Notes from my monthy tasting lunch.
1999 Pol Roger Rose – a long time member of our group had passed on this week and so there was much conversation reminiscing about him, and this wine was specifically brought to toast the departed. The wine was a soft apricot colour (thus preserving the reputation of the person who bought it as never having brought a white wine). Excellent fine mousse was a good sign of a French wine even before I tasted it, when I found a yeastiness in the mouth, the wine seemingly quite soft, and yet finishing with a good shot of refreshing acidity. Nice toastiness in the nose, too.
2002 Ch. de Chorey Pernand Vergelesses Les Combottes – creamy oaky nose, showing some colour and lacking acidity, finishing with just a barely perceptible hint of oxidation. Pleasant wine but would have been better with a bit more acidity t alleviate the near flabbiness in the middle.
2005 Ambullneo Vineyard Chardonnay ‘Big Paw’ (Santa Maria) – new one on me (and of course on the spell checker which gamely suggested ‘abalone might be what I really wanted). Nice sweet fruit nose, and the fruit became apparent as peach in the mouth, right near the end of a nice long middle. Despite an oily mouth feel, the wine had a long clean finish, and some interesting petrolly notes were found in the nose, making ones thought head for something with a bit of Reisling. Glad to make the acquaintance of this one.
2003 Niellon Chassagne Montrachet Les Chaumees – clean lemon nose with a wet stone thing going, rich and smooth on palate, with good length, but it was a bit soft and a bit warm in the nose.
At this point we (finally, one taster was heard to say) switched over to red wine.
1987 Lake’s Folly Cabernet – this was ithout doubt the best ringer I have ever tasted from Oz – no way to pick this out as anything but a well made cabernet and then start wondering if it was a Bordeaux, or…. The colour heralded maturity, the nose called out to France, and the wine was sweet, smooth and long. Yum.
I was up next and had opted to bring a pair of wines to see if the crew could make out what they were. They had a lot of commonality – same vintage, encepagement (a typical Bordeaux blend of cab, cab franc, merlot and Malbec), region, winemaker - pretty much everything except winery. They were:
1985 Arrowood Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon – sourced also 90% from the Alexander Valley, this wine was the very first made by Dick Arrowood under his new winery name, when he was starting up the winery (it opened its doors a couple of years later) but when he was still winemaker at St. Jean. I visited both when I was down racing cars the year they released both wines and as I knew him from St. Jean, picked up a few bottles of his inaugural vintage as an independent. The wines showed startlingly different. While both wines showed excellent colour, the nose on this one was very ripe and leathery, although the wine was fairly well balanced on palate with some remaining tannins and some fairly intense flavours. I found it a bit tiring to the palate compared to the next wine, but nonetheless enjoyed it.
1985 Ch. St. Jean Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon – I used to stop in at the winery on the way home from Laguna Seca and see what the latest great Chad or Riesling was (I still have a couple of splits of the astounding 1978 Robert Young TBA, now almost an impenetrable brown in colour, yet unoxidized and delicious). In those days they showcased their whites and hardly even admitted that they made any red wine – I don’t know if they sold anywhere else but the winery in those days, but if they did, the reds never made it far from home. The wines were huge monsters when tasted young and I laid a few away as an experiment. This wine had a more muted almost French nose, good stuffing, still significant tannins and a lengthy sweet finish. I preferred this one, but enjoyed both. I expect this was the predecessor to the popular Cinq Cepages.
1970 Clos Rene – I forgive you if the name of this Pomerol didn’t immediately mean something to you, I have only ever tasted a couple, and a long time ago. Sweet nose with elements of iron and mineral, typical mature Bordeaux pale colour, still enough fruit to carry it off and a juicy acidity that brightened it . Always interesting to see what you get with these older wines.
2000 Dom. du Pegau Cuvee Reservee – chosen in remembrance of the departed, rather than with any thought of the wine being anywhere near ready. Killer CNduP with a pepper and cough syrup nose, still too astringent and tannic to really show at best, but something to watch over the years. I won’t be opening any of my pathetically small stash any time soon.
2000 Quinta do Vallado Reserva – this wine from the Douro was a nice surprise. It was still young and almost purple, big body and powerful dark presence in the mouth, yet friendly and drinkable. Very nice, and classy.
1990 Quinta do Vesuvio – I think this may be the first vintage made of this Port. The colour was actually fairly pale, with a hot nse, and the wine drinks very well now. belying predictions on release that it would need a lot of time (19 years isn’t a lot of time as these things go). Medium sweet, nice long finish.
2003 Ch. Lafaurie Peyraguey – wow! Fair bit of colour considering its youth, a lemons and almonds sort of nose, and very sweet in the mouth with a very long finish. Great as dessert!