Dinner w/ Steve & Cornelia (8/18/09)
Usually when I arrive in Oakland, I meet up w/ SteveEdmunds and Oliver McCrum for lunch
at BayWolf. Because of our late arrival, Susan & I instead met up w/ Steve & Cornelia for
dinner that night at BayWolf. As is usually the case, the food was excellent...the company
even better. We had:
1. TablasCreek GrenacheBlanc (15.3%) 2005: Med.gold color; very strong gout de petrol/
minerally rather Riesling-like some nutty/old Rhone beautiful complex nose; tart minerally/
petrol/R-like rather nutty/toasted hazelnuts very minerally lovely flavor; very long/
lingering minerally/floral/petrol/R-like nutty/old Rhone complex finish; very much like
a minerally Riesling; lovely complex wine at a great price. $21.00
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2. SineQuaNon Backward & Forward WhiteWine (14.8%) 1998: Very strong oaked/toasty/toasted coconut
some old Rhone rather alcoholic nose; soft/fat/very ripe somewhat oxidized/nutty toasty oak/
toasted coconut/ZagNut bar some oldRhonish rather hot/alcoholic flavor; long very strong oaked/
toasty/toasted coconut nutty/oxidized finish; loads of toasty oak and alcoholic/overripe
character; time has not been kind to this wine. $80.00
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3. EdmundsStJohn LesCotesSauvage Calif RTW (13.5%; 51% Grenache/PaliniRanch; 14% Syrah/Durell&
Fenaughty; 30% Mourvedre/BrandlinRanch; 5% Carignan/Brandlin) 1993: Dark color w/ little
bricking; beautiful/complex Rhonish/very CdP/smokey/pungent very perfumed/aromatic nose; soft
complex roasted/smokey/pungent/Rhonish old CdP smooth old CdP flavor; very long smokey/pungent/
roasted/complex smooth/rich finish w/ light tannins; a beautiful/complex wine much like an older
CdP; drinking wonderfully; rich & powerful w/ no signs of going over the hill.
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4. EdmundsStJohn SonomaCnty Syrah (first DurellVnyd + CabFranc/Geyserville) 1986: Very dark color
w/ very little bricking; beautiful/complex smoky/pungent/espresso/coffee/roasted very Rhonish
nose; bit hard/tannic very strong Rhonish/smokey/pungent still young coffee/espresso very complex
flavor; very long/lingering smokey/pungent/roasted/espresso/mocha complex finish w/ a bit of tannic
bite in the backtaste; not exactly old CoteRotie but a beautiful/complex mature Calif Syrah.
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. VinoVessel: Steve was singing the praises of concrete fermentation tanks at dinner. They have
the porosity of wood, but the inertness of stailess steel. The vessels are made from concrete
and strengthened by stainless steel rebar. After they are moulded, they are filled with a
concentrated tartaric acid solution to render them inert. VinoVessel is a company that was
started in PasoRobles by a guy in the construction biz, Micah Utter, at the behest of the two
Beckett boys at PeachyCanyon. Steve has become their rep for NorCal
of his fermentors. The following day at WindGap w/ PaxMahle, he showed me the French-made
concrete fermentors that he uses. They were a dead-ringer for FatMan, with the fins on the
wrong end. Steve first became interested in concrete fermentations when he had the Domaine
StAnne wines, which are fermented in concrete. http://www.VinoVessel.com is their Site.
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2. R&G: For our last meal in town on Sunday after FamilyWinemakers, Susan & I dropped into
CafeRouge. Continuing the Nebb theme, I almost ordered the '01 Uvaggio Nebbiolo. But I
decided...what the heck....I want to drink something good for dinner. So the '05 Rocks&Gravel
it was. Went great w/ the TunaNicoise. When this wine was first released, it was on the light
and underwhelming side. But it has put on weight over the yrs and has really become quite a tasty
wine now. And should continue to age well for another 5 yrs or so. This wine was labeled by one
famous critic as "a low-brow Cotes de Rhone". Guess I just got low-brow tastes because I sure
loved this tasty wine.