Dinner at Aba on W. 57th.
2016 Dirty & Rowdy Especial was delightfully untypical Mourvèdre. Short maceration and minimal extraction. It smells Beaujolaisish-carbonic at first whiff and until acclimating. Shifting aromas of red berries and a hint of grapefruits. Entirely transparent, dancing lightweight and energetic and playful. Built on a confident acidic and light extract base with little to no tannins. Soulful. Absolutely delicious. Because it is so flavorful and so present, it does just fine next to the other reds.
2013 Enderle & Moll Ménage a Trois weaves aromas of intense cooked strawberry, and cranberry, and pickle juice, with minerality. There is more stuffing than the D&R but still purity that is quite engaging for the average AWFE. The pickle juice fades in and out. Another winner that is drinking well. I have no context to know how it will age but there is a compact structure here that could lead to something interesting perhaps in a few years.
2010 Ramonet Chassagne Clos St. Jean is somewhat reduced and slow to unfurl. I drank it over three days ultimately. The wine has a medium body rock solid core built to age. The sheer density is a step up. Here the fruit veers toward black cherry. This is an intensely earthy wine with hints of spice and an underlying ripeness to the fruit that is buried under the tannins and extract. It is screaming for more time, but it is a classic Ramonet red that is heading in the right direction.
2007 Fourrier Gevrey VV was somewhat light and a bit disappointing. The Dr. was not happy. It is Gevrey but it’s messy and there is a relative hole in the middle. Here one could sense the limitations of the vintage.
I recently sourced the 2002 Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Rully 1er Cru Le Meix Cadot over the internet because I was curious about the hype on this domaine. What I didn’t know when I did is that this was a North Berkeley Cuvee Unique bottling. I.e., this may have received the anomalous, especiallly toasty Cuvee Unique treatment that effectively ruined what I suspect would have been a delicious minerally white Burgundy. Wine retailers need to put the Cuvee Unique designation on their websites, especially during this period of time (mid-90s to mid-00s), so consumers can stay away. It had the solid core I’ve found in many 2002s, just a hint of maturity. This held up structurally with no problem for 2 weeks and was still on a plateau last night when I drank the last glass, but initially and for the entire period it was constantly fighting for fruit and minerality to poke through the literal veneer. A shame. I would be very curious to try the version of this wine sold in France, to see if it is different.
