Saturday Night TNs: Austrian Whites & Red Bordeaux

WINE TALK
1

A phone conversation on Friday led to a spur-of-the-moment wine dinner with fellow Board denizen Alex Anthopoulos and our decidedly better halves on Saturday. We started with two whites from Austria:

2001 Rudi Pichler Riesling Smaragd Kirchweg
2001 Rudi Pichler Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Hochrain
The riesling showed well, but it was totally overshadowed by that pristine GV (In the riesling’s defense, I was drinking it while also speaking with none other than Nicos, Crown Prince of London, on the phone, so it would be fair to say that my attention on the merits of the wine were not undivided). I love the wine that the Hochrain vineyard is capable of producing, and this wine was no exception, with an almost laser-like clarity of flavors wrapped around a great fruit core. One of the best GVs I’ve had in a while, really drinking at peak right now, although I saw no indication whatsoever that this couldn’t continue on into the future for another 5 or 10 years. Truly pleasurable drinking!

We then moved on to a quartet of Bordeaux, as follows:

1990 Pape Clement
1989 Branaire Ducru
1986 Domaine de Chevalier
1993 Ferrand-Lartigue

The Pape Clement was screaming good last night, with raspberry & blackberry fruit intermingled with hints of graphite - I’ve had this wine a number of times in the past, but I think this was it’s best showing yet, and I would say it has really hit primetime in terms of it’s drinking window as we near it’s 20th birthday. Matched with a Branaire that I have historically liked, it torched the competition (once more, at least IMO, showing the value of side-by-side comparisons in terms of critically assessing a wine - while the Branaire might be a 90 point wine left to it’s own devices, you really get a feel for it’s shortcomings when paired with the Pape Clement. Still a nice drink, but nothing that will open your eyes).

Unfortunately, the DDC will always be a wine that suffers from it’s vintage characteristics – nice enough, yet still tannicly rough around the edges, and at this juncture I think it’s unlikely that it will ever completely pull itself together into a harmonious drink. Nice nose with that tell-tale tobacco note that I find so attractive in a Pessac-Leognan, but the wine has a somewhat abrupt finish - good but not great, and a wine that probably should be consumed near-term while it still retains a reasonable fruit-tannin balance. The Ferrand is a pleasant enough wine (especially in the context of the vintage), although given it’s merlot-dominated composition it was probably somewhat miscast in this group of wines. That said, it’s probably not a bad drink now and maybe for another five years.

Nice night from a weather perspective, filled with good drinking, eating & conversation, and it was nice once again to experience that legendary Anthopoulos hospitality [welldone.gif]

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Bobulus,

Our pleasure playing host and great to see you again. The Riesling was very “classic” – steely, minerally, good fruit, just enough acidity to keep it fresh, but I am not certain it will get any better with age. The GV on the other hand was really singing – with aeration the white pepper aspect began to show, and I think that this could probably gain even more complexity with time in the cellar.

The 1990 Pape Clement was WOTN, hands down. I agree that tasting the four wines together in this manner (side-by-side comparisons, as you say) is a great way to compare and contrast not only the regions, but the vintages as well. We’ll have to do this with some older Rhones next time Nicos hits town … grouphug

Alex

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Nice notes. I think the Ferrand Lartique is a very good wine for this vintage but not a great one in the overall context. Thanks
Rainer

4

Very nice wines. I particularly like Pichler’s GVs!

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Good to “hear” from you, Nigel – as you might imagine, during a wine gathering with Alex & myself (plus a phone call from Nicos to boot), your name, and well as Charles’, both came up in conversation [wink.gif]

6

Why, it was almost as if we were in the UK! [wink.gif]

Alex