TNs from Dinner at Erbaluce

[Michael Malinoski]

A little while back, Bill organized an informal wine dinner at Erbaluce Restaurant for the usual suspects. His friend Ken Forrester and his charming wife were in town visiting, and they came along for the fun, making us a party of 12. Ken was kind enough to open a bunch of his wines for us, too, which was a treat. I had visited the winery several years ago in South Africa, and it was great to re-live that trip a little bit through these wines.

White wines:

2013 Ken Forrester Sauvignon Blanc Stellenbosch. The nose of this wine is sharp and zesty, featuring bright and lifted aromas of orange blossom, chalk and gooseberry. In the mouth, it’s plumper than on the nose, with a hint of sweetness and a welcoming little inner-mouth perfume to accompany the cantaloupe, green melon and gooseberry flavors. It’s a nice wine to get us started.

2013 Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc Old Vine Reserve Stellenbosch. This wine features a piquant, airy bouquet of fresh herbs, orange blossoms, cantaloupe and meadow grasses. In the mouth, there’s a gentle roundness and a general ease and cohesion to the flavors of honeydew melon, pear and herbs. It has a mellow, easy-to-drink personality and a pleasing overall mouthfeel and weight.

2011 Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc The FMC Stellenbosch. Somehow, I managed to miss this.

1997 Domaine des Baumard Savennières Trie Spéciale. This is somewhat burnished gold in color, with an appealingly nutty bouquet of praline, beer nut, wool, wax, honey, pineapple and copper. In the mouth, it’s oily and pliant in texture and weight, with delicious flavors of candied pineapple, candied nuts, grapefruit, hazelnut and honey that are luscious but at the same time showing great energy and a fine nick of acidity leading to a heady finish. I like it a good deal.

2008 Panevino Alvas Isola dei Nuraghi IGT Sardinia. This is an orange-colored wine, with some pink overtones. It has a strong, direct and driven bouquet that features fun and energetic scents of blood orange, pink grapefruit, pickled ginger, peach fuzz and graphite that are a bit of a hoot to encounter. In the mouth, it tastes bone-dry, with a very high-acid, ticklish tingling feel that can be a bit austere at times, especially toward the back end. However, the mid-palate presence fleshes out to include fun flavors of grapefruit and dried tropical fruit trail mix candy that are almost tannic and tacky in texture. Still, it ends so dry and grippy that my instinct would be to advise putting off drinking it another year or two.

Red wines:

2009 Ken Forrester Merlot Stellenbosch. From what I understand, Ken includes 9% Cabernet Franc in the blend here. It’s a saturated dark color right now, carrying aromas of dusty dirt road, soft wood, tanned leather, persimmon and dried cherry and dark cranberry fruit. It’s plump and fruity in the mouth, with notes of macerated cherries, plums, raspberry coulis and charred earth covering just a bit of youthful alcoholic heat from time to time. The tannins are soft and there’s a pleasing layering to the fruit beginning to take shape, but I’d give it another few years to integrate everything a little more.

2009 Ken Forrester Gypsy Stellenbosch. This is a blend of 51% Grenache and 49% Syrah. I find this wine to be a bit cranky at first on the nose, but slowly settling down over time to show off some nice aromas of pencil shavings, dusty earth, dried lavender and pounded leather. In the mouth, it’s plush, fruity and fun to drink, with modestly powerful flavors of blueberries, chocolate and earth leading to a bit of a sticky-tannic finish. There’s nice promise here, and I think this can be held without much worry.

2010 Heartland Dolcetto/Lagrein Langhorn Creek South Australia. This blend of 51% Dolcetto and 49% Lagrein from Australia was served blind, not that any of us could possibly have pegged the wine. First off, it’s super-dark, dense and opaque in appearance. And the nose is fudgy, dense and dark, giving off concentrated, extracted, powerful and overt aromas of dark chocolate, burnt toast, blueberry syrup, blackberry jam and carob nut. I’m really not sure what to make of it, frankly. In the mouth, it’s dense, glossy-textured and dark-fruited—with late chewy tannins pouring in. It’s plump and sweet-fruited throughout the expansive mid-palate, featuring flavors of dark chocolate and purple fruit without much nuance or elegance. It’s likely to improve, I guess, but I’m not particularly interested to stick around and find out.

1997 Daniel Bocquenet Vosne-Romanée. This wine delivers a very pretty bouquet of dried flowers, lavender, autumn leaves, dried cherries, strawberry licorice rope, crayon box and shaved wood. In the mouth, it’s not profound or anything, but it is quite pretty and lithe, tiptoeing across the palate with gentle flavors of licorice rope and dried red berry fruit. The acidity gets a touch astringent toward the finish, so I’m pretty sure it’s time to drink up soon, but for now it’s a tasty little wine giving a lot of lighter-styled pleasure.

2000 Produttori del Barbaresco Barbaresco Riserva Montestefano. I kicked off the Italian Red Wine portion of the evening with this beautiful selection. On the nose, it’s classy, gentlemanly and classically Old World in tone—with contained but evocative aromas of savory leather, dried cherries, persimmon, toasted orange peel, cranberry and deft spice accents. It’s medium-weighted in the mouth, but plenty giving and generous as it expands out to engage the palate with cool and earthy flavors of dried cherries, mushrooms and raspberries. It has elegant weight, a solid but refined structure, perfect acidic balance and really pleasing red fruit stuffing. I think it’s drinking in a very good spot right now.

1995 Giuseppe E Figlio Mascarello Barolo Monprivato. This is a whole different animal—darker and more exotic in tone on the nose—featuring aromas of spiced plums, fig and blackberries to go along with some earthy funk, leather, toasted bread and heady beef broth overtones that combine in fascinating and engaging fashion. In the mouth, it’s one of the biggest, boldest, most powerful wines of the night—with significant and impactful flavors of black cherries, blackberries, cocoa, charred campfire wood and dark spices leaving a huge palate impression long after you swallow. For all that muscle and sinew, it’s not off-putting in the least, just rather enjoyable and decidedly memorable. It’s an impressive specimen.

1998 Gaja Langhe Nebbiolo Sperss. This is lovely and layered on the nose, showing off beautiful aromas of black cherries, dried rose petals, road tar, sweaty saddle leather, licorice rope, funky earth and classy oak in a complex yet holistic package that just gets better and better as the night goes on. It’s a bit less nuanced in the mouth than on the nose, but it pleases with its smooth-textured blackberry, black cherry and chocolate flavors that exhibit fine balance, good lift and easy drinkability in a mid-weight package that’s quite enjoyable all around.

2009 Pio Cesare Barolo. This wine gives off a captivating bouquet of pressed red flowers, rosewater, licorice rope, cherries and raspberries. It’s missing some earthiness, but it’s hard not to enjoy the unfurling scents of sweet flowers and beautiful red fruits here. In the mouth, it’s not that tannic or drying at all. Instead, it has a nice burst of pure cherry and red berry fruit that carries from the entry all the way through to the finish in a free-flowing and tasty fashion. Maybe it’s bound to shut down, but on this night it is a delight to drink.

2007 Cantina Sociale Cooperativa Copertino Riserva Puglia. I missed this one.

1998 Fratelli Speri Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. This was a bad bottle. It’s incredibly volatile, swampy, burnt and cooked-down on the nose and perhaps even worse on the palate. Too bad.

2007 Isole e Olena Cabernet Sauvignon Collezione Privata Toscana IGT. Here one encounters a dense, smoky nose of charred campfire ember, black cherry, grilled herb, singed leather, tobacco leaf and grilled green pepper aromas. In the mouth, the wine is generously loaded with delicious flavors of cassis, blackberries and blueberries supported by a nice herbal/leafy underbelly. There are some sneaky tacky-textured tannins that come on late, but in general there are no hard edges here and the wine is plush and giving, with outstanding length and staying power. This is a really nicely-done Cabernet that can be roundly enjoyed right now.

1979 Carneros Creek Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Carneros. This is very old-fashioned on the nose, with aged aromas of dusty dirt road, pulverized rock, leather and dried red cherry fruit being coaxed up out of the glass. It’s fairly advanced in the mouth, as well, with dried cherry, caramel, spices, leather and earth flavors in a linear but pleasing enough package. It’s not bad and I do enjoy trying it, but it’s surely time to be drinking up.

Sweet wines:

2009 François Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Tuffeaux. This is light and lifted on the nose—delivering airy scents of green melon, straw, orange blossom, mineral and white pepper with an interestingly wooly edge. It’s demi-sec in the mouth, but on the lighter, clean and precise side of things—delivering gently sweet-toned flavors of honey, lanolin, orange rind, lime, fruit cup and light caramel in a clean and almost zesty style that’s quite refreshing and lovely.

2010 Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc T Noble Late Harvest Stellenbosch. This is delightful all around, starting with the bouquet of apricot, dried orange peel, botrytis spice and cream aromas that coat the inside of the nostrils. In the mouth, it’s much the same—luscious and sweet, with fine botrytis accents throughout to go with luxuriant apricot, peach and nectarine flavors. It also shows excellent lift and fine drive through to the lasting finish—very well done.

2006 Jermann Vinnaioli Collio Picolit Vino Dolce delle Casa. Served from 375 ml bottle. This is fun and fruity on the nose, with a lot of dried lemon and lime zest, rock sugar, peach, pineapple, grapefruit, kiwi and exotic spice aromas pushing up out of the glass. I’d say it’s aggressively sweet in the mouth, with crème brulee topping, caramel, nut, yellow raisin and tropical fruit flavors pumping through to the lush and rounded finish. There’s an interesting little streak of funk down low, too, which gives it another dimension I enjoy.

1979 Bodegas Toro Albala Pedro Ximénez Don PX Gran Reserva Montilla-Moriles. This pours like dark molasses and smells unctuously of raisins, figs, prunes, sexy spices and charred wood. It completely coats the tongue with its plush, sticky flavors of sweet raisins, figs, spiced plums and molasses. It’s plump and thick but it also has a sneaky streak of acidity and lift—making for a luxuriant yet bold statement when all is said and done. It’s fun to drink and really puts a fine cap on a special evening with new and old friends.


-Michael

[AKR]

I think I had that same Trie Speciale, back shortly after release. Excellent steely whites.

Baumard is one of the few whites I'm laying down for my minions.