TNs--NZ Riesling, Chassagne, Kutch Pinot

Very shorthand-ish, as I didn’t take notes, at my friend Andrew’s for the start of our friends-only Frickin’ Freezing Film Festival.

2015 Pyramid Hills Rose’s Vineyard Ries

Good quality here, perfumed and some definite kiwi fruit accents dans la bouche, but still with relatively decent freshness. Maybe hard to place as pure Riesling though. But overall I liked it.

2014 Kutch Sonoma Coast PN

Today, this is still a little reserved but you can taste the precision in the small berry fruit and it has lots of good length. Solid pinot in Jamie’s style

2014 Benjamin Leroux Chassagne Abbaye de Morgeot

I gave this the usual Methode Grammeroise treatment—slow-oxed the night before, decanted for 2 hours the day of. This is still, even with all that, pretty tight and coiled. There is good intensity and definite salinity here and I see some hallmarks of the vintage, but there’s also not an extra level of “fascination” for me. I would almost be tempted to call this an excellent villages Chassagne and a tiny bit underperforming as a 1er Cru Chassagne, if that makes any sense (it probably doesn’t!)

If Tran jumps on, he may comment on some of the other wines (he liked the Josh Cab and there was a 2007 Barbaresco that for me was showing really pretty).

Mike