City mouse, country mouse

My old friend and mentée Sophie was in town from her job at Chambers St. in the big city to visit family and us country folks. We put together some wines and I asked Matt, the chef at Vin Rouge, to put together a meal for us. Had I had this meal in 2009, it may have been my meal of the decade. It was the match or better of any meal I’ve had anywhere. The thought that went into the dishes to match them with the wines showed a real depth of understanding and intelligence.

2007 Pépière Granite de Clisson
Marc Ollivier is a fucking genius. Out of magnum and it still disappeared way too quickly.

2002 Domaine Ganevat Savagnin Côtes du Jura Sous la Roche La Combe de Rotalier
An interesting comparison between these two wines. This had much more aggression and “sherry” type character and was more what I was looking for. I guess I value austerity in these wines.

2002 Domaine de Montbourgeau Savagnin L'Etoile
Much rounder and less expressive. This is a slightly confounding wine as the 2000 was a much more intense and deeper experience. Not bad, just not terribly interesting.

1996 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Fuées
Corked as hell. There is no god.


1995 Dugat-Py Gevrey Coeur de Roy
Clunky with that beet thing I’ve been getting from Dugat-Py recently. There was an intriguing mineral quality to the wine, but it was unbalanced and disjoint with drying tannins and no real purity or persistence. A great disappointment. I really think these are only impressive as young wines.

1999 Fourrier Gevrey 1er Cru Combes aux Moines
Showed the most concentration of any wine perhaps save the Ganevat, but without deep color or “extraction”. I think the best way to describe this is as sinewy. Tight cords of wine strapped together. The wine wasn’t particularly backward and did the best job of changing around as it opened. Had a profile I’ve come to expect from Combes aux Moines, with plumier fruit and a kind of earth/mushroomy aspect. I’m going to wait a few more years before opening another one.

2006 Ezio Voyat Chambave Rosso Le Muraglie
I had high hopes for this wine, but was disappointed. It isn’t that it was a terrible wine, it was just really bubblegum and obvious. Not what I expected at all. That didn’t change over the three hours we had it open.

1996 Pierre-Jacques Druet Bourgueil Fiefs de Louys
At one point, the nose was really intriguing, but I think this wine is past it’s best for my tastes, although others who like really old wines might like it in 10 more years. I liked it a lot more several years ago.

1994 Ridge Monte Bello
Surprisingly, this might have been the most complete wine at the table. Still, it didn’t show as well as a bottle of 1993 enjoyed in the last few months, it was richer but lacked the style and finesse of that wine. However, this is still a good bottle of cabernet that doesn’t stomp all over the food it’s served with. Luscious fruit with some hints fo American oak herbiness and a hint of vanilla that are integrated rather than sitting on top. I don’t’ think there is any point to further long term cellaring of this. It should drink well for a good 7-10 years. I’ll drink my last bottle in the next couple of years.

2004 Conde de Hervias Rioja
It was late and this was a bit woody, but not too much so. Still had some structure. Did really well with the venison. I might actually grab some of this to lay down, just fro shits and grins. I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t have any tempornillo in my cellar so what the hell.

Châteauneuf blanc, who knew?

An old friend from graduate school who I haven’t seen in several years was in town. We enjoyed dinner at Rue Cler.

2006 Éric Texier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Vieilles Vignes
My guest claimed to not be that into white wines. I told her she had no idea what she was talking about. Well she sure came around to this hogging the last glass for herself. It started off slowly, but was refreshing and linear from the start. As the bottle opened, it started to put on flesh and the flowers became more deeply perfumed and the palate broadened. This has been my favorite Châteauneuf Blanc for a few years now. Eric is doing some seriously good work here. I think the wine is a blend of bourbelanc and clairette.

1996 Joël Taluau Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil Vieilles Vignes
Inspired by a recent FLAJim note about this wine, I thought I’d check in on one of my remaining bottles. I really like where this is at the moment, although others might want it to have more time. I like the sense of shape that it has right now. Trapezoidal. There are fine mineral and dirt bones underneath of leafy/tobacco top notes. Somewhere in between some dried red fruits are sensed more than tasted. Very good wine but in such a great vintage one becomes aware of the gulf in class between it and the better sites in Bourgueil and Chinon.

Renardat-Fâche Vin du Bugey-Cerdon
Alpine and delicious. I could drink my bodyweight in this wine.

2008 Bodegas Ostatu Rioja Blanco
For whatever reason, I really like this wine. It doesn’t stick in the memory in any profound way, but it has drive and purity and is a nice antidote to muggy Southern weather.

2006 Domaine de Roally Viré-Clessé Tradition
I’ve commented on this wine several times. I can’t stop drinking it even though I know I should wait a few years. Why I don’t have a cellar full of Roally, I don’t know.