I keep meaning to write tasting notes more systematically. I'm getting older, memory fails, I can't do this on substack, maybe I'm just trying to persuade myself that I'm actually drinking for a reason other than the pleasures of taste and company. Oh well.
We were persuaded to cater a dinner for Memorial Day Sunday. Dinner in the yard, the guest of honor an importer driving in from elsewhere, apparently bringing a chunk of his cellar. The wine lineup turned out to be more stone soup than singular vision, but wasn't terrible all the same.
Phillipe Lancelot Les Hauts des Epernay 2018
A promising start. Vinous, energetic but not about the energy, noticeably high pressure, it feels richer and redder than the extra-brut, chardonnay dominant blend it actually is, which is right up my alley, though I dunno how M. Lancelot would feel about such praise.
Pierre Moncuit BdB Extra Brut 2008
Correct. Maybe too correct. Certainly the least distinctive champagne of the evening, but nothing I'd kick out of the glass.
Marc Hebrart Noce des Craies 2015
The distributor's rep said, I think in earnest, that this was his favorite champagne ever, but then again, he's a weirdo. Definitely odd. It tasted manipulated, by which I mean it felt like the producer was trying hard to impose a vision that his raw material didn't entirely support. A little disjoint, distinctly chalky fruit on one side, not talking to the dense, woody something on the other side of the aisle.
Corbon Grand Cru Avize BdB 2010, d. 2023
I like Agnes a lot, and until this bottle, I'd have said I like her more than her wines. I've had a bunch of older vintages of this cuvée vinified by her dad and disgorged by her, and Corbon Sr. liked his dosage and I always thought it showed. This was my first bottle of this cuvée vinified by Agnes, and it was so much lighter and more plain-spoken than the blowsy older ones.
Dönnhoff Felsenberg GG 2014
Surprisingly light. Perhaps even too light for what we were eating, which was a chicken and prawn mousseline in a poor man's Nantaise (a rich man, or someone actually being paid to cater, might have used ecrevisses, but we settled for crevettes). I don't have a lot of experience with Dönnhoff GGs, so I can't say if this is style, vintage, or the lightening of age.
Von Winning Kirchenstück GG 2014
Much better with the mousseline, since it was heavier. I remember tasting this on release at a long ago Rieslingfeier (is there any other sort now?) and it's calmed down some, but ain't in any hurry.
Faury Condrieu Blanc "Le Mornieux" 2021
I don't drink white Rhones much, but this was just perfect on the day and with the dish. More floral than fruity, zippy, all kinds of aromatics flinging themselves out of the glass, like toys from a toddler's pram. Not at all fat or warm or heavy or any of the other things that make me not spend money on white Rhones. We were eating a glacée of spring vegetables with a bit of lamb belly on top, and this was just an amazing pairing, a ton of variation and interest in a totally different register than the food, which was equally varied and lively but in a much narrower range.
Cedric Bouchard Val Vilaine 2020
Intense, even more vinous than the Lancelot. I remember drinking the 06s and 07s of this back when you could actually buy them, never mind afford them, and those were these joyous wines, not exactly delicate but with a sort of carefree innocence to them. You could tell the winemaking was serious, but they wore it lightly. This was burly by comparison, and I don't know if it's the climate or Bouchard buying into his deserved acclaim. Still delicious, and clearly related to what it used to be, but not the same. There was a salad of grilled romaine with a lot of hard boiled eggs to temper the vinaigrette, and this held its own.
Confuron Clos Vougeot 2005
The gentleman who brought this would have us believe that this comes from the most perfect parcel in the Clos. I don't know the place down to the row, so I have no way of assessing that claim, other than what's in the glass, and I haven't tasted an 05 burg since... 2022? This is nowhere near as hard as many of those were. The fruit is there and has had time to learn to enunciate, but then there's this silence before the tannin. It's not the emptiness between the stars, but it's noticeable, and I hope something comes to fill it in.
Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia 2007
Not decanted, to my slight disbelief. An interesting way to follow the Confuron, and surprisingly similar. Red fruit, gentle and profound, then tannins all at the back, pleasing and approachable, but again the sense of having caught this while it's still getting dressed. I feel more certain that time will bring this together than I do with the Confuron, but what do I know?
Paul Jaboulet Aîné La Chapelle 1983
Beautiful, absolutely singing. But it's a ballad of middle age not that its best days are behind it, but it's tired from the partying, and knows nothing good lies ahead. By this time we're eating duck, a ragout with porcini and spring onions and the breast smoked and grilled. The duck is from Costco, where apparently all the duck is halal, but the smoke and ragoutage do wonders for the raw material. Honestly the food demands the energy of the younger wines, but the Aîné begs for something savory, and here the pekin-ness of the duck actually helps, the meat is nearly white, so it all works out.
Something that was supposed to be a Bordeaux 1961 but had no label
Interesting. Very much alive. Lightened by years, made elegant and a little austere. The Aîné was exuberant by comparison, but I wish I revisited this after it had been open a while. I didn't because I was distracted by
Macle Cotes du Jura 2010
Is there anything new I can possibly say in this venue about how good this wine is?
Huet Clos du Bourg Moelleux Premiere Trie 1997
Just spanking divine. So exactly what you'd expect and hope for when you buy this, and when the expected is this good, the only surprises I can envision are nasty. Dessert is a barely sweetened rhubarb crumble with sneaky bits of candied grapefruit, and this has the acid and sugar to hold up, the waxiness and citrus peel to dance with the grapefruit, and the complexity to make everything else seem unimportant.
We were persuaded to cater a dinner for Memorial Day Sunday. Dinner in the yard, the guest of honor an importer driving in from elsewhere, apparently bringing a chunk of his cellar. The wine lineup turned out to be more stone soup than singular vision, but wasn't terrible all the same.
Phillipe Lancelot Les Hauts des Epernay 2018
A promising start. Vinous, energetic but not about the energy, noticeably high pressure, it feels richer and redder than the extra-brut, chardonnay dominant blend it actually is, which is right up my alley, though I dunno how M. Lancelot would feel about such praise.
Pierre Moncuit BdB Extra Brut 2008
Correct. Maybe too correct. Certainly the least distinctive champagne of the evening, but nothing I'd kick out of the glass.
Marc Hebrart Noce des Craies 2015
The distributor's rep said, I think in earnest, that this was his favorite champagne ever, but then again, he's a weirdo. Definitely odd. It tasted manipulated, by which I mean it felt like the producer was trying hard to impose a vision that his raw material didn't entirely support. A little disjoint, distinctly chalky fruit on one side, not talking to the dense, woody something on the other side of the aisle.
Corbon Grand Cru Avize BdB 2010, d. 2023
I like Agnes a lot, and until this bottle, I'd have said I like her more than her wines. I've had a bunch of older vintages of this cuvée vinified by her dad and disgorged by her, and Corbon Sr. liked his dosage and I always thought it showed. This was my first bottle of this cuvée vinified by Agnes, and it was so much lighter and more plain-spoken than the blowsy older ones.
Dönnhoff Felsenberg GG 2014
Surprisingly light. Perhaps even too light for what we were eating, which was a chicken and prawn mousseline in a poor man's Nantaise (a rich man, or someone actually being paid to cater, might have used ecrevisses, but we settled for crevettes). I don't have a lot of experience with Dönnhoff GGs, so I can't say if this is style, vintage, or the lightening of age.
Von Winning Kirchenstück GG 2014
Much better with the mousseline, since it was heavier. I remember tasting this on release at a long ago Rieslingfeier (is there any other sort now?) and it's calmed down some, but ain't in any hurry.
Faury Condrieu Blanc "Le Mornieux" 2021
I don't drink white Rhones much, but this was just perfect on the day and with the dish. More floral than fruity, zippy, all kinds of aromatics flinging themselves out of the glass, like toys from a toddler's pram. Not at all fat or warm or heavy or any of the other things that make me not spend money on white Rhones. We were eating a glacée of spring vegetables with a bit of lamb belly on top, and this was just an amazing pairing, a ton of variation and interest in a totally different register than the food, which was equally varied and lively but in a much narrower range.
Cedric Bouchard Val Vilaine 2020
Intense, even more vinous than the Lancelot. I remember drinking the 06s and 07s of this back when you could actually buy them, never mind afford them, and those were these joyous wines, not exactly delicate but with a sort of carefree innocence to them. You could tell the winemaking was serious, but they wore it lightly. This was burly by comparison, and I don't know if it's the climate or Bouchard buying into his deserved acclaim. Still delicious, and clearly related to what it used to be, but not the same. There was a salad of grilled romaine with a lot of hard boiled eggs to temper the vinaigrette, and this held its own.
Confuron Clos Vougeot 2005
The gentleman who brought this would have us believe that this comes from the most perfect parcel in the Clos. I don't know the place down to the row, so I have no way of assessing that claim, other than what's in the glass, and I haven't tasted an 05 burg since... 2022? This is nowhere near as hard as many of those were. The fruit is there and has had time to learn to enunciate, but then there's this silence before the tannin. It's not the emptiness between the stars, but it's noticeable, and I hope something comes to fill it in.
Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia 2007
Not decanted, to my slight disbelief. An interesting way to follow the Confuron, and surprisingly similar. Red fruit, gentle and profound, then tannins all at the back, pleasing and approachable, but again the sense of having caught this while it's still getting dressed. I feel more certain that time will bring this together than I do with the Confuron, but what do I know?
Paul Jaboulet Aîné La Chapelle 1983
Beautiful, absolutely singing. But it's a ballad of middle age not that its best days are behind it, but it's tired from the partying, and knows nothing good lies ahead. By this time we're eating duck, a ragout with porcini and spring onions and the breast smoked and grilled. The duck is from Costco, where apparently all the duck is halal, but the smoke and ragoutage do wonders for the raw material. Honestly the food demands the energy of the younger wines, but the Aîné begs for something savory, and here the pekin-ness of the duck actually helps, the meat is nearly white, so it all works out.
Something that was supposed to be a Bordeaux 1961 but had no label
Interesting. Very much alive. Lightened by years, made elegant and a little austere. The Aîné was exuberant by comparison, but I wish I revisited this after it had been open a while. I didn't because I was distracted by
Macle Cotes du Jura 2010
Is there anything new I can possibly say in this venue about how good this wine is?
Huet Clos du Bourg Moelleux Premiere Trie 1997
Just spanking divine. So exactly what you'd expect and hope for when you buy this, and when the expected is this good, the only surprises I can envision are nasty. Dessert is a barely sweetened rhubarb crumble with sneaky bits of candied grapefruit, and this has the acid and sugar to hold up, the waxiness and citrus peel to dance with the grapefruit, and the complexity to make everything else seem unimportant.
