Accept no substitute

Old friends of the family came down to visit and brought with them some MD lump crab meat for some fantastic MD crab cakes. There really is no substitute for the real thing.

2009 Michel Gahier Chardonnay Arbois Les Crets

Some people have claimed to find this wine “too vintage marked”, whatever that means. I found it to be excellent, just like every Gahier wine I’ve had so far. This was clean, bright, and well proportioned. Plenty of yellow pitted fruits and stone nuances. Lively and bright, a svelte middleweight. I think this would probably age pretty well for 7-10 years, but for my palate, I can enjoy it now. This was a superb match for the crab cakes. For the price and reasonable availability, Gahier is becoming my go to source for Jura wines.

2010 Coudert Fleurie Clos de la Roilette Griffe du Marquis

Wow. This is the second bottle of this and if anything, it might be even better and showing a more savory side. Truly great wine.

2010 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Momtazi Vineyard

I haven’t had a St. Innocent wine in a while, but the last one I had, a Brickhouse Vineyard, showed resemblance to this wine in that it was only moderately colored. This showed nice lighter red tart fruit with nice spice notes on the top and some earth underneath. I liked the sense of structure that it had. Not a big wine, but well framed. This fit well with a Kelly Fox Momtazi I had a while back. I think this could improve and soften over a few years, but there is no shame in drinking it now. I found that it liked about an hour in the decanter.

2009 Broc Cellars Vine Starr Red

I’ve really been enjoying Chris Brockway’s wines over the last couple of months and this zinfandel might be my favorite. Made in a lower octane style, the wine presents a face of zinfandel that I haven’t seen for a while. What greats you are earthy and savory notes, not the fruit jam that so many others offer. You have to wait a while for the fruit, but it's there. Went really well with food, as it has every time I've had it. I'm interested to see how this develops, but I only have a single bottle left to me now. I guess I'll give it 2-3 years? I think Chris is making the kind of wines I've been looking for from CA and I'm really excited to drink through all of them. Speaking of the real thing, this is it.

LA Drinking

Dinner with old friends at a Cantonese place in Monterey Park. Huge spread of whole fish, lobster, prawns, suckling pig, duck, etc. etc. Amazing meal, great time.

2002 Domäne Wachau Riesling Smaragd Singerriedel 1.5L
Taking on a slightly golden color, it still maintains a sense of freshness even while taking on some weightier, more herbal notes. It still a sting of those yellow and green fruits, but a sort of softer mineral underpinning and notes of flowers and honey. It still has some structure, but only enough to hold it together, not so much as to hold anything back. I do not see anything to be gained by further aging, unless you just like old wine flavors, as it seems to be in a very pretty and balanced state for current drinking. My favorite wine on this occasion and I probably drained at least half the magnum.

2008 Melville Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir Carrie's
My friends had brought this back from a visit to Melville (which is a very pretty property with a nice tasting room and gracious folks). It is a bit high octane for me, but it wasn’t so far out of whack that I couldn’t enjoy it. There is a woodsy quality to the wine that makes me suspect whole-cluster fermentation, at least in part. The fruit was savory and not jammy, despite the high alcohol, but the texture was a bit thick for me. I’m happy to try these wines, but this would be tiring to drink and I’m not a buyer.

2005 Giuseppe Quintarelli Veneto IGT Primofiore 1.5L
While this was very good, it was a bit blockier than I would have liked. This had a real savory quality to the red and blue fruits. In fact, I think the fruits played second fiddle here. Maybe this will age into something a bit different because it seemed to close down towards the end of the night.

2008 Venica & Venica Collio Malvasia Bianca
I’ve missed the reliable presence of this producer in my market. I’ve always been a fan of the range, but have a soft spot for the seductive malvasia. Floral, spicy and almost raunchy it is a perfect fit for LA drinking. Seductive and a nice compliment to the food. I would drink this more often if I could.