An interesting brown bag tasting recently at a friend’s place. One of my regular groups, but our approach was different, as the theme was unusual – instead of a specific sort of wine (or, often, a wide open theme) the host had chosen to have people bring a wine that had some special connection for them with a member that had recently died – a sort of wine centric memorial to our friend.
2004 Guigal Condrieu – some nice floral fruit aromas, the wine quite elegant and reminding us more of a white Bordeaux than a Rhone. Drink now.
1995 Lopez Heredia Vina Tondonia Reserva – pale colour without much bricking, nose a tad simple with mature woody character, decent fruit and fair balance and length. This wine seemed much older than it was. Connection – our friend’s extended stay in Spain.
2003 Albert Bichot Pommard Clos des Ursulines – dark wine with a cherry nose and lots of tannin and fruit, much beefier than most Burgs, no doubt a result of the vintage. Smooth finish.
2002 Cedar Creek Pinot Noir Platinum – this was a BC pinot reserve bottling that showed no detectable resemblance to a pinto noir! Dark and clear, with a sweet slightly spicy nose, mellow with the tannins quite soft. Pleasant but not varietally true. Our friend had worked at a BC wine store and enjoyed this sort of wine.
1998 Dom. Santa Duc Gigondas Haut Garrigues – as our friend had been first and foremost a Rhone fan, it was surprising that it had taken this long for one to pop up. The nose was a bit hot (the wine was well over 15%), but also a bit reticent to show much and swirling was necessary before we could detect some berries and spice. Slightly drying at the end with soft tannins. This is a good wine. I opted to cellar the 1995 in preference to this vintage, but the 98 is also very good.
1998 Max Aubert Cairanne – it was now bizarre bottle time. The bottle had a painted label rather than paper and it was marked as Carpe Voluptatem. Cool furit nose with hint of metal, dark, sweet on palate and medium long. Interesting, and I’d like to know more about it as a google shows nothing to help. The wine was OK, but the bottle was puzzling. I gather the brand is Dom. de la Presidente but if so it was hidden among the art work on the unusual label.
1989 Ch. Poujeaux – this modest Moulis was on the down side. dark, with a salty sea air nose, a tad funky, still tannic but the fruit had abandoned it and it was one dimensional and ended with acidity alone. Connection – time spent in the area by our friend
2005 Ch. Pineraie ‘L’Authentique’ – this was a bottle of young Cahors I had bought from the winery with my friend last spring. I’d never have bought it out so young except for the theme. Dark purple with lots of up front deep fruit in the nose, hairy tannins, but soft indicate decent early drinking. Good length. The winery, now run by the 6th generation to make wine there, has a number of modestly priced wines that are killer value. We drank most of a case of their regular wine at about 7 Euros, but the L’Authentique is their top wine (E21) made from 100% old vines Malbec and is worth the difference!
2000 Ch. Pipeau (St. Emilion) – very nice young colour, medium body, fruit forward, pleasant with some tannin. Not for long hold.
2005 Dom. de Coutancie Rosette – I can add my personal note to this wine as I was there when it was bought. Rosette is a very small AOC near Bergerac and we decided to visit in a spirit of exploration as it is almost unknown outside of France. They make white wine (despite the name, no pink wine is made there) from Semillon, Sauvignon and Muscadelle. I ferreted out this winery as one of the ones to visit so we drove off into the rural area just north of the city of Bergerac in search of wine experience. The proprietors were typical farmers (although Dad had a nice new voiture out front – a flashy Audi, or Peugeot, I can’t recall which) and spoke only French, in which both my friend and I can get along. The wines are soft and have some RS, and while interesting, were no more than that. The degustation was held not in a tasting room, but in the family kitchen (Grandma had been expelled in favour of possibly rich foreigners) and we tasted through their range, which I believe also included the usual red Cotes de Bergerac. We got up to leave and the mistress of the house asked hw much wine we wanted to buy. I told my friend that I didn’t like any enough to buy it and he allowed as how we could get a couple of bottles to drink while we were in France. There ensued a bit of fuss when he was informed that they sold only by the case lot, but the usual “We are only allowed 2 bottles by customs” prevailed. We had one bottle with some foie gras and it showed very well, and the other came home to Canada.
Light in colour, this wine a year later showed a nose that definitely featured grapefruit. everything else, colour, mouth feel, finish, could be summed up by the word ‘thin’. We had obviously been lucky to escape with only a couple of bottles.
Our host, feeling that he could only puch the theme so far, decided to open a different bottle to finish the evening:
1988 Ch. Rieussec – medium amber colour, with botrytis and fig and nectarine nose, sweet and long in the mouth.. Great balance and length. Great way to finish as well.