Wines blind 2/2/2012

Battery Park City
Tasted Thursday, February 2, 2012 by Matt Neel with 533 views

Introduction

Wines and gourmet nibbles chez JK/KK. Our hosts' tremendous generosity is well appreciated -- they provided all foods and all wines, the latter wrapped up tight in foil for privacy. Little Jacob provided quite a bit of audio accompaniment and Zooie snoozed then smiled; good stuff. There was also a 2001 Willi Schaefer Gracher Domprost Riesling Spatlese blind, but I didn't get in on this what with my need for some rum to re-color my work-a-day blues.

Flight 1 (6 Notes)

  • 1996 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses

    France, Champagne

    Tasted double blind. The color of urine, deep gold with a hint of orange. Frizzed on pour. Huge, gigantic roasty-toasty nose of chestnuts on the roast with a background hint of pink bubblegum. Big, frizzy flavors of moderately oxidized trebbiano (think old Emidio Pepe but a bit less mineral and oxidized), a little sour, and not very complex. Good weight and medium finish. This doesn't have the delicacy or the filigreed texture I expect from top Champagne, but the nose is really magnificent. This really is a Goethean wine. Wickedly dry. The last bits of my glass were full of big tobacco on nose, cigars not ashes. I thought this wine was domestic U.S.A. due to its rusticity.

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  • 1996 Domaine Joseph Roty Charmes-Chambertin Très Vieilles Vignes

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

    Tasted double blind. Substantially bricked but the core is deep, black blood. Very lush, huge nose, like walking into a florist's shop, loads of cocoa, tar, stones, concrete dust, minerality, iron/blood; now some bacon fat. All strong notes leading me to think Syrah; also a hint of white pit fruit on the nose -- viognier? The palate is much less fancy; full bodied with flavors also in the tar, blood, black fruits and violets territory like on the nose. a little closed, tannic, and short-ish, but it might simply be closed down still. Very challenging wine blind. I liked this wine very much as a Côte-Rôtie, rather less as Burgundy. Perhaps a "Côte Roty..."

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  • 1986 Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Bello

    USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains

    Tasted double blind. Bricked blood. Huge, herbal nose, massive chalk, asparagus, etc. California Cabernet, I'm sure, at least Cabernet Sauvignon. Floral, fat, gigantic, epic nose -- A++ on the nose, wow! Round, soft, yet still structured on palate; quite dry. Plum, cocoa. Now estuarine salinity on nose. Lip-smacking length brings you back for more; not at all big, not at all sweet. My guess is this is an '82 Ridge Monte Bello (though Seth and I did discuss, at length, the possibility of Silver Oak). Really, really splendid wine, spectacular on every level. Despite not being red Burgundy or old Piedmont, my favorite wine thus far this new year. A+ with a star and some bells...

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  • 1983 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

    Tasted double blind. Bricked blood. Nose of fertilizer (Nebbiolo?), oxidized, garden dirt, coffee, leather; everyone else got horse piss, which I understand, but my brain interpreted it differently as leathery goodness. Pretty stinky! Palate 100% Nebbiolo (ha! wrong), very tight and grippy, coffee, cherry, better than the nose. Medium body due to advanced maturity but still plenty of stuffing there, tart but pretty good length. Rustic. My guess was that this was a '93 Gattinara or maybe a Barbaresco, but it was extremely challenging blind.

    I am absolutely fine with saying that I liked this wine a hell of a lot more once I knew what it was -- that context helped immeasurably. This didn't get more than an hour open, and I really think it probably needed a full day of slow-O; I think it was cramped from the bottle, i.e. closed but not closed in the evolutionary sense. I have had a few of these for 20+ years and last had one in ~2005 and it showed much rounder and richer -- but with plenty of air and provenance I know well.

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  • 2001 Il Poggione (Proprietá Franceschi) Brunello di Montalcino

    Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino

    Tasted double blind. Bricked black, some blood. Nose very new-world, chocolate covered liqueur-macerated cherries. Plus oak to the oak. Extremely hot. Ultra ripe black cherry palate, plenty of tannin, and a grumpy finish that was cut off at the bar an hour before closing. My guess is '95 Aussie GSM. I didn't like this even a little bit, and on reveal I wondered if it might not be a bum bottle as I would have expected much, much more from this.

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  • 2001 Müller-Catoir Mußbacher Eselshaut Rieslaner Trockenbeerenauslese

    Germany, Pfalz

    Gold. Nose smells exactly like my mom's strawberry freezer jam which is about as high a compliment as I could give. Wow, exactly. Now: steel, smoke, dangerous metals. Holy cow... Palate dense, strawberry, some raspberry, too. Crucial, magnificent, huge palate -- but ready, too, in my book. Stellar, tangy, mouthwatering length. This wine could spark a religion: it is of virginal purity but divinely impregnated with character and flavor. Cripes! Enjoy it now! Where's it gonna go? How could it really get or be any better? Drink this damn wine! Epic. A+

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