These wines were opened over the saddest two weeks of my life:
On April 2nd, my brother came over to keep me company while I watched over my dying husband who had eaten a good breakfast and lunch but refused dinner. Possibly, I understood, the beginning of the end. I opened this 2022 Morét-Brealynn Pinot Noir Lakeview Vineyard Russian River Valley pinot noir. If you don't know, young Moret was trained by, and just married, Adam Lee of Siduri fame. It's not profound, but bright and lively like Moret herself. She's getting a lot of great press about her wines.
A few days later, we were on vigil--Bob was going to be moved to Hospice House next morning if he survived the night. Friends came over in the afternoon with pizza to keep me company. I opened this 2010 Fattoria di Fèlsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Riserva Chianti Classico DOCG Sangiovese which under other circumstances would have had me swooning. As it was, I merely noted that it had the perfect tertiary tones of an even older Chianti.
Those friends left and my cabernet-loving brother took over. He brought yet more food so I grabbed this 2012 LaStella Cabernet Sauvignon La Sophia Okanagan Valley VQA out of the cellar. It was all blackberries and pine needles, which would make me suspect that American oak was involved though I wouldn't have expected anything but FO from this particular high-end OK winery. Some secondary nuances, no tertiary. We PnP'd but other bottles will reward further cellaring.
Time passed, and so did my husband.
The day of, friends pulled me over to their house for dinner. I wasn't hungry--felt like I never would be again--but nonetheless I grabbed this out of the cellar to take along because it was standing up on the counter and I was too numb with my broken heart to question it. Unfortunately I only remembered when I went to log this out of CT afterward that I'd been disappointed by a previous bottle, maybe a year and half earlier. I wouldn't have chosen it had I remembered it as risky, but as it is I was just un-impressed all over again with the 2013 Le Vieux Pin Syrah Cuvée Violette Okanagan Valley VQA. It's a winery I otherwise admire, but the fruit on this one's fading and it's a bit parchy. From their passive cellar my friends opened a 2017 Bouchard Pere & Fils Bourgogne blanc, which was also a bit tired. Just as well, not a day for rejoicing anyway.
I deliberately spent the next night on my own to mourn alone with my cat and begin the process of adapting to our changed circumstances. It was scary; I wrapped myself in thick blankets and drank tea. I had been surrounded by people and my own desperate need to hang onto life for many days and feared getting too used to that. As it is, I felt painfully vulnerable without Bob here to protect me and slept with some lights on.
The next day Gabe and Vicki dragged me away for lunch at a local distillery where friend Dan, a professional cheesemaker, was waiting with a Gerard Bertrands Picpoul already open. I don't think it was vintage dated, $33 off the wine list. Weirdly deep golden color for the grape even in the distillery's dim light, the result we surmised of being both extracted and older than any Picpoul we'd ever had. One of those "gee I didn't think you could do that" things, and while we regretted that it wasn't the fresh young thing we'd have preferred we actually enjoyed it.
That night other friends had me over for dinner and opened a 2012 MTR Productions Memory Found Walla Walla Valley Syrah. This wine is premium-level side hustle by Matt Reynvaan who makes the wines for his family's winery, Reynvaan, one of my favorites. It was decanted three hours earlier by my hosts and poured side by side with a younger Reynvaan. This was easily the sweeter, plusher and more full-bodied of the two wines since it's from a riper vintage. It showed massive blueberries which tempered the usual Rocks funk and a bucket of green olive notes out in front of silky tannins and a long, smooth finish. Then we got around to the 2017 Reynvaan Family Vineyards Syrah In the Rocks from Walla Walla Valley. Uncorked but not decanted, it was drier and more reticent than the other wine--until the dry-rubbed roasted ribs came to the table. Now it was the ITR's turn to shine, with expressive, old-school black cherry fruit, earth, green olives and white pepper with ample resonance. Very Northern Rhonish and still on its way up; outstanding. My hosts preferred the MTR, but this was easily my favorite of the two.
Sunday was spent watching Rory win The Masters with my friend John. He was making a paella and favors white wine over red, so I brought along a 2021 Muga Rioja Blanco, a wine with body and complexity that amazed for $17 and made it one of the greatest deck wines ever. I bought a case back then, only two bottles are left--great QPR then and now.
Yesterday, Monday, Hannah, a fellow member of my Dork group, came over to spend the afternoon and brought lunch. She opened a 2017 Künstler Hochheimer Kirchenstück Riesling Kabinett trocken. Nicely aged, good depth, lengthy finish and its dryness makes it work with our greek salad lunch, though riesling is otherwise not an intuitive match for briney flavors. Been awhile since I've had a Rheingau wine but a touching reminder of many great bottles of Gunderloch that Bob and I shared at Seattle's Wild Ginger in the long ago past. We'd fly down from Alaska where we lived at the time and head straight to the restaurant from the airport. We'd call ahead to ensure they had a bottle waiting, and they'd fire an order for Dungeness Crab in Burmese Curry the second we walked in. Good times.
And now it's today, Tuesday. Friends are making a wine pick-up-and-lunch run to Anacortes and dragging me along. My cellar, which peaked at almost 2200 bottles before Bob was diagnosed in 2020, is now nicely pared down to 1,111 bottles. Much as I love shopping for wine, knowing that my beloved Bob and I didn't have a future to look forward to together changed everything and I quit buying for the most part. I won't be shopping today either.
But I'll look.
