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Notes are in chronological order, with the latest at the top. Searching for notes on a particular wine? 1970 BORDEAUX. (March 19, 2000) When a friend calls, you gotta pitch in and do your duty. In this case, my duty was to taste a baker's dozen of 1970 Bordeaux. All were acquired by the same guy -- on release -- and very well stored. The vintage has received a lot of hype. But up until today, to be frank, I had very little opinion about it. I own none and have only tasted a little more than that. The few I’ve tasted in recent years haven’t been awfully profound, but they weren’t the heavy hitters of the vintage, and they may not have been stored all that well. Today was different. The storage was unimpeachable, big names were included and a splendid time was guaranteed for all. Wines were served blind and three different ringers were included. Here are my notes: FIRST FLIGHT.
SECOND FLIGHT:
THIRD FLIGHT:
FOURTH FLIGHT:
WITH DESSERT:
SEXY SPANIARDS. (February 26, 2000) Seeking refuge from overpriced California Cabs, we opened a few slightly less overpriced wines from Spain’s new sweet spots: . Deep, black, chewy stuff that still needs a couple of years to lose its tannins. One taster thought the wood too obtrusive tonight -- I didn’t. This is rich, meaty stuff that any California Cab lover ought to go for. Doesn’t approach the amazing heights of the 1994 Pesquera Janus, but very, very nice in its own right. **1994 Teofilo Reyes Tinto Consecho. I think this wine is made by the former winemaker for Pesquera. In any case, it’s beaut. Deep, dark and even more concentrated than the ‘94 Pesquera Riserva. Take everything I said about the above and add an exclamation point. WINE OF THE EVENING. We also opened a 1996 J. M. Fuentes Bellmunt de Priorat "Gran Clos" -- a wine that might have surpassed even the Reyes had it not been CORKED. I’ve had rotten luck in the last couple of weeks with the TCA demon. ITALY AGAIN? (February 17, 2000) I’m feeling like a scratched LP. Once again we line up Big New World Reds against a graceful Italian. And once again, well, here’s how the evening goes: . I’m a large fan of Philip Togni. Not too long ago, we opened a ‘91 Togni alongside a ‘90 Dominus and other delicacies, and most proclaimed Philip the winner. Reminded us of Latour. (When I told Mr. Togni, he scolded me, said the wine was too young and that I should have been drinking the ‘93, but that’s another note.) Anyhow, I’ve previously loved this vintage of Togni and thought it his finest of the decade. Tonight it’s purple-black, bold as all get out and so rich you could eat it with a spoon. Somehow, though, it isn’t quite perfect with the chicken breasts we’re eating. A big bell pepper note emerges and refuses to go away. Oh, we polish off the bottle, but it isn’t quite wine of the evening. *+1995 Guillam Spring Mountain District. If you’ve never heard of this producer before, join the club. I think my friends must have purchased the wine at cellar door. It’s a lovely wine in its own right, though overshadowed by the Togni. A smaller-scaled wine, with a slightly overripe character. And the winner of the flight is...**+1990 San Felice Brunello di Montalcino "Campgiovanni." A lighter, more elegant wine than either of the Spring Mountain cabs, but you know – when you drink it with a bite of the chicken, it wins! Aromas of cherry and cigarette. Some tannins to shed, but the fruit rolls right over it. Complex and irresistible. Seems like the better 1990 Brunellos, like the Bordeaux, are starting to shine. DRY RED OF THE EVENING. So that’s that, but wait, we’re not done. THE WHITES include: . That’s right, 1990! I personally lack the courage to cellar Mt. Edens this long, but a friend did and he made his point. This wine is positively singing, laden with truffles and minerals, tasting for all the world like a fine mature Meursault. **1997 Marc Colin St. Aubin "En Remilly." Okay, the Burgundians can still do it – even in St. Aubin. Brought out toward the end of the evening for the benefit of "I drink only white" Phylis, this one charms the socks off everyone. Steely fruit with a just-right dollop of oak and a pretty darned good finish. And the out-and-out winner? I have a new rule that sweet wines can’t take the crown – too easy – but the wine we can’t stop talking about is: . Warning: you’ve got to be in the mood for it. This wine, made from the Black Hamburg grape, is so flowery, so rose-scented, so golderned exotic that it can really shock you – or send you to heaven. Tonight it’s the latter. Seems to taste a little less sweet than it did on release, but I think this actually helps. You just get into the flavors, and are they ever amazing. I understand that many of the vines that produced this wine have been ripped up because of Pierce’s disease. I do hope that the Tognis are replanting. TOUGH OLD BIRD BEATS THE BIG STUFF. (February 12, 2000) If you’re holding 1982 Barolo, lucky you. . This tough old bird has become as tender as the juicy braised lamb shank I matched it to. Tarry and tannic right out of the bottle, but rapidly expands and shows a lot of charm. Cherries, flowers and cinnamon. Elegant and sexy as heck. Wows us all, even after tasting the giants listed below. *+1992 Rosemount Syrah Balmoral Estate. Once this also was a brooding hulk. Now it’s drinking beautifully. Still dark, thick and extracted, but showing a lot of blackberry fruit and some hints of mineral. **1995 Turley Zinfandel Duarte Vineyard. Chocolatey essence that probably matched with dessert better than with my entree. Beautiful stuff in a slightly overripe style that some might view as over the top. Me? Love the one you’re with. **+1994 Turley Zinfandel Moore "Earthquake" Vineyard. Hey, it’s coming around! Once this wine was showing some tannin, which led some to condemn it as unbalanced. Not so! While other 1994s are on the downslope, the Magnificent Moore is entering its prime. With air, it fans out into a fascinating spectrum of flavors -- black cherries, blackberries, blueberries, plus a little spice. Long finish. Lipsmacker! SWEET LAURENE. (February 11, 2000) Once again I’m mightily impressed by the efforts of Veronique Drouhin at Domaine Drouhin Oregon. I opened the **1996 Domaine Douhin Oregon Pinot Noir "Laurene" for a dinner of grilled salmon and immediately wished that I had purchased more than one bottle. Elegant aromas of black and red raspberry. Intense on the palate without making you feel like you’re eating Smuckers with a spoon. Racy, but not harsh and tart in the way of so many would-be racy wines. Of all the wines made on America’s West Coast, this may be the most "Burgundian" -- in the best sense of the word. So many try. So many fail. These guys go for the style and succeed. GOING, GOING...(January 30, 2000) I don’t want to re-start the argument about whether Zinfandel "ages." But friends, there’s just no question that at some point they lose their youthful charm. And I’m afraid this has happened at last to one of my all-time favorites, 1992 St. Francis Old Vines Zinfandel Sonoma County. Drinking this wine at release was like robbing the candy store. Now it’s more like looking through the shop-window. Sip it and you can still sense the raspberries, but it sure doesn't make you sit up and say "wow!" Once it did. Maybe if I hadn’t known how fantastic this was, I’d have loved it more tonight. PATIENCE. You don’t ever want to catch your Burgs on the downslope, so I’ve been sampling the smaller ‘93s lately. Looks like 1993 Jean-Luc Dubois Beaune-Bressandes Cuvee Unique Reserve will require just a little more patience. Deep ruby, it whispers of minerals and berries but never turns up the volume. There’s still a winge of tannin on the finish. Gets better when the food arrives, but I’m going to wait at least another couple of years before trying again. NAPA CAB QUANDRY. (January 23, 2000) I love ‘em. They taste good. Quality has never been better. But prices for Napa Valley Cabs are going to the moon. I mean, outtahere. Granted, they’ve been climbing steadily for the past 6-7 years. However, when $50 becomes the norm for the better ones, ouch. Last night we tasted a delicious new one. Really, really nice... This is from a new place up high on Mt. St. Helena. I visited the site a couple of years ago. Beautiful operation. Winemaker is the very talented Cathy Corison. The wine itself is almost black. You get a few strong whiffs of oak when you open the bottle, but they blow off in minutes, yielding to buckets of lush black fruit. Tannins poke out for about an hour, then fall back, and the flavors get chocolatey. All in all, the wine is both deep and well-balanced. Like it a lot. I wish I could say I’ll be looking for more, but at the price, I just can’t afford to. Alongside this beauty, we open a benchmark, ***1990 Chateau Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. This one cost less than $30 at release, though I grant you it was 6 years ago. It starts out more generous than the Long Meadow, then gets more tannic, then opens for business again. Has slightly purer flavors -- deeper too. Doesn’t blow its companion off the table, but let’s just say I’m happy to have a few of these in the cellar. Among the whites tonight is...
MURPHY-GOODE Cabernet Sauvignons have been a well-kept secret for a number of years. I’ve been a fan of their Brenda Block bottling in particular. So it was with some dismay that I saw the price on the *+1997 Murphy-Goode Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve "Brenda Block" had shot up to $40. What can you do except sigh? It’s happening everywhere. The wine in the bottle is pretty good, but something seems different to me in this vintage. The oak is kind of raunchy. Nurse and swirl it for a couple of hours and you still can’t get the coconut and dill flavors to dissipate. By night two, the oak finally knits with the wine, but in a Silver Oak kind of way. Is this a style switch? I wish I could go back to the prices -- and the flavors -- of previous years. HOW ARE YOUR ‘92s DOING? (January 23, 2000) Lately I’ve been opening a few bottles of 1992 California Cabernet, with mixed results. Giants like Araujo and Colgin, once lush with baby fat, now seem painfully closed. Clos Pegase Hommage is getting there, but probably needs another couple of years. Dominus, Forman, and Etude are showing well. And I just had a terrific experience with... ***1992 Newton Cabernet Sauvignon "Unfiltered." Gosh this is delicious right now! Still back-purple. Smells like buttered toast slathered with blackberry jam. Tastes really intense. Where are the tannins? Oh yeah, here they are on the finish, but it’s nothing to stop you. Lots of life ahead for this wine, but if you’ve got a few, why not pull a cork? Yum! CHAMPAGNE SHOO-IN. (January 13, 2000) Just when you thought you'd tasted every great bubbly, along comes one you never even heard of and shoots out the lights. Last night we opened **+Pierre Gimmonet et Fils Blanc de Blanc Brut "Cuis 1er Cru" and wound up fighting one another for the last few drops. This is one of the new grower-bottled bubblies from Terry Theise. and it offers a taste all its own. Yeasty, tangy, apple-tinged flavors. Zingy attack, full-bodied texture and ample fruit on the finish. Champagne with power -- and under $30. Watch out, Egly-Ouriet, at last you’ve got competition. PIZZA WINES (January 5, 2000). When you need cheering up badly, and you’re way too tired and drained to cook, here’s what to do:
It goes with almost any wine, as long as you hold the artichokes. Unlike more profound foods, it won’t kick up a fuss when you ask it to play second fiddle to the Grand Vin. And you can trot everything into the family room, plop your pizza down on the coffee table and consummate your wine-food marriage in front of a roaring fire. So that’s what we did. Two pizzas, four people, and two blessed bottles of: Juicy, lush and long. Bursting with blueberries, from the git-go, but it ain’t just baby-fat. As the evening wears on, the wine expands. Wowie. Close call compared to the next, but tonight it gets my nod for WINE OF THE EVENING. ***+1995 Araujo Cabernet Sauvignon Eisele Vineyard. Way different. Gritty tannins dominate for nearly an hour. Then, presto! The curtain parts and gorgeous Cabernet fruit takes center stage. Chocolate cherries, a hint of tobacco, olive and gosh is it long. Our guests’ choice for WINE OF THE EVENING. Just for fun, we also opened: . They say the grape rarely gets ripe in Bordeaux. This stuff from Sonoma, however, is fat and sweet. Blueberry-blackberry flavors. Some astringency that never quite goes away, but a distinctively enjoyable wine tonight. WEDDING PLONK (January 5, 2000). How many wedding receptions have you been to where the wines were better than the Diet Coke? But a miracle happened. Two of our favorite grape geeks hit it off, tied the knot -- and imagine the grin on my face at the subsequent party, when they served up a flight of classified growth Burgundies and top California Pinot Noirs. Blind, no less. In big balloon glasses. I contribute the following notes in the wildly optimistic hope that someday, somewhere, lightning may strike again:
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