The place for all things wine, focused on serious wine discussions.

WTN: Five Recent Wines

Moderators: Jenise, Robin Garr, David M. Bueker

no avatar
User

wrcstl

Rank

Wine guru

Posts

881

Joined

Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:20 pm

Location

St. Louis

WTN: Five Recent Wines

by wrcstl » Mon Dec 04, 2006 2:27 pm

After an afternoon of wine shopping in NYC and with roasted root veggies and stove top sauteed salmon.

<b>'05 Terres Dorees (J-P Brun) Beaujolais VV</b>: Beautiful balance and mouth filling fruit and a med to long finish. What a Beaujolais should taste like. Buy this every year but in general, even though a good honest wine, I have found it somewhat thin. The '05 was a bigger wine and a great drink. Just ordered more from CSW

<b>'98 Lopez Heredia Rioja Bosconia Res</b>: Another great wine and nice match for the salmon. The producer releases the wine when he thinks it is ready and the '98 is the current release. I am not a Spanish expert and many times shy away in fear of oak. The wine was perfectly balanced and ready to drink. The oak was barely detectible and fully integrated. Soft Tempranillo dark cherry fruit, barely present tannins and a wine to sit back and enjoy with many medium bodied foods. The wine store said to decant this wine and it would have a long life. I did not see any reason to decant and even though it may go on for several more years it is hard to see it getting that much better. Opened one bottle with the salmon and my second bottle three days later with Brie Cheese. Ordered more today.

At a local restaurant with friends.

<b>'98 Volnay Taille-Pied Ballot</b>(think that is the producer): My last bottle and my friend brought a CA Pinot. The Volnay was soft, light bodied, easy to drink with a somewhat short finish. The wine was nice and cerebral but a good match for the bold '03 PN. Hard to believe they are the same grape.

If you haven't heard those of us in the midwest spent a weekend with ice storms and praying the electricity would not go off. Had two friends over for dinner who had no electricity, one spent the night and we had to russle up some grub. As they arrived pulled homemade bread from the oven, had bought some smoked salmon, soft Brie and dry packed scallops.

<b>'79 Latour</b>: One person said it was warmer in her cellar at 55 degrees than in the house at 45 degrees so while warming up stumbled onto a nice litte Bordeaux. What can you say. The thing most memorable was the nose, so huge you could smell it across the room. Latour ages for ever but the '79 was fully develped and just a great Bordeaux. Didn't spend enough time with this wine as I was preparing dinner but remembered medium bodied, fully evolved, almost a sweet fruit and, OH, did I say a fantastic Bordeaux nose. Sometimes the bouquet can be 50% of the enjoyment.

<b>'97 Pinon Traditional</b>: Haven't had one of these for 5 years. Golden color, sweetness that turned to honeyed melon with mineral overtones and on the palate a very smooth and rounded wine. Great match for the scallops and much better than when released. Expect another 3-5 years but not sure this is one for the ages.
Walt
no avatar
User

Rahsaan

Rank

Wild and Crazy Guy

Posts

9216

Joined

Tue Mar 28, 2006 8:20 pm

Location

New York, NY

Re: WTN: Five Recent Wines

by Rahsaan » Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:23 pm

wrcstl wrote:<b>'98 Lopez Heredia Rioja Bosconia Res</b>: Another great wine and nice match for the salmon. The producer releases the wine when he thinks it is ready and the '98 is the current release. I am not a Spanish expert and many times shy away in fear of oak. The wine was perfectly balanced and ready to drink. The oak was barely detectible and fully integrated. Soft Tempranillo dark cherry fruit, barely present tannins and a wine to sit back and enjoy with many medium bodied foods. The wine store said to decant this wine and it would have a long life. I did not see any reason to decant and even though it may go on for several more years it is hard to see it getting that much better. Opened one bottle with the salmon and my second bottle three days later with Brie Cheese. Ordered more today.


Glad you enjoyed it. Mine was a bit thin and sour. Bottle variation I suppose.
no avatar
User

wrcstl

Rank

Wine guru

Posts

881

Joined

Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:20 pm

Location

St. Louis

Re: WTN: Five Recent Wines

by wrcstl » Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:03 pm

Rahsaan wrote:
wrcstl wrote:<b>'98 Lopez Heredia Rioja Bosconia Res</b>: Another great wine and nice match for the salmon. The producer releases the wine when he thinks it is ready and the '98 is the current release. I am not a Spanish expert and many times shy away in fear of oak. The wine was perfectly balanced and ready to drink. The oak was barely detectible and fully integrated. Soft Tempranillo dark cherry fruit, barely present tannins and a wine to sit back and enjoy with many medium bodied foods. The wine store said to decant this wine and it would have a long life. I did not see any reason to decant and even though it may go on for several more years it is hard to see it getting that much better. Opened one bottle with the salmon and my second bottle three days later with Brie Cheese. Ordered more today.


Glad you enjoyed it. Mine was a bit thin and sour. Bottle variation I suppose.


Rahsaan,
A bit thin might be a fair statement as I thought it to be light to medium in body but sour it was not. Both bottles were very nice although not in need of decanting. I was expecting a much bigger wine but was not at all dissapointed. Order by phone 5 more bottles plus 7 of the Brun.
Walt
no avatar
User

Mark S

Rank

Wine guru

Posts

1174

Joined

Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:28 pm

Location

CNY

Re: WTN: Five Recent Wines

by Mark S » Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:44 pm

wrcstl wrote:<b>'98 Lopez Heredia Rioja Bosconia Res</b>: Another great wine and nice match for the salmon. The producer releases the wine when he thinks it is ready and the '98 is the current release. I am not a Spanish expert and many times shy away in fear of oak. The wine was perfectly balanced and ready to drink. The oak was barely detectible and fully integrated. Soft Tempranillo dark cherry fruit, barely present tannins and a wine to sit back and enjoy with many medium bodied foods. The wine store said to decant this wine and it would have a long life. I did not see any reason to decant and even though it may go on for several more years it is hard to see it getting that much better. Opened one bottle with the salmon and my second bottle three days later with Brie Cheese. Ordered more today.



Walt, this would have been decent by itself (I would have graded it a 'B'), but against the 1996 it loses. See if you can find any of that year's Bosconia and I am sure you'll enjoy it even more.
no avatar
User

JC (NC)

Rank

Lifelong Learner

Posts

6679

Joined

Mon Mar 27, 2006 12:23 pm

Location

Fayetteville, NC

Re: WTN: Five Recent Wines

by JC (NC) » Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:04 pm

I'm grateful for your notes, especially on the '79 Latour which I will probably never smell in person. I do have a '98 Rioja Reserva (from Heredad Baroja) and may try it soon. I may be able to purchase more if I find it to my liking and ready to drink. (I also have a '94--maybe I should open that before the '98.)
no avatar
User

wrcstl

Rank

Wine guru

Posts

881

Joined

Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:20 pm

Location

St. Louis

Re: WTN: Five Recent Wines

by wrcstl » Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:14 pm

JC (NC) wrote:I'm grateful for your notes, especially on the '79 Latour which I will probably never smell in person. I do have a '98 Rioja Reserva (from Heredad Baroja) and may try it soon. I may be able to purchase more if I find it to my liking and ready to drink. (I also have a '94--maybe I should open that before the '98.)


Interestly enough I found the '96 Rioja at PJs in NYC, the wine Mark referred to, for $26. I paid $29 for the '98 at CSW. I am always afraid of Spain because in the past I have had bad experiences with oak. If I were going to spend some time understanding a region's wine it would probably be Rioja. Think they have gotten their act together and there are some good quality wines at reasonable prices.

As a side note to the '79 Latour the woman also brought over an '82 Ducru. I chose the '79 because I thought it would be more open and the '82 would live forever. This friend has a cellar of about 1000 wines, 95% pre '90 and most are 1st growths. This is where I have had most of my 1st growth '82s as she shares willingly.
Walt
no avatar
User

Jenise

Rank

FLDG Dishwasher

Posts

42547

Joined

Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:45 pm

Location

The Pacific Northest Westest

Re: WTN: Five Recent Wines

by Jenise » Wed Dec 06, 2006 6:07 pm

Sometimes the bouquet can be 50% of the enjoyment.

And sometimes it can be more. I think the greatest compliment we can pay a wine is to enjoy the nose so much we drink the wine twice as slowly as we would another, to make it last forever. With her wines and your hospitality, I think you're both lucky to call each other 'friend'.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: AhrefsBot, Dale Williams, DotBot and 3 guests

Powered by phpBB ® | phpBB3 Style by KomiDesign