The Vineyard Lunch Gang Has A FreeForAll - Dec 18, 2009
Tasted Friday, December 18, 2009 by jasonh with 629 views
Introduction
I did add scores to wines I own and felt I had a good handle on. Feel free to disregard. My favorite wines were easily the Thibault Liger-Belair and Rhys.
2008 Biohof Pratsch Grüner Veltliner
Austria, Niederösterreich, Weinviertel
Nicely balanced and zippy. I like the 1 litter bottle with a screw top. Makes it handy to keep for a few days.
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2007 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Winemaker's Cuvée Freedom Hill & Vitae Springs Blend 90 Points
USA, Oregon, Willamette Valley
Decanted for about 2 hours. I wanted to give this a try despite the Freedom Hill Vineyard leading me to believe it would be backwards at this stage. Glad to see Mark V. designating something his wine-makers cuvee. Hopefully it will be what he wants. As expected this was fairly un-giving at this stage. This is never going to be a fruity wine. The earth and herb based elements are no match for the tannin. Even on the second day this pretty tight. I enjoyed this a lot but it would be scary for the Cali Pinot crowd. This should be just fine in another 6-7 years but I suspect it will be a bit brooding.
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2006 Thibault Liger-Belair Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Saint Georges
France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru
As time went on I kept getting more and more purity. Very nice fruit flavors and starting to show nice complexity. This started to show like a real beauty but in need of 4-6 years.
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2006 Monte Xanic Cabernet Sauvignon
Mexico, Baja California, Valle de Guadalupe
Well I seemed to like this more than the others at the table. Even brought some home for dinner. Showed some interesting elements although overall it seemed a bit dirty. Not sure what this costs but if it is sub $15 it would be fun to revisit.
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2007 Rhys Pinot Noir Skyline Vineyard 92 Points
USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
This was a treat to taste so early on. Served blind and my initial thoughts when more toward Rhone. Something very young and fruity with a grenache base and very light tannin. Once I was told it was pinot I thought oh yeah, Anderson Valley. Well nope but it is my second favorite Cali Pinot area (probably a tie between the two). At this stage the pure fruit as it the front. I got hints of other elements but the primary fruit really lead the charge. I loved the purity. Not sure of how long this will go but it certainly needs 2-4 years. This is big cali pinot done right. Lots of sweet fruit that is not candied.
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1996 Flora Springs Sangiovese Napa Valley
USA, California, Napa Valley
I really thought this would be dead and buried. We actually drank a bunch of it back in 97-98 but I never really thought to age it. We'll it was long in the tooth but not dead and the secondary elements were quite interesting. It should also be noted that this was stored in a kitchen pantry (or something like that). Not temperature controlled by any stretch and generally far warmer than a wine fridge.
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2006 Mount Eden Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
USA, California, Santa Cruz Mountains
Okay this was a challenge for me. I enjoyed it but no where near as accessible as the 05 on release. This never came fully into balance. But the parts seem to be there. Given the producer I expect this to be just fine with proper aging but I would not touch right now. Plenty of tannin and acid I just don't know how the fruit will play out. Try again in 10-15 years.
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