Reds at Dave's
Tasted Monday, December 19, 2011 by Dave Dalluge with 693 views
Introduction
Dave McMahon invited a large group of us over for pizza and wine. Each of us was to bring a red we were "proud of" and a pizza. There were about ten of us, and the mood was casual and festive. Given the theme, we ended up with a pretty eclectic collection of wines.
Flight 1 (12 Notes)
Closing
This proved to be another great night with Dave, Craig, Siggy, Jimmy and others. Thanks to Dave for the invite. I'm already looking forward to the next one.
NV Charles Heidsieck Champagne Brut Réserve 92 Points
France, Champagne
Beautiful nose of clean fresh fruit (apple, pear, lemon) with some dough/yeast and burnt sugar/creme brûlée notes. Equally good on the palate with a good burst of flavor, nice weight and an interesting rough texture. Flavors fall off fairly quickly at the finish, but this is so good that just encourages another taste. Excellent.
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1962 Clos Fourtet 92 Points
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Popped and poured. The cork was in surprisingly good shape and came out cleanly. The wine is a pretty red color with barely a hint of browning. The nose delivers layers of complex aromas with red fruit, tobacco, earth and iron/mineral leading the way. Such a great nose it's almost a shame to drink, but drink we did. Not quite as spectacular on the nose with nice red fruit and good intensity but turns a little tart/thin from mid-palate to the finish. Still a perfect wine to pair with pizza. All indications are that this was a very well cared for bottle (I bought it fairly recently) that will hold on for a few more years but is unlikely to improve for where it is today.
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1997 Terreno Chianti Classico Riserva 93 Points
Italy, Tuscany, Chianti, Chianti Classico DOCG
Red fruit and iron on the nose. Good flavor intensity on the palate. Great silky texture. Still fairly tannic on the finish.
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2008 Alzinger Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Mühlpoint
Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
I'm not completely sure I've got the right wine here. Popped and poured out of sequence. I only took a small pour. Very light clear color. Nice clean fruit on the nose. Good flavor intensity on the palate. Seemed pretty well balanced, but tended towards sweet. I really couldn't do justice to this given my desire to keep moving through the reds.
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2006 Luciano Sandrone Nebbiolo d'Alba Valmaggiore
Italy, Piedmont, Alba, Nebbiolo d'Alba
The nose delivers mostly oak with some raspberry and menthol notes. More oak not the palate. Big and soft, lacking structure. Pretty much undrinkable right now. I have no idea if this can improve with time in the bottle or not.
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2004 Fattoria Le Terrazze Conero Sassi Neri Riserva 92 Points
Italy, Marche, Conero DOCG
Dense purple/red color. Expressive nose with dark fruit, oak and smoke. This too is big and soft no the palate, but has good flavor intensity and just enough structure to hold things together. I'm much more hopeful that this will develop further with additional age and could actually turn out pretty tasty in time.
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2004 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul Flawed
France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
This was decanted ahead of time, but apparently never showed much promise. When finally poured this was just plain weird with odd aromas on the nose (medicine, candy cane, rubber) and no taste to speak of. I'd been looking forward to trying this since it's available locally at a good price but will have to pass based on this tasting.
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2005 Marcel Juge Cornas 93 Points
France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Cornas
Awesome nose with deep black raspberry, herb/cut grass, animal, white pepper (I may be reaching here, but the nose really had a lot of interesting and enticing aromas that shifted and changed). Smooth and elegant not the palate. I'd say slightly on the lean side with some cranberry and tartness, but really excellent flavor intensity. Nice length on the finish. Extremely tannic. Based on this bottle I'd guess these need 3-5 more years in the cellar and then should drink well and maybe even improve for another 10-20 years. Beautiful stuff worth seeking out for the cellar.
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2006 Il Poggione (Proprietá Franceschi) Brunello di Montalcino 93 Points
Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino
Popped and poured as a replacement for the Mon Aieul. Deep red color. Beautiful nose of sweet dark fruit with some oak. In the mouth this delivers great flavor intensity and a silky texture. Balanced and not overly tannic. Surprisingly, this is drinking pretty well right now, but I suspect they'll be much better with 5+ years in the cellar.
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2005 Heintz Syrah Sonoma Coast 93 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
Wow, was this impressive. Soaring nose of sour cherry, earth and smoke -- really special. Siggy felt it was likely a result of whole cluster fermentation which makes sense to me. Showing equally well on the palate with great weight, excellent balance/structure and good flavor intensity. I've never heard of this producer, but if this wine is any indication it's a winery I should get to know better.
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2006 Turley Zinfandel Old Vines 87 Points
USA, California
I'm generally a fan of Turley, but this one didn't impress me for some reason. The nose seemed to be mostly raisin/prune. On the palate this is big and ripe with dark fruit, caramel and spice flavors. Soft and pleasant but lacking depth of flavor and any form of nuance.
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2006 Booker Vineyard My Favorite Neighbor
USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles
Black fruit and cocoa on the nose. More dark fruit on the palate with some obvious alcohol and a wall of tannin. Maybe my palate was shot as the last two wines were hard for me to get a feel for.
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