WINE - Red, White, or Other - Discussed Here!

[Brian]

Good times. And the Montevertine was brought by Leif Ove Andsnes, who lives right up the road.....

WAIT WHAT? Nobody else commented on this?!?!?

1985



Bought this back in 2011.  Fingers crossed that this is still good.

How'd that go, Bill?

[jochanaan]

1985



Bought this back in 2011.  Fingers crossed that this is still good.

Well? 

What's the consensus on wine in non-glass containers? I confess I bought a Black Box Merlot the other day and found it fairly drinkable...

[Bogey]

We never opened it.  My friend already had two opened when we got there, so I just left the bottle with him. I had a bottle of this a year or so ago.  It was fantastic, but then there are no guarantees bottle to bottle.

[Bogey]

This is a beauty ($20) $15 if you like Italian reds.  The local wine shop's owner paid a visit to their estate and keeps reordering supplies when he can get them.  Search it out. 

[Bogey]

The pairing. 

[The new erato]

WAIT WHAT? Nobody else commented on this?!?!?

I drink with an assorted crowd. I've shared glasses of wine with Gaahl of Gorgoroth (a great fan of the wines of Cornelissen of Sicily):



Sigurd Wongraven of Satyricon (a superb taster and Piemonte specialist):



and now, Andsnes (picture unnecessary). Andsnes brought a Sangiovese. What is it with musicians and Italian wines?

[jlaurson]

Good crowd, Erato!

I did my wine-drinking in Norwegian company, too, last week... alas slightly less august. My good old friend Knud and relatives of his wive... and it was wine from Domaine Lou Gaillot, which was a five minute drive from the little house we were at. Of his reds, we liked this one the best: http://lougaillot.com/rouge-excellence-2011-bio/; the Reserve was good, too... but less complex and just a wee bit thick on the oak/raisins. http://lougaillot.com/anais-2010/

[The new erato]

A couple of recent drinks:



Complex and floral Bordeaux which would have been richer and fruitier 5 years ago - the 85's arent stayers.




Classic Riesling with a hinty of oily sweetness that are typical of hot vintages like 2009 in the Alsace. Very clean fruit.

[Bogey]

A couple of recent drinks:



Complex and floral Bordeaux which would have been richer and fruitier 5 years ago - the 85's arent stayers.

Maybe not, but very cool when you drink something from that long ago and remember that year.

[Brian]

Sorry I haven't posted much recently - probably the most interesting wine I've drunk in the last few months was a 1998 aligoté from Burgundy (Pierre Morey) - as a comparative youngster/newcomer, this was by far the oldest white wine I'd ever drunk. It hadn't faded one bit, though - in fact the heady, assertive mouthfeel was too much for one of my friends. All fine; more for me! My notes: "Whoa! Fresh raw oyster brine, a whiff of sea air, & heady flavors. Syrupy mouthfeel and a little salt-sweet, but in a great way. We drank it on its own; would require bold fresh seafoods to pair with any food." At $21, the bargain of the year, no doubt.

For my best friend's birthday, I put together a vermentino tasting, with bottles from esteemed Corsican producers Yves Leccia and Antoine Arena. But the show-stealer was Clos Saint-Vincent's 2012 "Le Clos," from mainland France in the hills outside Nice. Notes again: "Big nose for a white (corn?), slight sweetness. Lychee, white peach."

Also finished off my supply of Sean Thackrey's 2012 Andromeda pinot noir, an exquisite and somewhat unruly beast from Marin County, California, just down the road from George Lucas's ranch. Not commonly recognized as a wine country, that area, being so far southwest of Sonoma, but Thackrey specializes in this kind of offbeat or bizarre stroke of genius. Maybe heavier than a burgundy or Oregon pinot, but without the typical California earth/pepper either.

A current favorite is Broc Cellars, an urban winery based in Oakland, CA which sources from great places like Eaglepoint Ranch vineyard in Mendocino. Broc's house style is to favor lightness, crispness, and a bit of acidity; almost everything is 11-12% ABV. As a result, there is a certain maybe dubious similarity between the taste profiles of the counoise, nero d'avola, and other eccentric red grapes. But I love it - the only miss I've had so far was a pinot/gamay blend that was just too light and tart and would go down in flames vs. a real Beaujolais producer like Dupeuble.

[jlaurson]

These -- and a few other wines from the vineyard near Krems. Good to very good wines... The Blauer Zweigelt from 2011 is downright sensational. The Frizzante (injected CO2 method) is well above the very simple standard these sparkling wines usually bring to the table. More please! :-)

[Bogey]

Going for the early end on this one. (fingers crossed)

[otare]

I just got back from a visit to Kremstal/Kamptal/Wachau, and brought back wines from Nikolaihof, Bründlmayer, Gobelsburg and Alzinger. 2013 vintage from Nikolaihof and Bründlmayer, and 2014 from Alzinger and Gobelsburg. Tasted them at the producer, but have not opened any bottles yet. Really looking forward to it. Alzinger and Nikolaihof Smaragds and top quality from Gobelsburg and Bründlmayer. I am especially looking forward to the 2013 Nikolaihof Steiner Hund and the 2013 Bründlmayer Steinmassel Reserve. They make extremely focused and clean Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners in this area.

[jlaurson]

I just got back from a visit to Kremstal/Kamptal/Wachau, and brought back wines from Nikolaihof, Bründlmayer, Gobelsburg and Alzinger. 2013 vintage from Nikolaihof and Bründlmayer, and 2014 from Alzinger and Gobelsburg. Tasted them at the producer, but have not opened any bottles yet. Really looking forward to it. Alzinger and Nikolaihof Smaragds and top quality from Gobelsburg and Bründlmayer. I am especially looking forward to the 2013 Nikolaihof Steiner Hund and the 2013 Bründlmayer Steinmassel Reserve. They make extremely focused and clean Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners in this area.

Nice trip, it sounds like! What a region. Pity you probably caught a bunch of bad weather days, if this trip was recent. The whole Wachau has amazing wines to offer... and often at prices well below Bründlmayer who are fortunate enough to cash in on their fame. Especially when you go to the slightly less 'en vogue' right shore of the Danube. (The famous vineries are all on the left). What a simple Gelber Muskateller does, in that region... why the distinctive and distinguishing bouquet of elderberry flowers is amazing. I also have a red from Krems on my cellar -- in fact, it's the red I have the most bottles of. A huge wine; 2011 Zweigelt/Blaufraenkisch that really reminds of a complex Merlot.

[otare]

It was Wednesday last week. The weather was not good, but we avoided the rain (which hit us on the way back to Prague). I know that there are a lot of small producers that make good wines for very little money in this area, but this was just a one day trip with not much time to visit the smaller growers, so I went for the big names. Even here the prices were not too bad - 18,9€ for Bründlmayer's 2013 Riesling Heiligenstein Erst Lage. Cheaper at Gobelsburg (14€ for the Riesling Gaisberg). I know they make good Blaufränkisch there, so I might try that next time.

BTW: Nikolaihof is in Mautern which is on the right shore (facing downstream), so technically not in Wachau. Their vineyards are on the left shore (in Kremstal and Wachau), so they do make som Smaragds and Federspiels. Steiner Hund is in Kremstal so they cannot use the Smaragd prädikat for that wine. So not all the famous wineries are on the left bank, but Nikolaihof may be the one exception.

[The new erato]

Catching up with a few friends after the summer last night, some good wines were shared amongst the 5 of us:

Lilbert BdB 2002 Champagne (good but not outstanding, in a good place for drinking)
Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru Blanc de Noirs 1996 (fully mature, pretty amazing)
Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru Les Boudriottes 2005 (not preoxed and outstanding, developing for hours in the glass)
Zind Humbrecht Riesling Clos Windsbuhl 2007 (tight and steely/rocky - quite a surprice for a Z-H though it had a sweetness indice of 1))
Bruno Sorg Riesling Grand Cru Pfersigberg 2010 (hint of exotic fruits, drinking fine)
Chateau Montrose 1986 (more rustic and tannic than other recent bottles of this I've had - twice in the last year)
Jadot Corton Pougets 2001 (dark and brooding, black fruits, pretty amazing for a 2001, entering a fine drinking window now)
Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Vendange Tardive -cannot remember the vintage/vineyard (sweet and luscious)

[Brian]

Just went on a little Rhône shopping splurge, all reputedly in pristine condition:

1998 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape
2010 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau
2009 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée

[Sergeant Rock]

Just went on a little Rhône shopping splurge, all reputedly in pristine condition:

1998 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape
2010 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau
2009 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée

I'm jealous. I haven't had a really great Châteauneuf-du-Pape in ten years 

Sarge

[jlaurson]

I'm jealous. I haven't had a really great Châteauneuf-du-Pape in ten years 

Sarge

I went wine-cycling with the better half and can't even recall what we drank. Well, actually, I can, because I made fastidious notes. Tanzer (Krems) stood out; among them their Frizzante which, for that type of beverage (i.e. wine with carbonation, rather than the 'real' thing) was VERY delicious. Also Their two Rieslings and their Gelber Muskateller (which isn't as elderberry-flowery in the nose as most Wachau GMs are, but has other qualities to make up for it).

[The new erato]

Just went on a little Rhône shopping splurge, all reputedly in pristine condition:

1998 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape

I was in the Rhone in the summer of 2000 and bought a 6-pack of this at the Domaine. Drank 2 of them while barbecuing at the pool with friends (those were the days!) and brought the last 4 back to Norway where the last one was consumed a couple of years ago.

A hot vintage with high sugar levels, high tannins and quite some alcohol. I haven't had recent vintages of the other two, my last vintage of the La Crau was the very good 1995 of which I had 4 bottles, long consumed, in the cellar, and of Pegau the 2005 which is just coming into it's own now. In general good vintages both 2009 and 2010, I don't drink much C9P but have had the La Nerthe 2009 and 2010 recently, both fine wines at a good QPR.