TNs: Another month, another poker and wine tasting

[Michael Malinoski]

Starter white:

2013 Sandlands Chenin Blanc Amador County. To my mind, this is fairly easily identified on the nose as Chenin Blanc, with very nice, clean, fresh and refined aromas of wax, lanolin, lemon tea, white peach and powdered mineral leading the way. In the mouth, it’s waxy-textured, rounded and giving, with flavors of lemon tea, honey, grapefruit, minerals, chalk and light spices shot through with a nice streak of acidity. It’s drinking beautifully and is a great way to start off any tasting.

Flight 1:

2009 Domaine Michel Lafarge Bourgogne. This is a pale ruby-colored wine with a rather woodsy bouquet of tree bark, autumn leaves, toasted brown spices, light cherry and light raspberry aromas that are lifted and airy if a bit narrowly-focused. It’s squeaky-clean in the mouth, with gently sweet cherry and raspberry fruit flavors atop a minerally grounding. It’s a bit sharply-acidic, austere and herbal at this stage, with a hollow feeling in the mid-palate. I can’t say I am much of a fan of it, and I might even say it’s best to drink up sooner rather than later.

2009 Evening Land Vineyards Bourgogne. This is slightly darker in color, with a fruitier bouquet featuring aromas of black cherry, black raspberry, fireplace embers, iron, dried blood and a bit of tar. It’s nice, if a bit shy at times. In the mouth, it’s richer-fruited than the previous wine, but is still just light to medium-weighted in feel. It delivers flavors of dried cherries, red berries, toasted herbs and mushroomy earth that have a solid acidic underpinning to them, but can also feel a bit austere at times. While I find this easier to drink, I don’t particularly enjoy either of these wines in their current states of evolution.

Flight 2:

2012 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Rosso Guardiola. This is a savory, feral-smelling sort of wine that exhibits strong aromas of black olives, singed iron, tire rubber, black leather and animal fur surrounding a core of blackberry and black cherry fruit. In the mouth, it’s fairly full-bodied, creamy-textured and full of flavor, but still decidedly tannic right now. The flavors of spiced plum, black cherry, iron, meat, tobacco and leather have good drive and a powerful finishing kick, but it clearly needs time to pull it all together into something more cohesive.

2012 Tenuta delle Terre Nere Etna Il Quadro delle Rose Feudo di Mezzo. This is nicely-layered on the nose, with interesting and thought-provoking aromas of funk, fur, ash, cigar wrapper, tar, cherry and raspberry to consider. On the palate, it is nicely fleshed-out, with rounded edges and pleasing plumpness to the mid-palate flavors of sweet cherry, raspberry and earth. It has a pleasingly sappy texture to it, and a juicy, luscious feel to the fruit profile that I quite enjoy. The tannins are much better managed here than with the previous wine, though this does begin to clamp down on the finish as the day goes on. There’s a lot to like here, and this is the obvious choice between the two wines for current drinking, in my opinion.

Flight 3:

2003 Conti Costanti Brunello di Montalcino. This is dark and concentrated on the nose, with pleasing aromas of sweet plums, black cherries, blueberries, charred leather, and toasted oak. In the mouth, it feels youthfully dark and inky still, with lots of plum, blueberry and fruitcake flavors atop singed iron notes. It shows a lot of powerful drive and emerging complexity, but it’s maybe just starting to come into its own right now.

2003 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino. This wine delivers a pretty set of aromas that feel bold, smooth and polished, with blackberry, black currant, exotic spice and charred oak tones wafting up out of the glass effortlessly. It’s luscious and deliciously-fruited on the palate, delivering exotic spice-tinted flavors of black currants, blueberries, chocolate paste and subtle funk. It’s sneaky-tannic at the very end, but otherwise creamy and voluptuous. This was one of my favorites on the day.

White wine refresh with Chicken dinner:

2006 Domaine Collet Chablis 1er Cru Montmains. This wine offers up aromas of green apples, pears, wet chalk, wild herbs, citrus and pencil shavings with some buttery undertones developing as it takes on air. In the mouth, it’s surprisingly plush, creamy and robust in character, with only gentle acids down low, focusing more on the rich flavors of pear, cantaloupe, grapefruit and chalk. It may not meet my expectations for traditional-minded Chablis, but it’s pretty easy to drink and pairs nicely with the chicken.

Flight 4:

2001 Mount Eden Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains. There’s a very ripe nose to this wine, with plush and overt aromas of mocha, cocoa powder, rose petals, cassis, cherry paste and toasted barrel spices reaching up out of the glass. In the mouth, it’s caressingly lush and smooth-textured, with loads of blueberry, blackberry, fudge brownie and mocha paste flavors that are sweet, spicy and a lot of fun. I enjoy aspects of it, but it’s not quite what I expect from this producer, I must admit.

2001 Grace Family Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. This wine has a warm and inviting nose redolent of sunbaked bricks, red currants, cherry pie, coffee beans, brownies, oak shavings and dry earth. It’s tastes modern-styled but controlled on the palate, with a glossy texture and a sweet fruit-driven flavor profile of succulent cherry paste, blueberry pie, baking spices, vanilla and soft oak. It’s impossible to say it’s worth the lofty prices, but it is a rather nice Cabernet, I’ll grant.

Flight 5:

2005 Turley Zinfandel Ueberroth Vineyard Paso Robles. Here one encounters on the nose rather sweetened aromas of blueberry jam, purple Pixie Stick dust, prunes, oak spices, cocoa powder, suede leather and prickly herbs. It’s a bit syrupy in the mouth, with sugary flavors of raisin, fig, blueberry paste, prune juice and oak. The texture is beautifully polished and slinky, but it’s just too much in the end, with the sweet confectionary fruit and barrel flavors turning a bit overwhelming at times. Maybe hold this to see where it goes.

2008 Turley Zinfandel Ueberroth Vineyard Paso Robles. The 2008 version is darker, richer, and more plushly-textured on the nose—with fudgy aromas of chocolate pudding, raisin toast, black fig, black cherry, dark chocolate and vanilla bean extract washing over the senses. It feels uber-extracted on the palate, with super-concentrated and intensely sweet flavors of cherry paste, raspberry jam, blackberry jelly combining into a classic fruit-bomb that’s just too much for me at this point of the proceedings despite again showing off a pleasingly smooth and polished texture. I’ll take a pass on this one.

After hours:

2012 Maxime Magnon Corbières Blanc La Bégou. This was from a bottle opened the previous night. It’s quite nice--showing clean, crisp and flowery aromas of cantaloupe, grapefruit, pear, chalk and mountain meadow. It’s similar in the mouth, with effortless balance to the lightweight and airy flavors or cantaloupe, grapefruit, stone and chalk. It doesn’t try too hard, and just feels honest and refreshing.

2000 Domaine de L'Arlot Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Clos des Forêts St. Georges Jeunes Vignes. This wine shows nice layering and a pleasing fruit-to-earth ratio in its aromas of cherries, strawberries, rhubarb, toasted orange peel, grape stems, animal fur, tree bark and tobacco leaf. In the mouth, it has some prickly acidity and a little herbal streak but also lots of cranberry and red currant fruit riding atop mushroom earth-tones. It’s cool and reserved, but drinking quite nicely on the whole.

1995 Oddero Barolo. This seems tired and run-down to me, but I can’t tell if that’s because it was opened the day before or because it’s an off bottle. It smells a bit cooked-down and baked on the nose, and acidic and austere on the palate—not a good combination. I’ll withhold judgement.

2000 Giovanni Rosso Barolo Serralunga. There’s nice lift and vibrant edgings to the ropy aromas of red flowers, dried cherries, tar and earth presented by this wine. In the mouth, though, it’s sort of four-square and a bit non-descript to my tastes, at least at this stage of its evolution. It is quite tangy, bright and lifted, but there’s not much depth or heft to the smoked cherry, raspberry, black tea and leather flavors. It may flesh out a bit with time, but I’m not confident it will ever be more than just OK.

2003 Château Sociando-Mallet Haut-Medoc. Even in this warm vintage, this smells singularly of Sociando-Mallet to my way of thinking—featuring aromas of leather, tobacco, forest undergrowth, granite stone, wild herbs and black fruit that may be a bit glossier than usual in personality, but still hit a lot of the classic notes for me. In the mouth, it’s perhaps more outgoing than usual, but it still shows off wonderfully cool black fruit and tarry earth flavors at the core. There’s very good structure, great flow, languid acidity and a slinky mouthfeel that combine into a very pleasing package. It has plenty of time left, but can be rather rewarding now, as well.

2005 Ramey Claret Napa Valley. This is a really nice showing for this wine, starting with generous and outgoing aromas of cassis, kirsch, cherries jubilee and soft oak spices. It’s really delicious and easy to like on the palate, with sexy spices and perfectly ripe fruit flavors of black raspberries and dark cherries. It’s impressive in how lush it seems while never feeling out of balance or over the top. It’s a very friendly wine showing great early-drinkability. It may never be a profound or particularly complex wine, but go ahead and enjoy it over these next few years.

2001 Joh. Jos. Prüm Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese Mosel Saar Ruwer. What is there not to like here? Nothing, that’s what. This is a wine that offers up an exuberant but perfectly-poised bouquet of petrol, peach, lime zest, quince, kumquat, grapefruit and fascinating funk aromas. In the mouth, it’s perfectly-balanced and effortless in all dimensions, with an oily texture, unbelievable length and classy sweet flavors of peach juices, lime, quince paste, blue slate and diesel hints that are deeply delicious. It’s hard to beat this kind of drinking experience.

2002 Dr. Loosen Riesling Ürziger Würzgarten Auslese Mosel Saar Ruwer. This isn’t quite as nuanced on the nose as the previous wine, but still offers rather appealing scents of lemon peel, white peach, pear and tropical yellow fruits that have good depth and concentration to them. It’s richly-styled and harmonious, with lots of lemon and tropical fruit flavors on the palate. The sweetness levels are really nice, but at times it seems just a bit square-edged and perhaps holding something back for the future. I have no problem enjoying it now, but I think it can be better a few years down the road.


-Michael

[AlexR]

Wow, that's a very nice spread.

20 bottles.

How many of you guys play poker?

Alex R.

[Michael Malinoski]

Alex,

There are 12 guys in the group, and every once in a while we get all 12, though we always have at least 6. This was a rare one with full participation. I was the winner (for once!) so had a good budget for hosting the next game.

-Michael

[Claret]

I need to try some Sandlands CB. The Auslesen sound good too, I have a couple of the Prum sleeping.