Topic: TN: An evening out with my friends
Author: David
Date: Wed Mar 6 08:40:10 2002
A Saturday night a few weeks ago at the Muggensturm, one of our favourite nearby restaurants, with Albino, Andrea, Dani, Marc, Nedster and Zsuzsi. Too bad Rainer couldn''t join us, I''m sure he would have enjoyed the great food, and guess what, the wines weren''t exactly bad either ;^)
For my "verbal rating system", as always, see postscript if necessary.

Malat Auslese "Das Beste vom Grünen Veltliner" 1999
A couple of glasses worth that Albino had brought along for us to re-evaluate. Perhaps not quite the density and concentration and dry extract of F.X. Pichler''s Kellerberg, but complex, balanced, ripe (especially the acidity also) and long, and just as tasty as when tasted last November. Outstanding GV.

Adolf Boner Malanser Completer 1990
Exactly as described in my last TN a year or so ago (of course I had not expected this to have changed in so little time). Needs plenty of time to open up, getting more powerful, complex and intense all the time, while starting out superconcentrated and youthfully balanced from the moment the cork is pulled. The lightly Hermitage-like strawy nuttiness and complex piny apple cider aromas and flavours take hours to emerge, and only Albino and I kept some in our glasses for so long, the others had emptied theirs quite soon. The greatest Swiss dry white, so very interesting. Great precision and focus thanks to high but thoroughly ripe acidity.
Just quickly the facts again for those too lazy to search the Archive: Over 100 years-old ungrafted vines. Picked on November 9, 1990, and bottled in September 1999 (no oak noticeable!), this is one of 964 bottles. 14.5% alcohol.

Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage 1997
L''Hermitage rouge! Now a tiny bit closed in comparison to when I last had this ten months ago, with the backbone of tannin and ripe, just faintly ink-scented acidity showing more. With airing continually sweeter and more harmonious as well as longer, beautiful ripe berry complexity and fine notes of mustard and licorice. Drinks very well young, so balanced and elegant, but should improve in bottle for a decade. And so attractively anachronistic. Outstanding!

Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial N.V.
In case I have never mentioned it on this board, Vega''s Unico used to rank among my favourite wines (I haven''t had enoughof the more recent vintages to say whether this is still the case). The obvious choices include the beautiful 1970 and the still monolithical (too young!) 1968. The best lots of N.V. Reserva Especial, such as this, come in third on my Unico preference list, but I canno recommend buying just any lot on offer, and will never understand why Parker apparently gave an equal rating to all lots released after the, I believe, first from 1990. Apart from the usual problem, namely that apart from the similar quality level, equal scores seem to be belying the individuality of the wines (in the eyes of those who misunderstand the purpose of numerical rating), the different lots simply are not on the same qualitative plane (which is why I include a comparison below). And please, do no fall into the trap and misread the label as some people I''ve spoken to have: "2342" in the lower right corner of the label is not the lot number but the bottler''s! The lot number on all labels I have seen so far is to be found in the lower left corner of the label. On to tonight''s wine:
Lot-# 003/94, apparently a blend of 1959, 1964 and 1968. The last bottle (we had put a reservation on this one almost two years ago). There aren''t many wines like this anymore (if any!). Big, intense and complex, superripe and deep, satisfying on both an intellectual as well as the purely emotional level, so big and structured it has swallowed three decades (on average) worth of oak aging (just a pretty resiny touch in the deep, ripe and perfectly mature while still quite youthful fruit (as of tenderly port-like Bordeaux), but so satiny-smooth it drinks like liquid velvet. Very long. Albino finds this very similar to the "1990" lot (not the 1990 Unico!), he opened a couple of months ago. Can''t really say this 003/94 lot has gotten better in bottle since we last tasted it about three years ago, as there''s never been a rough edge to begin with, and, I mean, how much more open and perfumey can wine be? A beauty! Maybe just a touch more resiny with oak today, suggesting that this, as we thought, was in perfect drinking mood since release, and in no need for further bottle age. Great wine, incomparably more satisfying than eg. the lot (011/96, I believe, which I heard consists of 1968, 1970 and 1974) tasted thanks to Erik a couple of years ago, which had less resolved tannins, was harder and much less sweetish-erotic, harmonious and long overall, no doubt in great part since quite compressed by resiny oak (as many old style Gran Reserva Rioja), although with a quite dense core of pruny (more oxidised?) fruit.

Greetings from Switzerland, David.

P.S.
I have discontinued divulging numerical scores on this board (in order to avoid e-mails solely concentrating on them, since I''d really rather talk about the wines themselves). For those who have problems interpreting my "verbal scoring", the numerical correspondences are as follows:

79 and below = Not good (i.e. no need to figure out exactly)
80 - 84 = Good (same as 16 and over in the European 20-point system)
85 - 89 = Very good (same as 17 and over; I sometimes use Excellent to indicate 88 - 89, or almost-outstanding)
90 - 94 = Outstanding (same as 18 and over)
95 - 99 = Great (or Classic, same as 19 and over)
100 = Perfect (20/20)

Note I will rarely buy wine below my own Excellent (that''s where an individual wine starts standing out of the mass of technically well-made wine at all) rating except for an occasional and there truly exceptional QPR. If it''s costly, it had better be at least outstanding!