16 out this month
0 in
some company calling themselves Chamber Street Wines sent me some wine but I assume it was their mistake. so surely it won’t count.
3 November : 2010 Domaine Huet Vouvray Demi-Sec Clos du Bourg
fresh. pear plum. great balance. super winner.
5 November : 2005 Domaine Denis Bachelet Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes
burly. dense. soft (Bachelet). a little tannin initially but not noticed while eating the ******* *******. initial oak but not afterwards.cherry? not yet a 2005 fan as wines have been so muscular and i skew towards finesse . I wonder if this will ever perceptibly change but at least this is a wine that still has time on its’ side…
7 November : 2010 Domaine Dupasquier Mondeuse Vin de Savoie
feeling blue today, and joyously not seeing red. low alcohol mountain wine. black fruit asserts itself. délicieux. a wine for the people. tré scrantonesque. paired with meat.
10 November : 2012 Schloss Gobelsburg Riesling Reserve Gaisberg
i really like Austria 2012, at least from the wineries i purchased. very very good. hits the spot. balanced (that’s the key) and less power than in the “top" vintages. might not win contests but it triple doubles at the table. paired with food.
11 November : 2007 François Pinon Vouvray Silex Noir
good but simple as it lacked tension. would not walk away from the table though. paired with **** ***** quite nicely
12 November : 2001 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia
enjoyable and certainly youthful but not great. i have always thought most classically made Barolo benefits from being older than 20 years old (if not 25). not the paragon of Barolo as one can be led to expect from this producer, but perhaps more years will rectify the situation. paired with pasta
15 November : 2006 Simon Bize Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Les Fournaux
no. no. not again! a replay from October. earthy with nicely delineated fruit. my cheating October impression : “sweet but hard / lean. all about rustic fruit, not complex per se. very Savigny.” very good burgundy. vegetables added at a last moment of inspiration to fill out the main course
17 November : 2009 Domaine de l’Ecu Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Expression de Granit
lemony and a touch more body than expected for Muscadet but sensationally well balanced with the minerals and acidity. right up there with Pépière and L-P and Brégeon and Louvetrie and did i leave anyone out? paired with fish
19 November : 2017 La Graine Sauvage Vermentino
not your typical vermentino (small sample size admittedly). opulent style with nuttiness i seem to recall. the typical fruit and minerality present and accounted for, albeit shy. enjoyed as a change of pace. but it is all about expectations and i would not employ it at table when wanting the typical lean texture. paired with fish. perhaps i need to get out more often re : vermentino
19 November : 2010 Emidio Pepe Trebbiano d’Abruzzo
whoa doggies! this be super bad in a bad way!! sour and fizzy but in the something has gone wrong microbiologically way and not just some extra CO2. hope there is a good bottle out there for someone to enjoy. paired with backyard compost heap
21 November : 2001 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese
lacks the cut that exemplifies the greatness of 2001 Christoffel wines. worst of any 2001 jjc i have had, yet still better than the majority of any German wine we have consumed!. we should all be so unlucky… not scintillating but darn good. great fruit well defined as per usual. paired with Asian food
22 November : 2012 Weingut Knoll Riesling Smaragd Ried Schütt
not a precious / prestigious / esteemed vintage but oh so good. smaragd light if you will. all in balance and a wonderful wine
24 November : 2009 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph
fine effort. upfront syrah fruit and minimal intrusion of tannins. not my fave Gonon but see Christoffel. happiness to drink. would pay easily $733 for a bottle. paired with meat
26 November : 1996 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Falletto di Serralunga d’Alba
surprised initially by a somewhat short finish and a mildly weak mid palate concentration. filled out as the meal progressed to a very elegant and dang fine wine, just not as beautiful as other Giacosa wines i have drunk. paired with flour (i always get dried flours in the nebbiolo nose). Slow o’d for 4 minutes. Worried that was too long. Fortunately no harm done
28 November : 2013 Heidi Schröck Furmint
fresh with acidity. pear / savory / mineral. medium body. my neighbor chimed in with her favorable review of “fresh and crisp”. enjoyed and will buy more. i realize this is a boring pairing, but we opted for a reprise of food.
29 November : 2007 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Champans
plump red fruit. beet root and alcohol barely sticks thru. no tannins to speak of. a replay of the 2009 Gonon characteristics. reasonable acidity so not too soft structurally. paired with muscle subjected to a heat treatment. a pleasure. so far, for the Volnay category Alex, i prefer 2007 Burgundy to 1999 Burgundy. 2007 revels in its’ simplicity and unabashedly crosses the street (not a walk of shame), where 1999 is more pedestrian and sticks to the sidewalk. your pedometer may vary.
You’ve been living well! And I love your notes. Just a couple of thoughts.
I haven’t had one of these in a number of years, but it has been a puzzler. It was dazzling at the winery in late 2005, and I bought a bunch. But three bottles in 2006 showed very differently – one hard, tannic and tight; the next “amazingly soft and open,” I wrote; and a third that was weirdly disjointed. An ITB friend thought that last bottle was off. I gave it 84 points.
Another bottle in 2013 at a big '01 tasting run by Greg dal Piaz was not pleasant. I initially scored it 70 points, tied with an oxidized Schiavenza. It did improve as the evening went along, but was still a tough sucker, and I wasn’t sure whether it just closed or sucked. Greg, who went long on this wine, said that night that he’d found it inconsistent and had his fingers crossed that it would resolve. Me, too, since I still have a half case. (Here’s the thread on that tasting.)
I opened a bottle a couple of weeks ago and had a similar reaction. My notes: “Very good, pretty primary, conspicuous but not excessive acid.” Very pleasing but not that complex, much less profound. Happily, I paid only $30 on release.
Re: 2001 Conterno Cascina Francia, I can’t recall having had a Barolo from the vintage that showed well and that they’re all just too young up until this point.
Re:2009 Gonon SJ, thanks for data point. Am glad that I never had to pay more than 5% of $733 for any of my bottles.
If you read the notes on that 2013 tasting of 2001 Barolos and Barbarescos, you’ll see they were tough work at that stage, too!
The Gonon was very authentic, just not that interesting (yet?). I suspect the ripe vintage took a little off the aromatics, though there was no shortage of acidity.
The Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese is my least favorite of all of the brilliant 2001 Christoffel wines. That makes it the runt of an impressive litter! I will never turn down a bottle, but give me the Auslese* or Erdener Treppchen Auslese**.
I just read up on the 1st page of the 2013 tasting of 2001s. Didn’t read the rest as I think I get the gist of the thread. Immediately checked what I have in my remote inventory and felt a little fortunate as I saw mostly Giacosa and Produttori in my list.
As for Gonon, I last had the 2009 in 2013 during a Gonon vertical (TNs posted somewhere in the board). Compared to the other non-VVs, it didn’t match the superior levels of the 2010/2007/2006 back then. I also noted then that the 2009 lacked the aromatic intensity of the adjacent vintages.
much gratitude for yuns taking the time weed whacking thru the notes and still have enough consciousness left to offer comments!
2001 Barolo. a victim of the hot 2003 and the cellars got too warm and maybe disturbed the aging abilty? this was suggested on another board and i wonder…
whereas 2001 German is such a great vintage and I treasure the Prüm / Haag / Schaefer / Schmitt Wagner etc etc, but the JJ Christoffel group is extraordinarily special.
It bums me out a little – I would really enjoy reading his notes, but I just can’t make it through the format. I’m not sure what is the advantage of doing that instead of sentences.
I guess the OP is sort of making notes into more of a social media style, which is less my thing personally, but there’s no doubt it’s the way things are going in the language these days. One suggestion – I think even just one blank line (hard return) in between each note would make it a lot easier to read.
thank you for the feedback!
interestingly, i have no social media presence. never belonged to facebook and the like, and in my advanced years the only twitch i have is a familial tremor. but being a hospital physician encompassing the years before electronic medical notes, time constraint compelled us to write in code. illegibly naturally.
i am retired and feel the pressure of time. hence no full sentences.
however, i will take the comments under advisement…
i do enjoy ee cummings. have not read much Joyce, as i agree with Martin Amis that Joyce was a genius but bereft of talent (although i do think that is a bit harsh). Joyce had me at Ulysses, then I began to read the book.
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