Dinner at Connie and Leo Frokic's house yesterday. Lots of fun as usual with Leo and Connie's trademark hospitality and a delicious dinner making for a great time. And as usual there was an excess of wine - I didn't get notes on a few bottles, but we had a phenomenal spread with some real stunners.
2005 Domaine Carneros Brut by Taittinger
Starting sparkler, enjoyable although not particularly complex with bright, clear apple and citrus fruit flavours over some faint yeasty notes.
2002 Louis Jadot Beaune 1er Cru Grèves La Clos Blanc
Really tasty with lovely aromatics of honeysuckle, pear, lemon and faint chalky elements leading into a palate that feels incredibly refreshing with bright, fresh fruit flavours infused with rocks and chalk with bright acidity underneath.
2004 Louis Jadot Grands-Echezeaux
Gorgeous stuff; incredibly fragrant with cherries, black tea and earth dusted with baking spices and violets. So polished and elegant in the mouth with the fruit, earth and some faint herbal notes all merging together seamlessly and the tannin feeling surprisingly silky and gentle underneath. Yum! (Hard to believe it was this open and silken after Leo just popped and poured it.)
1995 JL Chave Hermitage
Unbelievable aromatics; a fragrance here that's so exotic and perfumed with pepper, lavender, mesquite smoke and all sorts of meaty, musky and leathery elements that it's hard to pull your nose out of the glass. Absolutely gorgeous in the mouth with vibrant red fruits and olives seamlessly blending with smoke, meat and pepper; despite the intensity and power of the flavours it's amazing how this seems to just float over the tongue with a gentle, velvety texture, and then a finish that just keeps going on and on. Spectacular (and a perfect match with Leo's pork ribs).
2001 Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon
Comes across as being years too young; packed with ripe cassis and plum flavours with a surprising green herbal element underneath and bright acidity giving it a sense of real freshness, but the flavours are still very tightly wound with firm tannins making themselves felt on the back end.
2003 Fattoria Petrolo Galatrona Toscana IGT
Mmm, Tuscan Merlot. Very young, but still really awesome with incredibly powerful aromatics of dark chocolate, black cherries, leather, herbs and violets. Very rich and concentrated in the mouth but the balance here is amazing; there's a sense of tremendous ripeness to the fruit but it never feels over the top, retaining a sense of freshness throughout with surprising acidity and savoury earthy and leathery flavours underneath, and firm tannins on the back end that only soften a little after a couple of hours in the decanter.
2005 Louis Jadot Morgon Château des Lumières
Really bright, pretty aromatics with lots of cherry, orange peel and spices and faint floral notes emerging with time. Very fresh and lively in the mouth with plenty of acidity, bright cherry and raspberry up front and some tarter citrus notes on the back end.
