by Dale Williams » Sun Jan 21, 2018 12:01 pm
We took the dog with us over the hill to friends’ place for dinner. Appetizers were deviled eggs and an eggplant caponata, with the NV Veuve-Cliquot Brut Champagne. Rounder style, fairly high dosage, but nice bead and mousse, good finish, unremarkable but to me better than in the years LMVH really exploded production. B
Dinner was brisket with vegetables, mashed potatoes, broccoli , and kale salad
2013 Edmunds St John North Canyon Syrah
Young but quite tasty. Black cherry and wild berries, a ferric mineral note, just a hint of roast meat. Flowers and a little citrus on nose. Some tannic structure, but this is midbodied and really quite elegant for CA Syrah. This seems less burly than say the Durrells of old, but I think it will age just as well. B+ for drinking now, look forward to drinking an A wine in future.
2016 Clos des Roilette Fleurie
Floral, red fruited, good herbiness, fun. B+/B
Friday I had some chicken sausage and sauteed arugula, and opened the 2004 Donnhoff Riesling. Yep, just the estate. Totally alive, sweet tropical and peach flavors, a little gingery note. I don’t think this has really developed any complexity, it’s just a little softer and rounder than bottles I remember from 10 years ago, but happy to have a couple more (basically free as I was bidding based on other Donnhoffs in lot). B
Then I went to Dave’s for meeting of local (non-serious) wine group. Theme was Wines from Between 30 & 45 parallels (north). Which is pretty broad- All of US, Spain, Greece, 95% of Italy, plus south of France.
There was an off theme unblind wine while we gathered. 2014 Les Feneteaux (Bordeaux). Plum, vanilla, rather hard tannins, midbodied. B-/C+
Dave had a nice assortment of sausage, cheese, etc while we had the blind wines
#1 Red fruited, smooth, medium acids, my initial guess was Chianti. Funnily, right before we started while looking at map I had said “we should do Greece sometime.” 2016 Red on Black Agiorgitiko B
#2 Mine, so no guesses. Hint of spritz, black raspberry fruit, fresh young Mencia. 2014 Pradio (Ribeira Sacra). B/B+
#3- light, red and black berries, a nice earthy/leathery note. pleasant enough - Cotes du Rhone? 2014 Recanati Shiraz (Galilee). B
#4- ripe, low acid, jammy fruits, my guess (since northern hemisphere) was hot vintage CdP. Most expensive wine of night, my least favorite. 2015 L’Adventure “Chloe” (Paso Robles) C+
#5- Someone got CS immediately, but I thought CA. Black berry and currant, some overt vanilla, medium. (I missed vintage on this)Gilgal Cabernet Sauvignon (Galilee) B
#6- even oakier, some loved, this is sweet and too woody for me. 2016 Dalton Cabernet Sauvignon B-/C+
#7 Red cherry, herbs, green tea leaves, good acids. Lightest wine of the night, quite fresh. 2015 Heart and Hand Pinot Noir(Fingers Lake). B+/B
Who’d thunk we’d have 3 Israeli wines, and my WOTN would be NY?
Fun.
Saturday we went to Riverdale to join some marchers for a post-march dinner. I carried some charcuterie as well as 2 kinds of sous vide cocktail- parsley/shallot shrimp with a traditional horseradish dip, and lemongrass shrimp with a Thai (fish sauce, sambal olek, lime) sauce.
NV Lamarca Prosecco- sweet short simple, just as I remembered C+
2012 Taittinger Brut Champagne
Young, fresh, apples chalk and brioche. B+
Main was short ribs and porcini over polenta, with a nice salad.
1997 Felsina Fontalloro
While ‘97 is (to me) an overrated vintage in Tuscany, there are still some good/great wines. Beautiful mature Sangiovese, black cherry and dried cherry, a little saddle leather and dried flowers, resolved tannins, good acid, good finish. I’d drink up soon, but quite enjoyable. B+/A-
2015 Menage a Trois red
Sweet and jammy, like eating the filling from a fruit pastry. C/C+
Good night
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.