This month’s poker game was at Zach’s place, with wines supplied by Kyle. A few people donated extra bottles, so we ended up with a pretty big batch of wines to enjoy with the pizza and other snacks. Zach was a first-time winner, so we’ll all happily be back at his place next month. All wines were served blind, as is the custom.
Flight 1:
2006 F.X. Pichler Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Von den Terrassen. The first wine of the night has an appealing bouquet featuring notes of creamy lemon, wet river stones, light peach, orange blossom and lime peel. In the mouth, it is softer and lower-acid than the nose suggest it will be, with an open-textured and gently languid feel to it. There is a mild bit of sweetness through the fleshed out middle that is nicely off-set by some fine crunchy minerality and a bit of bitter white pepper zip. The finish provides more tingle to the mineral and floral peach notes, leaving an interesting impression.
2004 Weingut Willi Brundlmayer Gruner Veltliner Alte Reben. This wine has a crisp and earthy nose that sports aromas of dark orange blossoms, baked peach and mixed light citrus fruits backed by a definite minerality reminiscent of pounded copper. In the mouth, it has a mouthwatering acidic streak running right through it–providing a taut frame for the young and tight flavors of tangy citrus fruit and bitter minerals. The acidity turns more mouth-puckering on the juicy, bitter finish. While less immediately appealing than the previous wine, this will be the more successful ager, I should think. After bouncing around a bit, I did manage to settle my guess for the flight on Austrian—so I felt pretty good about that.
Flight 2:
2006 Windy Oaks Estate Pinot Noir Henry’s Block Schultze Family Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains. This wine is a very pale ruby in color. The lovely bouquet is softly enveloping, with a soft fuzzy quality to the wide-open aromas of fleshy crushed strawberries and raspberries. Underneath the red fruit are notes of birch beer, grape stems and soft balsa wood shavings. It has a ton of flavor, opening strong with notes of cola nut, major spice rack and a good deal of soft oak. Although the wine is light and perhaps even mildly thin on the entry, it fleshes out with all kinds of pretty red fruit flavors through the mid-weight mid-palate. A good dose of citric acidity is consistent with the rest of the profile and gives a nice balanced feel to the finish. As soon as Jud mentioned that this could be a Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir, I was on board with that conclusion.
2006 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard Santa Cruz Mountains. This wine is much darker and thicker-looking than the other two wines in the flight. It also features darker aromatics of things like blackberries and plums, dark soil and brown stems. It seems large-framed, and rather youthful at this point in its life. On the palate, it is heavier-bodied and fleshy, with a dark-fruited personality. It features a lot of rich extracted black fruit and chalky tannins, but also manages a nice easy flow and shows no heat whatsoever. I know this is a profile that doesn’t appeal to some, but I think it is actually a good example of this Pinot style.
2005 Williams-Selyem Pinot Noir Bucher Vineyard Russian River Valley. This Pinot rides the middle road between the previous two entries. It has pleasing aromas of mixed red and blue berries, chalky limestone and fine oak spices that are fairly rich but with a nice little bit of tang to them. It features a good deal of berry sweetness in the mouth, as well as a liberal sprinkling of oak spices. It is medium to fuller-bodied for a Pinot, and shows a good deal of cohesiveness and concentration. Again, no heat is evident, but the wine could use some time to integrate the wood a bit more. My guess here of Russian River Valley Pinot proved to be generally accurate, by the way.
Flight 3:
1997 Fattoria di Felsina Chianti Classico Riserva Berardenga. Aromatically, this wine is tight, dark-fruited and serious in tone. It slowly opens up to pull in aromas of plum and black cherry, charcoal, dark earth, fudge and hard leather, but it seems to be holding a good deal in reserve behind its big and somber façade. In the mouth, the wine is simply far from being ready to drink. It is rich and thick, but with a cut of juicy acidity from time to time. However, there is a huge dose of big, fudgy and drying tannins in there that suck the saliva right out of the mouth. Moreover, this wine is showing some obvious alcoholic warmth right now. Taken all together, this pretty much punishes the palate in a way that makes me want to wait like 10 years before trying it again.
2000 Fattoria di Felsina Fontalloro Toscana IGT. One finds aromas of dark currants, black cherry, forest greens, tobacco leaf, green pepper and rich dirt on the nose of this wine. Although not quite to the same extent as the previous wine, this one also feels tightly-coiled at times. In the mouth, it is smooth and glossy and much more accessible than the previous wine. Notes of creosote, green pepper and polished red and black fruit flavors show the beginnings of some sexiness, but could use some time to get past the abundant tannins. Overall, though, this comes across as a classier and more fine-honed version of the previous wine that will be readier to drink sooner.
2001 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova. As usual, I was the last one to get to this wine, and I heard a lot of people talking earlier about stewed, over-ripe and roasted qualities associated with it. However, I get only hints of that, instead finding a rather overt and lovely bouquet with lots of sweet red licorice, black raspberry fruit, dark fruit cake and clove spices. In the mouth, it does have a warm profile, but I am more focused on the cashmere texture, excellent persistence and classy black and red fruit profile the wine has to offer. The tannins get a bit chewy and tougher-toned toward the dry finish, suggesting the need for another 5 years or so, but I am quite optimistic about the future of this wine. On the whole, I think it is safe to say people were universally surprised when it was revealed that this was a Sangiovese flight.
Flight 4:
1990 Ridge Vineyards Geyserville Sonoma County. I like the nose of this wine a lot, with its pretty notes of fine red currants, sweet red cherries and red flowers riding above the darker fruit and chocolate aromas that underpin them. In the mouth, this wine is a total relief to the palate after the tough and sometimes punishing wines of the previous flight. This is finely-balanced and resolved, yet vigorous and fresh—drinking perfectly right now. It is medium-bodied and feels plush on the palate despite not being overly dense or anything. It is just well-constructed all around, with plenty of juicy berry fruit, no hard tannins and no tough acidity to worry about or deal with whatsoever. I had no guess as to what variety this was, but it surely was my Wine of the Night.
Flight 5:
2001 Laura Zahtila Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Vineyard Georges III Napa Valley. The bouquet here is gently warm and inviting, featuring aromas of milk chocolate powder, red currants, cassis, liquid mocha and sweet earth. It has a nice classy California Cabernet quality to it that I really like. On the palate, it is smooth and lithe, with some minor fine-grained tannins still hanging around. Although there are occasional forays toward some jamminess with the fruit profile, it mostly stays fresh and clean—leading with black and red cherry, berry and cassis flavors that are supported by a big juicy squirt of acidity all the way along the palate journey. It is not especially structured for the long-haul, but rather compactly tasty, polished and characterful for solid drinking enjoyment right now.
2002 Laura Zahtila Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Vineyard Georges III Napa Valley. The nose of the next wine veers off more toward aromas like sweet creosote, incense, Belgian chocolate, blackberries and fireplace ash. Still, it seems consistent with the overall persona of classy California Cabernet established by the first wine in the flight. It is rather silky in the mouth, with more obvious but still finely-done dry extract. Solid flavors of black currant, fudge, earth and spice have a dry edge peeking out at times and there is more body, structure and tannic presence in this wine than the previous one. The finish is also chalkier, so while this is also nice to drink now, it is more obviously suited to the cellar.
2001 Steltzner Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Bottled Stags Leap District. Aromas of creosote, graphite, pencil shavings and black cherry fruit are quite nice, but not so glossy or sexy as the two previous wines. This one seems more focused on minerality and a certain freshness of fruit. It is medium-weighted in the mouth, lending solid support to the flavors of black cherry and mixed currants that are fresh and aggressive but at times a bit fudgy. The tannins are also a tad beefy or chunky, but seem happy to remain in the background a good deal of the time. The wine finishes well-balanced, even and juicy. Overall, while it could stand to find a bit more finery and focus, there is a good deal to like here now and over the next 2 to 4 years.
Flight 6:
1998 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape. This flight starts out with a real winner. The aromatics suggest a European wine with some moderate age to it. The earthy elements of fine worn leather, clean horse stable, cigar ash and funky sweat nicely frame the reserved but pure and sweet red fruit aromas. The red fruit is nice and bright in the mouth, carried along by fresh and lively acidity that gives the wine a bit of crunch to go along with the earthier, leathery textures it flashes. The tannins make no obvious statements here at all, and instead one finds a fresh, balanced, tasty and largely resolved wine that is great for drinking right now. This was my runner-up wine of the night.
1999 Domaine Jasmin Cote-Rotie. This wine is darker and more obviously savory on the nose. It features aromas of strong leather, dark earth, musky black fruit and savory meat and spices. It is a bit reticent at times, seemingly wanting to show more but holding some back. In the mouth, it has a delightfully seamless texture to it. The tannins are in fair abundance, but are on the soft side. The flavor profile is red-fruited and earth-toned, with lots of bright acidity below that can give the wine a bit of a dry or leathery edge at times. Although I love the seamless qualities it shows, I wish the wine had a bit more structured focus.
2003 Domaine Font de Michelle Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Etienne Gonnet. The nose here is hardly one of my favorites on the day, giving off scents of industrial rubber hosing, black licorice, white pepper, fireplace ash and savory-edged black fruits. The palate is much more sweet-fruited and perhaps even a touch darkly floral, though still on the black side of the fruit spectrum. There is a bit of chalkiness running through the wine as it pumps out a ton of flavor over a rather open-knit structure. I like the stuffing, but bemoan the touch of flabbiness it seems to show right now.
Flight 7:
2004 Stolpman Syrah Estate Grown Santa Ynez Valley. Here we have a whole paradigm shift that takes a few moments to adjust to. This is a deeply rich and modern Cali Syrah bouquet featuring overt chewy black currant, brownie and fireplace ash aromas. In the mouth, it is again black as night, with black fruits, black licorice and brownie flavors, along with a nick of that rubber element I dislike. It is very polished texturally and very stylishly-made and manages to deliver a lot of raw material without any sense of alcoholic heat. Right now, though, it is not very nuanced or complex, so I might suggest cellaring another 3 to 5 years to see what becomes of this.
2003 Stolpman La Croce Santa Ynez Valley. This wine has a strong and overt nose featuring aromas of spiced blackberries, black currants, foresty plants, black soil and a hint of jalapeno pepper. Like the previous wine, this is highly-stylized, but more obviously glycerin-laden. It has better acidity than the previous wine, but there is just so much black fruit and dark earth stuffing that the wine feels big and round. It has more appeal to me than the previous wine, but it is hard to drink much more than a few sips of either at this point in the day.
-Michael