TNs: More poker, more wine

[Michael Malinoski]

Our most recent poker game took place at Andy’s house, with Andy cooking and Mike C. in charge of supplying the wines. The food was great, and the wine line-up was fantastic. As usual, all of the wines were served blind.

Flight 1:

2006 Aubert Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard Sonoma Coast. This is a cloudy, pale yellow color. It gives off rich aromas of pear, apple and oak to go along with prickly accents of grilled herbs, granite and white pepper. In the mouth, it leads with a big kiss of soft oak and classy vanilla before pushing forward with fine and full flavors of baked apples, pears, hazelnuts, sour lemon and sexy spices galore. It’s sneaky-dense, highly-engaging and very tasty, but seems like it’s just starting to pull it all together. It’s a treat, but I might wait on it another 2 years or so for optimal pleasure.

Flight 2:

2005 Domaine Jean Grivot Vosne-Romanée. This offers up a plump, sweet berry-laden nose full of baked plum, blueberries, charred wood and toasted spices that are quite lovely, giving, plush and pleasing. In the mouth, it’s rather smoky and at times a touch bitter and attenuated, but otherwise it has a solid core of wild blueberry and blackberry fruit that might make for better drinking 3 or 4 years down the road.

2004 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Summa Vineyard Sonoma Coast. This is a much earthier-styled wine on the nose, with wide-open and overt aromas of toasted stems, sassafras, birch, mushroom, rhubarb and plump brambly berries. The palate is much more in line with my preferences than the nose—showing great concentration of raspberry and red licorice flavors to go along with some savory spice, leather and wood accents that come in toward the back of the palate. There are no hard edges anywhere, as it’s smooth-textured, finely-balanced and nicely-fruited all around. Although I prefer the nose on the Grivot, I give the overall nod to the Rivers-Marie based on taste and overall drinkability.

Flight 3:

1973 Sterling Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Napa Valley. This wine simply continues to deliver the goods, now 40+ years on from the vintage. To begin, the nose is just really nice in a quiet and subtle but finely-layered fashion—featuring compelling aromas of ancient leather, old dusty library, dried sweat, moss, smoke, jalapeno pepper, black currants, rhubarb and cranberries. Everybody was commenting on just how nice this bouquet is, and really it’s even better on the palate. There, it shows great balance to the black currant and blackberry fruit allied to juicy acidity and fine earth notes. It’s showing gently-aged qualities all around but it’s in no way tired—with fine understated power, solid structural integrity and serious-feeling dark fruit. It’s an impressive wine, and was my wine of the day.

1974 Dry Creek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County. This is full and generous on the nose, delivering sappy aromas of creamed blackberries, blueberries and plums to go along with woodsy, leafy notes and some fine baking spices. Over the course of the afternoon, it just gets bigger and more giving the longer you stay with it. In the mouth, it’s lush and plush and full of chewy blueberry fruit, smoke and charred wood flavorings in a full-bodied, creamy-textured and grippy package. It’s big, but very cool-toned and ropy in character, hardly yielding at all over several hours. It maybe lacks the distinction and classicism of the Sterling Reserve, but this is also a very impressive showing.

Flight 4:

2001 Larkmead Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. This is super-robust on the nose, with youthful aromas of black plums, blueberries, chocolate-covered cherries, vanilla bean, toasty oak and charred spices plumping right up out of the glass. It feels directed, strong and powerful on the palate, with a whole bunch of sweet purple and blue fruit to go with fine wood and spice complements in support. There are some tannins in play but in general it’s lushly-textured, friendly and pretty darned chuggable right now.

2001 Pride Mountain Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. This wine is showing huge aromas of oak, more oak, vanilla, sweet blueberries, more sweet blueberries, licorice and confectionary blue pixie stick powdered sugar on the nose right now. On the palate, it feels a little too much like a cocktail wine at times to me, but the sweet, sugary, plump blueberry fruit and chocolate flavors thankfully come across as nice and juicy. Also, the alcohol levels seem pretty well-contained, and the wine impresses with a long, giving finish. It grows on me, but personally I much prefer the 2000 version of this I had a few months earlier.

Flight 5:

2004 Altamura Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. This is dark and dense on the nose, featuring aromas of charred oak, blackberries, black currants, dark chocolate and couch leather. In the mouth, it’s black-fruited and deeply-concentrated, with up-front sweet-tinged black and blue berry fruit followed by chocolate and smoke notes. It’s giving, plush and plump, but not at all blowsy or over-done. It’s not my preferred style just now, but it does have impressive viscosity, a seamless texture and plenty of fruit depth to hold it in good stead for some cellar aging.

2004 Lewelling Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. This is a dark, totally opaque color. The nose is rather powerful and overt, with plush aromas of blackberry and black plum fruit to go along with black leather and a sweet vein of purple Razzle candies. In the mouth, it’s big, bold, spicy and gently alcoholic, with boatloads of blueberry and blackberry fruit and some candied raspberry and cassis bits, too. It keeps the flavor pumping all the way through, really filling the mouth and leaving a lasting impression. It’s generous and sweet, and in a modern Cali Cab style all the way. I’d prefer to drink it maybe 3-5 years from now, but there’s no denying its plump and luscious fruit stuffing right now, either.

Flight 6:

2005 Concha y Toro Cabernet Sauvignon Don Melchor (Private Reserve) Maipo Valley. This is dark and earthy, with a serious, manly sort of personality to it on the nose, where one finds aromas of dirt pile, tomato plant, forest floor, clay, black currant and red licorice. In the mouth, it’s cool and serious, manly and fudgy. It’s dark and directed, with more obvious structure and cooler acidity than either of the previous two wines, with a sneaky bit of scorched earth and sweet tar to accent the core flavors of black currant fruit. Although the tannins are a bit sticky here, this feels well-made and built to last.

After hours (still served blind):

2012 Beaulieu Vineyard Pinot Noir Coastal Estates California. This wine features an exceedingly bright and bubbly nose of wild cherries, raspberries, spices and birch. It’s not overly-complicated by any stretch, but it’s lifted and zippy. In the mouth, it’s tangy with bright and gently sweet cherry, strawberry and raspberry fruit right up front and some prickly spices, cola nut and leafy bits trailing behind. The finish is taut and linear, but the wine is refreshing, fun and uncomplicated for short-term enjoyment. Really pretty good for $7.

2010 Domaine des Terres de Velle Auxey-Duresses Les Closeaux. This is far more savory-toned on the nose—with scents of cherry, raspberry, cola, brown spice and toasted stem being the main elements of note. It’s a bit of a rustic ride on the palate, where it feels a bit youthfully raw and gangly just now—showing flavors of brambly berry fruit, cola nut, stalks and stems that lead to a dry and moderately astringent finish. I’ll be curious to see where this nets out down the road, but it’s hard to say just now, at least for me.

After after hours (not blind):

1999 Château de Rayne-Vigneau Sauternes. There was another sweet wine (a red Veleta, I believe) with no label that came in between here, but I was more focused on this 375 ml bottle. The wine inside offers up dark scents of nectarine, baked peach, caramel, dark honey, orange peel and fine baking spices. It’s similarly dark and burnished in tone on the palate, where one finds toasty flavors of caramel cream, nectarine and baked peach to go along with toasty spice and wood accents. It’s more serious and toasty than elegant or airy, but still, it’s quite giving and pliant right now, and a lot of fun to drink.

Blair was the big winner of the poker tournament, and we’ll see what he wants to pour when we get together later this month. I’m looking forward to it.


-Michael

[Nicklasss]

Very nice report, as usual.

Did you guys had all those wines "all in"?

Nic