WTN: Rieslings, Bdx, and more with Salil

Salil Benegal was in the area Saturday, and we invited him to dinner. Tried a few local winegeeks, but too short a notice, but we filled out table with some other friends. Betsy spent the afternoon cooking, and used some of a 2007 Loosen "Dr L" Riesling. Off-dry, nice acidity, dependable, nice value. B/B-

I was in charge of appetizers, but with two non-seafood eaters I realized virtually my entire repetoire was out. So I just served some olives and wild boar sausage, along with the NV Pinon Touraine Rose Brut. Strawberries and cherries, some Loire chalk tones, good length, excellent value in pink bubbly. B+/A-

Betsy made a starter of leeks and fennel with Nicoise olives and chevre, then the main course of pork braised in Riesling, with gingered sweet potatoes, 5-spice apples, and Brussels sprouts. We followed with some cheeses (aged Gouda, a Neals Yard Chesire, Tomme de Savoie, and a triple creme from Burgundy - I had wanted a Muenster for the Alsace dessert wine, but they were out), apple pie, and ice cream.

I didn't try to control flights and matching, all of the main courses were aimed towards Riesling, but the harder cheeses were for the reds (a couple of people are primarily red drinkers, so wanted some on table).

2000 Trimbach "Cuvee Frederic Emile" Vendage Tardive
Surprisingly open when first uncorked, still open when poured an hour later, then seemed to shut down. Later seemed to open aromatically, though not as much on the palate. This needs a decade, maybe two. Still, underneath one can feel the muscles coiled, yet there's still a sense of elegance and balance. Based on the first couple hours and the potential, A-

1994 Gunderloch Nackenheim Rothenberg Spatlese
The most intensely petrolly of the Rieslings. Apples and orange zest, but really dominated by the petrol. I'd put it in the A range except the petrol is just one notch to high for me .B+

1994 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Auslese
Not especially giving, a bit short. Some apple, rocks, petrol. I though it was improving with air, yet last glass is short again. Seems a tiny bit simple. B-

2007 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese #12
A generous offering from Salil. Mosel apples and pear, fairly intense slate notes. Salil finds it a bit soft, I agree, but it's certainly a solid bottle of Riesling if not a showstopper. B/B+

1979 Domaine de Chevalier (Graves)
My WOTN (as it often is). At first dominated by pipe tobacco and earth aromas, but red fruit builds in decanter. Nice medium bodied claret with resolved tannins and solid acids, cigarbox and smoke and some mineral notes on finish. Good Bdx! A-

2000 Juge "Cuvee C" Cornas
This was a big disappointment, especially at first. I really liked the '99 of this, a rather elegantly styled Syrah. This however initally comes across as a rather clunky and clumsy CdR. One-dimensional (two if you count a little green as a dimension) with a clipped finish. Revisited later it has filled out a bit, but still performing under my expectations. Half a bottle left, will see how it shows tonight, but last night it had to climb to a B-/C+

1998 Zind-Humbrecht "Goldert" Gewurztramier Vendages Tardive
Here's a story of temperature. Served pretty cold, Very intense tropical fruit dominated by litchee, some honied apricot, spiced peaches. Lush and classic Gewurz nose, sweet, but seemingly with a backbone of acidity. Not bad. Yet just 15-30 minutes of warming seemed to strip away the acidity, leaving a wine that struck me as flabby. Plenty of this left, Salil took with him so maybe a report on day 2 with food. B-/C+

1985 Gruaud-Larose (St Julien)
Salil was crashing on couch rather than drive, so I offered to open something else while I cleaned up,He chose Bordeaux, this was first I saw in cellar. That '85 ripeness, blackcurrants and red plums with some cedar and tobacco. Solid on the palate, maybe just a bit fading on the finish. Good, but the '79 DDC was better for me. B+

Fun night, nice people, good to meet Salil!

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.
 

Sounds like a wonderful evening! Tempting food too.
Its 2pm and no sign of Salil yet!!! LOL.

Its 2pm and no sign of Salil yet!!! LOL.

Bah - I'm not that much of a lightweight!
Had a really great time - thanks again Dale and Betsy for your hospitality. Really great company, food and wine made for a wonderful Saturday evening. Betsy's cooking was sensational and the pork braised in Riesling was just brilliant - really tender and tasty, and matched well with just about every wine on the table.

Dale had opened a really great range of wines and it was great to try some older wines and a few from producers/areas I have very little experience with. The Pinon Touraine I thought was very enjoyable. Really bright and elegant fruit, juicy acidity and incredibly tasty. If Dale hadn't pointed out the long lineup of wines ahead I may have drunk a lot more of this.
Among the Rieslings, the Trimbach CFE VT was really fascinating to sit with and revisit with time. Initially this showed pleasant white fruit/quince flavours with tinges of smoke, petrol and honey over a mineral and acid base but kept giving the impression that there was a lot more in store. With time this clamped down hard and became quite unyielding - I reckon this needs to just be left alone a good while and should be stunning in several years. Although it
I loved the Gunderloch - I didn't find that intense petrol character offputting, and I thought with some air the petrol note began to integrate nicely and merged in with the other honeyed/apple/orange flavours. Really well balanced with good acidity and minerality underneath - my personal favourite of the night.
Both the Schaefer and Selbach-Oster were quite disappointing with a softness and lack of acidity I didn't expect in either wine. The Schaefer's aromatic/flavour profile was lovely - apple, pear and some peach and a mineral character that just kept expanding with air to show slate and a powdery/chalky element - but it just didn't have the cut or precision I'm used to from Schaefer.
I'll chime in on the ZH later - I've felt that some of the bigger ZH wines work better with strongly flavoured cuisines like Indian or Chinese, and I'm curious to see whether my perception of that VT will change with dinner.

I didn't pay much attention to the Cornas with the Bordeauxs that Dale pulled from his cellar - the Chevalier was a stunner and once I tasted it I was giving it even more attention than the Rieslings. Just a really beautiful, elegant Bordeaux that got better and better with air, with a seamless combination of fruit and developed flavours and really bright acidity that made it work well with the pork and cheeses.
The late-night '85 Gruaud was a wonderful way to end the night. A real treat to be able to sit down and enjoy a birthyear wine, and this was delicious - rich red and dark fruit flavours over tobacco and earth with a strong leathery funk component that I enjoyed. I found it a little short on the finish compared to the Chevalier - but that's a minor nitpick, it was also quite outstanding and a real pleasure to explore with time. Thanks again Dale and Betsy for a great evening - and looking forward to having you both over some time soon the next time you're in CT!

If I had known that was a birthyear wine, would have opened more '85s. Will mail you and Rosie the pork in Riesling recipe.

I should have added that Salil and the other guests deserve credit for putting up with the dogs. Jessica brought Lucy's spaniel friend Courtney over, and dinner was often interrupted by doggie antics.

Hey, the dogs were great fun. You weren't exaggerating when you said Lucy was extraordinarily friendly!

Can 1985 be a birth year?

As a followup, took a few open bottles to friends' home for dinner last night. On day 2:
1) '85 Gruaud - showing quite a bit of caramelly oxidative notes, but still quite drinkable, and popular.
2) '00 Juge- big difference of opinion. Ron quite liked, I thought totally flat and empty. Glad I only bought one.
3) Pinon- lost some petillance, but still pretty fresh
4) Gunderloch- this was the shocker- bottle wasn't recorked, sat overnight on table 1/3 filled. In AM I had put cork in and refrigerated. I liked this even better on night 2- good acidity, fruit still pure, petrol there but not as dominant. Whodovethunk?

Thanks for the pork recipe Dale - looking forward to trying it soon.
I had the leftover ZH VT with some channa masala and rice last night and it seemed far more balanced with food than it was on its own (or it might have been time). It was still very rich, flamboyant and sweet but the alcohol seemed much more integrated (and wasn't showing at all on the nose) and the acidity was more prominent. Really lovely. I still think that ZH wines (particularly the bigger/sweeter ones) tend to work amazingly with Indian/Thai food - I've had some great experiences matching some Pinot Gris/Gewurz VTs (or some of the bigger Rieslings like the 98 Brand and Clos Hauserer) in the past with those cuisines.

(If you're out this way any time soon - we can test that theory out again with my '99 Rangen Pinot Gris VT and biryani )