TNs: Poker in the Clubhouse

[Michael Malinoski]

Tom hosted our regular poker game a little while back in the clubhouse of his condo, and his idea was to serve wines that he thought we’d never shared together as a group before. While a small number actually did turn out to be old favorites, most of these were indeed “new” wines to us, which was a lot of fun. As always, the wines were served blind (except where noted) and we ordered in a big bunch of food to keep us going through the afternoon and into the evening.

Starter:

N.V. Charles de Cazanove Champagne Brut Tête de Cuvée. The nose here is on the spicy side, with dark apple flesh, brown spices, cream and ginger beer aromas coming forward. In the mouth, it’s on the dry side, with dark toast, ginger, baked apple and baking spice flavors that I just don’t find particularly elegant or refined. It’s more cidery than I typically like, with a winey, tacky-textured finish. A second glass later in the evening I liked a bit better, but I just never really warmed up to it, although I think most folks seemed to like it pretty well.

Whites:

2004 Schiopetto Mario Schiopetto Bianco Venezia Giulia IGT. This wine is quiet and restrained on the nose, with aromas of yellow apple, pear, citrus peel and slate. In the mouth, it’s oily and pithy in texture, with almost sticky flavors of yellow fruit, honey and spices to go with steely minerality in the background. Nonetheless, it’s fairly light in body, with a very nice spike of bitter-tinged, citrusy acidity at the very end. It’s dry, cool and interesting, if a bit introspective most of the time.

1995 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Herrenweg de Turckheim Vendange Tardive. This is sort of orange-gold in color and puts forth bold, rich and sweet aromas of cooked oranges, marmalade, dark honey, fig paste, orange blossom, lychee and baklava pastry that are accented by loads of exotic spices. On the palate, it’s less unctuous, but still has some viscosity and weight to the lovely sweet flavors of honeyed grapefruit, caramel, yellow raisins and wild botrytis spices. It’s showing some pleasant aged complexity and is just a fun wine to drink right now.

Reds:

2002 Domaine Lignier-Michelot Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Les Faconnières. This wine presents a rather cool-toned, earthy bouquet that features aromas of dark berries, old worn leather, dark soil and foresty sous bois notes that I like a lot and immediately associate with Burgundy. It’s medium-weighted on the palate, with a nice creamy texture and quiet tannins carrying along fine flavors of dark earth, leather, grilled herbs, blackberry and black cherry. It’s a dark and manly style, but I find it to be nicely controlled, well-balanced and easy-flowing. Notably, we had the 2001 bottling at the previous month’s poker and that was a very different style of wine--much brighter, tangier and more lifted in style. I found this vintage to be a very interesting contrast.

2002 David Bruce Pinot Noir Vineyard Designate Series Brosseau Vineyard Chalone. This is a bit murky in color, and I think the nose follows suit a little bit, with somewhat muddled aromas of dried cherries, dates, raisin box, olives, old leather and toasted spices. In the mouth, it’s warm-toned, sweet and gently raisined, with a fudgy black raspberry and dried cherry fruit core to go along with supporting bits of mushroom, toasted stem and cola nut flavors. It’s a bit sticky at times, but I find myself warming up to it more throughout the day.

2004 Gaia Estate Agiorgitiko Koutsi Nemea. This wine presents a nicely-layered bouquet of pressed red flowers, tea leaves, menthol, tobacco, coffee beans, chocolate and dark mixed berry fruit coming together in an earthy but creamy package that’s quite enjoyable. In the mouth, it leads right out with pleasingly creamy-textured flavors of dried herbs and sweet berries, but the mid-palate and especially the finish are extremely dry and maybe just a bit overly mentholated at times. I like the juicy dark fruit, the fine woodsy spices and the leafy/leathery undertones at the core here, but I just wish it wasn’t quite so dry or quite so tough at the very end.

1998 Terrabianca Ceppate Toscana IGT. The color here is dark and dense. The nose shows off loads of tobacco leaf, cedar, pine pitch, toasted oak, creosote, baked cherry and black raspberry aromas. On the palate, it’s a bit unusual, with a fair bit of walnut and almond flavors to go along with baked cherry and rhubarb fruit. It has good grip and a really mouthwatering juicy finish, but it takes a little while to adjust one’s palate and warm up to the overall flavor profile.

1998 Château St Georges St. Emilion Grand Cru. This wine’s in a good spot for drinking right now. First off, it has an appealing bouquet that pops out of the glass with overt aromas of tomato vine, tobacco leaf, cedar and sweet red currant fruit. It follows that up in the mouth with creamy, concentrated flavors of sweet red currant and dark raspberry fruit accented by classy earth notes. It’s densely-textured, but pliant and fine-flowing, and it’s just easy to drink and enjoy from start to finish.

2000 Le Clos du Caillou Châteauneuf-du-Pape Domaine du Caillou. Soft and somewhat quiet aromas of cassis, oak, toasted spices and faint caramel show just a smidge of heat from time to time here. In the mouth, though, it’s much more expressive—with a creamy sweet palate of cherry paste and raspberry preserves, oak spices, toasted bread and caramel flavors leading to a lifted finish showing some slightly drying tannins. It’s pretty nice, but I think I preferred it a few years back.

2000 Domaine de la Vieille Julienne Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This wine comes on strong right from the start, with warm-toned aromas of licorice rope, strawberry puree, spices and fairly obvious oaking. In the mouth, it leads with a big burst of cherry-raspberry fruit that’s a bit confected or candied. It feels somewhat primary and obvious, even at this age—with lots of sweet red fruit and not much else in terms of nuance or complexity. It’s not one of my favorites.

2005 Bodega Catena Zapata Nicolás Catena Zapata Mendoza. This pours a dark purple color and immediately takes hold of the sense with a sexy nose of incense, melted chocolate, wild blueberries, exotic spices and pretty cedar and eucalyptus notes. In the mouth, it’s the epitome of sleek, slinky and seamless. It’s loaded with smooth yet robust flavors of red currants, cassis and red licorice, accented by cedary overtones. It’s definitely a modern-styled wine, but it doesn’t hold anything back while delivering its delicious flavors.

2001 Wine & Soul Duoro Pintas. Here one encounters a serious, dark and seamless bouquet of inky blackberry, black currant and dark cherry fruit aromas. It displays a lot of thick glycerin character in the glass, with a significant sense of dry extract. It’s full of sweet blackberry fruit and dark chocolate flavors that are direct and grippy. It keeps pumping out the sweet black fruit flavors a good long while and shows little sign of slowing down any time soon.

After hours:

2003 Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin. This was not served blind. Personally, I find the nose to be a bit blocky and meaty, with aromas of olive, black cherry, cedar and baked clay. In the mouth, it seems a bit soapy to me, with lilac, blueberry, white pepper, chalk and herb flavors coming across as a bit unfocused. It’s creamy and plush, but still feels a bit youthfully pasty and needing a few more years to come together.


-Michael