WTN: Casual Thursday night wines (CFE, PLL, MSD, La Bota)

Some nice wines with dinner tonight with David Bueker over. Dinner wasn't anything fancy; roast Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and chicken thighs on the Weber grill with a combination of coal and hickory wood beneath, but we drank very well. A very fun evening, thanks David.

2005 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile
A bit disappointing for the standards I normally expect from CFE; it's surprisingly broad on the palate with ripe lemon and citrus fruit and faint herbal/mineral accents, but it's not overly complex and certainly doesn't have the focus and vibrancy I've come to expect from this bottling. At the current price, not a buy for me.

1988 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
A textbook Pauillac, but alas, showing little of that PLL character. I've had a few bottles from this case recently with quite a bit of variation (what's that line again; great bottles but never great wines?) and this sadly is not one of the better bottles. Graphite, cedar wood, earth and dusty red and dark fruit all coming together on the nose and palate, still showing some tannin beneath with a slightly austere feel, but never showing that herbal/green edge I expect from PLL and consequentially it's not all that interesting to sit down with. Oh well, there was Burgundy as backup...

2010 Henri Jouan Morey St. Denis
Wines like this are why I got hooked onto Burgundy in the first place. A remarkably pale red colour in the glass, so fragrant with air as earthy, herbal and more savoury elements emerge around a core of incredibly fresh, sappy strawberries and other red berried fruit flavours. There's a remarkable sense of lightness and finesse on the palate and it keeps getting more aromatic and polished the longer it's open. I'd drink more of this if it weren't so amazing to just sit and smell.

NV Equipo Navazos Jerez-Xérès-Sherry La Bota de Amontillado Nº 37 "Navazos"
This is one of those wines that just needs time and temperature to really show itself. The first sip or two, close to cellar temperature and with little air (the bottle was just opened this evening) did little for me, but with more air this really transforms and shows so many aromatic layers, while strangely the alcohol feels better integrated the more this warms up closer to room temperature. After being open for some time it's absolutely compelling; a vivid fragrance of salted caramel and so much depth on the palate, with layers of briny/saline notes, higher toned herbal elements and roasted almonds unfolding on the finish minutes after each sip. Wow.

[David M. Bueker]

Not a bad Thursday night!

Thanks for hosting.

I cannot believe the intensity of the salted caramel element in the La Bota. Really impressive.

The Jouan was also quite delicious. Very sweet fruit that had no hint of being candied or overripe.

Not buying any more of that 2005 CFE. It's just not that interesting.

Thanks for notes.
I have liked the 2005 CFE a bit more than you too, but also found it forward/broad and won't be looking to buy absent a big discount.

I'm curious as to why you give these wines points in CT but not here. Are the points more of a short-hand just for you?

Yes, I normally just use the points scale just for my own reference/as a quick heuristic when looking back over my own notes/earlier experiences with certain wines or producers.

[David M. Bueker]

While not all the time, I also do points on CellarTracker, but in order to contribute to the community average score. I figure some poeple look to that score (including some who decry Parker by the way), so why not add my voice.