Motley Crew: Jadot Musigny, PerrotMinot, Pax, Neal, ESJ, Kon

WINE TALK
#1

Having posted many notes lately, but had a moment to jot down some thoughts on wines this week.
Rather diverse group consumed in different setting.

Visited the fam in CT and got into my bros Pax stash.

**2005 Pax Moriah-**One of the better Pax wines for me lately. Integrated, drinking well now. Cotes du Rhone-ish. Quite nice mix of berry fruit and spice. Good to go.

2007 Pax Syrah Walker Vine Hill-An absolute sledgehammer. Just not my thing these days. 16.5% and it’s there. Don’t tell me it aint. Wasn’t helped by the fact that it was a hot and humid night. To misquote Bob Weir “Too much of everything (isn’t always) just enough.”

**2001 Neal Family Cabernet-**Another nice showing for a wine that went away for a while in the mid 2000s…Second good bottle in the past year. Pretty much textbook modern Cali Cab to me. In a good way. Has picked up some secondary/tertiary flavors. Good with burgers. Drink it now.


At Rowdy’s with some house-ground Riverview Farms Grass-Fed Burgers Tartare (moo!)

1990 Etienne Sauzet Puligny Montrachet Les Referts- Interesting. Tasty, but not altogether complex. Probably better a few years ago. I liked it, though. Some active acidity hanging on, but it worked for me.

1999 Louis Jadot Musigny- Brilliant nose. Bloody hell, I loved the nose. Powerful wine that is has so many delicious elements in place, but is still not ready for prime time. Deep and dark, spicy and brooding, but still so wrapped up. If Bowden can keep Rowdy from killing babies, we might have a brilliant time with this quite a few years down the road.

2004 Perrot Minot Gevrey-Chambertin Combe D’Orveau Viellies Vignes-Young ripe fruit. Some oakiness. Modern. I felt a little bit of
green creeping in, but not a deal-breaker.


Brad K. hosted us last night for some Syrahs and terrific food. Perhaps he or Bowden will drop some pics in. Killer lima bean and golden radish bruschetta. Tasty lamb with a delicious beet tartare ala JGV.

2005 Salinia Chardonnay Heintz-Hot damn, I like this wine. Reminded me of Arcadian’s Sleepy Hollow, but just a little bit more of everything without going there…Weightless and tasty stuff…a second bottle after midnight left me dragging today. Thanks, Rowdy.

2003 Konsgaard Chardonnay Napa-Really rich and powerful. Deep golden color. Spicy dense fruit. I liked it more as I sat with it.

2003 Fess Parker Syrah Rodneys-A bit oaky. Weird, but it tasted like Cabernet at times. Lots of sweet fruit. Not that great to me.

2004 Epiphany Petite Syrah Rodney’s-I liked this one despite its huge stature. Dark fruit, creamy, drinking well. No hard edges. Not a PS lover, but this was good.

2003 Edmunds St John Syrah Wylie Fenaughty- After being spoiled by a few brilliant 2000 WF this past year, the 2003 just isn’t giving it up yet. The Goods are there, I think, and I hope they come out to play one day. Tight red fruit on the edges. Needs time.

2004 Lucia Syrah Garys’-Another monster Syrah. Really big. Rich. Unctuous dark fruit. Long finish. Again, a bit too much for me.

1999 Noel Verset Cornas- Worse damn wine that I’ve put in my mouth in some time. I think something died in the bottle.

1997 Guigal D’Ampuis- I thought this was corked right as I popped the cork. Then I got talked out of it by my esteemed comrades. In the end, the vote was that it was corked after coming back to it in glass.

#2

So then I guess Jadot Musigny will be your every day drinker instead of Potel? [highfive.gif]

#3

What’s that saying, “from your lips to god’s ears” [cheers.gif]
I wish I had the key to that door…

#4

Dennis,

That’s a whole lot of a lot of different wines!!! Nicely done!

That 03 Parker Rodney’s was a very good wine in its youth. My guess is that time will not be as kind to it as our later releases due to a number o factors, much to do with that specific vintage than anything else.

The Epiphany 04 PS is one awesome wine - big and bold for sure, but without the massive tannins that seem to plague too many PS’s IMHO. As I’ve said before, Santa Barbara County Petites, though they may be few in number, seem to all posses a nice blueberry quality and more ‘approachable’ tannins than our northern brethren . . .

Cheers!

#5

great notes dennis - as i am starting to drink more of my cellared pax i’m noticing that they are getting better and better with more age on them.

#6

Gross.

#7

You have had quite the wine week. Good notes, a few additional thoughts…

2003 Konsgaard Chardonnay Napa-This was really nice, an interesting pop of citrus acidity mid-palate, love the bright deep color in the glass,

2003 Fess Parker Syrah Rodneys-I liked this one actually, it was big, yes, and Cab-y, yes, I was getting some coffee-type notes, more cedar-y than oak-y. I would have pegged it as a Napa cab if blind. Tannins were well integrated.

2004 Epiphany Petite Syrah Rodney’s-yeah, this one got better over time (4 hours of air), can’t recall much about it though other than it was enjoyable and didn’t feel the heat of the high alcohol level as you might expect

2003 Edmunds St John Syrah Wylie Fenaughty- this was a strange one (though not in a bad way), hard to pin down

2004 Lucia Syrah Garys’- by far the biggest fruit bomb of the night, packing some big red berries, I liked this with the dark chocolate and almond stuffed dates (though the Alvear 1927 worked better)

1999 Noel Versat Cornas- holy cow yes, sulphur springs and dirty diapers, something was off here, especially since there are some raving positive comments on cellartracker - “Worse damn wine that I’ve put in my mouth in some time. I think something died in the bottle.”

#8

If a syrah us a good match for dark chocolate and almond stuff dates it damn sure isn’t a good match for my palate. I have really started to dislike these monstrous syrahs over the past year or two. Damn shame I still have 2-3 cases of palate fatiguing monsters to slog through. What was I thinking?

#9

I’m in the same boat, last night was to try to draw down the inventory!

#10

You all are not alone in that boat.
Also, it’s been hot as hell and oppressively humid lately…perhaps not the best time for big Syrah…but we knew that going in.

#11

I’m not sure a frigid winter night with a foot of snow is the best time unless of course you are stuck outside and need some anti-freeze. pileon

#12

I drank a 1999 Jadot Moose in Hong Kong last month at Cepage, what a frigging wine. It was one of those rare wines that just kept following me around all night. I read the reviewers notes on this the day after and it was a good lesson on how they can miss the boat at times.

I am fortunate to taste a Jadot every year and we always end on one of the two barrels of moose, the vines are 90 years old and it’s always a pleasure to taste.

MT

#13

Dennis,
You guys are killing me.
Rowdy has been collecting some really good Burgs.
Jadot Musigny is an A+ bottle in 1999.

#14

(double post) cancel

#15

VersEt !
The wine must have been ruined by shipping/cellaring … it usually is fine and quite youthful![/quote]

#16

Don-Hope to catch up with you when you are back. It has been a while. The '99 Jadot was so fine…
Gerhard-I would hope something went wrong…

#17

Thanks for the note on the 05 Salinia Chard- I just popped one here in the winery at lunch… Mang!

#18

Dirty-That is a unique wine. Still thinking about it. I wanted to not like it for all of its overthetop funkibility…but it’s damn good, sir. Damn good.

#19

I didn’t snap any photos - but here is one I took the next night (leftovers - porcini crusted lamb over leek puree) and a shot of the beet tartare from a previous outing. Amazing and simple recipe from Jean Georges on those beets.

#20

Great shots, Brad.
Loved that beet tartare. Tasty stuff.