WTNs: Dinner wines
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2014 10:11 pmMy wife and I were invited to another couple’s house for dinner recently and enjoyed some really inventive dishes and several excellent wines with them.
NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. This is broad and generous on the nose, but also a bit spiky and minerally—showing fine and elegant aromas of dried red flowers, strawberries, graphite and white pepper. In the mouth, it’s fresh, vibrant and crunchy, with taut but giving flavors of strawberries, cherries and minerals. It has a certain elegance I like, but it also delivers a solid punch of crisp flavor. It was emptied pretty quickly with our appetizers.
1997 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru. Here one encounters rounded aromas of hazelnuts, butterscotch, verbena tea, minerals and yellow tropical fruits. In the mouth, it features an oily glycerin texture that carries full and generous flavors of lemon ball, Brazil nut, butterscotch, caramel and stone. It has good length and easy flow supported by quiet acidity. It’s a fun pairing with the roasted squash and apple soup.
2006 Doña Paula Malbec Selección de Bodega Mendoza. This wine has an exotic and sexy personality on the nose—highlighted by aromas of cedar, eucalyptus, cassis, red currants, Asian spices and incense. It’s plush and dense but in no way over the top on the palate, showing good lift to what are otherwise rich and creamy flavors of dark cherries, black currants and dark earth. It has impressive purity, solid structure and was drinking very well with our wood-grilled goat loin.
2008 Inniskillin Vidal Icewine Niagara Peninsula. With dessert, we tackled this 375 ml bottle, which shows off fun aromas of lychees, orange blossoms, honeysuckle, apricots and toasty spices. In the mouth, it has very impressive energy and lift to carry along the rich and thick apricot paste, peach juice, pineapple and exotic spice flavors. It tingles on the long and luscious finish, leaving me wanting another glass.
-Michael
NV Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé. This is broad and generous on the nose, but also a bit spiky and minerally—showing fine and elegant aromas of dried red flowers, strawberries, graphite and white pepper. In the mouth, it’s fresh, vibrant and crunchy, with taut but giving flavors of strawberries, cherries and minerals. It has a certain elegance I like, but it also delivers a solid punch of crisp flavor. It was emptied pretty quickly with our appetizers.
1997 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru. Here one encounters rounded aromas of hazelnuts, butterscotch, verbena tea, minerals and yellow tropical fruits. In the mouth, it features an oily glycerin texture that carries full and generous flavors of lemon ball, Brazil nut, butterscotch, caramel and stone. It has good length and easy flow supported by quiet acidity. It’s a fun pairing with the roasted squash and apple soup.
2006 Doña Paula Malbec Selección de Bodega Mendoza. This wine has an exotic and sexy personality on the nose—highlighted by aromas of cedar, eucalyptus, cassis, red currants, Asian spices and incense. It’s plush and dense but in no way over the top on the palate, showing good lift to what are otherwise rich and creamy flavors of dark cherries, black currants and dark earth. It has impressive purity, solid structure and was drinking very well with our wood-grilled goat loin.
2008 Inniskillin Vidal Icewine Niagara Peninsula. With dessert, we tackled this 375 ml bottle, which shows off fun aromas of lychees, orange blossoms, honeysuckle, apricots and toasty spices. In the mouth, it has very impressive energy and lift to carry along the rich and thick apricot paste, peach juice, pineapple and exotic spice flavors. It tingles on the long and luscious finish, leaving me wanting another glass.
-Michael