TN's: More Peking Duck, more Cornas, more Riesling

[Michael Malinoski]

We had a group of eight recently for a typically delicious Peking Duck dinner at China King in Boston’s Chinatown, and we brought a gaggle of pretty decent wines with us to wash it all down with.

White wines:

2005 L. Aubry Fils Champagne Le Nombre d'Or Sablé Blanc des Blancs Brut Campanae Veteres Vites. There’s a nice taut feel to the nose of this wine that features stony, crisp aromas of struck flint, graphite, lemon pith and a little bit of waxiness. In the mouth, it’s very clean and refreshing, with a good volume of lemon, herb, mineral and apple flavors to go with some nice frothy overtones. It’s pretty nicely-balanced but may need some more time to gain added complexity and layering.

2011 Pascal Jolivet Sancerre. This is a bit richer on the nose than one might expect, with full aromas of grapefruit, grass, melon and other assorted citrus tones showing strong and direct. In the mouth, it has solid density and there’s some fine piquancy to the herb, white pepper, melon, lemon and grassy flavors but the smoky finish is a bit bitter-tinged. My main reservation about the wine is just that it’s pretty low on the acidity front and thus comes across as too flat at times and just generally needing more lift.

2002 Alzinger Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Loibner Muhlpoint Niederösterreich Wachau. Inviting notes of kerosene, petroleum jelly and jellied yellow fruit candies here are full and nostril-coating. In the mouth, it sometimes fails to fully come together for me, but I do like the round tropical fruit flavors and little peppery spritzes.

Red wines:

2009 Arianna Occhipinti Nero d'Avola Siccagno Sicilia IGT. The nose of this wine is light but packed with pretty aromas of purple flowers, dried plums, macerated cherries, saddle leather, pencil shavings and little slivers of funky sweat. In the mouth, it’s fun and funky, with gulpable juicy purple fruit and nice fresh tangy acidity. It doesn’t try to do too much, but it works for me. I have to say, though, that it doesn’t hold up well at all after a night in the fridge.

2007 Castello di Camigliano Brunello di Montalcino. This is a bit compact and youthful at this early stage, showing just some gentle aromas of soft cherry, peach and flowers. In the mouth, it’s really just starting to come around, I’d say—delivering sour cherry, raspberry and earth flavors in a narrow beam before a boatload of pasty tannins come in late. It’s hard to evaluate right now, so I’d just say to hold off on it.

2006 Giacomo Conterno Barbera d'Alba Cascina Francia. This wine presents a very nice snootful of fine aromas, starting with pencil shavings, sour cherries and black raspberries and ending with graphite minerality and dark earth tones. I think some of the guys were surprised at how big and ripe it seems at times, but I just revel in everything about it. In the mouth, it’s boldly-styled, full of baked cherry fruit and a featuring plenty of lifted acidity and dark earth tones to keep it feeling powerful and serious. The leathery finishing touches underpin the wine’s youth, but I really like this bold and heady Barbera.

1994 Alain Voge Cornas Cuvée Vieilles Fontaines. This is absolutely heavenly on the nose, with gorgeous raspberry and cherry fruit scents accompanied by suede, carob nut, sawn wood, earth and lavender bits that are delightfully layered and pleasantly mature. In the mouth, there’s a quiet power to the resolved flavors of cherry, olive brine, leather and iodine that are subtle but meaty. The acidity has a bit of a kick to it at times, but the wine still feels grounded and decisive to me, with fine viscosity all the way through. I really enjoyed this.

1995 Jean-Luc Colombo Cornas La Louvée. This is a much more darkly-saturated color than the ’94 Voge and features enjoyably robust aromas of mushroom, beef broth, horse hide, saddle leather, dark black fruits and fresh turned earth. It’s a little bretty, but I dig it a good deal. In the mouth, there’s a nice acidic twang to the copious blue and purple fruit flavors that are accented by leather and dark funk tones. It’s a little tannic on the finish, but I think it’s drinking quite nicely nonetheless. It seemed like this flew under the radar in terms of discussion around the table, but I definitely liked it a good deal.

2008 Franck Balthazar Cornas Chaillot. This is a wine that’s years and years away from being ready to drink. It’s wound up tight on the nose, showing black olive, anise, blackberry and vulcanized rubber scents that are pretty darned blunt right now. It’s loaded up with black olive, anise and blackberry flavors, as well, but it’s monolithically concentrated and youthful at this stage, as well as loaded with tannins suggesting at least another decade before diving in again.

2004 Bodegas El Nido Jumilla Clio. This wine sports distinctive notes of dill, balsa wood and mocha paste right off the top in a decidedly modern international style, with copious amounts of fun red fruit at the aromatic core. It comes across in this company as pretty high-octane on the palate—with elevated alcohol noticeable all the way through. The dried cherry, red currant and sun-baked earth flavors are big, overt and warming—with a sweet-toned finish hanging in there for a good while.

Sweet wines:

2006 Schäfer-Fröhlich Riesling Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Spätlese Nahe. This may be a bit young, but I really like the fresh, pure, crystalline aromas of peach, lemon ball, candied apple and petrol that it presents to the taster. In the mouth, it’s loaded with sweet lemon ball, pineapple, peach and slate flavors that are delicious but probably not as layered or expansive as they will be in a few years. For now, I’m content just to enjoy its pure fruit flavors and fine minerally kick that linger long onto the finish.

2001 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Riesling Erdener Treppchen Spätlese Mosel Saar Ruwer. The aromas here build slowly and subtly with aeration, eventually entrancing the taster with beautiful aromas of lanolin, lemon oil, peach, nectarine and minerals that pull one right in. On the palate, it bursts forth with intense flavors of peach, nectarine, pineapple and grapefruit, with easy power and perfect balancing acidity. It has great kick and tons of life, with the finish perhaps just a bit sticky and needing a little more time, I’d say.

2001 Von Schubert Maximin Grünhauser Riesling Abtsberg Auslese #190 Mosel Saar Ruwer. This is a top-notch Riesling in just about every way, starting with its intoxicating bouquet of candied pineapple, slate, kerosene and peach aromas that are intense, directed and driven. In the mouth, it is really divine--again just wonderfully pure, balanced, alive and concentrated. It is just sublimely good all around.


-Michael

[stefan]

Peking duck is a hard dish for pairing with wine. What went best? My guess is that none of the reds were really good with the duck. Was the Barbera d'Alba closest?

[Michael Malinoski]

Stefan,

We get a lot of other dishes, too, but you're right the Peking Duck is often tricky, though I've had some good luck with bigger Burgs and lighter Rhones. Others' tastes may be different! The main thing is that we're treated like royalty there and the food is delicious and cheap. And we can bring our own wine! A rarity in these parts...

-Michael