It was close to a friend's birthday and he had a window of opportunity on a Thursday night to get out and celebrate with a few us at a local BYO restaurant in Belmont.
2001 Weingut Kruger-Rumpf Riesling Kabinett Munsterer Rheinberg Nahe. This Kabinett opens with a gentle nose of peach pit, chalk and faintly musky tropical fruits. As it opens up, lime zest and mineral notes begin to perk it up and make it feel fresher and more complex, though it never really seems to find any one particular high spot aromatically. It holds a nice line in the mouth, with a focused feel and just moderate sweetness levels. The acidity is there but is gently handled. There is some limpid viscosity that adds to a sensation of heavier weight from time to time, but otherwise it comes across as a decent Kabinett but one that could use a bit more pick-up or lift to make it anything more than that.
2001 Emrich-Schonleber Riesling Spatlese Monzinger Halenberg Nahe. Here we have a much more expressive wine all around. Overall, it is rather open and appealing aromatically--featuring fine kerosene and petrol aromas to go along with cherry, lemon custard, green pixie stick dust and exotic musky melon notes. Later on in the evening, exotic spices come in, along with lime zest, slate and honey notes to add further complexity. It ratchets up the sweetness in the mouth naturally, but also the depth of fruit and the feeling of lift and freshness are very good. It has a feel of solid drive and comes across with a lot of personality. The finish is just a touch sweeter than I might want, but otherwise this is a winning wine that we all went out and bought more of.
2006 Domaine Chiroulet Vin de Pays des Cotes de Gascogne La Cote d’Heux. 100% Gros Manseng. Initially, this is not a pretty wine at all. It opens with a funky stank, with some skunky aromas that combine strangely with notes of slate and composting vegetables. The funk recedes after a bout of aggressive swirling and the aromas turn crunchier—with big time lemon peel and some beeswax aromas really popping. It is easy to give up too early on this wine, and I’m glad we stuck with it for a few hours, though I never really could say I loved the bouquet. In the mouth, the wine has a decent entry but as it fans out across the tongue, it seems to turn rather metallic, with tinny botanical gin notes dominating. It is crispy and crunchy, herbal and minerally. It is peculiar for the most part, but it must be said that toward the end of the night it began to flesh out a bit and brought in some more fleshy, waxy yellow fruits to dampen the overt edginess. Not for everybody, that is for sure (including myself).
2005 Sebastien Roux Chassagne-Montrachet. Everything about this wine is a big ‘blah’. The nose is rather boring, with just some soft lemon peel, wet stone and wet wool notes that never really grow or change, even on day 2. In the mouth, it is a bit sour-tinged, with some white grapiness, bland citrus flavors and some sourball lemon accents. The finish is actually fairly long, but really has no charm or finesse or distinction. I opened it for my wife on day 2 and she said it smelled like it could disinfect a cut. We cooked with it.
2002 Domaine A.-F. Gros Vosne-Romanee Aux Reas. The bouquet of this Vosne-Romanee is extremely pretty, with tons of dark spices like nutmeg, allspice and pepper. There are also fine notes of red flowers, dried cherries and dark cranberries framed by scents of soft sandalwood. It really is a delightful concoction of aromas. It is a good deal less provocative in the mouth at this young age—coming across as quite dry and a bit uneven. It feels light or even a bit under-fruited on the mid-palate, but the flavors of dried cherries, dried cranberries and spices are married nicely to tart acidity. The fruit comes back a bit on the darker, richer finish, giving some hope that patience will be rewarded.
2004 Chehalem Pinot Noir Stoller Vineyard Dundee Hills. There was some positive chatter at the table about this wine, but I personally didn’t care much for it. The nose is all green leaves to begin with and then gets weirder as notes of drying airplane glue, Christmas ribbon candy, rhubarb and pink grapefruit enter the mix. In the mouth, it is nicely spicy, with some blackberry and blueberry fruit accented by cloves. There is abundant fruit, but it does not feel heavy at all and the finish is pretty luxuriant and brown spiced. However, there is also a squeaky waxy build-up kind of feel to the texture I find somehow off-putting. So, there are some nice elements here but not enough to overcome some of the oddities.
2005 Dain Wines Pinot Noir Dandy Brosseau Vineyard Chalone. This wine was showing awfully young and brawny. The nose is redolent with smoke, cola nut, sarsaparilla, soy, apple skin, scallion tips, ground spices and all kinds of black fruits. In the mouth, it is boisterous, with dark brambly berry fruit and chalky tannins in spades, but precious little finesse or charm. The texture is a bit rough and the fruit at times feels a bit syrupy. I really think this is way too young to open and suggest holding at least a few years.
1991 Paradigm Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. Ok, finally something to get really excited about besides perhaps the Emrich-Schonleber! Man, this is a good wine. It is still a deep, dark ruby color. The nose offers up aromas of crushed velvety dark berries, black cherry, soupy blueberries, deep earthy funk, tomato leaf and pretty menthol accents. Later, it folds in lovely notes of crushed gravel, cassis, dirt and an appealingly light touch of jalapeno pepper for accent. In the mouth, it is impressively youthful, with a solid tensile structure and plenty of body and layered fruit to drive it along. There is a fine sense of balance throughout. Flavors include tons of intense crème de cassis, along with some soft mint and earthy elements. Tannins feel totally integrated and the acidity is pretty soft, giving the wine a really approachable feel, but still allowing for plenty of gravitas. Notably, there is no let up over the course of the entire evening—indeed, if anything, it gets deeper and more complex the longer it airs out, feeling more distinctly characterful the longer one contemplates it. Easy wine of the night for everybody.
-Michael