Post your notes on your Christmas wines!

Here a chance to post your thoughts on wines selected for holiday drinking. I am keen to open a NV Brut from Iron Horse and a Picpoul de Pinet. OK, so nothing too high brow for me so lets here about your Burgundies, Loire reds, clarets and bubblies!

Happy Holidays.

I am not a huge Merlot fan and simply cannot remember the last one that I purchased. However it is Xmas pour time downtown and yesterday a kindly rep was pouring the 2014 Seven Falls Cellars Merlot from Wahluke Slope Washington. I had previously tasted at the recent Devines Best Bang for your Buck tasting 2 weeks ago.
Nice, full-bodied wine, ripe fruit with cherry and silky mulberry flavors. Very expressive nose..hint of oak and black fruits. Under $20 Cdn so an excellent buy and a bottle to put aside for when the in-laws visit.

Well, here is a very nice surprise...the 2007 Iron Horse Classic Vintage Brut. 75% PN, 25% Chardonnay. Holding up very well, orange, hint of red fruits, almonds. hint of spice on the lengthy finish. "Fine mousse..where did you find this" from across the table. Very memorable.

I am also posing the mainly French content of this on the France thread with some additional comments.

Christmas Eve dinner with boudins de noël and Brussels sprouts, Stilton cheese and apple based dessert followed by chocolates -

NV Louis Roederer Champagne Brut Premier - France, Champagne (12/24/2017)
Robust yet elegant bubbly with quite rich fruit, minerals and roundness. Paired well with boudin de noël. Very good.

2007 Domaine de l'Oratoire St Martin Côtes du Rhône Villages Cairanne Cuvée Prestige - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Villages Cairanne (12/24/2017)
This was a delicious Cairanne at its peak IMO. Full/medium bodied, harmonious, full of mature berry fruit and sprinkled with minerals, spice and a little leather and showing still fresh acidity and ripe backbone. Less spectacular but, for my palate, lovelier than most CndP. Good with boudin de noël and stood up to Stilton cheese. Very good.

2013 Mas Amiel Maury Vintage - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Roussillon, Maury (12/24/2017)
As always a fresh and vigorous port type wine, medium+ bodied full of bright raspberry tinged Grenache fruit, minerals, fresh acidity, gentle sweetness and backbone. Excellent with Stilton and chocolate dessert. Very good.


Christmas Day dinnerwith fish egg starters, foie gras, stuffed capon, assorted cheeses and buches de noël. Champagne with the starters was so popular that the Bollinger SC earmarked for the foie gras was aleady consumed (I didn’t even get a glass), so I hastily took out a pink which was not ideal -

NV Bonnaire Champagne Cuvée Prestige - France, Champagne (12/25/2017)
A lovely medium/light bodied Champagne with fine white fruit and biscuit aromas and flavours together with delicate minerals and acidity and fine bubble. Very good.

NV Tarlant Champagne Rosé Zéro Brut Nature - France, Champagne (12/25/2017)
A nice medium bodied pink bubbly full of fresh red fruit and minerals but lacking in richness and roundness to be ideal with foie gras. Might rate it higher with a different pairing. Good.

1999 Delas Frères Hermitage Marquise de la Tourette - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage (12/25/2017)
Rich and quite full bodied with round cherry tinged red fruit, good depth, some secondary signs of evolution such as a hint of cabbage on the nose, smooth texture, good balancing acidity and ripe structure. Very good.

1997 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage (12/25/2017)
Jaboulet in the 90s was notorious for bottle variation and my two bottles of this wine illustrate that. The previous bottle showed signs of premature demise but this one was close to my ideal for Hermitage. Just as rich and full bodied as the Hermitage from Delas served before it but infinitely fresher, more refined and more complex with a delicious fresh edge to its fruit, silky texture, mouth-watering acidity and fine structure and length. Excellent.

NV Rozès Porto Infanta Isabel 10 year - Portugal, Douro, Porto (12/25/2017)
This was circulating on the table as the same time as a Maury vintage from Mas Amiel, which showed greater freshness and more minerality but less generosity and smoothness of texture. A very good if somewhat robust tawny.

1989 Hugel Gewurztraminer Sélection de Grains Nobles - France, Alsace (12/25/2017)
This wine proved very popular round the table evoking "wow" type reactions but I confess to some disappointment which I relate to my not unqualified admiration for the grape. It was suave, sweet and not cloying with the usual combination of lychee, ginger and exotic spices. A little obvious and lacking in freshness and subtlety IMO but very good of its kind.

[Robin Garr]

My holiday feast consisted of Tamiflu and Ibuprofen, and the beverages du jour were gatorade and water. But the good news is that even though an immunization-resistant strain of this year's virulent flu felled me for a few days, my prior flu shot and my good doc's speed in getting Tamiflu into me seemed to turn it from a tiger into a mean, angry alley cat. I'm just about better now, although I wouldn't want to try anything strenuous, including geek-level food and drink, just yet.

Happily, though, we had enjoyed a holiday-level goodie a few days early so I could write it up as a recco in the pre-Christmas Wine Advisor. I think there's a glass or two left ...

E. Guigal 2013 Gigondas ($32.99)

Dark ruby color, with reddish-violet glints against the light. Pleasant, typical Southern Rhone aromas, raspberries and black plums and just a hint of stewed plums lead into a full, ripe flavor of plums and berries, adding a bold, distinct impression of freshly ground black pepper that comes up and fills both the nose and palate. Good fresh-fruit acidity provides balance, and tannic astringency becomes increasingly obvious in the long finish. This is a very good, balanced, table wine, on a continuum with Chateauneuf-du-Pape and made from a similar blend of 70% Grenache, 20% Syrah, and 10% Mourvèdre. It carries its 14.5% alcohol with grace. U.S. importer: Vintus LLC, Pleasantville, N.Y. (Dec. 16, 2017)

FOOD MATCH: This is a red-meat wine, perfect with steaks or roast beef. It made an extremely good match with a sample of the new Impossible Burger.

WHEN TO DRINK: It's good now, but the tannins would likely benefit from cellar time to evolve into something more complex. If you have good cellar conditions, try holding it until at least 2021.

VALUE:
At Wine-Searcher.com's $32 average retail (which matches my local price), it's a wine for a special occasion. It's a good one, though, and what special occasion is more appropriate than the winter holidays?

WEB LINK
Here's Guigal's Gigondas info sheet. Importer Vintus wines offers this useful fact sheet on E. Guigal 2013 Gigondas.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Find vendors and compare prices for E. Guigal Gigondas on Wine-Searcher.com.

For lots more wines from Gigondas, check out this Wine-Searcher info page and list of wines and vendors.

I opened Gruet NV Blanc de Noirs and De Vogue Musigne Vielles Vignes for Christmas.

-Paul W.

Some lovely wines there Tim. Maury...nice!

Not quite sure which wines to take to a local Christmas Day dinner but decided on a bubbly (2007 Iron Horse) and an entry-level Riesling.

2012 Unckrich Kallstadter Saumagen Riesling Kabinett, Pfalz.

9.5% alc, good nat cork, served a tad chilled. No petrol on the nose, hint of stone fruits, apple peach, mineral for sure but not too impressive.
Some rs here, with a zesty grapefruit finish. So-so acidity, pear, mineral, "needed a tad more character" was one comment. As usual, some thought too sweet!!! More on the palate than the nose, to be honest not sure where I found this? Have a nice day.

[Jenise]

1996 Boizel Champagne Joyau de France Champagne Blend
Good pop from the cork. Caramel notes hint at the age on nose and palate but there's no give-away in texture or color: golden, no browning, and it offers lasting bubbles. Nice, but there's nothing to gain by holding longer.

2014 Two Vintners Syrah Some Days are Stones Stoney Vine Vineyard Walla Walla Valley
Margot's. Fantastic Rocks funk with sweet raspberry fruit, fennel, tar and loads of white pepper. Very Northern Rhonish with great lift and definition from better than expected acidity (compared to most WA syrahs) and no obvious oak. I want more!

2012 Obelisco Estate Electrum Red Mountain Red Bordeaux Blend
Margot's. Opulent from concentrated black fruit and elegantly silky tannins on pure black and blue fruit. Modern, but not overly polished or 'interntional'. Great mouthfeel.

2015 Result of a Crush Christmas Cuvée Walla Walla Valley Syrah Blend, Syrah
Raspberry and tobacco with an almost savage green bell pepper streak that could use some time to calm down. Very good, but not for everyone.

2002 DeLille Cellars Harrison Hill Yakima Valley Red Bordeaux Blend
A great bottle. Youthful fruit, good spice on the midpalate, excellent finish. Good bottles in cool cellars should easily have another 5-10 years of interesting evolution ahead.

2004 Boudreaux Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Columbia Valley
Easily one of the best WA cabs I've ever had. Deeply traditional with notes of black cherry, tobacco, coffee and iron rust. Perfectly middle aged with superb secondary development; finish goes on forever. Overjoyed to have another bottle in the cellar.

2015 Selbach Piesporter Michelberg..ok but just that., .2016 Dr Frank Semi Dry riesling, Finger Lakes, NY..Nice wine with just enough fruit to go nicely with Chinese food..Not sure if this one is available in Bob P's locale or not..I think a Fox Run Riesling (Finger Lakes)posted on previously was more to my liking but it didn't sounds as tho Bob wd have access to Fox Run wines.

Oh yeah..Fox Run Cab Franc!!

Bob: If you can access Fox Run CF, you shd be able to get their rieslings

Yes but I do not like the store owner . Plus I have over 4 dozen already from Germany! Enough.