve dramatically with age.
Other stuff:
2004 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc, Paso Robles: This wine is developing interestingly and has put on considerable weight in the last two years. Saturated sunshine yellow in color, with viognier perfume on the nose and the nectarine and peach flavors of roussane and marsanne on the palate. Very good, but either the acidity has faded or the fruit has gotten so rich with moderate age--or both--that the wine leans toward off-dry and needs to be thoughtfully paired with bold food or seasoning, like ginger and masala type curries.
2004 Hanzell Chardonnay, Sonoma, California: Once again my favorite California chardonnay makes it abundantly clear why it's my favorite California chardonnay. It's big and bold but it's all concentration and complexity, not flashy or overendowed: Meyer lemon, apple, pear, green tea and hazelnuts. Outstanding.
2006 Woodward Canyon chardonnay, Washington: Though not in the same league as the Hanzell to my palate, this is a very good vintage of a very classic style of new world chardonnay, and my guests put it on their shopping list of wine to buy before they head back to California.
2005 St. Innocent Freedom Hill chardonnay, Oregon: I've been drinking from my stash here and there, up to now preferring Mark's 05 Anden chardonnay to the Freedom Hill which I found much more muted than usual, but this bottle finally shows the ballsy fruit and minerality one associates with Freedom Hill vineyard wines. Big and lots of structure--could be immortal.
2000 Dalrymple chardonnay, Tasmania: I'd just about given up on this wine because it went through such a long flat stage that I finally gave it up for dead and not half the wine it's sister the 1999 was, but this wine's back on track and showing the complex, chalky limestone, lemon, green tea, and flint-like Chablis character I've always loved it for. And it drinks like a 2-3 year old wine--pale and fresh, and bright from good acidity. It should continue to improve in the bottle.
