That bitch, Sandy

ruined my trip to NY and Joe Dressner memorial dinner for Partners in Health (a worthy cause if you are looking for one) as well as the Louis/Dressner sort-of portfolio tasting.

Instead, you'll get some notes on wine that are not LDM.

My brother has had a hell of a year, so he wanted a quiet birthday. A few friends got together for some simple food and some kick ass wines. We had one of those nights, which we have been due mind you, where all the wines showed really, really, well. This is my first really excellent experience with 1996 red Burgundy and gives me high expectations for what remains in my cellar.

2006 Karthäuserhof Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberg Riesling Spätlese trocken

This was soil inflected, classic and pretty. It didn’t have a lot of diesel or lactic qualities that personally put me off. It was very svelte and stylish and easy to drink. The minerals were of the clear brook variety and there was a smattering of riverside herbs and flowers. The fruit was the faintest white peach pit. A very good wine that we found in the right spot. Personally, I don’t see much more interest in short to medium term development. Those into the truffle thing would probably put this away for 15 years and maybe get there.

2008 Gilbert Picq Chablis Dessus La Carriere

From magnum. Evidently, a hefty proportion of this was bottled in magnum due to the quality of the vintage for this wine. Our experience here doesn’t disagree. This is quintessential Chablis. Although Picq doesn’t have the best terroir, he does have old vines and a very clean approach to presenting the wines. This was saline and mineral with seashells and rocks galore. There were hints of green apple and maybe a kind of theoretical tart melon that doesn’t exist, but that I can imagine. While I suspect we should have treated this more seriously, it was just so good that we didn’t stop to have any big discussion about it other than, ”Fuck!! This is good!”. This is ready enough for me right now, but should age gracefully and interestingly for 10-12 years, if not more. I suspect that it will develop that savory, chicken broth umami thing with a decade in the cellar.

2009 Pavelot Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Dominode

I’ve heard some folks saying that 2009s are showing well so I decided to check in on this one. While young, it is certainly enjoyable. A bit of wood spice frames some distinctly cherry-ish fruit. The structure is full, but not imposing, most likely due to the baby fat hanging on it. This comes across as a very sauve and classy Savigny, which should come as no surprise. This went relatively quickly as the first red of the night, so I didn’t have a chance to see if it closed down with air. If you have a good bit, I think it’s educational and fun to check in with a wine like this at this point.

1996 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle-Musigny 1er Charmes

Wow, this is remarkable and much, much improved over my last bottle from 2007. This has a beautiful ruby color with only the slightest hint of turning ruddy. The nose is explosive and beautiful with layers of fruit, sous bois, and an umami type mushroom quality. The fruit is deeply pitched red pitted fruit, bordering on blue. It is long, deep and seamless. The palate is caressing and inviting, with the fruit rolling over it and leaving an aftertaste while the other nose hover like ghosts above it. The structure is such that it is a whole. The acids prop it up, the tannins hold it together such that it stands up to food and each taste clears your palate with your mouth watering for another. Maybe the best wine I’ve yet had from Ghislaine and in a beautiful place for me right now. It’ll be hard to keep my hands off at this point, but those that want more tertiary should probably give it another 5-7 years after watching how this has evolved.

1996 Edmond Cornu Corton-Bressandes

Leaner and more restrained than the Barthod, but still gorgeous. Again, my last bottle of this a few years back really wasn’t that enjoyable, but this bottle is a different story. There is a slightly smoky mineral quality along with spice and a woodsy, though not quite sous bois, note over top of the light red fruit. The tannins are noticeable, but very refined and fine grained. Like other 1996s, the acidity clears the wine from your palate and immediately demands another sip. I think this is on the early side, even for someone like me who wants some fruit remaining in his wine.

Dauvissat

1996 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest
Pretty good. What I was worried might be oxidation, Eric clarified as something else, a bit of botrytis. That’s kind of interesting and I wonder if this is common in what people perceive as oxidized white Burgundy. Is all the later harvesting in the Côte d’Or contributing to rising levels of botrytis in the vineyards which the vignerons do not know how to handle? This led to a discussion of Thevenets wines and how they are able to manage the botrytis so elegantly. Always enlightening spending time with Eric.

2000 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest
A good bottle of this. Perhaps less bright and stone fruited than I would have wanted, but a good bottle nonetheless. I’d suggest going ahead and digging in. I think I liked this better a few years ago.

Is this what we’ve come to? I don’t mind drinking my chardonnay on the early side, I like the tension and the acids, but it seems to me that Chablis from top vintages from top producers need to be enjoyed for their youthful vigor rather than their tertiary qualities? If that is the case, maybe we’ll see prices drop to reflect this new reality.

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.

Texier is a Fat Head

So there is a little secret in Durham. It goes by the name Kurama. In what seems to be your average awful Japanese steak house, there is a sushi bar. At that bar, Tomo-san and Misagi-san put together some truly exemplary meals, not just for Durham, for anywhere. My close friend Ken is a regular there and I joined him and his wife for a 9 course dinner prepared by Tomo-san. It was a very cool mix of a couple of sushi courses but lots of traditional Japanese food.

1995 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Forêt
Had a dank musty aroma that never quite went away. It seemed to for a moment, but would always come back. Not the first time I’ve had this issue with a Raveneau, a shame really.

2003 Azienda Agricola Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo
This was its usual weird, wooly self. It proved to be a bit too big and diffuse to really enjoy.

2006 Cá de Noci Vino di Tavola Notte di Luna
This was fantastic. Another orange wine, this time from Emilia-Romagna. I guess eventually I will get sick of this style of wine, but it fit the food so well and was just so plainly delicious that I couldn’t help but be charmed. I’ll be drinking a good deal of this. The only shame is that it is a bit expensive, all these orange wines are. They make such perfect foils for food, it is a shame that everyone can’t drink them whenever they want.

2007 Éric Texier Condrieu Janrode
Even in this difficult vintage, Eric has made a Condrieu that I can really enjoy. Hopefully, he won’t get too fat headed about making my two favorite white Rhône wines (this and the Châteauneuf Blanc). He manages to coax out of viognier its delicate and floral side with lots of cut and shine and leave the heavy, glommy side behind. Well done Eric. Fat head.

Fortuitous evening

I enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Rue Cler with some very dear friends. It was one of those evenings where all the wines showed really well and the food was first rate.

1996 Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er Vaillons
This showed very well, especially given the soaked cork. That didn’t knock the structure out. The fruit had gone a little creamy, but it was still mostly lemon and stones with hints of secondary stuff sneaking in. It was the palate where it really had evolved. If you tried the 1996s when they were young, you remember the face crushing, eye searing intensity of the wines. Frankly, I was worried they wouldn’t evolve in a proper way. This certainly has. This was my last bottle, but I’m not that sad, I caught it at a wonderful time for me. If you have some, they can hold for 5+ easily.

2004 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot
Young and strapping, but not brooding and backwards, which is the beauty of Allemand. The wines can both drink well young and show their potential at the same time. A nice trick if you can pull it off. Still very primary, but if you have a good bit it is not uninteresting to try now. I won’t be getting into mine for at least 5 years.

1995 Thierry Allemand Cornas Reynard
This more than made up for the crappy 1995 Chaillot from Blackwood’s trip. You can taste the differences between the two wines, even through the difference in age. Really beautifully complex and seamless with dark fruit, earth and animal notes framed nicely by both acidity and balancing tannins. Superb with food. In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to like my wines when they have started to stretch out and show secondary and tertiary aromas and flavors, but haven’t gone all fruitless and still maintain some structure. For that reason, I think that 20 years might be the upper limit of Cornas aging for me, so these will be gone by 2015. You can start drinking any time you want.

Blackwood Day 2

Well, this was the BIG EVENT of the weekend. Lots of food, lots of wine and lots of great conversation and general conviviality.

My brother put out a great spread at Rue Cler. Always a pleasure to have him cook for us.

2004 Pépière Clos des Briords 1.5L
2005 Pépière Clos des Briords 1.5L
I don’t know. What do you say about Briords and huge plates of oysters? Life is worth living again? I’m honing in on the fact that this is THE great Muscadet. I thought the 2004 showed a bit better to my tastes, more precise, but they are both excellent. The 2005 will probably age better.

1996 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile
Started a bit musty, but shook that off. It was all oyster shell and dirt, without much of that petrol emotion. Some yellowish fruit started peaking out after a bit. It wasn’t as aggressive as this wine can be, but I was mostly just drinking it, not studying it.

1996 Vincent Dauvissat Chablis 1er La Fôret
A couple of us found this wine outstanding. It had that lemon drop crusted stone quality that I love so much from this particular wine. Still very well structured, but anyone who remembers how intense these wines were in their youth will be happy with how they are coming around. I was worried by the crazy intensity of the wine and also the potential of premature oxidation, but neither seemed to be a problem.

1995 Rémi Rollin Corton-Charlemagne
At first, I was really disappointed. It seemed sort of watery and washed out. Most folks at the table dismissed it, but Sophie brought me back to it with a particular dish, and the wine had really come around. What was previously washed out had firmed up. There were notes of pretty fruit and some flowers and spices. It also seemed to stretch out a bit and pick up some structure. I think part of this was my expectation for Corton-Charlemagne to be so big and minerally and intense. Sometimes you have to just let a wine be itself. I don’t think there is anything to be gained by aging this, but please give it some time and quite attention when you open it.

2005 Edmond Vatan Sancerre Chavignol Clos la Néore
Seemed to be closed in on itself. Kinda strange since I had a bottle not too long ago that was more open, but also much more mineral. You can always see the makings of a legend in this wine, though, and I’m always happy to be around it.

2004 Edmond Vatan Sancerre Chavignol Clos la Néore
Although it isn’t in the same class as the 2005, I felt this showed better. The lightness and linearity of it made it much more enjoyable on the night.

2006 Bernard Baudry Chinon Blanc La Croix Boissée
Went so well with the rabbit. While it isn’t defined the way the 2004 was, it has enough structure to hold itself together and to ensure that the fruit and limestone are delivered. A really pleasurable wine to drink. I don’t think it will make old bones, but over the next 5 years, and maybe more, it is a great drink.

2001 Pierre Amiot et Fils Clos de la Roche
Didn’t make much of an impression. Pretty woody and blocky to me. Susannah took it home, I’d be curious to see how it was the next day.

2004 Robert Arnoux Vosne 1er Les Suchots
One of the folks at the table really liked this, for me, it was another 2004. It isn’t the greenness that I dislike so much, although that can be annoying, it is the sort of glommy quality to the fruit. It was a vintage that had pretty high natural sugar but is watery at the same time resulting in very odd textures.

1996 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle 1er Beaux Bruns
This was actually drinking pretty well. I was worried about this showing the sternness mixed with hollowness that can be the bugbear of this vintage. While not fair to compare it to a wine from a superior vineyard and vintage, it is impossible not to. Beaux Bruns is always a richer, earthier expression of Chambolle, with darker fruits. My hope is that the best 1996s will turn into 1988s. This bottle gives me a bit of hope.

2001 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle 1er Fuées
Beautiful. Barthod made great wines in 2001, unfortunately for me, my source got theirs with heat damage, so I took them all back, so I only have a couple of bottles. What I love about Fuees, and Barthod’s in particular, is that there is a strong mineral spine with a coating of crunchy red fruit. Red currants and cranberry mostly. It is a driving wine, not a necessarily gentle one, but when the parts come together it is a wonderful expression of the best of Chambolle.

1995 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot
Very reduced/bretty. This is the first time I’ve experienced this with an Allemand wine, although others have reported more frequent instances.

1995 Auguste Clape Cornas
A very elegant and social wine especially in comparison to the Verset. There was nothing wrong with it, but it seemed boring next to the Verset. I always seem to drink these two wines together, which is maybe not fair. Next time I’ll drink this by itself.

1995 Noël Verset Cornas
Absolutely wild and gorgeous. This certainly has some volatile acidity, but it serves to lift the wine, not to push it outside of the lines. What was amazing was how snappy and floral this was, in conjunction with some deep, animal, blackstrap Cornas-ness. If you have this, you can start drinking now. BTW, this reminds me of my Cornas aging theory. Medium term, not long term. I think 20 years is at the outer edge.