Most of the group got together last night to sample a wide range of wines with a focus on several from Edmunds St. John. Needless to say the ESJs did not disappoint. I also managed to make ten wines out of 9 bottles.
1. 2005 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet Vieilles Vignes Clos des Briords: Bright lemon and other citrus peel aromas. Bracing and refreshing while also being medium bodied (richer than typical Muscadet). Delicious stuff with a very peppery finish.
2. 2005 Edmunds St. John Shell & Bone White Wine (Paso Robles): Peach and flowers. Very pretty on the nose. Rich & full bodied on the palate with lots of fruit, and good balance. This opened up over the course of the evening. Excellent, and preferred by several members of the group over the Muscadet. (I thought both very fine, but then I’m a white wine fanatic…) Not trying to compare this to the Muscadet, just wanted to drink both.
3. 1999 Edmunds St. John Sangiovese Matagrano (Sierra Foothills): Bright cherry but also a sort of volatile, glue-like streak on the nose. Crisp cherry fruited palate with some dustiness, but something is not quite right with the acidity here. Seems like an off bottle. Judgment withheld on this wine.
4. 1998 Pride Mountain Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: Here began a bit of an experiment. This wine was from magnum. This was half of the magnum, decanted about 3 hours before serving. Lots of eucalyptus, dusty cassis and burnished wood. If I had not known the identity of the wine I would have guessed lots of Cab Franc in this. Lots of structure, but well balanced by the material.
5. 2003 Edmunds St. John Syrah Bassetti Vineyard (San Luis Obispo): Wine of the night. Hands down. This is all about structure right now, but it’s got all the material in reserve to handle it. Dark fruit, tar, earth, new leather and boatloads of ripe tannins. The guesses were all over the place, from the Northern Rhone (!) to California (!!) to one guess of young Sociando-Mallet (!?!). The common theme was that everyone liked it a lot. I will be stuffing my other bottles of this deep into the cellar and forgetting them for a long time. Consensus wine of the night for the group. Find it and buy it. This is great Syrah.
6. 1998 Pride Mountain Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: Here’s the other half of the magnum, which was decanted about 90 minutes before serving. Surprisingly this shows more advanced (well, not that surprising, as there was plenty of air in the bottle after decanting the 1st half) with better integration of the tannin and wood elements into the whole. Overall both halves of the magnum were very good (1998 was not so bad in all cases). No this was not a top flight Cal Cab, but it showed mature, very drinkable and with good balance. I was glad to have had it. Most people preferred the prior half of the mag, but I liked this better.
7. 2001 Edmunds St. John Rocks and Gravel (California): Sweet herbs, bright cherry and berry fruit and lots of appealing earthy and leathery aromas. Very well integrated and drinking ever so well right now. Just delicious, and a screaming value at the $15 I paid for it.
8. 2001 Château de Saint-Cosme Gigondas: Dark berry liqueur with a swizzle stick of rosemary. This is very young and showing almost none of what it’s got in reserve. There’s good balance here though, so future development will be positive.
9. 1999 Bosquet des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Classique: Warm earth, black fruit and leather. Finely balanced and crying out for a roasted leg of lamb. Very good, but I am getting very tired.
10. 1999 Domaine Chante Perdrix Châteauneuf-du-Pape: Whoa, this will wake you up. The most animale of the group, though that did calm down after some time in the glass to show more classic earthy, leathery character on top of warm, ripe berry fruit. I loved this, but it was controversial with the rest of the group. But that’s ok, as I got to keep the leftovers. Both this and the Bosquet des Papes are drinking well now, and I see no reason to age them any longer. Drink up while you wait for the 1998s and 2001s to come into their own.
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