CWD: What did you drink last night (or whenever)?

Montille 2005 Bourgogne

Opened by mistake. It's part of my son's birth vintage stash. Really nice, exceptional for a 16+ year old 'Bourgogne' in fact. My impression definitely doesn't align with several comments about it being over the hill that I found afterwards via Googling.
 
This was startlingly good. I'm going to have to pay more attention to Roussillon.

Corbieres Vieilles Vignes 2019, Ch. Fontareche - very dark; sauvage aroma with heady grapey-blackberry fruit, garrigue, gamey-meaty note; med-full body, low acid, deep, vigorous young fruit - pate de fruit with a little pepper and game marinade; finishes with dry but moderate tannin, touch of amaro - licorice, bay and stems. Perfect with Barcelona chickpeas, morcilla and spinach. 40% Syrah, 30% Carignan, 30% Grenache. 14% despite a hot year in a warm region (altitude?).
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
This was startlingly good. I'm going to have to pay more attention to Roussillon.

Corbieres Vieilles Vignes 2019, Ch. Fontareche - very dark; sauvage aroma with heady grapey-blackberry fruit, garrigue, gamey-meaty note; med-full body, low acid, deep, vigorous young fruit - pate de fruit with a little pepper and game marinade; finishes with dry but moderate tannin, touch of amaro - licorice, bay and stems. Perfect with Barcelona chickpeas, morcilla and spinach. 40% Syrah, 30% Carignan, 30% Grenache. 14% despite a hot year in a warm region (altitude?).
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When it comes to the wines from the south of France, I may be better known around here for drinking the likes of Roger Sabon and Clos Saint Jean 1998, but I do enjoy an occasional Corbieres and have been known to pull one that's up to 20 years old from the cellar. They are wonderful with creative dishes as depicted above, and pairings change significantly as they get older.
 
With rack of lamb and the season’s first morels, we had a bottle of 1998 Ch. Montrose, which was totally silken with medium body, lots of earth and herbaceous character on top of dark red fruit. The wine had lovely balance and plenty of life left, but at this stage was a great foil to the food.

Mark Lipton
 
My Passover Seder featured a showdown of two 2017 red Burgundies, and one exposed the other as a wanna be.

Thomas Morey Santenay Grand Clos Rousseau, handed down from papa Bernard and gran papa Albert, is all that. Cherries and bon fire and mustard seed feeding a wonderfully grippy midpalate and finish. I can still “smell” it an hour later just from memory. Oh my.

Michel Mallard Chorey Les Beaune Les Beaumonts, touted as a rising star by a local purveyor who lays it on a bit thick to sell the allegedly latest and greatest, has a bit to learn. It’s a simple raspberry-tinged wine, tasty, maybe a hint of complexity from stems, probably better suited for a roast chicken rather than my wife’s deeply flavored braised lamb and brisket. Honestly it was schooled in the side by side.

Guess which one cost more, though not by much?
 
Domaine Nowack Assemblage Sans Année Autre Cru is 2/3 Meunier and a third Chardonnay. Nowack is a Vigneron dating back to 1795 and recently has gone to the minimal intervention style with wild yeasts, no filtering or fining. And it smells wonderful. It's a pretty spicy style of dried apple. Small mousse. Bone dry but intense fruit and a really nice mix of red fruit and dried apple. It doesn't seem oxidative at all despite the apple aromas being more in the dried/bruised end of the apple spectrum. Very long and intense finish, fruity rather than mineral, and not harsh despite being an extra brut. Quite amazingly good. The only bad thing is the price at nearly 50.
 
Tonight we had the 2005 Domaine Pavelot Pernand Vergelesses 1er En Caradeux. It was exceptionally satisfying. '05 was when they began including a portion whole cluster, which they have tinkered with and adjust based on the vineyard. Organic/Bio. Very giving and as much Pinot character as I can ask of a wine at this price point.

Pavelot_En_Caradeux.jpg
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Yup, you get a lot of Pinot for the money chez Luc and Lise. They seem to get less press than Jean-Marc and Hugues but not deservingly so imho. Love the simple Pernand and Aloxe, but also the 1ers in blanc (Sous Frétilles) and rouge (Île de Vergelesses) are decent and reward cellar time. Very nice also Corton Charlemagne, while I never became friends with the Corton Rouge. Prices are or were around 10-15 for the villages, 20-30 for the 1ers and around 40 for the GC ex-cellar. That's the price you pay for some Haute-Côtes nowadays....

edit: Numbers are in Euros, the - Euro disappeared for some reason...
 
originally posted by Anders Gautschi:
edit: Numbers are in Euros, the - Euro disappeared for some reason...
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Yeah, that's the way WD posts work... you get whatever HTML gives you. So, characters from funny character sets don't work (hence all the gibberish around circumflexes and umlauts). For a Euro sign, edit the post and enter:

€

And don't edit the post again, because it will not be re-save-able after the first time.
 
I don't know how to start a sub-thread inside this thread. Technology has failed me yet again.

What should one open tonight to celebrate Jeff Grossman's birthday, remotely? Seeking guidelines.
 
1997 Mount Eden Pinot Noir: Very representative of aged Mount Eden Pinot. Savory rather than confected or cola-ed. Still a strong fruit presence, more red than blue, but some nice sous bois. No rush, this wine has another 10 years. But also no reason to wait if you have the right opportunity to open it.

1997 Au Bon Climat Sanford & Benedict Pinot Noir: When I first pulled the cork, I thought this wine was gone -- there was no fruit and the acid was overpowering (and I like acid-driven wines). To the point where I brought a backup bottle. But just an hour of double decanting worked wonders. Lighter on the palate than the Mount Eden, with less in the tank. But still showing very well. Red fruited and speaking of sun, but in a balanced way. I haven't spent a lot of time with Clendenen wines, but his passing prompted picking this up, and I'm glad I did.

2019 Sandlands Cinsault: This is sourced from the same old vines as the Birichino Cinsault, but Sandlands doesn't vineyard designate other than from their own vineyard (Kirschenmann). This is very pleasant, but I'd enjoy it more if I didn't know the Birichino version. The fruit here isn't quite as lively, and the wine isn't as engaging. I'd still be glad to drink this in many circumstances.
 
originally posted by Jim Hanlon:

1997 Au Bon Climat Sanford & Benedict Pinot Noir: When I first pulled the cork, I thought this wine was gone -- there was no fruit and the acid was overpowering (and I like acid-driven wines). To the point where I brought a backup bottle. But just an hour of double decanting worked wonders. Lighter on the palate than the Mount Eden, with less in the tank. But still showing very well. Red fruited and speaking of sun, but in a balanced way. I haven't spent a lot of time with Clendenen wines, but his passing prompted picking this up, and I'm glad I did.
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This reminds me of a recent cellar tragedy. For the first time in forever, I broke a bottle in the cellar. I was removing a bottle of CA Pinot Noir from a diamond rack and, unbeknownst to me there was another bottle on top of it that was hiding behind the edge of the diamond rack. Alas, the bottle hit the cement of our cellar floor at just the wrong angle and a sizeable piece of glass was lost from below the neck. Even worse, it was a 2017 Au Bon Climat (I forget the vyd) that we'd purchased last year while passing through Santa Barbara. I took the remains upstairs, passed it through a gold mesh coffee filter into a 375 bottle and drank it a couple of days later. Although way too young, it was fresh and vibrant, firmly red-fruited and a total joy to drink. As FL Jim would say, it was definitely of its place.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Jim Hanlon:
1997 Au Bon Climat Sanford & Benedict Pinot Noir: When I first pulled the cork, I thought this wine was gone -- there was no fruit and the acid was overpowering (and I like acid-driven wines). To the point where I brought a backup bottle. But just an hour of double decanting worked wonders. Lighter on the palate than the Mount Eden, with less in the tank. But still showing very well. Red fruited and speaking of sun, but in a balanced way. I haven't spent a lot of time with Clendenen wines, but his passing prompted picking this up, and I'm glad I did.
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Thanks for the reminder. I've had very few ABC wines and they've either been ho-hum or astonishing. I should go roll some more dice.
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
I don't know how to start a sub-thread inside this thread. Technology has failed me yet again.

What should one open tonight to celebrate Jeff Grossman's birthday, remotely? Seeking guidelines.
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Official celebration is on Saturday, I believe, but tonight there will be soup dumplings. So, an aromatic white seems like a good choice.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
I don't know how to start a sub-thread inside this thread. Technology has failed me yet again.

What should one open tonight to celebrate Jeff Grossman's birthday, remotely? Seeking guidelines.
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Official celebration is on Saturday, I believe, but tonight there will be soup dumplings. So, an aromatic white seems like a good choice.
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Everyone knows the best match for soup dumplings is Sherry. And what more appropriate way to celebrate Jeff's birthday?
 
If you have the restraint and the moral justification to age these things for a while, you'll be rewarded.

image_67168257.jpg
p.s. and yes i have no clue why the image is rotated; it isn't anywhere else i look at/edit it.
 
originally posted by Pavel Tchichikov:
If you have the restraint and the moral justification to age these things for a while, you'll be rewarded.

image_67168257.jpg
p.s. and yes i have no clue why the image is rotated; it isn't anywhere else i look at/edit it.
Click to expand...

I think Cristiano Garella made this wine. I've picked up some old Sella from Chambers Street over the years, but haven't opened enough to have a strong opinion on bottles from the 60s and 70s.
 
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