Central Valley OL #3: Riesling and White Burgs

WINE TALK
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I put these notes in the OL thread at The BB That Shall Not Be Named.
And for some reason, editing and bolding is really difficult on this site… so I gave up! [suicide.gif]

We can officially give up on me writing tasting notes for the event. I just went back to look at them, and they are a little “sparse”. But since I don’t think Edson and Faust are going to put up an official July 5th Thread until I write something… here we go now:

I would like to thank Mike for setting up the evening. The food went very well with the wine (though not necessarily with each other), good service and great price. The only detraction was the one table of noise makers.

Started with an nice acidic quaffer, 2006 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Spatlese Trocken (dry). The petrol blew off in a few minutes to reveal some nice lime, green apple, stone and spice… and of course, acidity.

The first flight consisted of White Burgs and a pair of CA chards.
I brought the 05 Aubert Lauren since Buzz has never had an Aubert. This was popped and poured… improved greatly from the air and I wish I could have spent the night with it to map the progress. It was a big (15.3%), concentrated wine. Slight haziness… yellow with a touch of green. Excellent wine.

2001 Droughin Chablis had a briney, green olive thing on the nose. Wondered aloud if we could use it to make a dirty martini.

2004 Fevre Montmains had a fantastic nose. Changed in the glass. I thought it was a bit flat in the mouth, needing some acidity to balance out the candied lemon peel.

2004 Bruno Colin Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Truffières had the best balance of the flight. Wonderful fruit, acidity and minerality. I think Buzz stole this on an on-line auction

2004 Chasseur Durrel Vineyard had a nice golden color… but the oak detracted from the fruit, IMHO.

The second flight was Spatlese:

2005 Dönnhoff Norheimer Kirschheck Riesling Spätlese. After reading that the 05’s are shut down, I tried double decanting four hours in advance. I think it helped, but this wine still seemed restrained. Pale yellow gold in color with a fleck of green hue. Muted petrol and pear nose. Had a nice pear, peach, apple fruit going on with some mineraltiy.

No idea what 2005 Langwerth von Simmern Spatlese we had. But this was a ripe peach dominated wine.

Next up was the 2005 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese. I wrote down honey dew melon.

The fourth wine was my wine of the night: 2007 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. It just exploded out of the glass. Peach, flowers and a touch of spice. Wonderful acidity and lots of fruit. This wine made me want to do calisthentics

On to the third flight… Auslese.

My 2001 Dr. Loosen Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese was oxidized…

The 2001 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese was excellent! Thanks Buzz! Had the petrol, lemon, pear, spice nose going on. I think it could use a few more years of sleep since there is something special lurking, but I really enjoyed this wine.

By comparison the 2007 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese was more up front. Double decanted four hours before, thinking it couldn’t hurt, but I’m not sure I would again. (That is the dilemma I face with these wonderful events… you get one shot at impressing and you are rarely afforded the chance to revisit a wine. let alone follow it through out the evening… so it goes…). The wine itself didn’t have the petrol that induces thought, but all the elements are here for a great wine. No need to open again for 15 years.

Finally, the 2004 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese. No notes taken but I wrote #3 in flight.

And since we all like to try and trick each other, there was a blind flight of reds.

I know I brought 2001 Bodegas Valsacro Rioja Dioro Seleccíon J&D I am glad I double decanted this one since when I opened it, it was an oak bomb. The oak went away. Deep dark purple color. Black and blue fruits with tar. I finished it two days later and it was still drinking well.

There was a 1999 something that Buzz brought, a 2003 something from Ed… Mike brought something, too And an un-blind 2001 Verite… not sure which one though.

And the lack of notes wasn’t because I was buzzed… I had to drive back from Fresno. I think it was because the loud table left and we could actual have a conversation with someone other than the person right next to you.

One final note: when we left, there was this train that decided to park in downtown Modesto. I waited ten minutes for it to move, and when it didn’t. Did a U-Turn and went south until we could bypass the sleeping train.

OK Edson, what’s the theme for July 5th [cheers.gif]

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Brett - thanks for all the notes!

I’m disappointed to hear that the Chasseur had too much oak. I’ve got a good number of Chasseur single vineyard '05’s in the cellar, awaiting the right time, but if they have all kinds of Rombauer-oakiness, I’m not going to be pleased.

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BC - thanks for taking the time to write these notes up! And thanks to everyone who made it - I was at Concetta last night and they were very apologetic about all the noise. I told them that next time we would just takeover the patio if the weather was good enough.

I was more interested in socializing than taking notes as usual so I can add much more than a few impressions.

2005 Aubert - my wife’s favorite as usual. I’m always amazed by the balance that they manage to strike with these wines, very good for the style.
2004 Fevre - lots of stuff going on here, but mainly stinky cheese! Still interesting, but that was the last thing I expected to smell.
2004 Bruno Colin - my favorite of the flight - wet stones and lemon oil with great structure. Very balanced with plenty of cut.

Spatlese Flight -
Donnhoff was wonderful - the minerality was there as usual
Willi was very balanced - more ripe than the Donnhoff, but not the fruit explosion of the Haag
Haag - my first from this producer, amazing wine - jumping out of the glass. Almost too much - I was wondering what this will do over the long haul.

Auslese Flight -
Something wrong with the Loosen - Oxidized or cooked.
Very cool comparison between the '01 and '07 Prum. Petrol from the '01 was almost too pungent at first, but integrated with about 20 minutes of air. The '07 was a baby by comparison - tons of fruit.
Christoffel was outclassed by the Prum - but still a balanced well drinking wine.

My palate was totally shot for the free-for-all - everything tasted sour after the Auslese until they brought us some pizza to chew on.
The two BDX were interesting - I just wish I was in a fresher state.
The Sierra Foothills rhone I brought sucked- '05 Holly’s Hill Patriarche - my last bottle 18 months ago was actually quite good, but this was an over-ripe mess. Don’t worry I already have something that should be much more interesting for next time. [whistle2.gif]

Thanks again to everyone who drove long distances, Lauren and I had a great night!

Here’s the gallery of pictures for those not on Facebook: Facebook" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So what’s the plan for July 5th??

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sorry i missed this riding thru God’s great storms last Weds/Thurs. i will endeavor to make the next one.

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Well, here’s my maiden post on the new board…

Wow!!! Sounds like a great evening. I’m really sorry Paula and I missed it, but damn, I hate when work gets in the way of a good time [cray.gif] I agree that the Aubert is consistently balanced with fruit to match the oak, and is one of the few Chards I still collect.

I’m really sorry I missed the Germans. I don’t have a lot of experience with those wines and would have loved to taste them.

Unfortunately, I’ll be in SoCal on July 5th as well. I suppose that’s the problem with living up here half time. [shrug.gif]

I hope to see you all this summer. I’m trying to plan a pool party/BBQ.

Greg

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Wow; Your first post!!! I thought you were looking forward to dinner with Diana and I… [wow.gif] There goes your Marcassin! [diablo.gif]


Cheers!
Marshall [rofl.gif]

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Greg,

Great to see you on here! You will be missed on July 5th, but we’re looking forward to the pool party later in the month! Wow, two Merced events in July - you guys are moving up in the world! [wow.gif] [cheers.gif]

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bump to see if Edson and Buzz have any notes [rofl.gif]