A lot less formal, as I split time between a big party Randy and Cris Katz were hosting, with lots of Spanish wine, and dinner with Nick Christie and Don Cornutt. I always value so very much my time with Don and we were able to really catch up and talk family, trips, life planning, music, Falcons and, of course, wine. Don, as always, was super-generous and brought with:
2010 Raveneau Chablis Montee de Tonnere
This took a while to open up, but open up it did and gave you that sublime strength that seems to accompany virtually every Raveneau bottle. Tensile steel and mineral with light waves of apple, lime and very light chalk. It does have a slight lingering sweetness that I’ve found in some 10 Chablis. Regardless, a pleasure to sip at slowly.
2003 Comte de Vogue Chambolle Musigny
It is hard to know where to put this, as very forward strawberry and red cherry vies with a fair degree of oak in the nose and on the tongue. This is, I think, good wine, but wouldn’t be “classic” in any sense. It does, however, add to my library of interesting 2003s I’ve been tasting lately and I do think there’s more development available here.
At Cris and Randy’s, I sampled some 2009 Veleta Tempranillo which was silky and rather on the sweet almost opulent plum and cherry side, a 2008 Pesquera Ribera del Duero which had some cocoa notes around dark red fruit and was serviceable without having an extra gear. A 2008 Cune Gran Reserva Rioja which I brought held some walnut skin and anise around currant and blackberry, but was more subdued that I would have expected. A 2015 Domaine Ott Rose started oddly soft and sweet but eventually picked up its usual vibrancy and tartness as it gained some air. Randy was nice enough to open a full of 2009 Chateau Rieussec later in the night, which showed the nice lilting sweetness I like in this vintage and plenty of vanilla bean and baking spice backing. Lots of life left here. My first try of a 2014 Xarel-lo Amfores de Loxarel was, on brief impression, rather fresh with stones, lemon water and some apple—my thanks to Mike Evans for this pour. And lastly, a 1982 Chateau Potensac opened very late in the evening rewarded those of us who were left. It was dazzling wine, with terrific balanced freshness and drive to go with fully-integrated sweet currant and blackberry fruit and a nice sidebar of dark chocolate. It did fall off after 30 minutes, but a wow performance in that first half hour.
A bientot,
Mike