TNs: Sweet Cheeks

[Michael Malinoski]

A little while back, Bill arranged for 10 of us to dine at Sweet Cheeks Restaurant, where we gorged on fun and delicious Asian-influenced starters and a whole host of various BBQ dish entrees. It was a fun and festive environment, with some great wines brought by everyone.

Sparklers and white wines:

2010 Ruppert-Leroy Champagne Brut Nature Fosse-Grely. This is a blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. It has an airy, pillowy bouquet to it, offering up pretty scents of apple skins, chalk, lemon rind, graphite and alpine meadow. It’s rather foamy on the palate, with a creamy texture but also plenty of mouthwatering acidity to support the core flavors of pear, lemon, lime, juniper, graphite and chopped herbs. It’s clean, bright, pleasingly balanced and refreshingly cut at the very end. This was a very nice start to the evening.

2012 Domaine du Closel-Château des Vaults Savennières La Jalousie. Here one encounters an earthy, wool-scented Chenin Blanc nose that features subtle layers of lemon peel, lanolin, wax, linen and steel scents that I find to be quite nice. In the mouth, it is decidedly dry, crisp and tensely-structured, but it opens up beautifully through the mid-palate as it warms to reveal giving flavors of lime, kiwi, white pepper, graphite and fresh herbs. It has just enough weight and heft to lend it some curvature that works very nicely with the drier, precise finish. All in all, this is quite enjoyable.

2005 Domaine Huet Vouvray Demi-Sec Clos du Bourg. This feels a bit tight and controlled on the nose at the moment, focused mostly around aromas of copper, mango skin, pineapple rind and herbal tea. In the mouth, it has a lot of youthful energy to the barely-sweet flavors of lemon, lime, wax candy, honeycomb and mineral. It has fine weight and body to go along with solid acidic drive, and on the whole I enjoy it. Part of me thinks it could use a few more years, but at the same time there’s an occasional stab of crunchy oxidative copper penny notes, so I’m also inclined to suggest proceeding with caution.

1996 Trimbach Pinot Gris Hommage á Georgette Trimbach. There’s a beautiful golden tint to the color of this wine, to go along with very classy, dark-toned aromas of toasted citrus peels, mango, peach pit, kerosene and toasted spices. In the mouth is where it particularly shines, though, starting with the draped flavors of spiced apple, baked pear, peach, kumquat, lychee and mango that coat the tongue with their languid ease and leesy texture. The balance is great, the little nick of sweetness works just fine, and the mouthfeel is a total pleasure. It’s just a lovely wine and a real treat to drink.

2000 Selbach-Oster Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett Mosel Saar Ruwer. The nose here opens up slowly to reveal modest but pleasing scents of petrol, blue slate, lime zest, bruised peaches and mountain flowers. It’s much more open on the palate, but it also feels a bit thinly-stretched to me, with perhaps some dilution to the otherwise tasty flavors of peach, pear, fruit cup, grapefruit and green melon. The finish, too, is a bit short, making this come across as pleasant enough but seemingly past its prime.

2005 Zilliken (Forstmeister Geltz) Saarburger Rausch Riesling Spätlese Mosel Saar Ruwer. I like this a lot, starting with the airy, fine-wrought and crystalline aromas of peaches, pears, melon, white flowers, chalk dust and cool schist that feel precise but totally inviting. In the mouth, it’s almost explosive with its juicy peach, melon and kiwi fruit flavors and fine ticklish spices. There’s lots of lift, life, zest and piquancy to go along with the mouthwatering fruit. It’s fun, exciting and delicious, though I hope it lengthens out a bit on the finish as it ages in the cellar.

Red wines:

2006 G.D. Vajra Barolo Albe. On the nose, this presents pure, clear, lifted aromas of red flowers, raspberries, cherry paste, tar and smoke that at times are also underpinned by pungent mushroom and earth elements. It’s quite youthful, but nice. On the palate, it’s polished and sleekly-styled, with medium weight, tensile structure, wiry acidity and clean bright red fruit flavors. At the same time, though, it’s also pretty aggressively tannic—more so than younger vintages of this I’ve drunk recently. I think it may be in a bit of an in-between phase just now, but there’s plenty to like.

2000 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée. This is simply heavenly on the nose—showing wonderful character in every facet of its aromatics, which focus on scents of tobacco, leather, dusty dirt road, crushed red flowers, sweaty funk, forest undergrowth, cassis, dried cherry and black raspberry fruit. It’s alive and kicking in the mouth, with a fair dose of tannin but also tons of delicious red and black berry flavors to go with tingly acidity. It’s perfectly proportioned, nicely-textured and just excellent all around.

2005 Château d'Agassac Haut-Médoc. Here one finds a youthful but friendly nose that features aromas of cedar, plums, blueberries, smoked herbs, clay and a bit of grilled pepper. In the mouth, it’s herbal-tinged all the way through, with some austere edges and forward acidity, but it also manages to deliver a nice even flow, clean lines and tasty flavors of plums, black currants, and herbs in a medium-bodied package. It’s not particularly deep or complicated, but really it’s pretty enjoyable to drink when all is said and done.

1986 Château Lagrange St. Julien. Several people felt that this was a CORKED bottle, and in the end I have to agree. It definitely has a papery newsprint sort of element up top on the nose, with deeper scents of black currant, cracked peppercorn, dusty earth and green bits in play, as well. In the mouth, it’s tacky-textured, smoky and bitter-flavored, feeling kind of flat and lacking definition. Also, the length just isn’t there, making me think this has to be a slightly off bottle. Otherwise, it’s a definite disappointment for the vintage.

2010 Causse Marines Rasdu Duras Vin de France. This wine presents dark, earthy aromas of black currants, charred earth, pulverized stone, shoe polish and carob nut that are a bit off the beaten path in some ways. In the mouth, it echoes the crushed stone elements of the bouquet, coming across as manly, stoic and sort of rock-strewn in nature, with dense flavors of olive brine, black licorice, dark earth, smoke and fudgy black fruits. It’s dry, a bit prickly and certainly individualistic, but I must say I never warm up to it as I just find it a bit stand-offish and lacking in charm.

2006 R Wines Grenache Chateau Chateau Chateau Barossa Valley. The nose on this wine features aromas of raspberry, cranberry and black cherry fruit to go along with some woodsy supporting notes and a healthy but hardly overwhelming dose of vanilla-tinged oak. There’s a big blast of sweet but pleasingly pure red fruit right off the top on the palate, followed by some oak and vanilla flavors and bit of raw tannin bite. The cherry paste, red licorice and raspberry coulis flavors are generous and giving, and fairly extroverted in personality, but they never really go so far as to be over the top or anything. It’s not my favorite style by any means, and a little certainly goes a long way, but I can’t say it doesn’t have some decent qualities.

2007 Rombauer Vineyards Zinfandel California. This wine, on the other hand, has very few redeeming qualities, I’m afraid. It’s overtly zesty and berry-laden on the nose, with tons of sweet blueberry and boysenberry syrup aromas surrounded by horribly pickled scents of eucalyptus, mustard seed, dillweed, vanilla and raw oak. In the mouth, it’s like drinking blue cotton candy and raw saccharine. It’s aggressively polished in texture and offers up loads of glycerin, but it’s just too sickeningly-sweet to enjoy any aspect of the wine. It’s an abuse to the senses, and just scary bad all around.

Sweet wines:

2000 Kurt Darting Ungsteiner Bettelhaus Rieslaner Auslese Pfalz. This is a dark iced tea color, presenting a very sweet nose of apricots, orange marmalade, baked peaches, fig, caramel and toffee. In the mouth, it’s richly-honeyed, sweet and unctuous, with luscious flavors of apricot, marmalade, frozen persimmon, caramel and praline flavors that are dark-toned and shot through with a nice streak of tangy acidity. I had some initial concerns at the appearance of the wine, but in the end I really enjoyed it.

2003 Château Rieussec Sauternes. This wine presents a wonderfully rich and exotic nose of poached peaches, baked apricots, mandarin oranges, iced tea, clotted cream, copper pans and fun bits of botrytis spice accents. On the palate, it delivers all kinds of mace, clove and nutmeg spice notes atop bulls eye caramel candy, burnished orange and sweet apricot flavors that are rich, smooth, languid-flowing and delicious. It’s maybe not as unctuous as some Sauternes from this vintage, and it might come across as a bit stridently youthful at times, but I like that and find the wine to be offering just excellent drinking right now.

NV V. Sattui Winery Madeira California. This is kind of cloudy and tawny-colored in the glass. The nose is nutty and woodsy, with outgoing and strong aromas of fruitcake, dried cherries, chopped walnuts, tree bark, crushed rocks and mulling spices. In the mouth, it’s aggressively direct with its forward flavors of toasted nuts, dried cherries, cranberries, raisin and allspice. There’s a nice sense of warmth to it, but it’s not overly alcoholic at all. It has nice smooth flow and a pleasingly nutty finish. All in all, it does a decent impression of a tawny port, as far as I’m concerned, and I think it’s pretty relaxing and fun to drink here at the end of the evening.

1983 Dow Vintage Porto. This was served from a 375 ml bottle. It’s a healthy faded garnet color, giving off classy aged aromas of dried cherries, figs, spiced nuts and gentle spirits that are quite nice. It’s a bit dry around the edges on the palate, but with a nice sweet cherry, fig and dried raspberry core accented by toasted nut and fine spice flavors. It never really reaches a high level of wow factor for me, but I certainly enjoy the resolved character and the spicy/nutty finish that has a good finishing kick.


-Michael

[robertgoulet]

Tasted '00 Pegau about 7mos. back.....wow, a stunning wine, a very exotic showing compared to a n excellent more classic '01

[hautbrionlover]

I'm sorry to hear about that '86 Lagrange being corked.
I have several bottles of it (plus one mag). I've had it a couple of times, and it was fine on both occasions

[AKR]

Sweet Cheeks sounds like it would be a good name for a gay bar.