Father’s Day dinner with my folks. The meal was pre-planned (Asian marinated, grilled pork tenderloin & Indian spiced cauliflower) but the wines were a bit of a hodge-podge. We had picked up a new (to us) sparkler the day before, and I offered several choices of red wine to my Dad & let him head nod the one he wanted.
We started off by finishing the 2000 Huet Vovray Petillant that we had opened the prior night. It was nuttier than on Saturday (no shock), but still quite good. The last bottle of 2000 is now gone. I am not sure how I will keep my hands off the 2002.
The new sparkler was N.V. Domaine Tissot Crémant du Jura, and we were all quite impressed. There’s lots of apple fruit, and quite a bit of richness, but also precision. The true test of any sparkling wine (or Riesling) is how much Laura likes it, and she had several glasses, so I think we’ll be getting more of this, especially with its $20 price tag.
We then got to the “Father’s Day bottle”, the 1997 Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon. I am not sure we could have done better with 100 tries. This wine is in a beautiful spot right now. The red and black fruit is still right there, but the tannins have mellowed, and the whole wine is just a seamless whole that kept getting better and better with each sip. By the time I reached my last glass the aromatics were pure heaven in a glass. I have no doubt my other bottle can last and even improve for many more years, but I really see no reason to wait, as it is so delicious now.
But we had not had enough wine, so I uncorked a bottle of the 2009 QPR champ, the 2007 Domaine La Garrigue Côtes du Rhône Cuvée Romaine. This Côtes du Rhône is about 99.7% of the way to being really good Chateauneuf du Pape at 1/4 to 1/3 the price. It’s lacking a bit of the earthiness and herb that I want to find in top flight Southern Rhones, but for $12 it delivers so much fruit and such great balance that I don’t really care. Fun stuff, and a case is not enough.