TNs: Monday at Ed's

[Michael Malinoski]

I got together one recent Monday night with 2 friends to drink some nice wines and eat a ridiculous amount of take-out Chinese food. There were plenty of leftovers of both, but we did plenty of damage nonetheless.

2002 Pol Roger Champagne Extra Cuvée de Reserve. With some cheeses and spreads, we started out with this really tremendous bottle of Pol Roger, which right out of the gate features spry and tingly aromas of dark-toasted bread, ginger, clay, lemon peel, bruised apple and cherry pit that have great presence but also a nice sense of finery. It’s fun and vivacious on the tongue, with excellent energy and deep-down power allied to airy, toasty top notes. It’s dark-fruited, generous and long—drinking great now but with plenty of years ahead.

2011 Foradori Fontanasanta Manzoni Bianco Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT. This is definitely a pretty geeky wine, I have to say, and it’s not easy to get a handle on much of the time. It opens with fascinatingly leesy or yeasty aromas of honeysuckle, beeswax, lemon square, dried honey, muted mango, star fruit and nectarine that also have this unusual undercurrent of ground wheat, granite and drywall dust that give it a definite sense of individualism. In the mouth, it comes across as pretty tight, showing some mineral, clay, lemon oil, star fruit and peach juice flavors, with some cantaloupe, limestone and bitter pineapple citrus elements sneaking in over time. It’s cool and tightly acidic, with a surprisingly tannic or almost unfinished sensibility to it at times. It does get fleshier and more densely-flavored over the course of the evening, really starting to come into its own after a few hours. I think it’s a really intriguing wine that needs some time in the cellar and a good bit of air to strut its stuff. I’m curious to see where this goes over the next few years.

2008 Pahlmeyer Chardonnay Sonoma Coast. In contrast, this is a wine that’s ready to drink and enjoy right now. It offers up aromas of lemon zest, white peach, butterscotch, cold butter, hazelnut and baking spices that have a sort of malty exoticism and sexiness to them that’s hard to deny. In the mouth, it’s big and generous, with a good deal of volume and tremendous length. It’s loaded with sweet vanilla, oak, pear, baked apple and toasted meringue flavors delivered in a rich and fanned-out package. It’s not subtle, but it tastes really nice and goes down with ease.

2005 Sybille Kuntz Riesling Lieser Niederberg-Helden Scharz Auslese feinherb Mosel Saar Ruwer. This wine continues to develop, with a vibrant and driven aromatic profile of dried pineapples, white currants, grapefruit and kerosene. It’s dry in the mouth, especially on the finish, featuring flavors of pineapple, grapefruit and slate that have generous weight and concentration but decent definition, as well. I’d continue to sit on it for a while longer, though.

1976 Couly-Dutheil Chinon La Baronnie Madeleine. This is just a lovely old wine, with delightful aromas of old library books, cracked leather, bacon fat, tomato plant, grilled herbs, mincemeat pie, dried cranberries, dried cherries, ash and leafy tobacco that just caress the senses and invite the taster right in. It stays strong all evening long, too, still giving lots of pleasure deep into the night. In the mouth, it’s wonderfully tangy and tart, with sour cherry, dried raspberry and cranberry fruit flavors riding atop crunchy acidity and gently savory undertones of ash, menthol, earth and leafy greens. It’s perfectly aged to my tastes, and still sports healthy fruit, good body and a pliant textural structure. This is delicious and a lot of fun to drink.

1982 Couly-Dutheil Chinon Clos de l'Echo. This wine is a bit more fine-tuned, serious and manly in tone, but no less interesting, layered or complex. The aromas are classy and traditional-minded all the way, with aromas of jalapeno slices, tomato leaves, green olives, tobacco, pounded leather, dirt pile, dried cherries and fireplace ashes unfurling in layers of savory goodness. In the mouth, it’s a bit more tannic and structured than the previous wine, with a drier edging to it all the way through. Still, it’s just medium-weighted, smoothly-textured and full of fine flavors of cranberry, licorice rope, leather and menthol that are strong and long, with impressive push and staying power. This is really impressive and a total treat to drink.

1978 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde. Wow, this is one fabulous bottle of wine. The bouquet is incredibly complex, layered and giving—featuring delightful aromas of bacon fat, white pepper, asphalt, dried cherry, raspberry and forest undergrowth that just seem to penetrate the senses. In the mouth, it’s still plenty sappy in texture, with impressive depth to the delicious flavors of creamed cherries, strawberries, caramel and flowery overtones. It’s just top-notch stuff that’s still living large. On a night with a lot of terrific wines, this was the consensus WOTN.

1995 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde. This is nice and earthy on the nose, with a whole lot of white pepper, bacon, grilled pepper, olive brine, horsehide, toasted bread, blackberry and black cherry aromas emanating from the glass. It’s fuller-bodied than the previous wine, with generous and plush fruit but also some sneaky tannins and structure to it. The acidity is juicy and carries the flavors of black fruit, charred meat and white pepper along really nicely. It’s drinking quite well, but should have no problem holding in the cellar, either.

2007 Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Tokaji Áts Cuvée. The density of aroma here is a bit lighter than I was expecting, but it’s still sweet and luscious with a lot of late-harvest aromas of litchi, nectarine, lemon and nutmeg. In the mouth, it’s expressively juicy, with overtly sweet flavors of dried citrus, tropical fruits and orange melon, but without the weight or unctuous stickiness of most wines I’ve sampled from this producer. It’s smooth and easy, fun and friendly, and a nice way to put a cap on a great Monday night.


-Michael

[Nicklasss]

Again, very nice and instructive report.

I'm amazed how these Couly-Duteil Chinon look good, even after all these years. I just bought lately some 2009 Olga Raffault Chinon.

As a great fan of Côte-Rôtie, always like your notes about them.

And the Pol Roger... A nice read that make you want some.

Nic