Dinner with a colleague, and I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed these bottles over dinner with a colleague and his wife. This was a nice treat for me as I generally don’t socialize with folks from work, but this particular colleague I’ve really enjoyed getting to know and he has been an invaluable ally while getting situated here.

2001 Nikolaihof Riesling Federspiel Vom Stein
My last bottle and a very good showing. While I may have preferred it younger for the zippiness and mineral character of youth, it has settled into a nice yellow-fruited vaguely honey-suckle/floral mid-life roundness. Quite delicious and should be drunk soon if not now.

1996 Domaine de Courcel Pommard 1er Cru Grand Clos des Épenots
This bottle showed very well, in a quiet, mature and understated way. I generally find this wine to be among the most elegant in Pommard. My colleague’s wife, who claims to not really like red wines quite liked this. As she put it, it’s very velvety and not heavy, in fact, it has that beautiful weightless quality that we all love in red Burgundy. I’ve been pretty happy with Courcel wines and they are still relative bargains. This wine can be consumed now, but I think it will continue to show well for a while.

Don't age Federspiel

2001 Nikolaihof Riesling Federspiel Vom Stein
This was aromatically lovely, but not the crystalline, perfect beauty that it can be. I think this is maybe a year or so late. Don’t get me wrong, it is still an excellent wine with lots of flowers, fruits, and a sense of being in some mountainous field from a movie. I’ve said this many times, but there is a vitality, and alive-ness to Nikolaihof wines. This is maybe my favorite estate that I have never visited. One day I will make it to the Wachau.

1995 Janasse Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes
Once again, this wine disappoints. For whatever reason, it has never fulfilled the promise it showed as a young wine. It’s not flawed, or bad, just completely non-descript and uninteresting. Oh well.

Good Grouper

Made a simple dinner of broiled NC grouper with buerre blanc. The grouper was supposedly spear caught off the coast of NC. I have no idea if it is true, but I saw the whole fish at my brothers and it had a hole through the head. Anyway, very high quality fish.

2001 Pierre Peters Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Cuvée Spéciale Les Chétillons
This was just OK. Frankly, I enjoyed a bottle of the Brut Reserve recently more than this. It could be the vintage, but it seems to lack drive.

1997 Prager Riesling Smaragd Achleiten
Cork was soaked, so this probably saw some heat at some point. Still in pretty good shape, although rounder than I expected from Prager and this site.

1997 Freie Weingärtner Wachau Riesling Smaragd Achleiten
There was something off in this bottle. Maybe it was premoxed! Seemed like it was OK at first, but gradually slid down hill.

2002 Huët Vouvray Demi-Sec Le Mont
This was the most horribly flawed bottle I can remember in a long time. Some sort of combination of sewage, bleach, and vomit. It was so aggressively and stunningly awful that I was bewildered.

1995 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile
Again, a bit of mustiness right when opened that blows off nicely. This was a really grippy version of Frédéric Emile, especially in comparison to a recent 1997. No sign of the mysterious premature oxidation here. This showed really well with lots of minerals and only a hint of kerosene. I kept this in the fridge and enjoyed the rest 4 nights later when it was even better. Without a doubt, the best bottle of 1995 I’ve had and one of the better Frédéric Emile in recent memory.

1990 Château Suduiraut Sauternes
Really pretty mediocre. It was dominated caramel and crème brulée notes. It seemed to lack structure and precision. Too bad, I haven’t had good Sauternes in a while.