Our friend Tom invited 5 of us over for a little holiday wine tasting at his place last Wednesday evening. We ordered in some food and relaxed with the following bottles over a few hours.
1985 Salon Brut Champagne Blanc de Blancs. As usual, the bubbles of this golden-colored wine are tiny and vibrant. The nose is complex and rich and showing fine maturity—with notes of thick yeast, toasted caramel, brass, buttered biscuit, lime rind, plantain chips and fresh ginger. It has a lively entry that soon yields to richer textures and flavors that round into a dense yet airy ball of waxy citrus, dark honey, caramel and yellow apple. It has big lift and plenty of verve to go along with that profile. One minor quibble might be that the beautiful ball of flavor only occasionally seems to reach out to far the corners of the mouth the way a remarkable bottle 2 years ago seemed to. Still, who wouldn’t love to drink this beauty any day of the week?
2000 Gerard Tremblay Chablis 1er Cru Montmain. This Chablis has a very nice nose of sweet chalk dust, lemon ball and fine minerals. It starts out decently on the palate, but after the first few sips, it seems to really flatten out and turn a touch sour and dull. It also feels a bit narrow and thin, especially the longer it sits out and warms up. Perhaps it is best to drink this at cooler temperatures.
2005 Jean Tardy et Fils Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Les Chaumes. A lovely spice box of a nose rises up out of the glass of this young Vosne. It’s soft and pretty for a while and then slowly begins to fold in more serious notes of gentle tobacco, leather and horse hair. In the mouth, it has a gentle texture, with plenty of pretty red and black cherry fruit. However, there is a distracting streak of acidity that seems to run down the middle of the palate—prickling the tongue and leaving a bit of a hole. The wine rights itself and finds a good degree of focus on the fine finish—hopefully boding well for the future. I wouldn’t touch it for a while, though.
2004 Windy Oaks Estate Pinot Noir Special Burgundian Clone Santa Cruz Mountains. The nose here is rather immediate and effusive, with brambly mixed berries married to more savory notes of ripe stems, mint, soft cedar, fine dill and brown spices. It is vibrant, lifted and jazzy, but with fine complexity, depth and layering. In the mouth, it is extremely smooth-textured, with an intense spiciness laid on top of fine-honed oak accenting. Again, it is lively and fresh, with brambly berries, black cherry, whole cluster notes, orange peel and vanilla bean flavors. It feels like a wine that has a good degree of class, but is enjoying showing off a bit of a wild streak at this early stage of its life. I’ve only had 3 other bottles of any Windy Oaks pinot, but this one is by far the best.
2002 Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir Hyde Vineyard Napa Valley Carneros. The nose of this Pinot is entirely different that the two that came before it. It is rather plush, velvety and exotic, with notes of rich boysenberry and the chewy dried cherry jam that comes in the middle of those thumb print Christmas cookies. It shows a good amount of beautiful sweet fruit on the entry, leading to a distinctly plush yet fresh mid-palate presence. The fruit is pure and plentiful, rounded and densely textured, but not overly weighty to my taste. Spices and red fruits lead through to a finish with good length, but perhaps just a whisper of alcoholic warmth. All in all, it was probably my second-favorite of the pinots this night.
1999 Sine Qua Non Pinot Noir Ox Yamhill County. I really like the sappy quality of the aromas on the nose here, which features scents of cherries and mixed red and dark berries nicely intermingled with earthier tones like tomato leaf and white pepper. It shows fabulous density on the palate, with a big bass bottom note that gives it a feeling of great depth and mystery. It delivers a lot of body but not in a ponderous way at all. For all the concentration of fruit and layered flavoring, it is extremely balanced and seems very well constructed on all fronts. The fruit again has a lovely sappiness to it and is accented by an interesting little squirt of citrus acidity that comes on toward the back of the palate. That element freshens up the finish and draws the drinker back for another sip. And another after that…
1999 Sine Qua Non Syrah The Marauder California. This wine has a bit of an odd bouquet, and had we been drinking blind, I certainly would have pegged this as Grenache. Aromas of bright citrus-infused red licorice rope, dried cherries and raspberry fruit juice lead the way, but are accented by white pepper spice, dusty inner tube lining, and a distinctive note of pure chlorophyll. Like I said, it is kind of weird. It is better on the palate, where it has a fine seamlessness to it and some intriguing textural complexity. The flavor profile is not all that complex, so the texture and mouthfeel become the focus, with tannins that feel nicely integrated into the whole. The red cherry flavors and the zippy freshening acidity are pretty well balanced against each other and the wine is surprisingly easy-drinking. It was not one of my favorites, but it does give one lots to think about.
2000 Sine Qua Non Syrah In Flagrante California. The nose of rich crème de cassis is unfortunately marred by a heavy dose of chlorine aromas suggesting obvious TCA. Although I almost never bother, for some reason I felt compelled to still give this a taste. I was really glad I did, for the TCA notes don’t really seem to show up at all on the palate for me. This was really unexpected and yielded one of the best-tasting corked wines I have ever drunk. It is dense and full-bodied, with a thick velvety texture. The blue and purple fruit flavors are really effusive. It is a bit grainy and tannic on the finish, but otherwise richly-fruited and on the decadent side. It may have been robbed of nuance or complexity by the cork taint, but one can still get a sense of what the wine might be like in pristine condition.
2002 Novy Family Wines Syrah Santa Lucia Highlands. As it did when I first opened it at home several hours earlier, this still shows a lot of pungent skunky qualities on the nose. However, beyond that are some big cassis and red currant notes to go along with some tomato paste and mixed berry aromas. On the palate, it is a much more engaging and enjoyable wine. Indeed, taste-wise, this was probably the Syrah of the night. The rich, sappy-textured flavors include crème de cassis, darker plum and all kinds of baking spices, with a citrusy acidic twang running beneath. It is smooth and seamless, with good density but fine balanced weight. The finish is pretty and stylish. If you can get past the oddity of the skunky nose, this is a very nice Syrah drinking well.
1987 Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. The color here is dark and dense, and still rather young-looking. There are some aged aromas of old leather, funky tobacco juice and cedar planking, but also some vinyl and eventually the unmistakable odor again of faint corkiness. Riding high on the experience of the decent-tasting but corked SQN, I went ahead a tasted this wine, as well. And again, the palate somehow transcends the mild corkiness on the nose. The texture feels rather leathery but otherwise there is plenty or ripe rich black currant and blueberry fruit still going strong. There are still some chalky drying tannins kicking around and there is a decent shot of freshening acidity. Pristine bottles of this are bound to still have good life ahead based on this showing.
1999 Vina Almaviva Puente Alta. This opens up rather in your face aromatically, eventually settling down to aromas of raspberries, dark cranberries, damp earth and flower greens. Big pillowy tannins dry out the palate a bit, but the wine has a lot of fleshy warm fruit pumping through it. There is a bit of alcoholic warmth and perhaps some roasted notes on the finish, but those features may likely settle down with some more time in the cellar.
2006 Falset-Marca Etim Seleccion Montsant. This seems a bit rough and unformed, both on the nose and on the palate. The nose shows aromas of black fruit, burnt rubber, white pepper and herbs. It is really young on the palate, with big sticky tannins that totally dry out the mouth. Big blue and black fruits can’t hide the alcoholic warmth. Clearly, this needs some time to find some degree of elegance.
-Michael