Last minute arrangements led to Friday night dinner at Dino with Maureen Nelson and Bob Semon.
Bob starts by offering a bottle of the 1992 Wirsching Julius-Echter-Berg Riesling Spätlese Trocken that arrived on his doorstep today. So, we can never really be sure if the wine is just tired because it is 16 years old and ready to be put out of its misery or because it was still shocked by its journey from the Nyc shop. To me it was a ripe spicy riesling that was hollowed out in the middle and leaning too heavily on coarse battery acids. But the others seemed to like it better and maybe it was just travel shocked. Who knows.
Regardless, it was time for red wines so we poured the 2001 Hudelot-Noellat Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots and the 2001 Leroy Vosne-Romanée Genevrieres. The HN starts out shy and the Leroy starts out reduced but with a bit of air they both begin to reveal personality. The Leroy is more forward chunky blocky and funky, which wins over the folks at the next table who found it very seductive. For me, the wine had its moments but I was much more entranced by the HN, which was finer, more fragrant, and more delicate in the mouth. But, to each his or her own.
And, the seducees did offer us some of their wines, including the 1989 Chateau Climens Sauternes-Barsac which showed a lovely balance of vigorous fruit, mellowing maturity, and a sprightly acid frame, although I understand people age these wines for much much longer. Sure I might have preferred more tension. But I tried to open my mind to the region. And it was fun.
