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

originally posted by MLipton:
Opened my second and last bottle of the 2017 Edmunds St John El Jaleo. Holy cats, was it good! Weightless but potent, silky smooth with zippy acidity and an abundance of red cherry fruit. It was more-ish and a fine accompaniment to a dinner of venison loin after a 10-hour drive back after dropping our son off at college.

Mark Lipton

We just achieved empty nest status (though temporary) by sending our 16 year old for a year on rotary exchange in Taiwan. And that's on top of sending our elder son to Norway's far northeast (he can see Russia from his dorm room!) for a gap year after his sophmore year of college.

What will I ever do with my time? D'Oh! ...starts wine wholesale company. I hear there's big opportunities in middle-tier schnookery.

Cheers!

Kevin
 
Bugey Cerdon rosé methode ancestralle, la Cuverie Revonnas - light translucent scarlet with a hint of tawny, interesting aroma of gamay strawberry topped with some herbal/5-spice notes from the 5% Poulsard, mellow mousse, slight RS, a slightly eccentric but jolly quaff. Well-matched to our heat wave (bad but not intolerable in SF/Berkeley).
 
Yesterday, it was beer. East Brothers Pils and Paulaner Hefe-Weizen. I might have gone for G&Ts, but I was out of limes. Can't even think of wine when it's 100+.
 
Very vibrant upon opening and the residual sugar is nicely balanced by the lively acidity. Creamy fruit with a citric finish. The structure of the wine is very precise and everything is well put together.

The nose is a little faint though, and after I put up my initial note on CT, someone chimed in that a recent bottle he had was not as vibrant as ones he had last year and earlier this year. So, I'm guessing this is beginning to shut down, but it's still very good right now.
 
2009 Texier St Julien en Alban Vieille Serine Dom. De Pergaud has finally come into its own, shedding much of its primary fruit and taking on a more savory character, with green olive notes appearing late in the game. The tannins have smoothed out but the acidity remains largely intact, making it an excellent foil for food right now. In our case, that meant a Sunday evening dinner of pan-roasted venison loin. This is a wine that speaks of its place in loud, convincing language. Imma gonna hold onto my last bottle for a couple more years to see where this wine is headed, but it gives a lot of pleasure right now.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
2009 Texier St Julien en Alban has finally come into its own, shedding much of its primary fruit and taking on a more savory character, with green olive notes appearing late in the game. The tannins have smoothed out but the acidity remains largely intact, making it an excellent foil for food right now. In our case, that meant a Sunday evening dinner of pan-roasted venison loin. This is a wine that speaks of its place in loud, convincing language. Imma gonna hold onto my last bottle for a couple more years to see where this wine is headed, but it gives a lot of pleasure right now.

Mark Lipton

Is this the regular or the Vieille Serine? Not that I have any of either left, but I do have some 2010 Vieille Serine.
 
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by MLipton:
2009 Texier St Julien en Alban has finally come into its own, shedding much of its primary fruit and taking on a more savory character, with green olive notes appearing late in the game. The tannins have smoothed out but the acidity remains largely intact, making it an excellent foil for food right now. In our case, that meant a Sunday evening dinner of pan-roasted venison loin. This is a wine that speaks of its place in loud, convincing language. Imma gonna hold onto my last bottle for a couple more years to see where this wine is headed, but it gives a lot of pleasure right now.

Mark Lipton

Is this the regular or the Vieille Serine? Not that I have any of either left, but I do have some 2010 Vieille Serine.

Good question! It’s the Vieille Serine. Didn’t realize that there were two versions until now.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
2009 Texier St Julien en Alban Vieille Serine Dom. De Pergaud has finally come into its own, shedding much of its primary fruit and taking on a more savory character, with green olive notes appearing late in the game. The tannins have smoothed out but the acidity remains largely intact, making it an excellent foil for food right now. In our case, that meant a Sunday evening dinner of pan-roasted venison loin. This is a wine that speaks of its place in loud, convincing language. Imma gonna hold onto my last bottle for a couple more years to see where this wine is headed, but it gives a lot of pleasure right now.

Mark Lipton

the 2010 about a year ago was just marvelous. greatest compliment i can come up with is that the wine owns the genre of theoretically incompatible juxtaposition of brightness and deep black-fruitiness, but as far as such theories go we are not in kansas anymore.
 
Very approachable on opening: no sulfur or sponti aromas. An elegant, delicate, minerally wine with seamless acidity that is not too pronounced. A nice citric note on the finish.

While the nose and palate is a little faint on Day 1, it opens up a bit over the next couple days with more pronounced sweetness (though still balanced) and a floral, honeyed aroma. Pretty tasty in a rounder, fruitier way than Day 1.

From AP 11 21.

Not sure if there is a huge difference between AP's besides bottling date.
 
To celebrate our son‘s 18th birthday this week, I prepared a dinner of rabbit in mustard sauce and opened a birthyear wine: 2004 Lopez de Heredia Viña Bosconia. I was a tad trepidatious after reading Keith’s impressions on CT, but my fears were unfounded: the wine was in fine form, silky texture with no obvious traces of the American oak, a core of ripe fruit with its characteristic acidity. Despite my telling Jean that this was LdH’s more Burgundian bottling, she found it more Bordeaux-like. There was a modest amount of VA evident, enough I’m sure to turn off Oswaldo and Keith, but for me still within the boundaries of “lifted” nose.

Mark Lipton
 
Last night we opened a bottle of 2014 Vincent Bjornson Vineyard Pinot Noir as a backup bottle after the ‘15 Vincent Willamette PN proved to be corked. The Bjornson proved to be a lovely example of Oregon Pinot Noir: light on the palate and red-fruited, it has a sense of depth and a firm backbone of acidity. To me, this vineyard is characterized by its earthiness, which adds a distinct savory note to the wine.

Mark Lipton
 
never had the whole pinot/nebbiolo thing explained to me this well

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2010 Merkelbach Urziger Wurzgarten Spatlese: Needed some time to open up, but then a wonderful combination of earth and fruit. It's been a while since I've had a Riesling with such strong soil notes, distinct from minerality (whatever that is). Worth opening now, but with a long runway.

2017 Seabold Brosseau Pinot Noir: A master somm who left restaurants to try opening a small winery. Brosseau is a California vineyard with terroir, and that doesn't always work for everything that comes off there. It works here. Dark fruited, but deft. Probably not a lot of upside to cellaring, but quite enjoyable.

2005 Gelin Fixin Clos Napoleon: A really wonderful aged Burg. This 2005 was open and ready to drink. I bought this at auction about a decade ago and the cork wasn't great, but the wine really performed well. Darker fruited, but with a presence I generally associate with red-fruited Burgs. We also had a 2017 at the same dinner and the kinship was quite apparent. Glad I hung onto this, the aging paid off.

2013 Domaine Bart Marsannay Champs Salomon: Just beginning to move into its secondary drinking life. Red fruited, well balanced. These are one of the better buys in Burgundy today. When I told others that this producer makes a Bonnes Mares you can purchase today for under $200, they couldn't believe it. Sign of the times, but also a testament to really good winemaking here.
 
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