TN: House Warming for Keith

WINE TALK
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HOUSE WARMING FOR KEITH - Keith’s Apartment - Chicago, IL (9/20/2012)

Keith moved into a new place in Bucktown, so a few of us descended on his place and opened up some wine.

  • 2004 Nicolas Maillart Champagne Blanc de Blancs 1er Cru Extra Brut Les Chaillots - France, Champagne
    Fresh, crisp orchard fruit meld nicely with crushed stone and bread notes on the nose. Loved the palate - just a great combination of fresh pear and apple notes layered over a seriously rocky and mineral driven underbelly. Killer stuff. (92 pts.)
  • 2002 Huët Vouvray Pétillant Réserve Brut - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray Pétillant
    Love this stuff, and for around $40 hard to imagine a better bottle of bubbly. Beautifully rich with great apple and bready tones layered over top of zippy acidity. Fantastic stuff. (93 pts.)
  • 1995 Krug Champagne Brut - France, Champagne
    A killer bottle of Champagne. Upon opening, the nose was a bit closed down but soon tones of apple, pear, toast and mousse burst forth. Aromatically, this was just a treat. It was expressive, bright, and nuanced. The flavors on the palate were incredibly layered and deep. Wonderful orchard fruit, flint, and baked bread swim together in the glass creating one of the finer champagnes I’ve had. This has great energy and verve on the palate with powerful fruit and equally powerful acidity. (95 pts.)
  • 2005 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru
    Shy nose at first, but with air elegant tones of seashells, white floral notes, apple, lemons and pears bubble to the top. The palate had a really nice blend of fruit with big flinty notes and floral elegance. Enjoyed this a lot. (92 pts.)
  • 1994 Domaine aux Moines Savennières Roche aux Moines - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Savennières Roche aux Moines
    Beautiful nose of waxy lemons, banana and pears. Found the palate to be a bit disjointed with the acid really spiking in the mid-palate and finish. All of us thought there was something slightly off with this bottle.
  • 2002 Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena
    Served blind. I did a terrible job trying to pin this down. Thought it might be something from Spain…nope! Had subtle meaty notes and bigger red and black fruit throughout. Had a nice elegance to it too. I’m glad I tried this. I’ve had some younger Orion’s that I’ve felt are too jammy and spoofy…so it’s nice to see what they can potentially develop into. (90 pts.)
  • 1998 Jean-Jacques Confuron Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux Monts - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru
    Enjoyed the red berry, and underbrush on the nose. The palate was enjoyable with nice red berries, elegant spices, subtle meatiness and florals. Another example of a 1998 that’s performing well! (91 pts.)

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Glad to hear Keith igot a new place and quite a nice lineup there. Probably be checking in on my 2002 Huet soon, so glad it was showing well.

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Never had a Domaine aux Moines I have liked

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will hopefully get my notes up tonight, but thanks for coming by!

No shocker at all on the krug. Just a magnificent wine and one that I wish I had tons of (price is a bit prohibitive though for me). We definitely made the right call to give the Bouchard air before fully digging into it. That’s one that I would love to see at a mature stage down the road (barring premox naturally).

we’ll have to do more like this soon [cheers.gif]

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Great notes, Matt. I’ve had such similar experiences with the 95 Krug. Just an incredible wine and in a great place right now.

I just moved to Chicago and it’s definitely time to meet some more locals!

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BREAKING IN MY NEW PLACE - My place, Chicago IL (9/20/2012)

A new apartment means me opening up a bunch of wine. Add in three other people dropping by, that meant that plenty of good bottles would be opened.

taste: Fulll bodied with medium/high acidity. The structure is a bit on the overbearing side right now, but has wonderful tones of brioche, roasted nuts, minerals and honeysuckle.

overall: A wonderful champagne. Very young and it would be nice for the acidity to calm down on it. This is really damn good now and can see it improve in the future. (92 pts.)

  • 1994 Domaine aux Moines Savennières Roche aux Moines - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Savennières Roche aux Moines
    not sure what to rate this, or how to rate it. Something seemed off on the palate with the acidity being disjointed. Still, the nose was very interesting with tones of red apples, honey, wax, caramel and some Christmas spices. I’d love to have another bottle to find out if it was off or over the hill.

  • 2002 Huët Vouvray Pétillant Réserve Brut - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray Pétillant
    nose: gorgeous and lovely nose that has me feeling like I’m in a red and green apple orchard along with tones of honeydew, baking spices, and acacia flowers. Very good depth with the aromatics being really balanced.

taste: Medium/full bodied with medium+ acidity that is very refreshing. It also adds a nice spine along with wonderful tones of baking spices, red and green apples, and honeydew tones.

overall: This was a revelation for me. Extremely good and balanced with a real attractive quality to it. (92 pts.)

  • 1995 Krug Champagne Brut - France, Champagne
    nose: deep and layered nose filled with tones of brioche, white fruits, acacia flowers, red apples, and citrus tones as well. Beautifully balanced and very expressive with the tones just flowing together.

taste: Medium/full bodied with medium+ acidity that is more refreshing than overbearing. Well layered with plush and polished tones of brioche, white fruits, acacia flowers and citrus tones.

overall: This was a killer bottle of champagne. Still has youth but is starting to hit it’s stride. A completely classy and polished Champagne that is showing great layers right now. A real treat. (95 pts.)

  • 2005 Bouchard Père et Fils Corton-Charlemagne - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru
    nose: was very tight and somewhat shut down at first. After an hour of air it started to open up and reveal grand cru class deep tones of oils, roasted nuts, pears, creams and some navel oranges with a touch of floral tones.

taste: Full bodied with medium/high acidity that is certainly showing itself. There is a larger quality to the tones right now with tones of creams, pears, white fruits, navel oranges and some oils.

overall: this is still a baby. If bottles of this can hold up, it should age well and shed some of the baby fat it still has. (92 pts.)

  • 2002 Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena
    nose: there is good intensity to the fruit, but without it being overdone. On the warmer side, but balanced with tones of herbs, dark red fruits, dark spices, black fruits and dark florals.

taste: full bodied with good depth and medium+ acidity. Tannins are still very much there with balanced tones of herbs, dark red fruits, florals tones and spices.

overall: this was tricky blind. I was able to get it down to california and I did unknowingly throw the name thackery out there. A fun one to have blind as it was hard to fully pin down what the varietal was. (92 pts.)

taste: silky medium body with medium acidity. Well balanced with polished tones of violets, spice tones, dark red cherries and some berries. The more feminine quality continues as well on the palate with nice depth.

overall: this was a very pretty wine that was in a real nice place. Very aromatic with really good balance too. (91 pts.)

Not a bad way to kick off my new digs. Add in a bunch of sushi and it made for a great night. Thanks to matt, bill, and tim for kicking things off right.
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