Easy on the Pocket Night

During the summer, a couple who are good friends of ours relocated from Tokyo to Boston. When they moved, they thinly cherrypicked their cellar and were looking to get rid of the rest. I went through and identified the things that really interested me (about two cases), then they offered them to me at 25% of lowest price online. If that wasn't good enough, they threw in the remaining five or so cases for free, figuring it was better to give it to someone who cared than to leave it on the street for the sanitation engineers.

Provenance on some of these wines is questionable and I've been meaning to check on them. Wines are almost all Italian, heavy on '97 Tuscans. Cathryn has been craving risotto, so we invited my cousin and his wife, pulled some bottles, and I made dinner.

To keep with the "easy on Jim's pocket" theme, we started with a white burg that a friend from Paris had brought us when visiting earlier this year.

• 1998 Domaine Derain Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly Blanc

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Saint-Aubin 1er Cru

  Lightish gold and enticingly bright. Nose of clean citrus and apple, with a little stoniness. Very clean and pure, promising nice cut. With time, a little richer citrus oil comes out, but the nose really remains pure chardonnay fruit. Palate feels a little rounder and richer than the nose suggests, but is still nicely balanced and on the refreshing end of the scale. Persistent enough finish highlights the citrus oil and mineral. Paired very nicely with a very lightly dressed salad of organic greens with lemon zest, yuba, and sashimi (salmon roe, tataki salmon, uni, sweet shrimp). And that's really the place for this wine to shine -- with fresh seafood that needs a little more heft than a Muscadet, but a lot less than a big chardonnay. From a biodynamic producer that has managed to avoid all the pitfalls that come with such low sulphur/low protection approaches. I'll look for more from this producer.

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• 1996 Ruffino Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale Oro

  Italy, Tuscany, Chianti, Chianti Classico DOCG

  Tuscan-tone red just starting to take on orangey-red hints at the rim. Nose on this one is open from the beginning, with tobacco, dark cherry, bracken, and earth. Grows in volume more than complexity as wine sits in glass. Tobacco fades and bracken and earth pick up, as does a little mocha spice. Palate is taut with a light but sturdy structure of smooth tannins and good balancing acidity. Sour cherry and nicely tart plum dominate the fruit, along with the earth from the nose and just a hint of chocolate. A nice picture of balance and restraint. Like a small wiry fighter with endurance showing on the finish. Earthy elements made it pair very well with an assorted mushroom risotto made using a little wine and the liquid from reconstituting dried morels. Perfectly ready to go, but will probably hold for a good long while as well.

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• 1997 Lisini Brunello di Montalcino

  Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino

  Rich, ripe-looking plum red in glass. Still looking young. Nose is fairly open from the beginning, with emphasis on deep black fruit (roasted plums, some blackberry, some sweet dark cherry). Also offers a little spice and coffee, along with a touch of earth. With time in glass, ripe dark fruit continues to dominate nose. Similarly primary on palate, with the same dark fruits backed up by a little tobacco and earth. Big and rich, but not outsized, mouthfeel easily covers ample but extremely smooth tannins. Time might bring out some more complexity, but my sense is that this is wine to enjoy young, while the ripe fruit smooths the tannins. Good overall balance and the kind of wine I most like from such a ripe vintage. Maybe a little atypical compared to 96s and 99s, but I think more just primary and smooth. Balanced well with the rich fat flavors from oven broiled lamb chops with parsley, lemon, and mustard crust.

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• 1990 Tommasi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico

  Italy, Veneto, Valpolicella, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico

  Maturing red tending toward dusty orange-brown. Nose is very low-toned with roasted plum and prune fruit, some raisin and dark roast coffee, and wee bit of leather and resin. That nose is apparent when it is opened and doesn't really change with time, except that it fades a little in intensity. Palate is slighty hot, with more roasted fruit, some chocolatey cherry, and a little earthiness that is more texture than flavour. Fully resolved tannins and no discernable acid. Everything is there, I guess, but it is just a little flat and dull. Helped a little by cheese (parmigiano reggiano, black pepper sardinian pecorino, mimolette, and bleu de Causses), but not enough. My sense is that this has headed over the hill and is starting to show the less flattering side of 1990. To be fair, provenance is a serious question here. I had some bottles of my own and some picked up from the moving friend referred to above. Didn't mark them and don't know which was which.

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• 1990 Marchesi de' Frescobaldi Vin Santo del Chianti

  Italy, Tuscany, Chianti, Vin Santo del Chianti

  From 375. Very deep gold tending a little more toward brown than orange at the edges. Upon pouring, nose is much more at the oxidative than the candied end of the vin santo spectrum. Within the general tone of maderized notes were roasted nuts, a little rancio, and a very slight bit of orange peel. With a little time, some caramel and dried apricot came out. Palate was a little fresher, retaining acid that was well-hidden on the nose and with sweetness as an accent more than a dominant quality. Not quite sprightly, but bright enough for the marzipan and sweet lemon cream flavours to pair well with Chinese almond tofu pudding. Provenance again a question.

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Of the wines from the moving friends, two seemed to be in good shape and two others may (or may not) have been heat damaged. At the prices I paid -- between free and 25% of lowest retail -- I can afford a few damaged bottles. It's also possible the Lisini was a little advanced, but it was drinking well. I'll be doing a lot more sampling soon.