Jay Shampur, Tran Bronstein and I have all been playing it pretty safe in our respective bubbles. I actually was a bit worried by a light temperature and aches on Friday but tested negative on Sunday, so we were able to proceed with a get-together for the 3 of us. I threw together a bit of food—stir fry ginger beef and rice for me, short ribs in curry with rice for Tran, shell pasta and tomato sauce for Jay, and Tran brought an apple pie. It was very nice to spend the evening with my friends again. And all wines showed well
2006 Charles Heidsieck Brut Rose
This was licklicous. I am deeply thankful to Tran for bringing it. From opening bell to the end of the night, it shows off a lovely pristine balance. The signature here, around a core mix of light berry and a bit of watermelon, is of a wine fully in harmony with each of its parts. This is such a good vintage to drink even this early while waiting for the 08s to continue to develop, though I’m sure this wine has many years left. Probably my WOTN, though it was quite close this evening.
2013 Brundlmayer Kamptaler Terassen Gruner Veltliner
I bought something like 6 or 7 of these back in the day, but to taste it tonight? Man, I should have sprung for at least a case. A benchmark wine for this very wonderful vintage, at least for me. Continues to be quite vibrant with excellent length at the back and mix of lemon, lime, touch of sweeter citrus and a little saline and steel. A lot of bang for what was a mere C$36 at the time.
2010 Herdade Dacalada Baron de B
Jay’s last one of these (Tran has 2 more and I have one more), I was excited to check in on this, from the Antao Vaz grape, which I hadn’t tasted in at least 4 years. Jay asked and I decided to have us pop and pour and let it develop in the glass. I think that was a good choice, since to me this smells and tastes like it’s likely at its apogee. That apogee has lots of plum and other juicy red fruit in play—minding me of California in the fruit component–but combined with a sort of Pichon-Comtesse-like finesse----certainly not to that upper level, but this wine delivers a lot of pleasure for all of us. Another one I should have bought more of
2004 Kracher #3 Traminer NV
A generous bring by Tran, this is also in a very good place right now. A signature of Alois’ better efforts, it drinks so very effortlessly. There is a neat ripeness about the fruit on the tongue, which I identify as apricot, yellow plum and a distinct dry pineapple sidebar. Yummylicious.
My thanks to the guys for bearing me company just before the holidays—Tran is off to Montreal and we won’t be able to get together with him for at least a month.
Salud
Mike