It was Thursday and we got together a group with Jonathan Loesberg, Bob Semon, Cole Kendall, Cristian Dezso and myself. And some wine.
When I arrived they were already decanting the red wines but I thought it was appropriate to start pouring the ‘Gamble Wine’. Truth be told, I was suspicious of the 2000 Henri Gouges Bourgogne Pinot Blanc but I was hoping for some sort of Inspirational Massive Overachievement. Alas, that did not happen. But it was not dead and the spicy apple cider was more pleasing to some than others.
A more reliable wine was the 2001 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Émile, which showed firm chalky mineral fruit. As expected. As it warmed I found it to show more round ripe fruit than I expected but always in a rockin’ golden mineral package. Nice. But then again I don’t have much experience with CFE.
Moving to red wine, the 1990 Château de Pibarnon Bandol was fun at first. Quite rich and vibrant and easy to drink. I liked the first glass better than later glasses because once I started drinking the Clape this seemed blocky and goofy. But then I’m judging out of class.
There was a quick flirtation with the 1993 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape but it was deemed flawed for some reason. Bob seemed to think it was the inherent Mourvedre stink but Jonathan thought it was corked.
Either way, the Vieux Donjon was not as bad as the sour and over-the-hill 1993 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Luckily it was redeemed by the rockin-and-rollin’ 1994 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. At first I found this a bit too slutty and unstructured, but then it was pointed out to me that my palate has been warped by young Burgundy. And at that point I started to appreciate the seductive sweet finely-hued ripples of fruit. Seriously.
Prior to that, I had been enjoying the ripe yet firm 1995 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape. But truth be told, this probably does need more time to resolve its structure. Not that I have strong opinions about these wines. They were both fun.
Inspirational was the 1980 Clape Cornas which started off very sweet and very ripe and very youthful. With air some of the funky edges started showing but this was such a comfortable wine that it easily won the Thunderbird Prize.
Also impressive was the 1999 Clape Cornas, which was quite the contrast to the 1980 with more youthful purple fruit. But, it also seemed to be moving on to the next stage and showed some delicate florals to go along with the hard middle fruit. This may have been an ‘inbetween’ wine but it was fun fun to drink.
1990 Domaine de La Taille aux Loups Montlouis Cuvée des Loups was curiously golden brown but considering that color that it showed pretty fresh on the palate. Bob found buckwheat and all other sorts of breakfast cereal flavors. I found sweet honey and fresh acidity and I was not fully convinced but it was more straight down the line than the funky and weird 1979 Baumard Coteaux du Layon Clos Sainte Catherine which literally smelled like espresso by the time I got my pour. Others enjoyed the pungency and the ‘complexity’ but I went back to the red wines.
Either way, not a bad dinner… Not a bad dinner...