Re-unification with old friends

At Woodberry Kitchen, a recent restaurant in Baltimore from my old friends Spike and Amy Gjerde. The restaurant is beautiful and the food is magnificent. I know a lot of people in the restaurant business and I have to say that Spike is the least cynical and jaded guy I know. He brings so much passion and excitement to what he does that it’s inspiring. If you are ever in Baltimore check it out. Hell, go to Baltimore just to check it out.

I was in Baltimore for my high school reunion, having dinner with a couple of old friends that I had not seen in many years. I had a blast.

1996 Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er Cru La Forest
This seemed to be a little bit over the hill to me. It wasn’t totally shot, but there were some oxidized type notes that took away from the remaining fruit. What I’m trying to figure out is whether this is pre-mox, heat damage (would have had to happen before it got to me), or simple bottle variation (the wine is 13 years old). Anyway, approach with caution.

1989 Domenico Clerico Barolo Bussia
So when I first had this wine on release, it was the first Barolo that really knocked my socks off and started me pursuing modernists and traditionalists in equal measure. As a young wine, this had the most pure driving fruit I had ever tasted. It was so incredibly pure that it redefined the taste of cherry and the aroma of rose petal for me. The previous bottle had been in a strange state, but it has been 6 or 7 years since then, so I was hoping that at 20 years this was ready to go. The wine still seemed to have some fruit, but with the tannin mostly under wraps. There was not much in the way of complexity, but there was a lot of depth to the fruit and enough structure to work well with the food. Not really what I was hoping for, although a lot of what was there when it was young is still here now. I remain unconvinced by these modernist wines and don’t really know how to recommend drinking them. Will they be great in 30 years? Ever? Do I need to have a different context for what I expect out of aged Barolo? Maybe that is the answer. The wines will hold their fruit longer but may fail to develop the kind of complexity that Barolo lovers crave.

1992 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Mountain
This is a wine that I had for the first time with Spike and I have been drinking through my bottles over the years, so it is only fitting that I drink my last bottle at his restaurant. What a great bottle of wine this turned out to be. It has never really drunk poorly through its life and now it is in a perfect state of maturity for me. Shows that lovely mineral touch on the back end that I really loved about these wines through the mid-90s. The fruit had mellowed and the tannins had rounded out but the wine still retained a sense of freshness. The alcohol is listed at 12.5% and this wine has always seemed to have an excellent balance between tannin and acid. I hope I am conveying how good this was. My buddies both said it was one of the best, if not the best, wines they had ever had. In the end, isn’t that the whole point? If you have this, do yourself a favor and drink one now although it should continue to do well for several more years.

The gods smiled

This was one of those nights where everything showed fantastically. In fact, for the reds each was the best bottle of said wine that I've ever had; although, it has been a good while since I've had the 82 Pichon-Lalande.

2007 Baudry Chinon Blanc La Croix Boissée
This isn’t showing nearly as well as the 2006 at the moment. It was a much leaner vintage and the wine is more elegant and pretty and soft spoken. Still there are plenty of flowers and chalky fruit. It’ll be interesting to see where this is at in 6 months or so.

1996 Edmond Cornu Corton-Bressandes
My best bottle yet of this and easily the best showing I've had from 1996 red Burgundy thus far. Still retaining some fruit notes, but happily moving on to secondary sous bois with a heady nose that adds spice to the mix. This was really beautiful and delicious. I could have drunk the whole bottle myself. This is why we cellar wines.

1993 Ridge Santa Cruz Mountains Monte Bello
This was amazing. The best California cabernet I've had this year. The nose was a stunning mix of that Montebello smokey oak (with hints of American-ness), dark earth and minerals and impeccably fresh red and blue pitted fruits. Still has enough tanning to frame the wine nicely and enough acid to provide lift. For me, this is in a perfect place. It will surely last and maybe even improve depending on your preferences, but since I like to catch wines when they still have some fruit and tanning but have added secondary bottle complexity, this was great for me. I’d be a buyer of well stored bottles, even at close to $100. This really is “first growth” quality. However, I should note that the alcohol is 12.9%, so it must not be phenologically ripe. Dumbasses.


1982 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse Pauillac
This was to be the star of the dinner, the Important wine. Loyal readers know how I feel about Important wines, but we were so deep in conversation about this, that and the other that we forgot to genuflect and ended up enjoying it for it’s luxuriant mouthfeel and combination of earth, herbs, tobacco and dried fruit swirling around the dark fruit compote that was still at the core. This bottle was fully resolved and ripe yet still elegant (not ripe in a cal cult way). The cork was soaked so I’m not sure if it has been pristinely kept before my friend got it, but I would say if you own this, there is no harm in drinking it now.

Why we have cellars

I’ve said this several times before in several places on the intertubes, but it bears repeating. The reason to have a wine cellar is not to have a Collection. Sure, there are a few bottles that I have that folks would consider trophies, but all of my wine was bought with the intention of drinking. The real reason to keep a cellar is to drink little wines, or at least not Important wines when they’re aged properly. The other night, the we’re-not-married-but-we’re-more-than-friends and I went to dinner at Vin Rouge. As it turns out, Matt had whole cow rib with the bone in from which he cut an enormous Cote-du-Bouef. Wow.

1991 Laurel Glen Sonoma Mountain Estate cabernet sauvignon
The color has started to take on some bricking and the nose has settled into some nice tertiary aromas. It is in a fairly quiet place now, no more angry youth or awkward adolescence. Desiccated fruit, vegetation, everything. There is something about Patrick Campbell’s cabernet that has a distinctly gravelly quality to me. Something I think of as Graves-ish, in a way but something all its own. This wine is very good and a comforting partner to food and conversation. Without the weight of Greatness on its shoulders, it can just be. There is something refreshing about that which I instinctively gravitate towards. I’m not sure what anyone would gain by aging this longer except if you wanted to see where it goes when really old.

More quiet wine

Roast chicken Sunday social with my friend Will, who is re-entering the wine business after a hiatus. He roasted the chickens on his Big Green Egg. I really need to get one of those. Saw the Easy All Stars later and they were pretty boring as a live act. I really like the cover albums, Dub Side of the Moon and Radiodread, but it doesn’t translate into an interesting show.


1993 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Mountain
I’ve been praising quiet excellence lately and this wine fits perfectly in that idiom. I paid no more that $25 for this bottle on release and it has been resting comfortably ever since. Lots of eucalyptus and dark pitted fruit flavor. The wine has a kind of vegetal quality that is at the edge of dark, damp earth. There is just enough structure left to compliment the fattiness of the chicken and a smoky nuance at the back end. Not a great wine, but a wine of lovely balance and quiet assurance. I can’t express with enough vehemence how important wines like this are to the enjoyment of life. It was quiet in that we both enjoyed it immensely without having to be distracted by it. It was there to be a component while we enjoyed our meal and talked of other things. A wine which is a compliment to the evening and a life well lived.

And you thought you had me pegged

At a friends house for dinner with grilled things. Lots of conversation, no time wasted on note taking. All are impressions.

1995 Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau
Vary aromatic and precise in the very best way that 1995s can be. Maybe the last vintage that will produce Châteauneuf in this style. Not hard at all in the way that the 1995 Beaucastel can be.

1991 Viader
Maybe would have been better a few years before, it did seem a bit tired when first opened. It did sort of stretch out and reveal it self as the meal moved on so that by the end, it wasn’t tired seeming at all. Maybe the Howell Mountain structure is deep lying in cabernet franc. A bit confounding, but nonetheless interesting wine.

1995 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Mountain
This showed great as well. Again, a lot of precision for a CA cabernet with plenty of mineral twinged earth to balance the fruit and herbs. Good structure with enough acid and tannin to clear the palate of the porterhouse. This and the above were decent advertisements for mountain cabernet from CA.

2004 Domaine la Soumade Côtes du Rhône Villages Rasteau Cuvée Prestige
I don’t have a strong impression of this wine other than I liked it more than I thought I would. Who said that monkeys don’t have open minds?

There were at least a couple more bottles, including some awful CA pinot noir.