A CHRISTMAS BIRTHDAY DINNER - Brewer, Maine (12/25/2019-12/26/2019)
A close friend’s Birthday is on 12/24 and we have a small tradition of throwing a little get together for him on Christmas evening.
Appetizer: Coquilles St. Jacques
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2017 Weltner Rödelseer Küchenmeister “Hoheleite” Sylvaner Großes Gewächs - Germany, Franken (12/25/2019)
A lovely bottle that was gone before I knew it…everyone seemed to really love this. I will have to get more in the future…Outstanding!
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2004 Fattoria La Monacesca Verdicchio di Matelica - Italy, Marche, Verdicchio di Matelica (12/25/2019)
A deep golden hue in the glass. There’s a waxy note of honey, tropical fruits, white pepper. The slate is rich, framed by high acidity, that leads with ripe pineapple, mango, and star fruit. This is a wine that has the structure, fruit, and acidity to continue to age gracefully for another 10+ years with good storage. Outstanding!!!
Main Course: Braised beef short-ribs, a Polish mushroom soup, & oven roasted carrots
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1989 Bartlett Blueberry Wild Blueberry Oak Dry - USA, Maine (12/25/2019)
This was opened on Christmas evening to celebrate the birthday of a friend yesterday. We had an array of amazing wines, an '05 Richebourg, a '94 Port, a Sylvaner GG, and this was the stand-out wine of the night. This was the wine that stopped everyone in their tracks. One friend at the party has 20+ years in the wine industry, another 10+ years working for both retail & distributors…and this was the clear winner of WOTN.
The wine had a faint hint of bricking and a brilliant ruby core. Scents of violets, spice, worn leather, and a whiff of red & blue fruits. The wine is light-medium bodied, with high acidity, and tannins that are slowly resolving, a little mellowed, but still present to provide the structure for this 30 year old Blueberry wine. This is as lovely, unique, and special as other dry wines that people chase today. This is a wine that has no peer for what it is at 30 years old. An enchanting, wildly complex, and truly a singular expression of just how serious fruit wine “could be” if people applied the same principles that top wineries do with fresh fruit. I feel privileged & lucky to have had this experience. This is the top of the mountain and a benchmark in the fruit wine category. I really wish I could share this with more “wine geeks”. An Epic wine that words will not fully do justice.
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2005 Thibault Liger-Belair Richebourg - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Richebourg Grand Cru (12/25/2019)
Opened, decanted for 120 minutes, and then enjoyed over the course of 5+/- hours. There is just a faint bricking to this wine that signifies there’s some age, but this really will be best served by forgetting it for another decade+ in the cellar. Initially it was all fruit, then the structure came forward and now with the last 3 oz. in the Burgundy stem it’s starting to show both a delicacy and an intensity that I find to be a bit more “muscular” than I’m used to with Pinot Noir. This is Grand Cru in both the nose & the palate, but tonight the nose really has won the tug-of-war. A faint hint of cherry then cola (Fentiman’s), lead into floral notes that seem to have a hint of wood lingering in the air. My last sip of this wine really highlights both the acidity, and the tannic structure of this wine that give way to red fruits with a hint of mushrooms. Extraordinary.
Desert: Chocolate Truffle Cake
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1994 Warre Porto Vintage - Portugal, Douro, Porto (12/25/2019)
This was decanted about 3 hours ago and served with a chocolate tort…which worked perfectly. There is a hint of bricking, but this seems as if it may just be at the start of its life. Scents of fig, caramel, and raisin are the most obvious scents initially with fresh-cut oak & clove coming in with time. The palate leads with fig, plum, and blackberry before notes of brown sugar, coffee, and toffee linger on the finish. Every 5-6 bottles of Vintage Port I find myself really shocked at how much I really love these wines. They’re wildly complex, delicious, and I could even see myself pairing this with a steak w/blue cheese. I wish more ports were like this. Not alcohol was noticed, and that’s been my major problem with the 77’s I’ve had. Outstanding!!!
All in all, it was a fun & special evening. The Richebourg & Blueberry wines were both nursed and enjoyed over several hours.
Posted from CellarTracker
