My friend Zach invited a bunch of folks to his place near Mt. Snow Vermont to drink some wine and eat some Flannery steaks last month. Most folks couldn’t come up until Saturday, but a few of us decided to get things started Friday night. I arrived Friday late afternoon to find Jordan and Zach hanging out. Eventually, Tyler arrived and we ordered up some pizzas and drank some wines.
1996 Kalin Cellars Semillon Livermore Valley. The appearance of this bottle was certainly a bit questionable--with a big flat piece of what looks like crunchy creme brulee topping floating around the bottom and a whispery cloud-like loogie wafting around through the middle. It was poured with some trepidation, but there was no need to fear. The wine offers up aromas of white peach, brown sugar, kiwi, pineapple, lanolin, meringue, wet wool, chalk and crushed gravel stones. In the mouth, it presents a somewhat sweet entry and mid-palate but a dry finish. It has a slightly waxy texture, and a thick feel through the mid-palate, with a decent sense of bass note. Otherwise, it is medium-bodied, with decent length and some nice acidity bubbling up on the chalky, dusty finish. This is a wine with a lot of character and is a good deal of fun to drink.
1993 Hubert de Montille Volnay 1er Cru Champans. This wine doesn’t smell very appealing upon opening but does sort of come around a tiny bit after about an hour or so. It has aromas of cranberry mince, sassafras, aloe, fur and black cherry, but the totality just isn’t that enjoyable. In the mouth, it is totally austere and sharp-edged on the entry. It opens up a little through the middle, with some sweet black cherry fruit and dank earth flavors, but it returns to being brutally austere on the clamped down and sharply acidic finish. Overall, it is badly under-fruited, overly tannic and frighteningly acidic.
1996 Ristow Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Quinta de Pedras Vineyard Napa Valley. This opens with a dense, perhaps reductive cassis note on the nose, followed by aromas of menthol, jalapeno, tomato paste and charred wood. It is really dense and after a while it just has too much of a heavy-duty stewed black raspberry and roasted dark cherry profile coming forward. In the mouth, it is really full-bodied and chewy-textured, with thick, fuzzy tannins in abundance. It features flavors of chocolate and black currant, along with plenty of wood notes, green pepper and stewed tomato. It shares a lot of characteristics with the 1997, but that wine is a lot cleaner and despite the tannins has a much nicer fruit profile. This one is a disappointment.
2002 L’Aventure Estate Cuvee Paso Robles. This wine is 50% Syrah, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petite Sirah, and it weighs in at 15.9% abv. It is very dark purple-violet in color. It totally coats the inside of the glass with ridiculous amounts of glycerin. It offers up a rather unique bouquet that sends out waves of aromas like truffled chocolate, blueberry pop-tart filling and boysenberry syrup but also classic smoky meat and game notes that layer in and around all of those sweeter tones. It is really silky-smooth in the mouth, with a vivid intensity. The warm and tangy berry fruit and spiced plum flavors are right out there in front, but hiding the alcohol content well. It has very good drive and persistence, with a fine juiciness. I like its unique character and its drinkability right now, but I think it can still improve some more with time in the cellar.
2005 Lillian Winery Syrah California. This young wine is another glass-stainer. Putting it up to your nose, it just smells dense and thick—featuring aromas of raw brownie batter, sweet boysenberry jam and fireplace embers. It starts to fold in aromas of fine perfume, velvety crushed fruit and vanilla after a while, as well. There is also a persistent note of something like dusty rubber band that I like less than the rest of the very engaging profile. In the mouth, it shows a lot of confectionary sweetness to the creamy blend of fruit sensations. It is very deep and full-bodied, but also very appealingly glossy and rounded in texture. The tannins are extremely polished and rounded and actually never seem to interfere with the enjoyment of the wine. It manages to almost seem light on its feet despite the absolute density of fruit it possesses. It is an impressive effort now, and should really shine in about 5 years.
2006 Sine Qua Non Syrah Raven Series California. The Raven offers up all kinds of big aromatics--including graphite, wild blueberries, toasted stems, fresh ground pepper, fleshy blue and purple berries and rich classy mocha paste. It is a big and mouth-filling glass of wine, with massive intensity but fantastic purity and refined smoothness. It has weight and is clearly an expansive and fanned out wine, yet it never loses focus, keeping all of the balls in the air somehow. The tangy black cherry and black raspberry fruit flavors are lovely and are complemented by some white pepper spice and smoky wood notes. It may have just a bit of youthful warmth on the finish, but otherwise this stays suave and full all the way through. More time will help, but I could happily drink more tomorrow.
That took care of night number one. After a fitful night of sleep, we were nonetheless up for more the next day. At about 11:30 in the morning on Saturday, the first cork of day number two was popped…
N.V. Bollinger Champagne Special Cuvee Brut. Notes of yellow apple, yeast, cherry skins, faint gunpowder and lemon rind compromise the aromas on the nose. On the palate, it is solid and direct, but also with very good cut and defined edges. The apple fruit, minerality and toasty bread notes are fresh, clean and refreshing. The fine-tuned finish completes the nice enjoyable package.
1996 A.R. Lenoble Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru. The nose here is a bit straightforward, but it does give some decent notes of chalk, wet stones, grapefruit and a bit of honeycomb. The pear, honey, grapefruit and pineapple flavors are nice, but the wine has an add vinyl kind of texture to it, feeling matted and sticky against the upper lip and teeth. That aspect really detracts for me from what otherwise is an enjoyable flavor package.
1996 J. Lassalle Champagne Brut 1er Cru Special Club. This is aromatically lovely, with fine ginger ale, yellow apple and ripe peach fuzz scents in full flower. In the mouth, I really like the layered feel to the mellow fruit that this presents. The acidity is on the soft side for sure, giving the wine an easy, languid feel. Yellow fruits and caramel flavors fan out through the mid-palate and again have easy flow and rounded character. The wine has persistent levels of flavor, but suffers from too little lift on the finish. I like this a lot but suggest drinking up soon.
A heaping pile of Alaskan crab legs and littleneck clams found their way to the table, and more whites were opened.
2002 Chéreau-Carré Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie Château de Chasseloir. The nose here is fairly quiet, with some light sprinklings of briny sea stones, fennel, lime pith and peach aromas. In the mouth, it shows a light touch of tangy flavors of grapefruit, pineapple and lemon/lime, but also a ton of drying acidity that makes the mouth pucker and wince. There is not much pleasure to be found here and the wine seems tired and past its prime.
2005 Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie Vieilles Vignes Clos des Briords. In comparison, the aromas of sweet chalk, clean river rocks, green melon and white pepper associate with this Muscadet are crystalline clear and tightly-coiled. It is lively and spry on the entry, but settles down in the middle to reveal a lithe, chalky texture with tensile body and overall feel. Its stays tight-knit, but with giving flavors of smoky pear and lemon curd filling the mouth nicely. It opens up as it warms and puts on more weight, taking on more of a leesy character with tons of stuffing. It has great balance and decent length at this point, but is young and needs time to unwind some more.
2004 Ramey Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard Napa Valley Carneros. In classic Ramey fashion, this is showing a green tint to the rich yellow color. It smells of crushed white gravel, hazelnuts, rich pear, lemon curd and fine grained soft oak. It has a big, candied sweet entry, featuring lemon drop candy, hazelnuts and something like honey-glazed apricot tart flavors. It has a certain brightness to it, with a leesy texture and an increasingly tangy fruit profile through the middle. It is fairly thick-textured and sweet, but features just enough cut of acidity to manage any excesses. It finishes with great length and persistence, which really takes it up another level. Interestingly, it actually did quite well with the seafood, which I wasn’t expecting.
2005 Dr. Loosen Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett Mosel Saar Ruwer. This wine shows a lot of spritz in the glass upon first pouring. It throws out a strong bouquet of blue slate, smoke, and peach, along with a faint note of gasoline rag. In the mouth, it is sweeter than I expected, with a lot of rich flavors of sweet peach, candied grapefruit, apple flesh and dried pineapple. It is lusciously-fruited and softer than I might like for the food, but it keeps things interesting with fine smoke and slate accents throughout.
At this point, folks were definitely itching for some reds…
2005 Bouchard Pere et Fils Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Clos St. Marc. The nose here presents aromas of cranberries, raspberries and melted chocolate, but also young toasty oak and browned stem notes. In the mouth, it has lots and lots of juicy, mostly-black fruit that is quite intense but also clearly young, rough-hewn and raw. Generous but fuzzy-soft tannins are right out front and obvious, but so too is the massive amount of raw fruit material this wine has to work with while resting in the cellar for at least another 5-7 years.
1994 Flora Springs Trilogy Napa Valley. This was served from our first magnum of the day. The cork was spongy and pretty well-soaked, but the wine seemed largely unharmed, though perhaps more evolved than expected from this bottle format. Aromatically, the wine is dusty, softly red-fruited and gently-spiced, with notes of sweet prune, dried cherry, soft creosote and cooler herbal elements. It fills the mouth nicely with lots of warm, fuzzy, almost leesy red fruit that flows right along in a mid-weight package. It can come across as a bit rustic at times, and certainly resolved of tannins, but it maintains a quiet oomph through to the tangy finish featuring warm red cherries, dusty oak and caramel notes. It is hard to say whether this bottle was prematurely aged, but if it is representative at all, I would suggest drinking up 750 ml bottles soon to maximize enjoyment.
1998 Wolf Blass Cabernet Sauvignon Jimmy Watson Trophy “Black Label” Barossa Valley. This wine opens with a huge hit of eucalyptus on the nose, but also soon folds in aromas of deep black cherries, spiced raspberries, and sweet oak dust that combine in an appealing and engaging fashion. On the palate, this is a thick-styled Cabernet, with a cashmere texture. The fruit is luscious, but also vibrantly lively. Warm cassis flavors are accented by a big dose of oak and sweet creosote. The wine plays out in the mid-range of its level, without much of a bass note. But it flows right along nicely and provides the taster with a pleasantly juicy finish, with just a hint of soft tannin in play.
1995 Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red Napa Valley. The nose of this wine is cool, dark, refined and glossy, with aromas of black fruit, dark earth, patent leather, cool incense and menthol that are still fairly tightly-coiled even after 4 to 5 hours in the decanter. In the mouth, this again comes across as cool, dark, glossy and youthful. Nice flavors of black currant, blackberry, dark chocolate pudding, rich mocha and earth are framed by plenty of fine-grained tannins. It is full and rich, but lithe and polished. Still, it seems to be holding something back and will likely be better in a few more years.
1991 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve Napa Valley. This one was served from magnum and had been decanted about 9 hours earlier. The color is darker and more lively than the 1993 served from 750 ml. alongside it. The very nice nose is fresh and lively, with sweet glossy raspberry, fine saddle leather and clean earth. In the mouth, this has wonderful weight, with cashmere tannins and good persistent fruit. Black fruit and chocolate flavors are accompanied by spiced plum notes. It is not quite as warmly engaging as the 1993, but it is still approachable and drinking well.
1993 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve Napa Valley. The 1993 presents a red-fruited nose featuring aromas of currant, cherry, fresh strawberry, spicy leather, and a bit of tobacco in a very fine mix. It is also very nice in the mouth, with great flavors of cassis, cherry and raspberry. It has mellow tannins and soft, giving acidity. It has good lift and is finely balanced all around. The finish is layered and luxuriant but level and contained. This is just a nice, classically aged California Cabernet and one of my favorites of the weekend.
1995 Venge Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Family Reserve Napa Valley. Aromatically, this exhibits a lot of sweaty saddle leather, wild berries, rawhide, and ashy oak in a bright but gently aged package. In the mouth, it has a silky smooth texture to go with a fleshy, warm-fruited profile. At times, though, it veers into a strong cough medicine sort of thing that detracts from it a good deal. It finishes with a kick of grainy oak and chalky tannins. It was definitely a polarizing wine, with a few strong haters and a few who thought it was outright flawed.
2000 Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon Cinq Cepages Sonoma County. Smoke, graphite, oak, ash, lava rocks and blackcurrant aromas are cool and earthy, with a deeper pool of creosote and spiced blackberry. It is rather grainy-textured and obviously oaked in the mouth. It is coarse and inelegant relative to some of the other Cabernets served alongside it. It shows a bit of heat in between the black fruit and ashy smoke, as well. It’s just not very good.
2001 Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. There is a really refined, pedigreed nose here featuring glossy blackberry fruit and a bit of incense in a cool and reserved package that also gives hints of sweeter spiced fruitcake welling up from below. In the mouth, the wine is glossy and silky, growing in depth and intensity as it flows beautifully across the palate. It has a sexy, creamy density and layering of spiced plums, blackberries and fine spices. It turns just a bit chunkier and more tannic toward the finish, but overall this is one classy and fine-drinking Cabernet—my wine of the night.
1999 David Arthur Cabernet Sauvignon Elevation 1147 Napa Valley. Served from magnum. This wine opens up on the surprisingly thin and crisp side on the nose, with aromas of smoky green pepper skins, tomato leaf and cool fruit in a lifted, airy package. It has a narrow entry but thankfully fans out and fleshes up through the mid-palate. It has a tingly fresh finish, but on occasion it seems oddly flattened out before once again finding its footing. Tannins do grow pretty significant over time, so maybe it is best to hold this and see if it finds steadier ground.
1997 Cardinale Red Wine Napa Valley. Served from magnum. This wine is decidedly sexier and more velvety on the nose than the David Arthur, with a soft, luxuriant character framing warm spiced cherry and raspberry fruit. Classy melted chocolate and loads of creamy cherry and vanilla flavors rise easily above the fuzzy tannins that are clearly in play here. The tingly, juicy finish demonstrates fine lift, even as the tannins grow ever stronger over time. For some reason, I got the sense that I was liking this wine more than most drinkers, though. I would say that I prefer the 1999 Cardinale, but I’m happy to drink this, for sure.
2006 Sine Qua Non Grenache Raven Series California. Super-sweet kirsch, white pepper, and physical therapy rubber band aromas combine in a flamboyant and typically Grenache bouquet here. This wine is extremely creamy, smooth and polished, while also being massively concentrated. Wild berries, spice rack flavors, blackberry and kirsch flavors are young and full, but easily-balanced. There are no hard edges here at all, but the wine will age effortlessly. I do prefer the Raven Syrah, however.
2001 Shafer Relentless Napa Valley. Aromas of black electrical tape, meaty thick prunes and stemmy boysenberries combine in an odd melange that is just not very appealing to me. In the mouth, this is a monster wine, with a huge amount of alcohol, acids and tannin poking through all over the place and punishing my palate at this point in the evening. It is like a wall of pain surrounding a hidden fountain of blackberry, black currant and dark chocolate. It is disjointed, tough and rough, and is a huge disappointment after wonderful bottles of the 1999 and 2000 over the last few years. I doubt somehow that this will ever be their equal, even with substantial cellar time.
2006 Scholium Project Gardens of Babylon Tenbrink Vineyards Suisan Valley. This young wine smells massive and exotic right from the start, showing off strong aromas of sweet boysenberries, wild blueberries, pen ink and an unusual hint of vinyl. In the mouth, this has about as intense a density of fruit as you can get. Wild briery berries, chocolate and a blast of alcohol that somehow seems at home here combine in a large-boned and full-bodied package. It is obviously young and massively-bodied, but it somehow tones itself down on the finish, where the tannins and alcohol seem to abate and a sense of balance is restored. The wine is more reserved on Days 2 and 3, but is still too searingly intense for me to recommend drinking it anytime before 4 to 7 years have passed.
1990 Chateau Gruaud Larose St. Julien. Some people were calling this corked but I think it was just rather funky with musky leather, lavender soap, hard-cased luggage, pan drippings and minced cranberry aromas. In the mouth, this is leathery, sweaty and spicy. It is medium-weighted, with a freshening acidic twang leading to a dry finish featuring flavors of cranberry and burnt bacon bits and with abundant fine-grained tannins and woody elements hanging on. It never really fans out or finds a second gear, though, so either it is still young or perhaps it did have a bit of TCA tamping it down. I was hoping for a bit more, really.
1994 Graham Vintage Porto. Aromas of spiced cherries and dates are sweet and warm. It is the same story on the palate, with a lot of spices leading the charge. There’s good persistence all the way through and it features a nice easy finish without too much spirit character cutting in. A nice way to finish the weekend.
Overall, the company was great, the food delicious and the early-morning wake up call on Sunday to get home in time for my daughters’ gymnastics show utterly brutal. I hope we can do something like it again soon!
-Michael