Some wines last night at the home of Suzanne Camhi and Kenny Shusterman in beautiful and historic Brooklyn Heights. Suzanne and Kenny cooked up a delicious feast and the evening was made complete with the company of the always delightful Karrie and Mark Russo. Thanks for a great evening!
Brad
Didn’t jot down notes on the '01 Montrachet we started with, or a '07 Roulot- Monthelie we had as the first red. Neither did all that much for me.
2002 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti- Échézeaux
Showing rather unevolved. Pure cherries and strawberry dominate with good acid levels and full tannins, but it’s showing no secondary development whatsoever. The sweetness and focus of the fruit is thoroughly enjoyable, though this was certainly killing a baby. I believe this was double decanted earlier in the afternoon. A rare treat. Many thanks to Suzanne for opening one up in the name of science, but hold, hold, hold! A-.
1978 Oddero- Barolo
Initially the wine was dominated by earthy, leathery and licorice components and while fine in an old, perhaps slightly tired way, there was no real spark here. That all changed the longer it stayed in the glass. Though it had been double decanted in the afternoon, it still took about an hour in the glass for the wine to come alive. Without warning, beautiful cherry/raspberry fruit came out of nowhere to take the lead and melded all the components into a beautiful package. Solid A-.
1995 Peyre Rose- Coteaux du Languedoc “Clos des Cistes”
My last bottle of this wine and it showed brilliantly. A blend of 85% Syrah and 15% Grenache, it’s spent much of the past 14 years being rather tough and gamey, though in a good way. Tonight it was just singing. Fully integrated and dare I say silky, something I never would’ve expected from this wine. The raspberry fruit was sweet, but not jammy and at the forefront with game, earth, licorice and light spiciness backing it up. Just a perfect match with the lamb. The only negative was that after being open a couple of hours the fruit receded and the wine got more tannic and coarse. I’d start to drink up. It’s in a gorgeous spot right now. Low A.
1996 Baumard- Quarts de Chaume (from 375 ml)
Opened my last half bottle of this to see where it was in its evolution. Still fresh and vibrant, though it’s lost some of the youthful mélange of yellow fruits and is more in the apricot range of things. Just starting to take on light hints of earl grey tea, with plenty of honey and candied kumquats. Intensely sweet, though the beauty of '96’s from the Loire are their razor sharp acidity that keeps everything in check. Beautiful wine. No rush on these, especially if it’s in 750 ml. Solid A.
Some pictures from the evening:
It is going to be very interesting to handicap the top '97s versus the top '96s in the field of Loire chenin as the years go by- I am liking the '96s more and more with every year and really think they are going to be the more interesting vintage in the long run.
As I said I am still on the fence between the two vintages for the long haul and will find them interesting to track, as I think there will be a lot of really good '97s out there in another fifteen or twenty years. My own palate preference will probably settle on the '96s though for the reasons you enumerated, but I like the direction that the few '97s I have tasted of late are moving in and am hopeful of their showing a bit more cut and soil at their apogees. Your point about the '95s was also very well taken.![[swearing.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8a0d3f3461d40641d294442fc2be78039bf94d19.gif "[swearing.gif]"){kind=small}
