I guess we had a good evening. Millenium Restaurant in SF.
Is Millennium still great?
How about a list of the wines and maybe some notes. I can only make out part of the wines and don’t see any El Nido.
Randy I don’t know why the fact none of us brought El Nido (or Clio or Alto Moncayo or Greenock Creek or anything else) is relevant to you, but as for a list, I was hoping the picture would not be so blurry.
Three Rivers 1991
This bottle and its cork were in perfect shape. Fully resolved, very rich, very full and weighty, not oaky, no heat. Chocolatey, on the darker side of the flavor spectrum. I don’t think it brings anything really magical that you cannot get from a 1996 3R, or a 1998 or 2002 Ringland, but it’s just about perfect and completely satisfying. It was the perfect time to open it.
Rockford SVS Flaxman 1996
Unlike my previous bottle a few years ago, which was pure liqueur of Shiraz, this had many things going on in it, all good, some of which I have never seen together in the same wine before. We heard slutty, seductive, masculine, earthy, New World on the entry and France on the finish, etc. Something like half the fruit is from the Three Rivers vineyard.
Ringland 2006
I expected this to be a wonderful very young maybe three-note wine. Nope, it immediately blew in a hundred different directions at once, from the first drop to the last. Spectacular. Everything dancing. Impossible for me to put my finger on any of what was going on.
The three above wines were perfect.
Bevan EE (vintage?)
I like Bevan EE and Curmudgeon the most of his wines, and this was showing balanced. I am the only person in the world who thinks certain Bevan wines, even Ontogeny, should be aged, as long as the alcohol is not out of balance.
Screaming Eagle 2001
My favorite California cabernet from my favorite vintage. But that whole SE masculine-feminine dance, and the achingly long nuanced finish where flowers and cherries appear out of nowhere, are not here at this stage. This is just one giant powerful slug of monochromatic Cabernet fruit, burying any structure or nuances. A barrel sample without the oak. This will be an incredible wine in ten years. Not five.
SQN Raven Grenache 2006
Quite a surprise for me. Not in what I perceive to be the SQN style at all. This is cool climate elegant long biting Grenache. Wow, superb, and for the US astonishing. Think Birichino style brought to its highest heights.
Vieux Donjon CdP was corked. Obviously the underneath fruit would have fit in very well with the other wines, this is well balanced, earthy, uncompromising, no cloy.
Donnhoff 1998 Nied Herm Spat
A glory. Rob brought this having bought it on release, the color alone was amazing. I found no sugar at first, it was overwhelmed by fruit, then it was perceived at the bottom of the glass. A wine to buy two cases of upon release and drink one a year.
The bottle hiding behind the Screaming Eagle is, I think, a Marsanne-Roussanne Tim (far left in group photo) made. I didn’t get to try it.
Cayuse, I think El Cerise (vintage?), and Saxum Bone Rock 2005
Similar to each other. Both were balanced, I did not expect that. but in this company they came across as typical dark one-note California syrah, albeit pure and flawless, and rare for harnessing the huge fruit in a balanced long way.
Whites from the restaurant
A Cortese from Mendocino, very Italian, terrific. A Hawkes chardonnay from I forget, not Hawkes Bay but in California, terrific, getting pretty close to Chablis here, no oak to be seen. A Champagne we all loved at $100 off the list, if this is $50 retail it’s a steal. Colette? Maybe it’s online. All three recommended by Millenium staff, the service was terrific although I think there was a miscommunication on the corkage, $250-plus ($280?) seemed a bit more than I expected on top of the included 18 percent tip on top of extra tips we threw in. Enough to make me think twice about doing a similar event again there.
Seavey cab, an older vintage
Very rich and creamy, traditional California style. but the older-Cabernet flavors were lost and a tiny bit tiring in a sea of young wines. Speaking of which, only one of the wines all night was not resolved, and that one was…
…1991 Grange
Hold. Did I say hold? Hold. Decanting did not bring the parts together. A great vintage. Drink in twenty years. It’s not tight, it just isn’t Grange yet. All the parts are there. As parts.
1976 de Fargues
Having served the terrific 2001 to a variation of this group a few months ago, I would not buy this again. In outstanding shape, gorgeous in appearance, complex, botrytis, but ponderous somehow. Seriously, I’d age this twenty more years. It seems in a between stage.
Pax
I forget which one but this was great, in fact I found it a little fresher than the Saxum or Cayuse. The night before, I had a Wind Gap syrah, I love the Wind Gap style but the Pax is a more interesting wine. I expected more oak and more heat. I don’t think we had an overoaked or hot wine all night despite the labels of some.
Piazza cabernets
My friend Tony makes these on his Santa Cruz Mts. property. I know these wines well. The 2009 Blend was more Screaming Eagle in style than the 2001 Screaming Eagle. A world class wine. Tony’s 2013 merlot component is identical in quality to the Ridge Monte Bello 2013 Petit Verdot component, that is to say, perfect. Much better than 2013 Ridge Monte Bello merlot. But Tony brought two other top (IMO) vintages and they were a little mainstream in this company.
I asked Chris Ringland to give Tony winemaking advice based on what Chris saw in Tony’s wines, Tony promises he might someday tell me what Chris said.
As for Chris? Everything I had ever heard is true. Modest, gentleman, a brilliant artist. And by the end of the evening I saw he has become very business savvy on many levels, handling things himself that would overwhelm a lesser man.
An evening I will always be grateful for.
Melinda & I are forever grateful for George’s extraordinary generosity displayed by letting us crash this incredible evening.
The Pax was the 2003 Walker Vine Hill, it makes me happy that you got the cork out and the wine strutted.
My two wines I’d love to taste again one day were the glorious 2006 Chris Ringland Shiraz and that haunting 1996 Rockford Flaxman.
Best to you George.
Thanks for the notes George. We have always loved Chris’s wines and I was curious about aged El Nido wines in addition to the others. They never get a chance to age around here.
Glenn you and Melinda really added to the evening. Please give me a heads up next time you’re in town.
I’m excited to try Triga and especially Aquilon.
Except for the corkage, yes. The mushrooms that were cooked like fried calamari and the fried peppers were especially addictive and went great with, respectively, older and younger Shiraz.
Raven is an excellent example of the “SQN style” featuring primarily estate (Eleven Confessions Vineyard) fruit.
I absolutely will, we owe you a night out! Man to get to drink Rockford after all these years was a real treat.
Thanks. I haven’t been there in many, many years. I’m glad to hear it is still going strong.
Great wine, great company, many thanks.
couple notes:
The Bevan EE (vintage?): pretty sure this was 2011
SQN Raven Grenache 2006
FYI, double-decanted about five hours before.
Vieux Donjon CdP was corked. Obviously the underneath fruit would have fit in very well with the other wines, this is well balanced, earthy, uncompromising, no cloy.
This was the 2007, fyi.
Trying to see if Vin Vino Wine will make good on this, since bought about one week earlier.
Cayuse, I think El Cerise (vintage?), and Saxum Bone Rock 2005
Think the Cayuse was 2011 (?)
Seavey cab, an older vintage
1991. still has long life in my opinion.
…1991 Grange
Not much experience with Grange, but I really liked this.