At the very end of January, Ed hosted a gang of folks at his place in Brookline, with a loose theme of Champagnes and red wines from Washington State. On paper, there was no real reason for this combination of themes, but it felt perfectly normal to me! Everyone brought food and I brought a bottle of aloe to soothe the nasty burn all over my left arm from a hot liquid blender accident earlier in the day. I’m not sure if the alcohol was good for my burn or not, but I felt a lot better the longer the night went on.
The Champagnes:
NV Camille Saves Champagne Brut Carte Blanche. I was not previously familiar with this producer, but this non-vintage wine was right in my pleasure zone. The nose is light and airy, but with lots of interesting and appealing aromatic notes like apple skins, chalk dust, sugar/cinnamon mix, flaky croissant and fresh-cut ginger. This is just what I like on the palate—solid body, plenty of fleshed out apple and citrus fruit, a creamy but very classy texture and an easy sense of drive, depth and cut. Fine spices and fresh acids give the finish a tingly feel that is bright and refreshing. This is the sort of wine I could drink way too much of without even thinking—it is that easy-drinking and inviting.
NV Thierry Massin Champagne Brut Selection. This is totally on the soft side, with a super-foamy mousse that is just too foamy and at least for me distracts from anything else the wine might offer. The nose features creamy notes of vanilla bean, cream corn, bread dough, baking spices and faint minerals. The frothy palate reveals some soft apple fruit and some sweet candied notes, but the whole thing dissipates far too quickly and has little sense of length or persistence.
2002 Jose Dhondt Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs Vielles Vignes Grand Cru. There’s lots of crisp minerality on the nose here, with graphite, quartz and also some more fleshy notes of pear fruit. In the mouth, it is very intense—with sharp focus and plenty of generosity to the blood orange and grapefruit flavors. There is a lot of power here, but it is showing fine restraint. The acidity and spices are really vibrant, but the texture is creamy and smooth. It is a wake-up wine that really makes your palate perk up and pay attention. This is pretty exciting stuff to me.
2002 Marc Hebrart Champagne Special Club 1er Cru. This is a bit quiet on the nose--showing some faint notes of citrus skin, mica and tree fruits. It is fleshy and frothy in the mouth, with decent body and persistence. The fruit is up front and young-seeming—a bit monolithic at this point. It turns more taut and tart on the finish, which features a streak of bittersweet grapefruit. A few fellow tasters have told me they think I got this wine and the Jose Dhondt reversed, but I’ll stick by my original notes.
1985 Laurent Perrier Champagne Brut Grand Siecle. This Champagne features a rich and delightfully complex bouquet of nutmeg, pickled ginger, fine sherry, liquid caramel, honey and meringue pie topping. It also shows its age in the flavor profile, with fine notes of warm baked apples, baking spices and pastry dough. It is seamless across the palate and drinks perhaps more like an aged white Burg at times. The acidity is gentle, but the structure here is solid and the whole thing drinks real easy right now. This is a very nice treat.
The Washington State Reds:
1992 Leonetti Merlot Washington State. Ed pulled this bottle out from his cellar when he saw me walk in with the 2004. I’m really glad he did. The color shows a hint of browning, but the wine is totally sound, as evidenced by the really lovely bouquet that wafts up out of the glass. It leads out with very pretty aromas of dried cedar planking, cranberry bread, frozen persimmon, dried red berries and a sort of spicy leather. Later, it grows even more complex, folding in aromas of gentle jalapeno pepper, forest greens and mustard seed. In the mouth, it is really smooth and flows beautifully across the palate. There is an aged balsamic edge to the wine, but it also has some soft acids that keep it feeling well-balanced. Indeed, it comes across as sweet and gentle, but persistent and engaging. This could perhaps go a little while longer, but I’d really recommend drinking it now.
2004 Leonetti Merlot Columbia Valley. The 2004 version of this wine is a whole different animal. And if anyone were to ask me, that animal would be a sex kitten. First off, the nose shows off the exotic side of merlot to full effect--with tons of melted railroad tie creosote and sweet incense aromas allied to plush mixed fruit compote and then further seasoned with peppermint and balsa wood. It has a bit of a wild streak, too, and I make no apologies for enjoying its riches. In the mouth, it continues merrily on its sexy fruit bomb way. It is luscious, layered and very velvety-textured—but with a cool fruit profile that provides an interesting contrast to the other elements. It leads with flavors of black raspberries, melted licorice and baked earth but eventually allows some bitter-edged toasted oak flavor to begin to poke out toward the finish. It is rich, full and hedonistic and purrs right along without a whole lot of tannin interference, but it could stand to lose some of that oak on the tail end. On day 2, it holds up quite nicely and does integrate the oak a bit—so I think one could easily enjoy now or give it a few years.
1996 Woodward Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon Artist Series Canoe Ridge Vineyard Washington. This 3-bottle vertical was compliments of Adam and offered a great opportunity to get a feel for the Woodward Canyon Artist Series style. This one is still a very dark, opaque color. It features cool, refined black fruit on the nose, with some sultry smoke and grilled green pepper adding some complexity. In the mouth, it approaches full body, with a slightly chewy edge at times. It delivers tons of rich flavor intensity, and the plum fruit and dark chocolate flavors still feel pretty youthful. For all that, the tannins feel well-resolved--and that lends the wine an appealing drinkability despite some of the denser chunky elements.
1997 Woodward Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon Artist Series Washington. This wine has a far sexier nose than the ’96—with aromas of creosote, graphite, black raspberry compote and spicy jalapeno. There is a similar profile on the palate, with oily smoke notes married to sweet blackberry and currant jam. It shows more glycerin feel than the ’96, but manages to feel dry-edged due to the serious, crisp-toned tannins. There are times it shows its age, but for the most part it still feels youthful and vigorous. This was my favorite of the three.
1998 Woodward Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon Artist Series Washington. This wine takes a while to open up aromatically, but once it finds its footing, it really delivers lovely notes of deep incense, hickory smoke, creosote, tomato plant and cassis. It is the chewiest of the three wines in the mouth and definitely the most tannic. The red fruit profile is warmer all around, with an enveloping feel accented by a fine spiciness. Of the three, this one needs the most time in the cellar.
1998 Woodward Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon Dedication Series Walla Walla Valley. Again, this Woodward Canyon has a lot going on aromatically—though this one tends to show more earth and forest greenery notes to go with molten chocolate, mocha paste and tar scents. It may be a bit less ripe all around than any of the Artist Series wines, but is undeniably nice in its own right. In the mouth, it is a bit finer, silkier and lighter-bodied than the Artist Series wines, but manages to show seamlessly on an open-knit framework featuring flavors of melted caramel and mixed fruit. It seems to me to be the most immediately approachable of the four wines, with a sense of being light on its feet and finely delineated.
1987 Woodward Canyon Charbonneau Walla Walla County. This is a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon and 47% Merlot. This is showing a bit of browning at the rim and is generally a smoky garnet color. My first thought upon bringing the wine up to my nose was how much this immediately reminded me of an aged, complex bottle of classified Bordeaux—with aromas of dirt, gorgeously sweet lambic notes, persimmon, bridle leather, and rawhide shoestrings. In the mouth, it is finely balanced across the soft acids, fruit and structure—managing to hold its line through the entire voyage across the palate. It is not the deepest or even the most fanned-out of wines, but it shows no let up in terms of its purity, drive or delineation. The flavors are very pretty, with a sweet edge to the framboise and melted caramel notes. It begins to dry out a bit as the evening wears on, but overall the wine is drinking beautifully. This was my WOTN.
2001 Januik Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley. The nose here is dark, cool and fairly reserved relative to many of the wines this night—with notes of dark earth, dusty chalk, balsa wood and a faint whiff of white pepper. In the mouth, it hangs together nicely from entry to finish—with flavors of black cherry and chewy chocolate paste. It has a velvety edge and is more warmly engaging than on the nose. A structured backbone still shows through and makes the wine feel like it would be better with a bit more short-term cellaring. On the whole, I was hoping for a bit more, but there is nothing wrong with the wine—it just isn’t showing as much as I was hoping for at this stage.
2002 Andrew Will Sorella Columbia Valley. The bouquet of this wine shows aromas of cool graphite powder, blackberry, boysenberry, plum sauce, mace, volcanic earth and cloth band-aid. In the mouth, this is fairly big and rich, with a lot of crushed velvet tannin. For the first time tonight, the inside of my mouth and teeth feel coated with tannin and a sense of dry extract. Flavors of black raspberry, black cherry and chocolate paste are creamy, but I can’t get past the feeling of extract and fudgy tannin. The wine just feels ponderous and heavy to me right now--needing a good long rest in the cellar.
2003 Andrew Will Sorella Columbia Valley. This wine is a really inky purple color, but manages a relatively crisp aromatic profile of spiced plums, Christmas candles, dusty rubber, cool mint leaves and blackcurrants. In the mouth, this is decidedly fresher and much more lively all around than the 2002—with more lift and a crunchier acid profile to offset the voluptuous black and purple fruits. The wine shows no signs of heat and isn’t even particularly tannic—it is just young and energetic. It was definitely my favorite of the two Sorella vintages.
2005 Andrew Will Champoux Horse Heaven Hills. Aromatically, this is densely-layered with notes of black raspberry, iodine, fern, smoke, vinyl, tar, flower petal and black licorice extract popping out here and there. The wine is far too young at this point to enjoy drinking—showing a huge amount of chalky tannin right from the start and then just getting more and more tannic. There are some appealing hints of layers of blue fruit and spice, but this needs a whole lot more time.
The sweet wines:
2002 Lillypilly Noble Blend Riverina. Served from 375 ml. Notes of crunchy crème brulee topping, lemon custard, lime juice and raw brown sugar are found on the nose of this Aussie sticky. It has an easy sweetness to it in the mouth that for me grows a bit too sugary, but is fun and bright otherwise. Some tropical sweetness lends an interesting twist.
1983 Robert Mondavi Winery Sauvignon Blanc Botrytis Napa Valley. The color of this wine is a sort of cross between faded orange and toffee brown. Aromatically, it features scents of crunchy-hard caramel, dark toffee and citrus-kissed honey. It is like pure liquid caramel in the mouth, with added notes of brown sugar and lime pith. It is very sweet, but manages to balance that with tingly acidity. There is a density and limpid weight that piles onto the heavy sweetness, but overall this has a feeling of liveliness to it that belies the age of the wine.
1976 Moulin Touchais Anjou. At this point of the evening, Ed was thankfully drunk enough that with some egging on by Tyler and me he was sufficiently eager to raid his cellar—emerging with this gem. I’ve owned one bottle of this and enjoyed it immensely a few years back at a Clos Rougeard tasting. That bottle had some oxidation and a big hit of VA that never really went away but otherwise managed to be ethereally complex and delicious. I adored it, but didn’t really expect to come across another bottle. Lo and behold, Ed has like 4 of these. First off, this is a pristine bottle. It shows absolutely none of the flaws of that previous bottle and has a fantastic sense of freshness and youth to it. It has a fluorescent gold and green pea color to it that is really unique. The nose changes and evolves for some time before settling into notes of wooly lanolin, lemon rind, beeswax, cut flower stems and warm stone. In the mouth, it features flavors of hardened caramel, sugar cane and all kinds of waxy yellow fruits. It displays fantastic balance and a real feel of restraint on the sweetness levels. Over the few hours we had with the wine, it never tailed off—indeed it grew and grew in confidence and stature—fleshing out and gaining depth all the while. It is medium-bodied, fleshy and at times a bit sticky—though again never overly-sweet. The previous bottle that was much more advanced than this might have showed more overall complexity, but this clearly much better bottle illustrates that well-stored bottles of this are probably just starting to come into their own.
It was pretty late when I finally headed out the door. Ed was as always a great and gracious host and the wines everyone brought were great. I discovered a newfound respect for these Washington wineries and will be seeking out a few of these producers to cellar.
-Michael
