2022 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon ‘Le Grezeaux
Deep purple.
Tobacco, herb, and menthol bouquet.
A young tannic LeGrez that’s dense, ripe, with enough fruit acidity, and that Loire-only green-herb note. A bit of everything. Super lengthy. A classed Bordeaux touch to it.
I’m not a wine seer, but I’d be excited about where this can land years from now.
We did a fun horizontal tasting of seven 2016 single vineyard Carlisle zins yesterday. They were all very good, as expected, with the Montafi and Pagani as the consensus favorites over 2+ hours of sampling and revisiting. Papera was a close third. My usual favorite, the Carlisle Vineyard zin, didn’t shine like it has on its own, although there was nothing specifically off about the bottle. Just not its best night.
I would happily drink any one of these bottles any time.
Had a 2017 last week and it was amazing!
2021 Obsidian Ridge Volcanic Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
This showed quite well after a 30 minute decant. It evolved through the typical stages of an oppulent, well-rounded Napa Cab.
Went through the cassis, the graphite, leather, and vanilla, to nutty flavors and tobacco, and finally arrived somewhere with a very slight hint of Worcestershire sauce.
The wine feels a touch too alcoholic at times, and it could use 3-5 more years in the bottle. Still, the value on this bottle is fantastic. It costs $40 but drinks like a $120 Napa Cab.
The trick: these guys bought the land and planted their high altitude vineyard 25 years ago before grapes could reliably ripen. Decades of warming later, the vineyards are producing quality grapes and the land is worth 12X more than they paid for it.
Lake County is generally warmer than Napa or Sonoma, since there’s no San Pablo Bay influence that far north. Since these vineyards are at elevation, that’s a different climate than valley floor or foothills that are more directly impact by the marine layer, or lack thereof.
Still, the elevation is similar to the upper reaches of the Mayacamas in Napa-Sonoma, so it’s kind of surprising that they’d previously had trouble ripening in a warmer macro-climate at similar elevation to mountain Cabs to the south. And your notes indicate they indeed have plenty of ripeness in 2021. Regardless, this does sound like a relative value for a Napa-style mountain Cab.
08 St Innocent Shea. Absolutely Incredible. Even better on day two.
@Steve_L_Gellman No brett?
Not that I tasted
There was also a Bordelet Sidre (doux) and a Rhum arrangé.
And the picture is missing a Latour Monthélie 1er Cru 2020.
2013 UTW Hirsch Vyd - just OK
2011 Cabot Nash Mill - Corked
2012 Scherrer Platt PN - exceptional
2022 Tofanelli Semillion - end of an era
2022 Sandlands Lodi Red Table Wine en Magnum - young expressive, light bodied, gulpable
Still too young but not too young to sense its promise. Impeccable balance and some lovely aromatics.
The Rian is in its window and is good but not exceptional. The Levante still has a fair amount of tannins that are drying on the palate. I wonder if they will outlast the fruit.
The best glass of the night was a 50/50 blend from the last of each bottle, 4 hours after double decanting.
2015 Cantemerle.
@Nick_Christie and @Robert.A.Jr
2000 Krug: close to perfect for me. Bright intense and very long. Citrusy with nice toasty development. A mid yellow colour but no signs of any oxidation at all. A great bottle lots of bubbles
2001 Mugnier Les Fuees: at peak, no signs of decline. Just a wonderful perfumed elegant silky masterpiece from Mugnier. So Mugnier so Chambolle so beautiful. This is very pretty and delicious but hidden layers and a lot of depth
1999 Chave Rouge: An abundance of smoked meats wild herbs and dark red fruits and earthy elements. Long powerful palate this was showing really well and was Katrina (the birthday person) favourite. Everything was in place, balance, depth, power & finish. Just went on and on. Great bottle great showing. Too bad I have no more as this will power on for a long time to come
1976 Geiler Weissburgunder TBA: Dark mahogany colour, all molasses and butterscotch on the nose. Palate was full rich with raisin type dried fruits and was long and clean with great finishing acidity. Crappy short 38mm cork managed to do its job for 48 years. A marvel and joy to share and to finish with
