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Dennis' summer tasting
Tasted July 7, 2007 by gorm with 1,203 views
Introduction
A friend and coworker of mine (Dennis aka Opusone) threw an amazing summer tasting yesterday. The program comprised a lunch and dinner tasting with more than 10 servings of food and 30 wines combined. Dennis served the 20 and the last 10 were blinders brought by the guests.
It was a fantastic day and night with marvellous food, good company, high spirits and some unforgettable wines...
Flight 1 - Flight 1 - 1996 Champagnes (2 notes)
White - Sparkling
1996 Moët & Chandon Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon
95 points
Light yellow. Bread, lemon and nutty aromas and flavors. Broad and round. Maybe a bit closed? A really classic and wonderful champagne. 95+.
White - Sparkling
1996 Taittinger Champagne Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut
97 points
Light yellow. Oh man, this is just a fantastic and amazing champagne! It's unbeliveably well-defined and razorsharp. High acid, high intensity, tons of minerals. Like a really big Puligny-Montrachet with delicate bubbles. This candidate for WOTN came really early in the program.
Flight 2 - Flight 2 - 1998 Rose Champagne (1 note)
Rosé - Sparkling
1998 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon
94 points
Very light and delicate rose. Nose is surprisingly intense and "dark" - red berries, asian spices, rye bread. Tastewise it is very elegant and light on its feet, lots of red grapefruit. Long. It has some difficulties following the 1996 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne, but it is really delicious and wonderfully complex . 94+.
Flight 3 - Flight 3 - Champagnes (2 notes)
White - Sparkling
1996 Philipponnat Champagne Brut Clos des Goisses
95 points
Another great 1996 champagne. Tons of sour dough, big intensity, dark berries. It's very open, a masculine powerhouse, yet with great minerality and gun powder. A first for me. Very nice indeed! 95-96.
White - Sparkling
1990 Gosset Champagne Célebris
94 points
More complex and sweeter, more developed, than the 1996 Clos de Goisses. At the same time it is less intense. A slight sherry note. Another very nice champagne in a more rustique style.
Flight 4 - Flight 4 - 1996 White Burgundies (2 notes)
White
1996 Verget Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume Vieilles Vignes
92 points
Nice intense yellow. Nose of intense yellow berries, sweet wood, gunpowder. It's straight, yet buttery. The nose is amazing. The taste however is all about lemon. With some time and air the lemon cools down a bit, but it stays dominating. Overall very nice even though the nose is considerably better than the taste. 92-93.
White
1996 Verget Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru En Remilly
91 points
Same bright yellow color. The nose is very shy, just hinting of cool yellow berries and some butter. The taste very delineated with lots of acid, but also a pleasing roundness, lots of minerals, sweet wood, toast. Very nice, but nose is too dull.
Flight 5 - Flight 5 - 1996 White Burgundies (2 notes)
White
1996 Maison Leroy Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières
93 points
Same bright yellow. Complex nose of toasted wood, butter, gunpowder. It's nice and elegant. The wood dominates a bit too much, but otherwise very good. BTW this is a Maison Leroy wine I think, the list of Domaine appellations and holdings can be seen at http://www.domaineleroy.com/ and Meursault Les Perrières is not one of them, or did I misunderstand something?
White
1996 Domaine François Mikulski Meursault 1er Cru Charmes
94 points
Light yellow. Nose of lots of toasted wood, gunpowder, sulphur. The relatively most mature so far, but all 1996's still seems frightfully young, probably due to the high acid. Chewy, delicate, sweet english licorice, some lemon in the aftertaste. Pretty impressive! 94-95.
Flight 6 - Flight 6 - More White Burgundies (3 notes)
White
1999 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes
flawed
Nose of dark roasted berries and roasted rye bread? Diesel? Mature riesling? Probably flawed...
White
2000 Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes
94 points
Light yellow. Interesting nose of exotic fruit, lychee, thai spices, sulphur. Spicy, exotic and in great balance, the yellow fruits and butter er kept in check by great minerality and this certain exotic something. Another delineated and intense great white burg.
White
2002 Au Bon Climat Chardonnay Mount Carmel
90 points
Light yellow. The nose is round and overly pleasing, some minerals, but mostly spicy and sweet curry and pineapple. Smells a lot like the ice cream "Københavnerstang" as somebody mentioned. It's floral, perfumed and has seen loads of wood. Almost seems artificial. Very "overseas" even though not on the very fat and buttery side.
Flight 7 - Flight 7 - 2001 Sauternes (1 note)
White - Sweet/Dessert
2001 Château Suduiraut
95 points
Dark yellow. Sweet and seducing nose of yellow and orange, mature and sweet, berries. Very fat, dominated by exotic spices and some warmth kept in balance by a good defining acid. The exotic spices and warmth made me guess for 2003 sauternes, but the acid and balance should have alerted me to 2001. Considering RPs rating and notes from other this might even be a little closed? Right now 3-4 points below Rieussec 2001. Very nice in all circumstances.
Flight 8 - Flight 8 - 1980 Leroy (1 note)
Red
1980 Maison Leroy Bonnes Mares
85 points
Light red with brown and watery edge. Nice mature nose of sweet tobacco, some sour red berries, orange peel and licorice. In the mouth not much besides acid. Nice nose, but only the skeleton remains. Still interesting to taste. 85?
Flight 9 - Flight 9 - 2001 Clos Mogador (1 note)
Red
2001 Clos Mogador Priorat
92 points
Dark densely colored. Nose of dark berries, sweet tobacco, sherry and tar. In the mouth there's more tar, it's dry and heavy, but a sleeping monster. Should be able to deliver more in the future. 92-93+.
Flight 10 - Flight 10 - Old Bordeaux (2 notes)
Red
1958 Château Cos d'Estournel
90 points
(Bottled by Knud Jørgensen, Hellerup, Denmark) Dark red/brown, brown rim. Very sweet, tobabby and some red berries. It's pleasing, round and nice. It peaked some time ago, but it is still drinking nicely. The nose was the best (again). 90-.
Red
1975 Château Cheval Blanc
91 points
Dark brown. Nose of mature dark berries, pibe tobacco, pineneedles. Tastes very nice with good sweetness in the fruit that actually does remain. Very interesting! 91-.
Flight 11 - Flight 11 - Big Bastards (2 notes)
Red
1998 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois
94 points
Dark and dense red. Nose of dense and sweet red and black berries and some spices and pepper. Full-bodied with lots of dark fruit, but also a very nice and balancing herbal quality that made me guess for Syrah from Tuscany. I've recently tasted this wine in vintages 2001, 2003 and 2005. While it is difficult not to recognize the extremely high quality I have found them too straight and modern. The older specimen seems to indicate that they do indeed become more interesting with age. 94-95+.
Red
2004 Colgin IX Estate
96 points
Dense and dark, almost black. Nose of extremely sweet and overwhelming blackcurrant, sweet craramel. In the mouth it is extremely intense, spicy, just a little bitter, port-like. Very long. Way way too young to drink, but yet already hints of interesting things to come: spices, licorice and more. Another candidate for WOTN. 96+.
Flight 12 - Flight 12 - 1996 Red Burgundies (2 notes)
Red
1996 Philippe Leclerc Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Combe aux Moines
90 points
Light red and brown, a bit muddy. Lots of tobacco and sour red berries on the nose together with some leather and vanilla. In the mouth there's raisiny sweetness, but also a somewhat unfriendly acid. I had this about a year ago with food where I remember it better. At this point it seems to emphasize together with the white burgs the issue with acid in 1996. 90-91.
Red
1996 Philippe Leclerc Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers
90 points
Red and brown with brick rim. Sour red berries on the nose. Sweet and intense, but also sour in the mouth. "Crushed cherrystones". Again balance is thrown off by a high level of acid.
Flight 13 - Flight 13 - 1999 Viader (1 note)
Red
1999 Viader
92 points
Dark dense red. Sweet and intense nose of dark berries. Sweet and seducing. Some cough medicine and licorice as well as herbal notes, but also warm and exotic. Some 2003 bordeaux reminiscence, but lacks some depth.
Flight 14 - Flight 14 - 1962 Mouton (1 note)
Red
1962 Château Mouton Rothschild
92 points
Dark red core, brick edge. Sweet leathery nose, red mature fruit, hedonistic pibe tobacco, milk chocolate with hazelnuts. Sweet and delicious! Some darjeeling tea leaves and dried dill. My guess was old left-bank Bordeaux. May not be in perfect condition, but you got to pay tribute to as wine as old as this and still being able to play on many angles...
Flight 15 - Flight 15 - 1990 Troplong Mondot (1 note)
Red
1990 Château Troplong Mondot
95 points
Dark red core. Nose of very dark and spicy red berries. In the mouth it is big, intense and just keeps coming. Looooong. It has some mature plum sweetness and dark chocolate, but the thing that really strikes you is it's almost peppery spicyness and the roasted character. 95+.
Flight 16 - Flight 16 - Even Bigger Bastards or How I Learned to Love The Syrah Bomb... (3 notes)
Red
2002 Vérité La Joie
94 points
Dark and dense red. Nose of very intense and dark black berries and sweet wood. In the mouth it is surprisinly light and airy. A great marriage of elegance and intensity seldom seen in Napa. But the next two wines in this set just made this one seem as a wimp. 94+.
Red
2003 Alban Vineyards Syrah Reva Alban Estate Vineyard
96 points
BLACK to the edge. The nose seems unreal - you are lost in a black hole of bitter black berries. Full-bodied, intensity like I've never exerienced before - who turned up the volume? This is the blackest, densest, most intense wine that I've tried, the "Big Bertha" of Syrahs, darker than the dark side of the force. It just manages to keep all those forces at bay and remain some sense of balance displaying some peppery and bitter spices, loads of roast and even some herbal dill-like elements. You have got to bow to this wine even if its bordering undrinkability. Did I mention that there something black and sinister about this wine? 96+.
Red
2004 L'Aventure Estate Cuvée
94 points
Dark and dense red to the rim. Black and sweet berries, intense and long, young, some smoke. Didn't really manage to focus on this after the Alban Reva Syrah 2003... 94+?
Flight 17 - Flight 17 - Mature Sauternes (2 notes)
White - Sweet/Dessert
1989 Château Doisy-Védrines
92 points
Dark yellow sherry-like color. Dark caramel, orange fruit, good acid to keep it light and balanced. Some spicyness. Very nice.
White - Sweet/Dessert
1990 Château Rabaud-Promis
89 points
Dark and sherry-like. Caramel, orange jam, some medicine. Spicy, a bit short and seems a little bit artificial.
Closing
The candidates for WOTN were "technically" speaking 1996 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne, 2004 Colgin Ix and 2003 Alban Reva Syrah and they were surely unforgettable. But points aside... the old gezeers from Bordeaux were just extraordinary fun to taste. I will never forget the 1962 Mouton or the 1975 Cheval Blanc, not to mention the 1958 Cos D'Estournel.
The learning of the night were - if its unbelievable big, fruity and spicy try to guess for Napa, not Spain, it may pay off in the end...
Once again, Dennis, thank you for this great experience.
/Gorm