Went to a little wine tasting after work last night. got there around 11:30 so had to jump right in a taste as much as possible since some of the bottles were almost empty. There was about 20 wines, not all worth mentioning so I will just talk about the stars. No formal notes, just a few impressions.
Charles Ellner Brut Rose - Never had a Champagne from this house, but this was excellent. Strawberries and cherries with some nice toast/yeast flavors. Rich but still crisp. A great starter.
Chateau La Nerthe 1998 CdP - This bottle was in a very good spot last night. seemed mature and ready to go with spicy brambly fruits and some earth.
Altesino brunello 1995 - A bit polarizing with the crowd. Cloudy and bricking with cherry, smoke, and some earth on the nose. Still has some solid structure and drinking well. Not great, but very good.
St. Jean Cinq Cepages 2004 - I haven’t had this vintage in a while so it was fun to retaste. Very pretty aromatics, black currant, tobacco, cedar. Rich on the palate with good fruit density and some tannin on the back end. Can last for a while, and will be nice.
Behrens & Hitchcock Petite Sirah 2004 - Another wine I haven’t had in a while. this was less motor oil than my last bottle. Still dark in color with lots of blackberry and plum flavors and incredibly rich. Drinking well, I have never had a bad bottle from this vintage.
Woodhall barbera Golden Run Reserve 2008 - I brought this since I picked up my 6 pack from the winery recently and wanted to check in since I haven’t had it since it was bottled. Disclaimer I do some work for Woodhall and that’s where I learned pretty much everything I know about wine. And the winemaker is one of my best friends. That said, this is a freaky good bottle of Maryland wine. It is from a single vineyard on Mds eastern shore. Some funk, cherry, blackberries on the nose. Great midpalate fruit and proper acidity for the grape. This is very good and shows what Maryland is capable of.
Then for some reason Greg opened up a…
2001 Bond Vecina - Wow, once it opened up this was an excellent bottle of Cali-Cab. A touch of earht, but then lots of cool dark fruits and spices. Full on the palate but great elegance and balance for such a large scaled wine. This is in a good spot right now and was fun to drink.
Even though we got there late it we still had time to catch up with a lot of friends and ITB people. Somewhere around 2am I broke out my accordian for a jam session on some Cure and Smiths tunes with my friend Mike on guitar. Very fun evening indeed.