Last weekend was my annual guy’s trip to the GA mountain for serious cycling through the Appalachian Mountains - some of the best cycling in the country - plus fine wines, cuisine and very puerile behavior. Poor Craig G joined us this time around, hope we didn’t scare him. What we had was four great days doing dude things, cycling tons, eating and drinking quite well, hanging out relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. We ended up cycling over 11 hours and 15,000 feet, very painful vertical feet if I may say so. My group - my wine group is my group of cycling buddies - has been doing this trip since 2003.
Craig from Cali is a mountain goat, putting the hurt on us all weekend. Fortunately we had this to assuage our pain and egos:
This weekend was really about comraderie not wine geekiness, so no formal notes, just some basic thoughts written down along the way:
Friday Night:
2001 Pichon Lalande - Excellent, really fine crunchy red fruits with a streak of green. Drinking well now. My style of Bordeaux.
2003 Pichon Baron - Very good, but a bit clumsy next to the elegant Lalande. A bit of a bruiser of a wine, showcasing some of the heat of the vintage but without coming across as stewed. Made for a strong pairing with filet pan seared in bacon fat and then grilled hot to a medium rare. This is an excellent cross-over wine to introduce Napa Cab fans to the beauty of Bordeaux.
2001 Ridge Monte Bello - Really a toss up whether this or the Lalande was my wine of the Friday night grouping. I gave the edge to the Lalande because of that notable green streak, but the breadth of the red fruits in this Monte Bello was outstanding, underscored by a fine graininess to the texture and moderately firm tannins.
1989 Chateau Meyney - Archetype Bordeaux from the 1980s. Classic mature Bordeaux perfume, muskiness, and earth. Nice balance of red and dark fruits, showing significant ancillary and tertiary development. This wine is perfectly at peak. Excellent acidity. Showcases the quality of Cru Bordeaux in great vintages.
1982 Chateau Poujeaux - Sadly, this was slightly corked.
Enjoyed some champagnes and a Willi Schaefer Kabinett for starters.
Saturday Night:
1981 Chateau Conseillante - Outstanding, my wine of the weekend. A classic Pomerol in a perfect state of maturity. Beautiful array of dark and plummy fruits, mossy earth and dark chocolate. Tannins entirely resolved, silky smooth wine. Really one of the better wines I’ve had this year, and appeared to be the favorite of the entire group.
1978 Chateau Figeac - Another excellent, perfectly matured well-stored Bordeaux. Red fruits, tobacco, earth and a grainy, earthy texture. A very pretty wine.
1990 Chateau Figeac - Just ever so slightly corked. Major bummer as the 1990 that I had a couple years ago was drop-dead gorgeous. The wine was drinkable, but why in this company of wine? Most of the group did not realize the flaw, Craig and I were bummed.
2010 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett - I always love the purity of white fruits in Donnhoff. This Kabinett is ready to go, would have preferred more acidity. A touch sweeter than I want in my Kabinett, but still really lovely.
2006 Domaine Levet Côte Rotie La Chavaroche - God I love this winery, it’s dead-square in my wheelhouse. Gamey, feral, stemmy, smoky goodness. So signature Levet, a true wine of distinction. The palate was a deep array of red fruits and some darks, excellent acidity, earth, spice, game, saline and pepper. Grainy texture, very layered. Always one of my favorite wines in any line-up.
We also popped a 1965 Barolo that was quite a treat. Well-past prime, not a great vintage, but still a lovely, stately wine, showing a fascinating bouquet of smoky cheeses, waxy oil and dried red fruits. Palate was soft, round, red fruits quite mature and clean acidity that did not over-power. Would never rate this highly, but was a treat to drink.
I skipped over Thursday Night,but will circle back later as we had a fun range of wines, with Cave Dog, Havens, Ridge, Bedrock, etc.
And the boys . . . . I’m the big goofy guy with the helmet and shades on, Craig is the skinny one in the “Poseur” jersey, with my outweighing him by a whopping 50 pounds, which in the context of cycling mountains, ain’t good!
Love this old barn.
And dinner. . . .