A beautiful Saturday and a friend and I head over to Solano Cellars for a winetasting with all sorts of European winemakers. Glass in hand, we head over to the first barrel for a taste of chardonnay from the northern tip of the Côte de Nuits in Burgundy, specifically the 2006 Audoin Marsannay and though the winemaker touted 2006 as a very good year with richness balanced by good acid, I didn't find much about this wine to taste—lightly salty and scant flavor, light kiss of vanilla. The wine tasted pretty flat and even talking with the winemaker I couldn't get a sense of if the wine is shut down or going through a phase—but right now its pretty boring. Much more lovely was a light and fresh pinot noir rosé, the 2007 Audoin Marsannay Rosé which smelled of fresh berries and tasted a bit neutral, reserved, tad sweet and rounded with a spicy finish. Nice and tender. Onto the full pinot noir with the 2005 Audoin Marsannay Demoiselles had a light and pretty boring nose and tasted blunt and bare. Perhaps closed? Finish was promising until it turned heavy and puckering. Pass.
More promising things seemed to come from the next producer and back to chardonnay from a bit further south in the Mâconnais with the 2006 Domaine de Lalande Pouilly-Fuissé which smelled oaky and a tiny bit green but tasted subdued but still full fruit, tight spice and a somewhat elegant finish. Tart, chewy, and spicy, there was at least some meat on the bone here. The 2007 Domaine Lalande (Dominique Cornin) Mâcon-Chaintré had a very likable floral/herbal nose and tasted silky smooth with some light skins and ethereal and elegant. Now things are getting interesting! The 2007 Domaine Lalande (Dominique Cornin) Pouilly-Fuissé Clos Reyssié smelled more of clay and had an over-the-top nose, lovely mouthfeel, very enticing, light delicate flavors which were promising, but too oaky on the finish for my tastes. Promising if that were to integrate, as the flavors within this wine were mighty impressive.
Up some stairs to try some gamay from beaujolais, starting with the 2006 Paul Janin et Fils Beaujolais-Villages Domaine des Vignes des Jumeaux which had a very obvious nose of floral and heavy fruit and tasted soft, very fruity, thick and rich. Way richer and thicker than the beaujolais I've learned to love so far. More to my tastes was the 2006 Paul Janin et Fils Moulin-à-Vent Domaine des Vignes des Jumeaux with a lighter and more interesting nose and a lighter mouthfeel, but the taste was a bit sweeter and nothing about this wine grabbed me. It seemed like there was some structure I could like and I noted the heavier tannins on the finish, but nothing that grabbed my attention.
Worked our way through the crowd onto the Rhône for a bit. First up was a white northern Rhône blend of 60 percent roussane and 40 percent marsanne I was excited to try as I have little experience there. The nose of the 2007 Gilles Robin Crozes-Hermitage Les Marelles was pretty awesome—smelled grey, smelled like a cloudy day. Pretty cool. Tastes a bit buttery and a bit fatty, but spicy, rich, and integrated. What a fantastic way to deal with richness. Light and precise on the finish, this was one of my favorites of the day. Onto the syrah from the northern Rhône with the 2007 Gilles Robin Crozes-Hermitage Papillon, which had a combination of a full-on attack on the nose combined with a more delicate aromatic underbelly. Pretty neat. As for the taste, it was neat, but don't think I could really drink a whole lot of it—it tasted like rich herbal rope. Every sip I had reminded me of rope. Pretty neat, but not my thing. Next up was a syrah from vines planted in 1915 and 1916, the 2006 Gilles Robin Crozes-Hermitage Cuvée Albéric Bouvet with an intense herbal over-the-top nose and taste rich concentration, lots of velvet, very intense. Probably too intense for my tastes.
Staying in the Rhône but onto another producer, starting with a viognier from the northern Rhône, the nose of the 2007 Domaine Georges Vernay Condrieu Les Chaillées de l'Enfer was stunningly different. Herbal butter, herbal remedy, blue cheese, tangerine—wow, I hung around chatting with winemaker just sniffing the wine before I ever took a taste. The taste was a delicate saltiness, a middle ground between precision and fatness, elegant, reserved, really impressive stuff. The wine of the tasting for me. The 2007 Domaine Georges Vernay Condrieu Coteau de Vernon had more of a hay and blueberry nose that reminded me a bit more of rielsing. Lighter, perhaps a bit more precise, but the alcohol showing a bit more here—didn't show at all in the last one. Back to syrah for some 2007 Domaine Georges Vernay Côtes du Rhône Sainte-Agathe with more bramble and soap to the nose. The taste seemed less balanced, intensely sweet at first, but then shifting to a more interesting intense fruity base with featherly overlapping elements. Some interesting things going on here, but my attention was diverted by conversation for the moment. A rinse and more intense concentration on the 2007 Domaine Georges Vernay St. Joseph, which I found again brambly in the nose, but beautifully softly integrated with really neat less than ripe kumquat flavors, light and fresh, really tasty stuff—and very easy to drink.
Onto southwestern France for some old skool malbec, starting with the 2005 Château du Cèdre Cahors Le Prestige which had 5 percent merlot and 5 percent tannat blended in as well. The nose was black licorice, and the taste was lighter than I expected, with combinations of fruity and savory elements, bit weedy, bit rich, but without any sweetness. I really liked the ways elements of the wine played off one another. Back to the serious stuff with the flagship 2004 Château du Cèdre Cahors Le Cèdre, which was more floral, fragrant, and expressive. The taste was very firm, concentrated, finely tuned, tannic, and intense. This is no standing cocktail party wine. This wine demands a table and a meal. I liked it quite a bit.
No winemaker (stuck in an airport somewhere or something), so the importer poured the next set, starting with the 2005 Viñas del Cámbrico Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León 575 Uvas, supposed named after the 575 grapes it takes to fill a bottle. It was a blend of tempranillo and calabrés, I think. Licorice and glue made for a less than appealing nose, but the warm rich spice and darkness of the taste made for a nice concentrated wine. I could definitely enjoy a glass. It seemed like a good likable restaurant wine. The 2004 Viñas del Cámbrico Rufete, on other hand, was made from the new-to-me rufete grape from north-central Spain, supposedly brought there by burgundians in the fifteenth century. Again with this smell of glue, the taste was very soft, very bare spice, light tannins, a sweet cream soda was what my friend noted and I agreed. Nothing of interest to me at all. No more promising was the 2004 Viñas del Cámbrico Tempranillo, which smelled funky and hot. Tastes sweet, uninteresting, and had nothing to say except that it had some weird tannins. I didn't care for this altogether.
The winemaker had fled from the last table (evidently roaming about town with a coworker of mine, I found out later) so the pouring duties were mine for the Portuguese beauties. Just when I thought that my palate might be on the downswing and my evaluations less useful, the 2006 Niepoort Douro Twisted brought order back to my universe. Wonderful dried raisins on the nose with awesome balance, and taste both light and thick, dry, precise, sweet raisin, it was one of those multidimensional wines I love—one of my favorites for the day. The N.V. Niepoort Porto Tawny smelled even more intense of sweet raisins, and tasted easygoing with nice sweet, nice light acid, a tint of rust, very drinkable indeed. Finally, (phew) the 1995 Niepoort Porto Colheita had a nose with a light touch of heat and slight spice and tasted lightly sweet, great plums, indian spices, wonderful rust, this was a wonderful wonderful wine.
And then it was off to Oakland for some Korean cuisine to nurse me back to health.