Year-End Wine Salon

Our last Wine Salon of 2009. The MO was to have each participant taste three flights of wines with 4 wines per flight together with 3 other tasters. Impressions were recorded on the fly and presentations given from each team on each flight. Food was outstanding, and so were the wines. Kudos and props to Michael Villim of Mirabelle and Brian Owens for organizing and picking the majority of the wines out of his cellar. On to the wines.

• 1989 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon

  Pretty nose, leafy, very tannic, sour cherry, tobacco, earth, floral, and rustic. This was a good bottle of a very good wine. My favorite wine of the flight, although it started out very rough and angry. With air, it mellowed and the fruit plushed up.

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• 1998 Le Petit Cheval

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru

  Very oaky on the nose. Good blackberry fruit, cracked pepper, road tar, espresso bean, and floral. Was a decent drink with the food, but seemed a little odd when tasted on its own. Very technical wine.

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• 1992 La Jota Cabernet Franc

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain

  Truly a wow kind of wine. Beautiful, soaring nose, tobacco leaf and black cherry. Shows more alcohol than the previous two wines, but that's to be expected. Spectacular wine and only a smidge behind the Raffault for me.

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• 2001 Le Macchiole Paleo Rosso

  Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT

  Oak, turpentine, primary fruit, classic Italian wine funk, briary underbrush and rosemary stem. Violets, charred earth and oak. Certainly not terrible, but too oaky and cloying for me to find it exciting.

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• 2002 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Flower petals, honey, green apple and early ripeness peach. Still slightly spritzy, but flat out delicious. My kind of Spaetlese.

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• 2002 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  I immediately disliked this wine. Very flat, boring, cloying, one-dimensional, oddly off-putting nose. Lacks definition, and was marred by very sweet, muddled fruit. Like drinking a wine cooler. I wonder if something was wrong with this bottle.

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• 2002 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  A much better wine than the preceding Selbach-Oster. Had that youthful spritz, definition, focus, orchard fruit, and lively acidity that the preceding bottle so desperately lacked. Lovely wine.

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• 2002 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Orange zest, petrol, ripe app;e and cheese rind in a long-haul package that will reward ageing. My favorite and most complete wine of the flight.

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• 1976 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon North Coast

  USA, California, North Coast

  Velvety texture. Slightly raisiny flavors, low acid, leather, a tad vintage port-like. Still tannic. Smoke and meat juices, dark cherry, and a smidge of Brett. The wine was fun to drink, but it's definitely on the downslope.

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• 1992 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Not very good. Spice, cherry, cedar, hollow on the mid-palate and an almost Gluehwein-like flavor on the palate. To me, this was not just unexciting, but disappointing.

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• 1996 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Savory spice, cherry, blackberry, leather, tobacco and licorice. This wine had it going on and showed great balance.

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• 2001 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  My favorite of the Montelenas. Cherry and blackberry with licorice, and all that tobacco and leather goodness that I found in all the Montelenas in varying amounts. Lovely wine and there's no way that this could have possibly warranted 69 points from Wine Spectator, even if I did taste some Brett like I did in most of the prior vintages.

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