Notes from a pot luck dinner with my usual blind tasting lunch group.
1997 Remoissenet Renommee Bourgogne Blanc – medium colour, nice lemony nose with hints of caramel, and a nice long clean finish. Purportedly a blend of declassified Puligny and Meursault. Very nice mature Burg at a bargain price.
Antech Cremant de Limoux 'Emotion' (nv) – soft pink bubbly for summer drinking, full and crisp with some decent yeastiness in the nose.
The next two wines were so different and yet both so interesting and were served with a wonderful lobster salad.
1999 Nigl Gruner Veltliner Privat Senftenberger Piri – great white pepper and pear nose had us all heading for the Rhone, though less usual in a white. Well made wine with good weight and fruit and a suave palate presentation that would shame many a white Burg. Long clean finish.
1996 Huet Vouvray sec Le Haut Lieu – I brought this because we had tasted a 2006 Lieu-dit recently and I wanted to show what age in a good vintage could do. Lemon yellow with a waxy grapefruit and floral nose and a bit of richer fruit underneath – hint of passion fruit? Great fruit in the mouth, a lemon cream confection that finished long and with great acidity. I surprised everyone by bringing this instead of my usual red.
2002 Louis Michel Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre – uplifted nose with some citrus – turned definitely to lemon with a bit of time, soft but balanced ending with a nice flush of clean acidity.
2004 Jadot Santenay Blanc Clos de Malte – similar colour to the Chablis, but the nose totally different with medium sweet oak and creamed corn (not my descriptor but very apt). Big mouth feel and excellent length and acidity. Performed above its pay grade.
1989 Talbot – the nose on this wine was very good- big, rich and mature, with hints of briar and green. Sweet on palate with lively acidity. No rush.
1986 Talbot – brought by chance by another participant. Excellent mature nose with some currant and vanilla, great balance, lots of stuffing, exceptional length, and the tannins now abated to a degree that makes it hard to argue for more cellar time. I am fortunate in having both vintages in my cellar, so far untouched!
1999 Tenuta Roccaccia Fontenova - an IGT all Sangiovese wine from Tuscany, with a big cocoa nose, sweet attack and slow clean retire. Very pleasant wine and one that I see from my cellar list is also residing (somewhere) in my cellar and I must search it out as it is drinking so well now.
2003 Quintarelli Primofiore - pepper in the nose, and a big entry with ripe fruit, and this ripeness is also the theme in midpalate, followed by a medium long finish.
1997 Joseph Swan Wolfspierre Vd. Sonoma Pinot Noir – I should preface this note by saying that I have sought out and enjoyed Swan’s wines for a couple of decades now, back into the interesting Zinfandels from the 70s, assorted cabs and chards, and the odd Pinot Noir. Which nicely brings me to the wine at hand, because this Pinot Noir was very odd indeed! A dark wine with a sweet minty nose that had us thinking Australia, some raspberry in the nose, but on palate oddly disjointed and totally un-Pinot like. This wasn’t (IMHO) good, though it wasn’t a bad wine, it was just a very strange wine that made you wonder what (or if) the winemaker had been thinking. Great for blind tastings, as other than the hint of raspberry, there was zero clue as to varietal.
