TN: An old Cab and a red Burg with Abood and Veronica.

WINE TALK
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AN OLD CAB AND A RED BURG WITH ABOOD AND VERONICA. - My place. (5/20/2011)

They had some nice looking ribeyes at Food Emporium yesterday, so I grabbed a few and invited Michel Abood and Veronica Moreno over for dinner and served them up with roasted asparagus and a nice salad. A couple of bottles were opened and a lovely evening ensured.

Cheers,

Brad


  • 2006 Domaine Jean Grivot Vosne-Romanée - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée
    Michel mentioned that he had decanted this wine for two hours prior to bringing it over. It still needed more time. It initially showed austere and lean, with bright cherry and cranberry fruit, but not enough of it to stand up to the high acidity. With air it did get a little better and the fruit sweetened a little to fall more in the slightly unripe red raspberry range, but the wine remained unpleasantly lean and ungenerous and had a little bit of a green streak. I’m not convinced this wine will ever develop enough flesh around its bones to really balance it out. B.
  • 1978 San Martin Winery Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Central Coast, San Luis Obispo County
    Another old bottle of Cab that greatly exceeded expectations. Immediately upon opening it smelled like an old cellar. Musty barrels and mushroom aromas dominated with a touch of cedar, but you could tell there was a core of fruit there. It showed a little muddled on the palate initially, too. However after about five or ten minutes, the wine really took off, first in the mouth and then on the nose. Sweet black cherry fruit surged to the forefront with a bit of mint along the sides. It finished with a bit of austerity, but after ten more minutes in the glass, even the finish smoothed out. The black cherry fruit really sweetened up and anise, cocoa powder and herb flavors arose and the wine took on a wonderful resolved silky quality. Just thoroughly delicious. I have a sense this would’ve been a relatively quick flash of brilliance and then a quick burnout, but we downed the bottle before it showed any signs of a decline. A-.

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Btw, anyone know anything about San Martin Winery? I don’t think they exist anymore. Nice long read on their back label.

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Brad–An old San Martin wine? That’s out of left field! IIRC, San Martin winery was in the town of the same name, about 20 miles south of San Jose just off the 101 highway…

Bruce

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I got that much from mapquest. neener

I should shoot Jason Brandt Lewis an e-mail. I bet he knows something about them.

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My notes mirror yours somewhat, I’d give the Grivot a B+ as I felt it improved with air and would have gotten better with another day of breathing time. It definitely rounded out during the course of dinner. I didn’t get as many green notes as you did, and I’m pretty sensitive to green.

But that 1978 was the star of the night, really glorious, it smelled like that lovely old mushroom smell you get when you walk into an old wine cellar, with some soft red fruits on the side. Absolutely beautiful.
Cheers! [berserker.gif]

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I remember that wine, probably have one last bottle kicking around!

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I can’t drink red Burgs w/asparagus–brings out the green. Maybe that was the problem?
alan

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Even before, and long after having the asparagus (and drinking lots of water), the Grivot did have a slight edge to it. I just think it needed to breathe a LOT more though it definitely got more enjoyable as the night wore on.

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What Michel said. It was showing a light green note before I had the asparagus, during and after. It wasn’t egregious, but it was certainly there. Oh, and Michel, you may be sensitive to green, but given what you like to drink, you like it a whole lot more than I do. [stirthepothal.gif]