Dinner at the Vin Rouge bar with a couple of friends.
1996 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile
While not shimmering like a recent bottle of the1995, this was certainly a very good bottle. It has started to take on some secondary notes and isn’t the limestone brick to the mouth that it used to be. No signs of the imaginary premature oxidation. Really, when will this thing go away? I’m sure it’s true for some wines (I did buy Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagnes, yikes), I’ve experienced it myself, but anytime anyone has a disappointing and most likely heat-damaged white wine, the cry of “pre-mox” (that’s what they call it) comes out. Calm down. Wine gets horribly mistreated all the time from the second it leaves the winery cellar (sometimes, even on the loading dock at the winery itself). No sense in making something more mysterious than it needs to be. Not sure this is ready to fully dive into yet, but worth trying if you have multiple bottles.
1996 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses
Really kind of boring and on the wrong side of its aging curve. It lacks any remaining structure and the flavor profile really isn’t all that interesting. Compared to other 1996s I’ve had over the past few years, this is not in the first or second tier. Probably should have been consumed years ago, but instead I listened to people who said it was way too young and kept this bottle as an experiment. They don’t know shit. When it comes to cabernet franc, I’m the man.
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4 comments:
These are my two dessert island wines (not these specific vintages).
I agree with your thoughts on both of these two. I've been tasting the '95 and '96 freddy side by side once a year since 2000. The '95 never seemed to go 'dumb', but the '96 was shut down until the last time I tasted it 6 months ago. The comparisons have been really educational. I always thought the '96 would eventually outperform the '95, and although it will certainly live longer, I'm no longer sure it will be a better wine.
I'm disappointed to hear about your experience with the Raffault. I had a similar experience with it last year. I had hoped it would come back together. It seems peculiar that a wine that seemed so complete in its youth would just disintegrate like that. Would anyone guess the '95 picasses would have greater ageability than the '96? just wierd.
As for the CFE, I totally agree. I always thought the 1996 would be the better wine, but now I'm not so sure.
As for the Raffault, I'm not a true believer anyway. I think one thing to keep in mind with producers that don't really farm impeccably is that vintages like 1996, which are very well balanced are not rich and concentrated.
While there are excellent 1995s from other folks in almost every case the 1996 is a superior wine to the 1995 (insofar as the idea of superior is meaningful).
I guarantee you David Lillie says that wine is closed. He is convinced Raffault wines will go for centuries it seems.
VLM...
Great topic as always...
Curiously, as I see you are living in NC these days and seem pretty well connected... Do you have an opinion on which Distributors in NC are passionate, solidly grounded and and service their accounts the best... Any suggestions would be much appreciated
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