Tasted over a week ago:
1. Weingut Josefinengrund J.u.F.Reh Trittenheimer Apotheke Riesling Auslese (QmP; Am.Pr.Num. 3 529 150 5 77; 10%) Leiwen/Mosel 1976: Deep golden brown/amber color; beautiful cedary/pencilly orangey/honeyed some botrytis/peachy/apricotty very complex old German Auslese nose; fairly tart quite dry cedary/pencilly/apricotty/botrytis/peachy very complex flavor; very long/lingering bit tangy rather dry to off-dry quite rich/lush botrytis/apricotty/pencilly/cedary very complex finish; a beautiful example of an old Mosel Auslese w/ great complexity.
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2. Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese (A.P.Nr. 3 561 024-9-77; 10%; EA) Trier 1976: Deep golden brown/amber color; intense cedary/pencilly strong botrytis/apricotty/peachy slight herbal/Fall leaf pile very complex old Auslese nose; lightly tart/tangy rather cedary/pencilly/bit pungent intense old Auslese/botrytis/apricotty/peach compote quite dry beautiful complex flavor; very long/lingering lightly tart quite rich/lush bit tangy/metallic/herbal/decaying leaves quite dry strong botrytis/apricotty/peachy slight herbal/dried eaf very complex finish; a beautiful example of an old Mosel; a bit more intense & complex than the previous Auslese. $7.89 (Century W&S/Denver)
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3. Felton-Empire WhiteRiesling LateHrvst TepesquetVnyd/SantaBarbara (7 1/2%; RS: 15%; 100% botrytis infected; SaH: 32%; "Capacity to improve in the btl over next 3-5 yrs": May 1980) BillGibbs & LeoMcCloskey 1979: Dark brown/oloroso sherry color; very intense botrytis/apricotty/peach compote bit earthy rather complex huge botrytis nose; very tart quite sweet intense botrytis/apricotty/peachy very rich/lush beautiful complex flavor; very long/lingering very sweet fairly tart intense botrytis/peachy/apricotty slight cedary/earthy rather tangy very complex finish; a beautiful complex example of an old Calif TBA. $11.09/750 ml (Q)
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4. CaymusVnyds Calif Chard SpecSlctn (SaH: 31%; RS: 9%; 11.5%) S&B by CaymusVnyds/Rutherford 1976: Dark brown/oloroso sherry/almost PX-black color very intense botrytis/apricotty/peachy some earthy/cedary/herbal quite complex nose; bit soft slight tangy/metallic quite sweet very rich/lush slight cedary/pencilly intense botrytis/stwed apricots very complex flavor; very long/lingering intense botrytis/apricotty/peach compote lightly tart/metallic/tangy quite complex very sweet finish; no distinguishing character of Chard whatsoever; beautiful complex old botrytis TBA. $14.00 (ArcadiaWines/Scottsdale)
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. These wines came from the late BlairSwartz stash. Blair was a big fan of German wines and has a fair amount of his stash remaining.
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2. Felton-Empire: In the mid-'70's, LeoMcCloskey and Bill Gibbs purchased the old Chafee-Hall vnyd in the town of Felton. Mostly Cabernet, but also some old Riesling. Leo was the lab microbioligist at RidgeVnyds and did a lot of seminal scientific studies for them. Bill Gibbs was the marketing guy of the operation. Leo went on, after F-E, to found Enologix, a consulting firm w/ extensive software to tell winemakers how to make 100-pt wines, if you buy his full services. Ridge still uses Enologix (last I heard) to do some of their more extensive lab analysis work. Not sure whatever happened to BillGibbs.
In the late '70's, F-E also bought grapes from the original Tepesquet Vnyd that was planted by KenBrown. Then became Cambria and now owned by KennyVolk, I believe. The made several yrs of botrytis R and GWT that were well into the BA/TBA range and, if memory serves, some Chard.
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3. Caymus: This was a wine made by WenteBros from their ArroyoSeccoVnyd in Monterey. In '76, they had a very heavy set of botrytis in their Chard vnyd. They went ahead and made this dessert wine from Chard. But their marketing people had no idea how to sell a very sweet Chard, no matter how good the wine was. So they bulked it out, CharlieWagner bought it for a song, and bttld it up and moved it out the door at a very attractive price.
Tom
