St. Urban to the rescue

1999 Nikolaihof Riesling Spätlese Reserve Steiner Hund

Really pretty, very Steiner Hund nose right out of the gate. Something about this wine just screams alpine meadow with its floral bouquet and sunny disposition. On the palate the wine is more or less resolved and really feels natural, if that makes any sense. I’ve always felt that way about these wines, sort of like Clos Roche Blanche, they just have a texture that I associate with the best of natural wines as well as a outdoorsy wildness to the aromatics. It also has a note of OFF to it that I also, weirdly associate with natural wines (counter-intuitively, I find it very pleasant). A very good wine and one I think should be consumed in the next couple of years. I plan to.

1996 Weingut Knoll Riesling Smaragd Ried Schutt

My last bottle of what was my first Austrian wine purchased for cellaring. A challenging year, with all sorts of hail and rot and botrytis. This wine doesn’t show those things, with the exception of some botrytis. The color is a darker golden and the nose is a piercing and intense blend of rocks and grape skins. It just smells acidic, in a very good way. As the wine warms and opens, a whole bundle of other Riesling aromatics come out, with the thankful exception of diesel and lactic notes, neither of which appeal to me. The mouthfeel has a density and richness sliced through with penetrating acidity. With time everything sort of balances out without ever losing freshness. This was a great showing for an excellent wine from a great vineyard in a difficult vintage. Yet more evidence to producer and vineyard over vintage.

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.

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.