Good wines and good times with a visiting Mark Lipton.

Mark Lipton was in from Indiana and a hardy crew of Jay Miller, Cliff Rosenberg and Salil Benegal came out for the customary meet and greet. After many years of reading Mark's posts, it was nice to finally put the face to the name. The food was terrific, the wine was sublime and the wit was quick and rapid fire, the perfect recipe for a great evening.

• 2001 Famille Peillot Roussette du Bugey Montagnieu Cuvée Buster Altesse de Montagnieu

  France, Bugey, Roussette du Bugey Montagnieu

  Always nice to have a Cuvée Buster and I really liked this wine on release, but it went and got old on me. The structure has remained fresh, but the fruit has crossed too far into the oxidative realm for my tastes. It's zippy with strong nuttiness and hints of citrus, but the strong nut character with the high acidity just isn't doing it for me. B-.

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• 2009 Schloss Lieser Riesling Spätlese trocken

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Aromatically the wine is fine, showing high toned passion fruit, citrus and mineral aromas, but it's a con game as the palate is not much short of an acid bath with bitter pith. Intensely bitter and exceedingly dry. There's a reason why I don't like trockens and this is one of them. C+/C.

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• 2007 François Chidaine Vouvray Clos Baudoin

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray

  Bright and aromatic on the nose with lots of yellow and white. It's bone dry and big boned on the palate. I'd prefer a little more residual sugar to help balance out the stout structure. Pleasant quince, grapefruit pith, white flowers and dusty white gravel flavors in a very taut package. Solid B+.

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• 1998 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vineyard Flawed

  USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley

  Horribly corked.

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• 1993 Edmunds St. John Syrah

  USA, California

  A fun roller coaster ride here and giving much more pleasure than I think most folks expected out of '93 and a broad California appellation. The wine is intensely black olivey on the nose from the get go with bacon and spice and shows olive tapenade and light brambly fruits in a dry package that seems a little truncated on the finish. However, with about fifteen or more minutes of air the wine really blossomed with the raspberry fruit growing really sweet and intense. The finish evened out and the wine showed a lot of depth. Some time later the fruit shifted and the wine picked up a more piney and minty character with a more aggressive structure, which wasn't much to my liking. Call it a B+ at the onset, an A- at peak and a B/B- by the end of the evening.

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• 1974 Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Proprietor's Reserve

  USA, California, North Coast

  Classic old California Cabernet nose of desiccated red fruit, earth, leather and brown root spices. It's mature, but still retains a good core of cherry fruit and for most of the evening retains a pleasant freshness and vibrancy. Earth, herb, cedar and sassafras flavors complete the package, though after a couple of hours of being open they start to take over the wine. Quite a lovely showing. A-.

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• 1999 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas

  Really tight and unyielding at this point, both on the nose and on the palate. By the end of the evening it was just giving hints of smoked meat, garrigue and a core of blue and black spice-tinged fruit, but grumpy really doesn't want to come out and play. Good potential, but the time is not now. A-.

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• 1999 Eric Texier Hermitage

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

  A typical showing for this wine tonight, which is always welcomed. Loads of bacon from the start with garrigue and tasty raspberry fruit. There's a pleasant leaness and freshness here with more of an herbal edge to the garrigue and a strong mineral note. It was a wonderful match to the lamb shank and broccoli rabe I ordered. A-.

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• 2010 Navarro Vineyards Muscat Cluster Select Late Harvest

  USA, California, North Coast, Anderson Valley

  Woo hoo! Who wants to run a marathon? Diabetics shouldn't even look at this wine. It's extremely primary and intensely sweet, weighing in at 20.9% residual sugar, but Salil is dead wrong about it being cloying as the total acidity is 11.2 g/l and it really does give the wine vibrancy and balance on the finish. You just have to focus on it through the intensely primary fruit and sugar. This stuff is like catnip to me. Loads of honeysuckle, passion fruit and white peaches on the nose and palate with an almost pez like quality on the finish. More please! A-.

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