Back at the end of May, Zach had a few of us over for some poker and pizza on a Friday night. Everyone brought a bottle and Zach provided plenty of extras.
2007 Jean-Marc Burgaud Morgon Cote du Py Vieilles Vignes. The nose of this wine is shy and tight right now, with gentle strawberry, fern, ash and earth aromas that are fairly pretty but certainly restrained. I find it to again be tight and youthful on the palate, with a pinched feeling where everything is being played very close to the vest. Taut, drying tannins and a crisp acidic edge frame finely-honed red fruit that seems to be showing just a fraction of its future potential. I would wait at least 2 years before trying this again.
2006 Ben Glaetzer Shiraz Grenache Wallace Barossa Valley. The nose on this wine is young and right out there with a ton of pure kirsch and crushed raspberry fruit. However, there are also some dark smoke notes around the edges and, more importantly, an annoying dusty rubber smell that I can’t help but wish would go away--as it gets in the way of the purity more than adding any sense of complexity. In the mouth, it is back to very open and fruity on the entry, though it turns more structured in the middle and back of the palate in spite of a tart mouth-puckering acidity. It does have a very smooth texture throughout the mouth, though, and the big tannins are pretty well-polished already. It lacks for nuance right now, though, and could use a few years to bring the promising raw material together.
2005 Epsilon Shiraz Barossa Valley. This is a much more rough-hewn, muscular and brawny effort that features big aromas of black currant, patent leather, dark tire tread and black lava rocks. Thankfully, it tastes better than it smells--with a nice smooth and cohesive feel to the rich dark fruit packaged in a full-bodied frame. It is a low acid wine, enhancing the bodacious body and texture. Some spicy wood and jalapeno flavoring come in to add accent to the dark fruit on the nice finish. I’m not sure that the nose can ever catch up to the palate here, but if it does, I would be a much bigger fan of the wine.
1973 Chateau Pape Clement Pessac-Leognan. Once Peter arrived and Andy delivered him a few bottles of this wine from the recent Skinner auction, in went the corkscrew and out came the cork. Sadly, this bottle was not the equal of the one Andy and I had enjoyed a few nights earlier, but variation is certainly to be expected at this point in the wine’s life. First off, this bottle smells a bit caramelized from oxidation, but it manages to marry that to aromas of horsehide, jalapeno, chocolate and dusty earth in a decent mélange. Like the other bottle, it is lighter-bodied, but not really overly-delicate or in danger of fading in the glass. This one features some bright-toned red fruit, caramel, ash and bell pepper flavors and an unfortunate touch of sharp alcohol poking through at times. Overall, it is more advanced, less fresh and further down the slope than the previous bottle, but if one keeps expectations reasonable, it is still a fun old claret to enjoy with friends.
2000 Robert Mondavi Winery Merlot Stags Leap District. The nose of cedar dust, cassis, musky incense, fruitcake and eucalyptus is young and a bit much, but at the very least affords a good deal of fun. In the mouth, though, this is showing way too much wood in all aspects. The appealing fruit is rounded and smooth with some zippy spices, but overall the wine is suffering from too much oak and too much alcoholic heat showing through right now. That fruity exuberance is hidden by this treatment, and only time will tell if that all works out for it somehow.
1987 Beaulieu Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford. I am not sure if I was alone in this, but I thought I detected some chlorine taint in the nose of this wine early on. Still, the wine pushes ahead with other aromas of mixed blue and purple berries, chalk and dusty earth. However, it seems to fade in and out a bit in an uneven fashion--making me think the wine has some taint it is trying to deal with. In any event, the wine features a lot of sour cherry flavor in the mouth, with drying and mouth-puckering acidity ever-present. I just find it too astringent and dusty at this point. While it could be flaws at work, I think this is just tired.
2005 Edmunds St. John Syrah Wylie-Fenaughty El Dorado County. This one features a wide-open bouquet of brambly, briery, rugged berry fruit, grape stems and fallen branches sitting atop a streak of really unappealing industrialized rubber. I really don’t like it at all. In the mouth, the dark, funky, incense-tinged fruit is pure and intensified by supporting dark chocolate flavors. It manages to avoid being too full-bodied and in fact really displays a sense of knowing how to achieve perfect balance to all of its traits. That is impressive, but I just don’t personally like the profile of the wine.
1998 Chateau Larmande St. Emilion. This wine has a nice, pretty nose of sweet cherry compote balanced well by notes of rawhide tassels, forest underbrush, cinnamon, and rich milk chocolate. In the mouth, this wine is still pretty darned youthful, with a plethora of saliva-sucking tannin. Otherwise, though, it is smooth and velvety-textured, with full, cylindrical fruit filling the mouth, especially through the expansive mid-palate. But those tannins come back on the finish and are just too heavy right now. Give this one another 2 to 4 years before trying again. One of my four favorite wines on the night.
1992 Domenico Clerico Langhe Arte. The color of this wine is slightly faded, but it still appears plenty healthy. And it is. The nose is really interesting—offering up a cornucopia of scents like pungent dried roses, red currants, brambly mixed berries, ash, saddle leather, dry forest floor and musky perfume. In the mouth, it still has plenty of both acidic and tannic structure, with sharp red currant and strawberry fruit carried along by a silky texture. The tannins are still kicking a bit and I think this could hang around for a while, though it is not going to improve. A really interesting wine and in my top three wines of the night.
2005 Dain Wines Syrah Sojourn Las Madres Vineyard Carneros. I’m not sure what it was with my palate on this night, but I just could not find a Syrah that appealed to me for some reason. This one features an inky, corpulent nose of vulcanized rubber, white pepper, tomato leaf and both black currant and black berry fruit. The savory notes are a constant, while the darker fruit turns a bit toward the red and sexy side later in the evening. Either way, though, it just isn’t my cup of tea. In the mouth, this wine is absolutely intense, rich, thick and chewy, with a much-needed acidic off-set saving the day a bit. This is heady, cocktail style stuff that is pleasant enough in terms of the fruit, but just too obvious right now.
1999 Joao Portugal Ramos Vinho Regional Alentejano Marques de Borba Reserva. CORKED.
1997 Seavey Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. This wine has a smooth, polished and classy nose that slowly unfolds and feathers in ever-more-interesting notes as it goes. Aromas of pretty melted milk chocolate, worn leather moccasin, smoke and fuzzy cassis are richly enveloping and nicely engaging. Perhaps as expected, the wine is still young and tannic in the mouth, which is obvious right from the get-go. There is a good deal of bright, yet sticky mixed fruit flavors that give the wine a lot of stuffing, but there are also the tannins to contend with. The fruit has a lot of character that shines through no matter what, though, and despite the struggles this puts up, it gets better and better and I find myself liking it more and more. I would just continue to let it rest a while longer if I owned any of it. Definitely a top three wine for me.
2006 Palazzo Red Wine Napa Valley. This wine opens up with aromas of spiced blackberries, currants, licorice, tea leaves and some leafy greens. Later, some higher-toned black raspberry-tinged aromas come in, but the wine begins to give off a lot of alcohol fumes—burning the nostrils in a big way. On the palate, this is just brutally tough, hugely sticky and totally mouth-punishing right now. It shows a massive amount of fruit and a lot of sappy texture, but comes across as a fruit and oak bomb to me. Whatever this will become in the future, it is lost on me right now.
2002 Snowden Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. The final wine of the night has a very attractive nose of classy black currants, dark earth and sexy incense that is easy and engaging. This wine really fills all the crevices of the mouth with flavor, but in a very nice way with fine balance and pleasing structure. It has both a sweet black fruit and a sexy savory blend going on that really works well in a yin-yang sort of way. It has a very lasting, persistent presence on the palate, ending long and smooth and mouth-watering. Fine tannins do sneak in late to start coating the teeth a bit, but the wine works no matter what. It gives plenty of sexy pleasure right now and should last a good while longer at this level. Among my favorites of the night.
-Michael
