My sweetie and I returned to our local favorite restaurant {and one of our favs anywhere}, The Stonehouse, located on the lux resort San Ysidro Ranch.
Seated at our preferred table and served by yet another consummate, competent waitstaff member, we enjoyed some of our favorite dishes along with some fine wines.
As per our usual MO, we take a Burt Williams made Pinot Noir from the 1990s and a champagne along with appropriate stemware. Both wines were exceptional as was our evening:
2010 DOM PERIGNON- 54% Chardonnay, 46% Pinot Noir; this was my 5th bottle of this bubbly since the initial release and all have been extremely delightful; in fact, I recently attempted to buy more through a special Costco offer at $149 per bottle {plus 2 stemless champagne flutes} only to receive the 2012, a pretty good deal and no thought was given to returning them; the short on this bottle was it gave wondrous honeyed lemon oil throughout; as such, it had a creamy mouthfeel with some impressive weight which added a tactile pleasing element to the grand experience; for me, the 2010 can stand on its own and offers a lot of fulfillment and yes, there are many other better vintages of DP.
1994 WILLIAMS SELYEM SONOMA COAST PINOT NOIR- 13.2% abv; high neck fill; stood up 8 hours prior to decanting for an hour with noticeable sediment; I’ve been blessed to have had many bottles of this fabulous wine and we got another one on this night; Burt blended some of the best fruit from some of the finest Sonoma Coast vineyards for this vintage which I believe included Summa, Hirsch and Coastlands, all of which he also designated individually; following its grainy dark red color, came its requisite spicy red raspberry from the nose through the tail; later on and past mid palate, a nice dollop of blueberry came in and it was a taste treat par excellent; this was medium to full bodied, had a smooth texture and is not showing any signs of aging at age 29; Burt, my dear friend, you would be proud of your mastery in crafting superlative fine wines and thanks for the stupendous legacy.
I looked through my files to see what the tasting notes were when this was released in 1996 and here is what they showed:
Burt’s comments:
“Medium dark ruby; berries, cherries, toffee, smoke, spice and meaty aromas emanate from the glass, concentrated flavors echo the complex aroma; good intensity and depth, fine balance, with a rich berry finish. A wine to drink into the next century. Alcohol 13.2%.”
Ed’s comments:
“This comes from multiple, very low yielding blocks right above our coast. Fruit aromas mixed with coffee, a little citrus and pepper once opened for awhile. Flavors of Pinot Noir with a mouth feel of kailua creme brûlée. Intense rich finish that lasts on & on. The slightly different and number of complexities plus the very rich mouth feel makes this a real winner.”
It sold for $30/ bottle; 450 cases made.
And one more quote, regarding Summa. This comes from William Kelly 9/28/17:
“William-Selyem only produced a vineyard designate Summa bottling four times: in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995. Sometimes the crop was too small; sometimes it wasn’t sufficiently ripe. But the site’s captivating signature aromas of blood orange and exotic spice, fully realized in the good years, kept Burt coming back for more.”
Cheers,
Blake
