TNs: Royal East offline notes

[Michael Malinoski]

Some time back, a whole bunch of folks got together at Royal East to dine on their fine Asian cuisine and to share some good bottles of wine. It was a really diverse group and it was fun to meet so many new faces. It should be noted that none of the wines were served blind and there was no real order to the sequencing of them.

Sparkling wines:

NV Edmond Barnaut Champagne Grande Réserve Brut Grand Cru. This is pretty and delicate on the pleasingly chalky and dusty nose that features scents of white flowers, red citrus and crushed shells. In the mouth, it’s light to medium-weighted, with rounded edges and easy flow from start to finish. There’s easy balance between the soft acidity and fine flavors of apple, mixed citrus, chalk and red berries. This is quite tasty and satisfying. 2/3 Pinot Noir, 1/3 Chardonnay.

NV Chartogne-Taillet Champagne Cuvée Sainte Anne. This blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir was disgorged in September 2013. The nose is taut and focused around aromas of apples, mountain meadow, graphite and steel. It really foams up in the mouth and shows a vibrant, zesty quality to the green apple, pear and citrus flavors. The finish is lifted and bright, with a nice expansive, airy quality. It’s light and enjoyable all around.

2012 Roses de Jeanne / Cédric Bouchard Champagne Inflorescence Blanc de Noirs Côte de Val Vilaine. This was disgorged in April of 2014. It shows earthy dark aromas of Delicious apple, baked pear, red berries and quinine. In the mouth, it features flavors of pear, baked apple and some darker tropical undertones. It’s fuller-bodied, grippy in texture, fairly serious in tone, finishing with a fine flair.

2007 Pierre Gimonnet Champagne Brut Paradoxe. This was disgorged in September of 2013. It’s quite serious and sharp in tone, with a very cool, crisp and steely-edged nose of white currant, apple flesh, pear, chalk, smoke, slate and herb aromas. It’s impressively structured in the mouth, with prickly acidity but rather overt and outgoing fruit flavors of red cherry, apple, spiced pear, herbs and smoky minerals. It has great push and delivers loads of flavor, delivering it all atop a fine-tuned texture. This is lively and lovely, a really great showing all around.

2009 Ferghettina Franciacorta Milledi Brut. This is reserved and fairly quiet on the nose, with apple, chalk and white flower scents slowly finding focus. In the mouth, it’s quite foamy, maybe just a bit cloying at times after all of the Champagnes, with soft acidity and flavors of chalk, pear, white peach and hazelnut that finish with a bitter tickle at the very end. It is a bit up and down for my tastes, but still quite interesting to try.

White wine:

2010 Saint-Cosme Condrieu. This has nice appeal on the nose, showing off sweet floral aromas of peach, apple blossom, lavender and apple. In the mouth, it’s loaded with white peach, apple, grapefruit, honey and mango flavors that show gentle sweetness allied to fun spices. It’s not particularly complex or layered, but it’s a fun drink nonetheless.

Red Burgundies:

2012 Bouchard Pere & Fils Bourgogne Reserve. This is fresh and friendly on the nose, with clear and direct aromas of raspberry, cherry, pomegranate, herb, cocoa and clay. In the mouth, it’s much more variable, not showing all that great, to be honest. It feels simple and hollow in the middle, with some muddied flavors cherry and raspberry accented by smoked herbs and minerals. It’s a bit bitter at times, with angular, tough acidity. Maybe it will come around with a bit of time?

2010 Domaine Bernard Moreau et Fils Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Chênes. This is young and showing some raw oak on the nose right now to go along with scents of mint, cedar, bright cherry, and all sorts of spices. In the mouth, it’s considerably more refined--with a very pretty red flower-infused mouth perfume to go along with pliant, yielding flavors of strawberry and raspberry fruit that are gentle and feminine. There’s no real tannin to worry about and the acidity is soft and welcoming. It’s quite good, but could use some time to better integrate on the nose.

1999 Domaine de L'Arlot Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Clos de l'Arlot. I really enjoy the funkiness of the nose here, with its deep, dark, earthy scents of leather, dried red flowers, toasted grape stems, porcini mushrooms, ham and tobacco leaf. It’s slightly rustic and earthy-tasting on the palate, but with a nice creamy texture to the flavors of black cherry, cranberry, mushroom, earth and mineral. A nice lift of sour acidity on the finish brings it all together quite nicely. It’s drinking quite well for my tastes.

2005 Louis Jadot Pommard 1er Cru Clos de la Commaraine. Ah, this is just lovely on the nose, delivering a beautifully full expression of sour cherry, raspberry, nutmeg, earth, leathery funk, mushroom, cocoa and pink peppercorn aromas that are just what I like. It’s well-done on the palate, too, where it delivers creamy and rounded flavors of black cherries, black raspberries, charred earth and oak spices. It has some gentle tannins hiding in the background, but it’s creamy and rounded and quite easy to like. I’d call this one of my wines of the night.

2002 Labouré-Roi Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru. The nose here is fuzzy and fudgy with aromas of dried cherries, red currants, leather, earth, autumn leaves, tar, grape stems and charred wood that slowly come together in a nice way. In the mouth, though, I find it somewhat flat, lacking cut and definition despite doing its best to deliver a pleasingly solid dose of red cherry, red currant and earth flavor. The finish is a bit watered down, too, especially for a Grand Cru. There are certainly some things to like here, but on the whole I find it lacking sufficient structure and gravitas.

1999 Michel Magnien Clos de la Roche Grand Cru. This wine presents a very appealing bouquet, with great depth and density to the delightfully savory notes of cranberry, sour cherry, rawhide leather, grilled meat drippings, red flowers and grilled herbs. It shows fine secondary and tertiary notes, and invites the drinker right in. On the palate, it’s full-bodied, lush, dense and creamy, with deliciously deep and rounded flavors of sweet cherry, raspberry, tar and smoke showing no hard edges anywhere. It’s drinking great and was another of my wines of the night.

Other Pinot Noirs:

2011 St. Innocent Pinot Noir Momtazi Vineyard Willamette Valley. This is earthy and ticklish on the nose, featuring aromas of leather, sassafras, birch, hedgerow clippings, sour cherry, cocoa powder and all sorts of baking spices. It’s medium-weighted on the palate, with loads of oak-tinged spice notes accenting the core cherry and sweet raspberry fruit center. It has a really refined and silken texture to it and a firm but welcoming structure, but it feels like it’s just not yet willing to fully release its best. It’s quite likeable but bound to be better in another few years’ time.

2004 Archery Summit Pinot Noir Red Hills Estate Dundee Hills. This is a woodsy, prickly sort of Pinot, with a nose that features scents of sassafras, oak shavings, nutmeg, mushroom, black cherry and leafy earth. In the mouth, it’s oaky, spicy and woodsy—with flavors or grilled herbs, smoke, charred earth, cola nut and bitter-tinged dark cherry fruit. It comes across as young and still formative in terms of its flavor profile, though there are no real hard tannins or rough acidity in play. I can’t say it was a favorite of mine this night.

2007 Belle Pente Pinot Noir Estate Reserve Yamhill-Carlton. This is kind of wild and outgoing on the nose, with lots of herb (menthol and mint) and spice (allspice, mace) aromas surrounding a core of smoky blue fruit. It’s full-blown, youthful and very outgoing on the palate, with all kinds of brown spice and wild mixed berry fruit flavors heavily accented by oak. The texture is a bit sticky and the tannins and acidity can feel a bit raw toward the back, so give this one some time to come together.

2008 Ken Wright Pinot Noir Abbott Claim Vineyard Willamette Valley. This is boldly sweet and aggressive on the nose--with lots of outsized and intense aromas of liquid cherry, cassis, raspberry, oak and toasted spices right out front. For all that, it has some interesting and varied facets that make it fairly complex and rather interesting. In the mouth, it is creamy, very substantive and concentrated, with rather rich and heady flavors of tangy red and blue fruit and interesting spice box. It’s a big boy, but it keeps my attention all the way through and in the end sort of wins me over.

2008 Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Keefer Ranch Vineyard Russian River Valley. This is very much in keeping with the Kosta Browne style—featuring concentrated and outgoing aromas of wild berries, smoked cherries and soft spices on the nose. In the mouth, it really delivers a big mouthful of flavor, with an overt wild berry and oak-spiced personality. The very creamy blueberry and raspberry fruit stuffing is tasty and fun, if a bit obvious at times. It goes down smooth but with a tiny hint of warmth now and again. I enjoy it but will advocate giving it a bit more time.

Other reds:

1998 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau. My pour was from the very bottom of the bottle and was more sediment than wine. It smells stewy, roasted and cooked down, and tastes baked-down, over-ripe and generally shot. My initial thinking is that it’s an off bottle, but lots of folks around the table who got cleaner pours were singing its praises, so I have to reserve judgment.

2008 Turley Zinfandel Juvenile California. I find this wine to be oddly satisfying despite its obvious lack of subtlety. On the nose, it’s full, forward, dark and dense with layered aromas of blackberry, blueberry, dark cherry, menthol and oak spice. In the mouth, it’s rich and heady, with full body and very smooth texture that carries along the blueberry, black currant and spice flavors with ease. It’s uncomplicatedly fruity but it’s consistent, direct and in the end just plain fun to drink.

Sweet wines:

1993 Royal Tokaji Wine Co. Aszú Essencia. This is iced tea brown-orange in color, and presents an absolutely lush, sexy, rich and sweet bouquet redolent of fig paste, dates, orange marmalade, yellow raisins, Turkish coffee and liquid caramel. In the mouth, it’s delicious, with full-bodied layer after layer of exotic fig, yellow raisin, prune, coffee and spice flavors coating the palate. It’s thick and sweet but also beautifully lifted by freshening acidity coming in at the end. It’s a wonderful drink.

2003 d'Arenberg Vintage Declared Shiraz Port McLaren Vale. Served from a 375 ml bottle, this smells dark and mysterious, but also a bit off-putting with cooked-down aromas taking over at times. It’s super-sweet in the mouth, with alcoholic cough syrup and black cherry liqueur far too present for my liking. It’s insanely rich, pasty and plush, and I don’t really connect with it at all.


-Michael

[stefan]

You find much more in the SI 2011 Momtazi than I do. I think it sucks in comparison to any other vintage of this wine. Mark Vlossak claims that it will be good in time, but I bet that it will never approach his average Momtazi.

Pommard 1er Cru Clos de la Commaraine is a Jadot Monopole, but, strangely enough, they used to sell off part of the production. Do they still do that? I believe that only the Jadot version is imported into the USA; at least I never saw another one.

[Michael Malinoski]

Hey Stefan,

Regarding the 2011 SI Momtazi, I definitely was not a big fan of the nose, but did appreciate the alluring texture and mouthfeel. As I noted, I just felt like it was reticent with the flavors--maybe you're right, it never will "release the hounds"-- I suspect you're a better judge of that than me given your exposure to so many SI bottlings over the years. I'm not running out to buy any, but would be curious to try it again in 3-4 years nonetheless...

Best,
Michael

[AKR]

Mike -- 98 VT's that are well stored are still doing great today. I personally never found them pruney/stewed but everyone tastes things differently.