You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
CWD: What did you drink last night (or whenever)?
- Thread starter Jayson Cohen
- Start date
Christian Miller (CMM)
Christian Miller
Tibouren Cotes de Provence 2022, Cave de Ramatuelle - a co-op in a location that could easily sell everything to tourists at mediocre quality, but seems to be showing some spirit with this 90% Tibouren, 10% Grenache rose' blend. Limpid salmon with a hint of brass color; light orange rind/melon fruit with a distinct herbal sage note; med-light body, similar flavor, dry and savory finish with a pleasant herbal phenolic touch and good length. Light but tasty.
Plus some highlights from the Slow Wine tasting in SF:
Monferrato Bianco "Nymphae" 2022, Tenuta Montemagno - low-pyrazine but fruity SB plus Timorasso which adds body and apricot-like fruit; somewhat like unoaked Bordeaux Blanc but rounder and richer. Has anyone had a pure or mostly Timorasso wine? If so, what was it like?
STM Brut "24 Mesi" NV, Tenuta Montemagno - lively but fine bubbles, nice slightly minerally fresh fruit with mildly creamy-yeasty texture, good acid, decent length. 100% Barbera Methode Champenoise, 24 months on lees, an interesting and tasty surprise.
Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Estate, 2021 Willakenzie - deep PN fruit topped with rose/floral tone, med oak; deep fruit on palate with velvety but significant tannin, good length, impressive.
Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2013, Secondo Marco - terrific aroma with complex spices, dried fruits, orange peel; sweet/tart sappy cherry fruit with structured maturing tannin, very long.
Pinot Blanc Alto Adige 2022, Ernst & Neue - forthright appley fruit with creamy yet well-balanced texture, med weight, freshness and good length, quite classic. Although I like most varieties in their Alto Adige forms, I think PB is for me the signature grape.
Red Blend IGT Toscana "50 & 50" 2019, Avignonesi - complex flavors with cherry-almond-herbs plus tobacco-earthy fruit, mellow fine tannins, balanced, tastes like a blend of good Chianti Riserva and Graves. 50-50% Merlot and Sangiovese. I'm not normally a fan of the Bordeaux varietal + Sangiovese IGT blends, in fact their Cab+Sangio left me cold; but this one really offers something new and worthwhile.
Plus some highlights from the Slow Wine tasting in SF:
Monferrato Bianco "Nymphae" 2022, Tenuta Montemagno - low-pyrazine but fruity SB plus Timorasso which adds body and apricot-like fruit; somewhat like unoaked Bordeaux Blanc but rounder and richer. Has anyone had a pure or mostly Timorasso wine? If so, what was it like?
STM Brut "24 Mesi" NV, Tenuta Montemagno - lively but fine bubbles, nice slightly minerally fresh fruit with mildly creamy-yeasty texture, good acid, decent length. 100% Barbera Methode Champenoise, 24 months on lees, an interesting and tasty surprise.
Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Estate, 2021 Willakenzie - deep PN fruit topped with rose/floral tone, med oak; deep fruit on palate with velvety but significant tannin, good length, impressive.
Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2013, Secondo Marco - terrific aroma with complex spices, dried fruits, orange peel; sweet/tart sappy cherry fruit with structured maturing tannin, very long.
Pinot Blanc Alto Adige 2022, Ernst & Neue - forthright appley fruit with creamy yet well-balanced texture, med weight, freshness and good length, quite classic. Although I like most varieties in their Alto Adige forms, I think PB is for me the signature grape.
Red Blend IGT Toscana "50 & 50" 2019, Avignonesi - complex flavors with cherry-almond-herbs plus tobacco-earthy fruit, mellow fine tannins, balanced, tastes like a blend of good Chianti Riserva and Graves. 50-50% Merlot and Sangiovese. I'm not normally a fan of the Bordeaux varietal + Sangiovese IGT blends, in fact their Cab+Sangio left me cold; but this one really offers something new and worthwhile.
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Sigh.
Ken Schramm
Ken Schramm
2019 Malvira Langhe Nebbiolo. A good bargain. Nice spice and plenty of fruit on the nose, and a magnificent translucent ruby color. Characteristic tartness of the variety, lots of breadth on the tongue, and delightful smokiness and roses in the nose of the empty glass. Satisfying.
Salil Benegal
Salil Benegal
2016 Ch“teau Ferrière was delightful last night, sweet red fruits and florality and more savoury earthiness on a medium-weight frame, so graceful and incredibly easy to drink. First experience with this estate, but definitely need more for the cellar based on this showing.
Christian Miller (CMM)
Christian Miller
Saint-Mont Plaimont-Pyreneen Blanc 2019, Producteurs Plaimont - pale white gold color. A flamboyant aroma with ripe fruit like a synthesis of Albarino & Semillon, rain on hot gravel, a hint of veggies. Has medium body, good acid, vegetal-tinged charentais melon fruit, a touch phenolic on the medium length finish. Exotic, complex and entertaining. 60% Gros Manseng, 25% Petit Manseng, 15% Arrufiac.
originally posted by Salil Benegal:
2016 Ch“teau Ferrière was delightful last night, sweet red fruits and florality and more savoury earthiness on a medium-weight frame, so graceful and incredibly easy to drink. First experience with this estate, but definitely need more for the cellar based on this showing.
When I had a bottle of this, maybe 2 years ago, it was absolutely brutally tannic. I guess it's evolved quite a bit in a couple of years.
Julian Haart 1000L 2022
On the deck in a Cambridge spring, this bottle just vanishes. It feels somewhere between kab and feinherb, I'm guessing RS is more feinherb and the weight is the famous 2022 dry extract. But why overthink it, I can't remember the last Mosel riesling I enjoyed this much at this price.
Les Sablonettes Le P'tit Blanc 2022
In general I've found the 2022s a bit nattier than the 2021s, which were in a sweet spot for me. Pithy, energetic, volatile. Has the body for hard cheese. I'm told the natty/less natty variation is pure vintage, which... maybe doesn't actually speak well of the winemaking?
Planeta Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2002
Yup, this is old Italian wine. It hasn't gone ethereal. It's clearly not Nebbiolo. A little acid, a lot of mature fruit, no tannin left to speak of. Pleasant, but I'm glad I didn't pay much for this. Maybe I'll try a spaghetti alla assassina for the next bottle.
On the deck in a Cambridge spring, this bottle just vanishes. It feels somewhere between kab and feinherb, I'm guessing RS is more feinherb and the weight is the famous 2022 dry extract. But why overthink it, I can't remember the last Mosel riesling I enjoyed this much at this price.
Les Sablonettes Le P'tit Blanc 2022
In general I've found the 2022s a bit nattier than the 2021s, which were in a sweet spot for me. Pithy, energetic, volatile. Has the body for hard cheese. I'm told the natty/less natty variation is pure vintage, which... maybe doesn't actually speak well of the winemaking?
Planeta Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2002
Yup, this is old Italian wine. It hasn't gone ethereal. It's clearly not Nebbiolo. A little acid, a lot of mature fruit, no tannin left to speak of. Pleasant, but I'm glad I didn't pay much for this. Maybe I'll try a spaghetti alla assassina for the next bottle.
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Kill some pasta in front of it and maybe it'll shape up?originally posted by twlim:
Planeta Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2002
Yup, this is old Italian wine. It hasn't gone ethereal. It's clearly not Nebbiolo. A little acid, a lot of mature fruit, no tannin left to speak of. Pleasant, but I'm glad I didn't pay much for this. Maybe I'll try a spaghetti alla assassina for the next bottle.
(yes, I know what the dish is...)
To celebrate my arrival at Senior Citizenship, we opened a senior citizen of a wine, the 1966 Ch. Calon Segur which was wonderful right out of the gates (the cork came out in two pieces but without incident). No bottle funk, no off flavors, just pure bottle sweetness and red plum fruit. Bricking at the edges but good color with modest amounts of sediment. Totally smooth tannins and fresh acidity made it a great food wine, lovely with the duck confit blini that my wife and son prepared and even good with the roast loin of venison. This was the third of the bottles I got at auction back in 2011 and was the best showing yet. Incredibly youthful for 58 years — an example for us all.
Mark Lipton
Mark Lipton
Peter Creasey
Peter Creasey
Mark, a Brane Cantenac '66 recently showed just as well as your Calon Segur. I have always liked the '66s despite the lukewarm reception often observed elsewhere.
. . . . Pete
. . . . Pete
Christian Miller (CMM)
Christian Miller
I've always read that 1966 was considered one of the best vintages of the 60s. In my limited exposure though the early 90s, they were certainly long distance runners. The first wine that made me stop and say "wait, wine can do that?!" was a 1966 Haut Brion when I was in my early 20s.
Peter Creasey
Peter Creasey
Looking (googling) back, I'm reminded of the tenor of some of the '66 Bordeaux vintage reviews I vaguely recall seeing...
Predictably, there were other reviews that were more favorable.
Their longevity can probably be attributable to the 1966s' typically hard tannins evolving nicely.
. . . . Pete
The 1966 vintage in Bordeaux wasn't the best of the decade (that accolade would go to 1961) but it was good
_______________
An inconsistent vintage with some good Saint-Julien and Pauillac
_______________
The 1966 vintage in Bordeaux wasn't the best of the decade
_______________
For Bordeaux, the 1966 vintage was reasonably good
Predictably, there were other reviews that were more favorable.
Their longevity can probably be attributable to the 1966s' typically hard tannins evolving nicely.
. . . . Pete
Jonathan Loesberg
Jonathan Loesberg
originally posted by Peter Creasey:
Looking (googling) back, I'm reminded of the tenor of some of the '66 Bordeaux vintage reviews I vaguely recall seeing...
The 1966 vintage in Bordeaux wasn't the best of the decade (that accolade would go to 1961) but it was good
_______________
An inconsistent vintage with some good Saint-Julien and Pauillac
_______________
The 1966 vintage in Bordeaux wasn't the best of the decade
_______________
For Bordeaux, the 1966 vintage was reasonably good
Predictably, there were other reviews that were more favorable.
Their longevity can probably be attributable to the 1966s' typically hard tannins evolving nicely.
. . . . Pete
For the period, these seem, though hardly raves, distinctly good reviews. I note that your first and third reviews begin with the exact same words. The first claims that it was a good vintage. We don't know how the third ends. Note also that this was before the common era, in which 4 out of 5 years are vintages of the century.
I think most observers of Bordeaux felt that 66 was the second-best vintage of the 60s, though 61 was a far more successful year. However, I do think that 66 was widely overlooked in the secondary market, probably in part a reaction to the disappointment with the wines of 75 (people with too little patience, cf 86 and 96). Dale Williams and I split a mixed case of 66s that we picked up for a song from a Hart Davis Hart auction. Those Calon Segurs were the pick of the litter, even eclipsing the Cheval Blanc that came in that same case.
Mark Lipton
Mark Lipton
Peter Creasey
Peter Creasey
Mark, probably true given the majority of the 1960s Clarets were rated poorly. As you say, the 1961 was excellent. The ratings I'm aware of for the 1966 vintage generally were barely in the very good range.
. . . . . Pete
. . . . . Pete
robert ames
robert ames
Michael broadbent rates it four stars out of 5 in his 'vintage wine', published 2002.
"one of my favourite vintages, which i have always described as a 'lean, long distance runner'."
it's a safe bet that he's drunk the most 1966 bordeaux of anyone that's ever lifted a glass.
"one of my favourite vintages, which i have always described as a 'lean, long distance runner'."
it's a safe bet that he's drunk the most 1966 bordeaux of anyone that's ever lifted a glass.
Laherte Les Empreintes 2016
Somehow, I think this is the first bottle of Empreintes I've sat down to, though I'm no stranger to the estate. Apparently the Chardonnay clone in this is muscaté, and rare? I've not knowingly had wine from said clone before, at any rate.
We're on the deck, it's early summer, we have two friends over, the bottle vanishes. The Ultradition is often a little too bracing for me when young, but this, disgorged in 2021, is if anything too easy. I wonder if there's enough freshness and structure to keep the rest of what I bought, but at the moment, it's fruit and flower and salinity and minerals and in such a happy if not particularly profound place. A note on Cellartracker mentions something brassy, and I have to agree.
Dolde Silvaner Alte Reben 2020
We're drinking our way through a case of this, and either the wine or I went through an awkward bit last year, when it went from fresh and pleasingly textured to a little flabby and too yellow, and now one or both of us seems to have pulled out of it. I wouldn't call this fresh or zippy now, and the textures are softer, but it feels centred rather than spready, and the richness works well with the spring vegetables we're eating.
Frontonio Microcosmico Garnacha 2021
A retailer friend seems to genuinely love this wine. More likely I'm just being naive, but maybe you have to be even more naive to go into indie wine retail? It wants to be in a narrow band of temperature, right around 60-65F, and makes it very obvious when it's outside of that. Very old vine Garnacha from high up a mountain, tastes exactly like what it is. Light bodied, maybe a touch hollow, a piercing level of red Grenache fruit. Without a doubt well made and a steal at $19 retail, but also, maybe I don't want my Grenache to taste quite so much like Grenache?
Somehow, I think this is the first bottle of Empreintes I've sat down to, though I'm no stranger to the estate. Apparently the Chardonnay clone in this is muscaté, and rare? I've not knowingly had wine from said clone before, at any rate.
We're on the deck, it's early summer, we have two friends over, the bottle vanishes. The Ultradition is often a little too bracing for me when young, but this, disgorged in 2021, is if anything too easy. I wonder if there's enough freshness and structure to keep the rest of what I bought, but at the moment, it's fruit and flower and salinity and minerals and in such a happy if not particularly profound place. A note on Cellartracker mentions something brassy, and I have to agree.
Dolde Silvaner Alte Reben 2020
We're drinking our way through a case of this, and either the wine or I went through an awkward bit last year, when it went from fresh and pleasingly textured to a little flabby and too yellow, and now one or both of us seems to have pulled out of it. I wouldn't call this fresh or zippy now, and the textures are softer, but it feels centred rather than spready, and the richness works well with the spring vegetables we're eating.
Frontonio Microcosmico Garnacha 2021
A retailer friend seems to genuinely love this wine. More likely I'm just being naive, but maybe you have to be even more naive to go into indie wine retail? It wants to be in a narrow band of temperature, right around 60-65F, and makes it very obvious when it's outside of that. Very old vine Garnacha from high up a mountain, tastes exactly like what it is. Light bodied, maybe a touch hollow, a piercing level of red Grenache fruit. Without a doubt well made and a steal at $19 retail, but also, maybe I don't want my Grenache to taste quite so much like Grenache?
2015 JB Becker Wallufer Walkenberg Riesling Spätlese trocken was nicely matured and golden, entering into some interesting textural moments. But, a bit heavy and dull on the midpalate as these Becker wines often are. I guess I should learn that the style is just not my favorite.
2019 Bründlmayer Steinmassl Riesling was more refreshing, lively, herbal, racy, juicy, and fun.
2019 Moric Blaufränkisch Reserve was dark juicy fun. Drank in a restaurant where we didn't have time to give all that much air and see if more layers developed. But that's fine.
2019 Bründlmayer Steinmassl Riesling was more refreshing, lively, herbal, racy, juicy, and fun.
2019 Moric Blaufränkisch Reserve was dark juicy fun. Drank in a restaurant where we didn't have time to give all that much air and see if more layers developed. But that's fine.