Assorted excellence

1999 Nikolaihof Riesling Steiner Hund
This was a couple of different wines during the evening. When it was first opened it was all rocks and seemed to lack density and had no fruit. I insisted to Michael that there was real density there, it just might take a little bit. It started to emerge about an hour or so later starting as floral notes and then becoming deeply pitched with fruit and hints of honeysuckle, all the while keeping it’s frame and mineral spine. A great wine.

1971 Huët Vouvray Moelleux 1ère Trie Clos du Bourg
This also did some neat tricks over the course of the evening. At first it tasted quite dry, which can happen with older Moelleux in my experience, and then started to sweeten up and take on more baked fruit and spices. It never got sweet, sweet, but certainly became richer and more interesting. A very fine wine.

1998 Domaine des Lambrays Clos des Lambrays
I dropped this by the restaurant and had it opened 2 hours before dinner. That first nose upon opening was fantastic. Spice and earth around fruits in a heady perfume. Over the course of the evening it became diffuse and then hardened. Not really sure what to make of that development. I’m not sure that the future will make it better, but now is not a good time so I’d sit on it rather than open now.

1995 Gouges Nuits St. Georges 1er Les Saint Georges
This was a surprise bottle for me from Michael and was an incredibly generous gift on his part. If there is an argument for Les St. Georges to be classified as grand cru, then the wines from Gouges and Chevillon make the best case for that. Where one really gets the class of Les St. Georges is in the structure and mouthfeel. There is such a pristine quality to the tannins, they are fine and almost velvety but also completely frame the wine with a lattice structure. It’s a nice trick.

Fucking cork great Sec

1996 Huët Vouvray Sec Le Mont
Wesley had never tried a Huet Sec and I was hoping to check in on this and see how it was doing. He is a convert for life. This bottle was magnificent. At the first nose, I thought this would be another case of a wine that won’t budge: a force-field of rocks and minerals. However, the palate was more resolved and as it opened up, it started to display, lanolin, honey and all those really cool secondary nuances. As good a white wine as I’ve had yet this year. I think this is in a beautiful place right now. Wait and you run the risk missing it in this flower.

1998 Mugneret Ruchottes-Chambertin
Corked. Tear. The last vintage before the really old section of vines was torn out due to disease.

2002 Clos Rougeard Saumur-Champigny Les Poyeux
A replacement off the list for the corked Mugneret. Decanted, but that still wasn’t enough to get it open enough. Don’t get me wrong, the wine was still very good, especially the texture on the palate and the balance of the wine. It was just that it didn’t want to pop. It would have preferred to be left alone.

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.