WTN: Honeymoon wines & the Royals

Just returned from a three day mini-honeymoon to Kansas City; sadly could not get more time off of work now, but will take a longer trip in the spring. It just so happened to coincide with the last two games of the ALCS, so we got to cheer the Royals on and drink some wonderful wines. We had a chance to get tickets to the last game, but gave it up thinking we could eat and drink much better on our own than at the stadium, and still enjoy the game with a horde of local fans. Turns out, we made a good decision. As we were on our honeymoon, we were offered congratulatory toasts each place we went. The city was in such a celebratory mood, and we were delighted to join in. We tried a lot of fun wines, but a couple stood out.

1994 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia - Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja (10/15/2014)
So vibrant and lacking the oxidation that I have found to be the norm in the younger Lopez de Heredia I have tried. The fruit and oak dance in this wine - lush cherry pie notes with a floral tobacco throughout. Not dried cigar tobacco leaf, but flowering night scented tobacco plant. There is also a meat/blood/iron component to the finish that comes out more when paired with proscuitto, speck and coppa. Very aromatic and nicely structured - this 20 year old wine has a very long life ahead.

Posted from CellarTracker


A friend sent us a bottle of Champagne one night with dinner at Novel, a newer restaurant in KC, and one of Bon Appetit's latest top restaurants in the US. We enjoyed the Godmé Père et Fils Premier Cru Brut Réserve with everything we ate. It was bright, linear and mineral but it softened a bit as it warmed up. It was a lovely Champagne that I had not encountered before.

We had one epiphany that came with oysters that we were not expecting. We are always recommending Muscadet with oysters at the restaurant we work at, but we were drinking aperitifs (Pernod and Lillet Rosé) when our Wellfleet oysters arrived. Normally I like my raw oysters naked, because I like to revel in the brininess, but I tried a drop of Mignonette on one and then took a sip of Pernod and about fell out of my chair. There was something magical about the anise and vinegar meeting that I would never have expected to happen, and I consider myself pretty good at food and beverage pairing. I'm excited to try this on guests at the restaurant to see their reactions.

We had such a wonderful trip and are hoping this is indicative of many years of great food and wines to come!

First of all, congratulations!

I'm a big LdH fan, and I think the 1994s are marvelous.

Godme makes good wines (try the NV rose if you run across it),

Glad you made the most of your short time for honeymoon!

[Jenise]

Joy, congratulations to you and the new Mr. Lindholm ( )!

Re LdH, I have had various older LdH reds but not so many young ones, certainly haven't formed the opinion that younger ones tend toward oxidation. But just a week ago a friend opened a 2001: rather oxidized, too much so to my tastes to be truly enjoyable. But it's owner and another friend who honestly has the best palate I know did not find it oxidative or at least in a way that was intrusive. I could not understand.

First of all, congratulations!

I'm a big LdH fan, and I think the 1994s are marvelous.

Godme makes good wines (try the NV rose if you run across it),

Glad you made the most of your short time for honeymoon!

Thank you! I'll have to keep an eye out for that rosé.

Joy, congratulations to you and the new Mr. Lindholm ( )!

Actually it is a "Mrs.", but thank you!

Re LdH, I have had various older LdH reds but not so many young ones, certainly haven't formed the opinion that younger ones tend toward oxidation. But just a week ago a friend opened a 2001: rather oxidized, too much so to my tastes to be truly enjoyable. But it's owner and another friend who honestly has the best palate I know did not find it oxidative or at least in a way that was intrusive. I could not understand.

I have had 3 or 4 other LdH that are younger, both Crianza and Reserva, and all were noticeably oxidized, so I just assumed that was their style. I have heard the same from others who love their wines. So, I was quite surprised to find the 1994 so fresh and vibrant with no oxidation at all. Wonder if others have encountered this with LdH?

First of all, congratulations, Joy, and I wish you a lifetime of happiness with lots of excellent food and wine.

That is a fascination experience of a Pernod and rosé cocktail with oysters. Completely counter-intuitive for me, even more so than Carl von Schubert's suggestion of mature spätlese with oysters, which I still haven't tried. I love oysters but feared I was becoming allergic to them after becoming quite ill after some a year or two ago. I used a recent lunch at Cancale in Brittany to try oysters again and all went perfectly , including the much more conventional pairing with Muscadet.

Aaagh, you are so conservative Tim . You should try that Pernod trick when you next eat out and see the reaction you get from the local Normandy restaurant crowd!

[Jenise]

Joy, congratulations to you and the new Mr. Lindholm ( )!

Actually it is a "Mrs.", but thank you! .... Wonder if others have encountered this with LdH?

Then congratulations are even more in order, as marriage equality has been too long coming!

Re the wine, two things. 1) Back when I bought five bottles here in Washington, and shortly after I acquired them I tasted one that had come into town on a inner-distributer summer transfer of several cases from Los Angeles. It was the distributor's bottle, and we both found it oxidated. Alarmed, I opened one of mine, which had come from an earlier shipment and it was just fine. Wonderful in fact. I haven't had any other 01's, but if Cellartracker is any indication then me having experienced two oxidated bottles from two different sources out of the three I've had so far is highly unusual. Mine is the only note of the last 20 posted (I didn't read further) to mention the O word. And LdH tends to be a pretty geeky wine so it's not like these tasters wouldn't have noticed something like that (on the other hand, my friend didn't find it oxidative....) I don't know!

Congratulations on the wedding and honeymoon, Joy! I grew up in Lincoln, NE and my sister and her husband spent their honeymoon in Kansas City also. (She was teaching French and he was in Dental School at the University of Nebrarska and they were married on Dec. 28 and had to be back for school after the New Year.)

Thanks, all, for the well wishes! I am blessed to have a wife that loves wine as much as I do, so hopefully many, many more glorious bottles to come!