TNs, including 1998 Palmer, 1990 de Malle

[Michael Malinoski]

The following are notes from a series of fairly recent dinners with the family spread across several weeks—just collated here in one place.

Sparkling wines:

NV Jose Michel et Fils Champagne Brut Tradition. This Champagne sports a lightly-framed and pretty bouquet of citrus peel, chalk, toasted bread, dark yeast, crisp mineral and hints of cherry fruit. In the mouth, it is quite crisp and minerally, with a distinctly crunchy edge to it. But it is also fairly generous with the lemon, green apple and peach pit flavors that show good lift and a dynamic verve. It isn’t really deep or textured, more zippy and pulsating and palate-cleansing. Within that framework, this blend of 70% Pinot Meunier and 30% Chardonnay does a wonderful job and is certainly a very nice way to start an evening.

NV Moet & Chandon Champagne Brut Imperial. The nose is clean and simple, with apple, chalk and crushed nut aromas leading to a palate that is light and easy-going. It is on the sweet side, but a buoyant finish saves the day and gives it a more refreshing feel at the end than through the middle. It isn’t bad, but certainly nothing to get excited about.

NV Pol Roger Champagne Extra Cuvee de Reserve Brut. This is an extremely vibrant bottle, showing immediate class and finesse in its focused and bright aromas of flint, lemon-lime and smoke offset by creamier tones of frozen butter. It is all spun together beautifully, with great expressiveness. In the mouth, it is quite similar—popping on the palate with fresh cut herbs, lemon ball, mineral, chalk and toasted bread flavors that have an excellent mouth-filling quality. It shows excellent breadth through the mid-palate, coming back with a taut and precise finish of smoke and citrus peel. Very nice showing.

2004 Thierry Triolet Champagne Les Vieilles Vignes. This is just an unusual bottle of Champagne and I don’t think it was liked very much by any of the 5 of us drinking it. It starts off with a vibrant nose of chalk dust, dark yeast, nuts, baked apples, peach pit and an odd sort of pickled ginger note. In the mouth, it opens up dark and toasty, with flavors of baked apple, prickle pear and black bread. It turns rather brisk and austere through the middle, though, and there seems to be quite a hole there that is really only filled with tough acidity and later a streak of sherry flavors. There is a lot of power and push, but insufficient fruit stuffing, it seems. The wine is full of energy, but just seems to rev the engine in the parking lot more than take the taster on any sort of journey of enjoyment.

White wines:

2001 Alphonse Mellot Sancerre La Moussiere. I am surprised at how well this bottle has hung in there. To begin, it gives off fine aromas of lime zest, chalk, crushed shells, green apple, grapefruit, quartz and green herbs that slowly yield to some blanched nut notes over time. Flavor-wise, it is rather a nice pairing with our roasted tomato and basil soup—its acidity nicely matching that of the soup. It features crisp flavors of lemon, green apple, chalk and grapefruit that still have good life, if perhaps not much nuance or layering. It shows no signs of cracking up, but the complexity isn’t really there anymore and the finish is beginning to feel a bit clipped. So, while this was a solid pairing and a fine surprise, I definitely wouldn’t recommend holding any longer.

2009 Monastero Suore Cistercensi Coenobium Lazio IGT. CORKED. The store I purchased it at took it back and replaced it with another bottle, which we drank a week later with friends. It was the best showing yet of the four bottles I’ve had—making me think this ought to continue to improve and evolve over the short term.

2009 Francois Chidaine Vouvray Clos Baudoin. I think this wine is still rather tightly-coiled, especially aromatically. It takes some aggressive swirling to get the aromas to blossom, but the bouquet does improve the longer one stays with it. Eventually, one senses the fine chalk, mineral, lime pith and waxy citrus peel aromas it has to offer, but this is not as immediately appealing to me as say a recent bottle of 2008 Chidaine Les Tuffeaux. In the mouth, it has a nice medium weight and the usual lovely Chidaine texture. There’s solid flavor concentration and depth, but it is decidedly more dry and sour-fruited than I was expecting, especially on the tautly-wound, smoky finish. I have two more bottles and will lay them down at least another year before re-visiting.

2005 Aubert Chardonnay Quarry Vineyard Sonoma County. There’s just a slightly cloudy veneer to this wine—with an interesting green tint to it at times. It gives up fabulous aromas that show really impressive depth and concentration—with complex and ever-changing notes of butterscotch, crème brulee topping, barrel spices, chalk, limestone, mica minerality, star fruit, kiwi, lemon, clotted cream and occasional tropical tones all in there for one’s enjoyment. In the mouth, it is rich and intense and concentrated in flavor, with a real mouth-filling quality, but no sense of over-done character. The oak is getting nicely integrated, though it is still a major player in the barrel spice top notes. More interesting are the intense granite, crushed shell and mineral notes running down the spine of the wine, giving great tension to the otherwise languid lemon ball, butterscotch, tree fruit and vanilla flavors. There is a lot going on here and the wine manages it all surprisingly well—staying creamy and leesy on the one hand, but driven and vibrant on the other. My one quibble would be that the oak still seems to play too much of a role on the finish—so I’d give this another year or two in the cellar if I owned any more of it. I’d just like to add that it’s too bad Aubert no longer has access to this site—he’s made special wines from that fruit.

1999 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Riesling Spatlese Kaseler Nies’Chen Mosel Saar Ruwer. This wine sports a mellowing yellow color and puts forth a very pleasing bouquet of peach, honeysuckle, blue slate, Fuji apple, brown spices and little slivers of tropical yellow fruit. In the mouth, it has a nice fleshy texture and gentle sweetness--with white peach, yellow apple and grippy acids leading the way. It has a nicely expanded mid-palate and still sports fine body and weight, but seems a tad flatter on the finish—so I am tempted to say it ought to be drunk up fairly soon.

Pinot Noir:

2006 Lane Tanner Pinot Noir Julia’s Vineyard Santa Maria Valley. I’m not a big fan of the plastic cork one finds under the foil here, but I am a fan of the wine itself. The nose is quite interesting—showing lots of Burgundian qualities to my way of thinking. It features complex but understated and earthy tones of cranberry, loganberry, birch, sous bois forest tones, leather and abundant but elegant spices. In the mouth, I find it a tad aggressive with the tart acidity at first, but it soon settles into more of a light to medium-bodied and elegant frame supporting solid cherry, pomegranate and cranberry fruit flavors to go along with leafy undergrowth and vivacious spice notes. There are really no tannins that are evident to me and the label shocked me with the 14.5 abv listing—for this is an earthy, acidic, elegant and airy sort of pinot that does quite well at the dinner table, in my opinion.

2005 A.P. Vin Pinot Noir Clos Pepe Vineyard Santa Rita Hills. This is a rather dark-toned pinot on the nose—with lots of smoked cherry, black plum, black tea leaf, cracked pepper, toasted oak, dark earth, chalk dust and vanilla aromas lifting out of the glass. In the mouth, it is relatively full-bodied and direct, but not particularly tannic and actually quite well-balanced—with a nice smooth texture, lots of dark fruit and an easy flow. It doesn’t show any heat at all and actually finishes a bit understated. I don’t know that I want this dark of a style all the time, but this is pretty well done and drinking just fine right now.

2005 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. Here we have a very brambly, briery bouquet full of blue and purple berry fruit, dark cranberry, brown spice, toasted stem, charred oak, vanilla and leafy forest aromas. It is full and rich and maybe also showing a little sliver of alcohol from time to time. On the palate, it is extremely creamy and almost satiny smooth in texture—featuring sweet blueberry and cranberry fruit accented by mulling spice and cocoa powder flavors that are big but easy-flowing. For me, it is frankly a little confectionary in tone at times, but it was certainly a huge crowd-pleaser with the family. My take is I think I’ll hold my remaining bottles a while longer before tasting again.

Italian Reds:

2007 Vietti Barbera d’Asti Tre Vigne. Right now, this wine is showing a dark and smoldering personality on the nose—with aromas of scorched earth, black fruit, jalapeno pepper, bacon fat and fruitcake spices coming to the fore. It is quite cool in tone on the palate, where it comes across as rather dark-fruited, stony and earthy, with a stern and serious face to it. It displays nice texture and rounded body but is otherwise no-nonsense and manly in nature—without being burly or anything. I think it just seems rather youthful and aloof just now—perhaps needing another 2-3 years to unwind.

1998 Fontodi Chianti Classico. I wasn’t digging the Vietti with the osso bucco we were eating, so I opened the back-up bottle I’d brought along. I hadn’t read great things about this particular vintage for Fontodi, but I have to say this exceeded my expectations. First of all, the nose is strictly for Old World aficionados—with a big blast of barnyard leading out first, followed by aromas of suede leather, tobacco leaf, scrabble dirt, pressed red flowers, toasted orange, pomegranate and sour cherry aromas filling in quite nicely behind. I really like it. In the mouth, it is quite tangy and dominated by sour cherry flavor—with a notable acidic streak running the length of it. While it has good flow, no tannic interference at all and some nice red fruit all the way through, the sour acidity just grows too predominant over time for my tastes. So, while it is better than I was led to believe, I do think right now is the time to pull the trigger if anybody is holding any.

1999 Solaria Brunello di Montalcino. This is very ripe, sweet and modern-styled on the nose—with lots of mocha, chocolate, sweet cherry and cassis aromas popping right out of the glass from the get-go. It is almost over the top, but stays the course and manages to come across as sexy, sweet and fun. In the mouth, it is wide-open for business. Overt and immediate flavors of mocha, chocolate, warm baked cherries, cassis and road tar manage to be charming and inviting due to the incredibly smooth and creamy texture and open-knit structure of the wine. It drinks easy as candy until later in the evening, when the tannins stiffen up and turn chewy. I know this isn’t the kind of wine that will appeal to traditionalists, but it is hard not to find its easy-drinking personality appealing on a cold winter’s evening.

CdP:

2001 Cuvee du Vatican Chateauneuf du Pape. This wine has a lighter-styled, almost airy bouquet to it—focused primarily on notes of baked cherries, green tobacco, toasted herbs, pencil shavings and light caramel. In the mouth, it is medium-bodied, gently fleshy, and showing a good dose of solid cherry and raspberry fruit. It is not very tannic at all and is actually pretty open-knit and offering extremely smooth and easy drinking right now. It is gentle, giving and very pleasant, but not a wine I’d consider holding a whole lot longer. A definite tang of acidity wells up from below, giving the finish a nice fresh feel and keeping the taster coming back for more. I wouldn’t call this an especially profound wine, but it certainly is offering quite nice drinking just now.

Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines:

1998 Chateau Palmer Margaux. Oh my goodness, this is just lovely and utterly sumptuous on the nose. It is full of sweet, soft and plump aromas of plum compote, mocha powder, cassis, road tar and dusty back roads. Slivers of menthol, jalapeno pepper, tobacco leaf and cedar waft in and out and just seem to complete the intoxicating effect this bouquet seems to have over me. In the mouth, it is just a delight, as well. It is seamlessly-textured, pliant and richly-fruited, but incredibly finessed at the same time. Others seemed to find the tannins more aggressive than I did, but for me they were just baby tannins that added to the overall complexity of the wine. The acidity and a little menthol streak both pick up as the evening goes on, but for the most part this is just a delightfully purple and dark red-fruited wine, with excellent flow but also a sense of regal ease. It ought to just get better and better over the next 4-7 years, I suspect.

1997 St. Clement Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. The nose here is redolent of red currants, menthol, tobacco, foresty greens, gypsum and Szechuan peppercorn, though it is a tad tamped down and not quite as expansive as I remember it being earlier in its life. Two of the five tasters thought they might have detected some very faint TCA, but the rest of us were equally convinced that it was more likely just a bit of a cranky bottle. In any event, the palate shows much less of the green streak that’s evident on the nose—leaning much more to pure cassis, red currant and chocolaty warmth of flavor. It is open and welcoming (with no tannins in sight), but a tad pasty in texture and without much of its former structure in place. It is certainly ready to go, but just not nearly as good as it was a few years back. Maybe that is some faint TCA, maybe I just waited too long.

2005 Ladera Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Howell Mountain. This was slow-oxed for about 5 hours before dinner. First of all, it is an inky, impenetrably black-colored wine. It sort of echoes that on the densely-packed nose of black currant, dark mountain berries, ink, blood, iron and jalapeno pepper, with little bits of cedar and incense in the background. It continues to show its youth on the palate, where the structure, tannin and fruit stuffing are in solid standing for future development in the cellar. It does have a lot of features that allow it to be drinkable today, though, including a fair dollop of glycerin character that gives the wine a very smooth and creamy quality. The abundant fruit is dark and fairly rich, with spiced plum, blackcurrant and blueberry flavors occasionally showing a little sweet spot down deep before the tannins come in to obscure. I think this needs 3-5 years, at least.

Sweet wines:

2001 Chateau Manos Cadillac. Served from 375 ml. This might have been very slightly tainted with TCA, though nobody was really certain. It smells of pineapple, papaya, caramel and citronella, but with no lift or vibrancy to the aromas. In the mouth, it is kind of blunt and obviously simple—with caramel, papaya, lemon ball and butterscotch notes that have kind of a funky, dirty petroleum jelly sort of note running underneath. It costs like $10, but I wouldn’t recommend it even at that price.

1990 Chateau de Malle Sauternes. This is wonderful Sauternes and was the perfect accompaniment to an amazing 5-cheese artisanal cheese plate put together by my wife. The color of the wine is like iced tea or dark honey—with orange overtones to its amber core. Aromatically, it is powerful, utterly luscious and intoxicatingly lifted—oozing with wonderful smells of dark honey, poached apricots, lime zest, dark-toasted botrytis spices, liquid caramel, vanilla paste, bergamot and Major Grey’s chutney. In the mouth, it is absolutely seamless, creamy and languid—with concentrated sweetness in the flavors of baked apricot, caramel, vanilla, crème brulee topping and toasted orange peel. It seems to be drinking at peak right now—with amazing complexity, balance and richness in equal doses. It displays outstanding length, great lasting presence, and a delightfully intriguing personality.

-Michael

[Comte Flaneur]

I like the sound of that Palmer Mike. With the mid-late 70s, 1996-99 is my favourite era for Palmer.

[Jay Winton]

thanks as always-will hold my 98 Palmer. The Ladera is a terrific QPR-think I paid around $30-and I agree it needs time but with a lengthy decant shows great promise and is an enjoyable quaff. Probably the best CA cab in this price range I've tried in quite a while. EDIT: http://www.barrelsandstills.com/ has the 05 Ladera Howell Mtn cab for 33.97 with online free shipping code this month ($150 minimum) of febshipfree .

[Michael Malinoski]

Jay, I paid $150 for a six-pack of the 05 Ladera Howell Mtn about 3 months back. I think $25 a bottle is a steal for a wine of its quality and aging potential.

I was really pleased with the 98 Palmer. Got a 3-pack at auction in the Fall and am happy to rest the remaining two for a few years.

-Michael

[Blanquito]

Nice, eclectic line-up, Michael. I love me some Fontodi.

[Ramon_NYC]

I like the sound of that Palmer Mike. With the mid-late 70s, 1996-99 is my favourite era for Palmer.

I like those Palmer era, too. I might just sneak in 1983 and 1989 Palmer to include among my top favorites.