Last month, my wife and I were pleased to join seven other friends out at the Lawton residence for a delicious holiday dinner featuring a whole bunch of foodie pot luck dishes. The kids played upstairs while the adults got down to the serious business of cooking and opening bottles.
With a whole bunch of interesting cheeses and a vast array of ham and charcuterie:
N.V. Jose Dhondt Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs. This bottle was purchased several years ago. It features a darkly-toasted bouquet full of ginger, lemon peel, toasted bread, vanilla, apple, spiced pear and copper penny aromas that show nice depth and just a bit of advancing age. In the mouth, it’s centered around flavors of ginger, toasted bread, spice, nut, apple, lemon peel and light honey that are big-boned, full and giving. It’s probably time to drink it up fairly soon, but it’s quite tasty right now.
1998 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Chetillons. Here one finds a rather fine and precise nose of lemon, herb, mineral, chalk and green apple aromas that are fresh, effervescent and lively. It shows fantastic energy and brightness in the mouth, with a tangy, bright and lifted personality. The core flavors of apple, citrus and light caramel are accented by a finely-etched lattice of minerality running underneath. This is just a really fine and classy drink.
1995 Bollinger Champagne La Grande Année. The nose here is deep and powerful, but also classy as heck–featuring fine aromas of baked apples, baking spices, autumn leaves and brown bread. On the palate, the intensity and expansiveness of the wine are extremely impressive, as it’s loaded with mouthwatering flavors of pear, dark citrus, apple, caramel and spice. For all that, it shows great precision and class all the way through to the finely-wrought finish. This was a tremendous showing, I thought.
N.V. Jose Dhondt Champagne Rosé de Saignée. This wine loses its fizz pretty quickly, but the nose stays prickly and zesty with aromas of raspberries, blood oranges, pink grapefruit and minerals. It’s bright in the mouth, with a strong acidic streak and a stainless steel-tinged backbone supporting winy flavors of cherry, cranberry and red citrus fruit. There’s still some sulfur and smoke haunting the finish, along with some fine minerality lingering on.
2004 Schloss Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner Kammerner Lamm. Here one encounters precise and refined aromas of clay, chalk, white pepper and grapefruit that are very nice indeed. In the mouth, it features a textured linen feel to the delicious flavors of yellow apple, pear, sour-tinged citrus and fine spices, along with a nicely rounded acidity and a juicy finish. It’s really tasty and easy to drink.
2008 Michel Gahier Chardonnay Arbois Les Crets. This takes a little getting used to on the nose, with some unusual waxy, earthy undertones to the core set of pear, citrus and light honey aromas. The longer you stay with it, though, the more interesting and layered it seems to become. In the mouth, it’s loaded with waxy yellow apple, lemon peel and star fruit flavors that almost hide the interesting wooly undercurrent that runs all the way through the palate journey. It’s fascinating and enjoyable, though not quite as thoroughly delicious to my tastes as the 2007 La Fauquette Chardonnay from this same producer.
2009 Királyudvar Tokaji Sec. I’ve enjoyed this wine in the past, but didn’t get a chance to try it on this night.
2008 Panevino Alvas Isola dei Nuraghi IGT. I missed this one as well, unfortunately.
With the foie-gras stuffed quail, coq au vin and risotto main dish(es):
2002 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Seven Springs Vineyard Willamette Valley. The nose here is pretty, leafy and berry-laden, with pleasant aromas of soft leather, dusty oak, green tobacco, blueberries and mocha. In the mouth, it’s expressive and open, showing plenty of giving and fun blueberry and sour cherry fruit flavors to go with twangy acidity and brown spice accents. It drinks very well today but should also have plenty left in the tank.
1993 Domaine de Montille Pommard 1er Cru Les Pèzerolles. The nose here is serious and gentlemanly, with great old-fashioned appeal in the contained and smoldering aromas of black cherry, blackberry, leather, earth, brown tobacco and spice. In the mouth, it’s dark and savory, with tangy mixed berry, sour cherry and red currant fruit flavors supported by leathery undertones and dark citrus top notes. Again, it feels serious and refined, reserved and upstanding, but also quite enjoyable to drink now or anytime over the next several years.
2002 Clos Rougeard (Foucault) Saumur-Champigny. This wine displays a wonderful aromatic profile that’s right in my wheelhouse—featuring gorgeous scents of rawhide leather, cigar wrapper, funky dried sweat, porcini mushroom, saddle leather, spiced cherry, persimmon, toasted orange peel, classy earth and a tiny hint of barnyard. It’s ludicrously good, layered and lovely. In the mouth, it’s rather classically-made—with perfect balance, classy texture and a late surge of tannin providing plenty of structure for additional aging. It’s juicy, savory and fine-flowing, delivering tasty flavors of cranberry, cherry, earth, iodine and leather melded together rather deftly. It’s drinking great but not going anywhere, either.
2005 Benetiere Côte-Rôtie Cordeloux. There’s a black, dense color to this wine, which is evocatively deep, dark and exotic on the nose—featuring gorgeous aromas of white violets, camphor, fresh earth, new bridle leather, olive brine, plums, blackberries and lead pencil that are young but perfectly overt and giving at the moment. In the mouth, it’s approachably full-flavored, big-boned and tautly acidic all at the same time—with pure black fruit, black smoke, black olive and seafoam impressions giving a wonderfully transparent feel to the wine. It really couldn’t be from anywhere other than the Northern Rhone, and it’s a true pleasure to drink.
With desserts:
2002 August Kesseler Riesling Rüdesheimer Berg Schloßberg Spätlese Rheingau. This wine offers up a fanned out and full bouquet of peach, lemon pectin, orange hard candy, lemon peel and pineapple aromas leading to a palate presence that is grippy, long and pure. It’s not overly heavy at all, and in fact the flavors of grapefruit, pineapple, lemon and spices are tangy and lacy while also showing lusciously ripe fruit sweetness. It’s drinking well.
1996 Domaine des Petits Quarts (Godineau) Bonnezeaux Le Malabé. This is a real live wire of a wine on the nose, pumping out all kinds of dark peach, burnished orange, nectarine, wildflower and exotic spice aromas that are simultaneously brisk and luscious. In the mouth, it’s electric and lively, with intensely vibrant flavors of nectarine, peach, orange, caramel and spun sugar. I really like the combination of power, energy, lift and brightness that accompany the taut and tangy-tinged sweetness here. Obviously, I really enjoyed this.
1997 Domaine Huet Vouvray Moelleux 1ère Trie Clos du Bourg. This still feels pretty young to me on the nose, though I do very much enjoy the decidedly pretty aromas of beeswax, clover honey, toasted orange peel, apricot and copper that it offers up. In the mouth, it feels gently oxidized, with some nutty, woolly overtones to the apricot, nectarine, citrus peel and steel flavors. Still, it demonstrates outstanding density, concentration and depth of flavor to go along with a sharp acidic cut. It’s certainly less flashy than the previous wine, but I really appreciate its direct, refined and lengthy flavors.
1983 Taylor (Fladgate) Porto Vintage. This is faded ruby in color, with an aromatic profile of prune, fig, dried cranberry and walnut scents showing a lot of aged character. Where it really struts its stuff, though, is on the finely-aged palate that’s also fun, spicy, long and lasting. It features tawny flavors of chopped nuts, caramel, dried cherries, fig, funky undergrowth, spiced leather and bright spirits that just effortlessly flow across the tongue. This is very enjoyable and a fine way to end a lovely evening.
-Michael
![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
