Existential Hengst

T

Thor

Thor Iverson
Dinner with the Vermont wine crowd (of one):

Josephine Dubois 2004 Chablis Montmains 1er Cru Terre Minerale (Chablis) Seashells bracket an otherwise flatlined nose. The palate is sweetnsour, with a weird finish of stale cracker and old clam juice. Im inclined to give up on the wine, but as it warms beyond the usual Chablis temperature range and airs it improves a bit (not that surprising for a Chablis, I suppose), becoming slightly more appealing, cohesive, and recognizably Chablisienne. (Is that the word?) It never really rises above mediocrity, but its not bad either, and as with most Chablis time is likely to clarify matters. (2/09)

Zind Humbrecht 1997 Gewurztraminer Hengst (Alsace) Rich and very intense, with lychees perhaps with a touch of tinned quality to them making the classic aged-gewurz shift to bacon. Theres also roasted cashew, papaya, and guavaexotic notes for an already exotic grape, and no doubt a result of the way this grape and terroir have been pushed to, and perhaps a little beyond, their limits. This is also seen in the wines powerful sweetness, and powerful here is meant more as a description of the intensity of the sugar than the quantity of it, because theres a quite acceptable balance especially for a 97 marred only by a shading of surplus alcohol, and this allows a throbbing, powdery minerality (stones and coal) to show through. This is a highly tactile wine, its texture a little over-shared and slutty, but I like it nonetheless. As for maturity, I see no reason it wont hold for a good while, but Id think about drinking it soon for maximum impact. And I mean that last word wholeheartedly. (2/09)

Chteau des Tours 1998 Vacqueyras Rserve (Rhne) Open several days, with a few glasses absent by the time I get to it. Darkly concentrated blackberry and even darker smoke liqueur, with a counterpoint of walnut soda. Open-ended, by which I mean the initial impression of fruit does a reverse dovetail and leaves an ever-increasing gap as the wine progresses towards the finish. A fruit microbomb, not sophisticated in the least, but not truly explosive either. Freshly-opened bottles have been impenetrable, and given the state of this wine I see absolutely no reason to open any more at this stage. (2/09)

Jasmin 1996 Cte-Rtie (Rhne) Corked. (2/09)

Chteau la Nerthe 1996 Chteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhne) Corked. (2/09)

Montelena 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) 14.01% alcohol. Those were the days, eh? Though I cant help see the precision of the number as a sort of jibe. Anywaythe wines highly structured, but everything else is quite advanced (especially the color), and I think drinking is in order over the next few years. Tobacco, gravel, and cassis liqueur are present, but the dominant impression is a dusty austerity. Restrained, but not I think by middle age, but by its basic nature. A good, not great, Montelena. (2/09)

Ken Forrester 2005 T Noble Late Harvest (Stellenbosch) From 375 ml, 100% chenin blanc, 115.7 g/l residual sugar, 14.5% alcohol. Holy Mother of God, is this sweet. Pure syrup of botrytized chenin, represented as mixed tropical fruits, dried apricots, and blended sugars and honeys of every sort. Aromatically, hints of a pan-Mediterranean fruitiness and herbality add complexity, and the aciditys not bad at all, though of course it trembles in, and cannot emerge from, the shadow of this much sugar. Very, very, very long, and not just as a result of stick-and-cling. Intense and frankly fantastic, but in a highly particular style that will definitely not appeal to everyone. Id love to revisit this in a few decades. Also: not even close to cheap. (2/09)

and away from the teeming masses:

Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Rauchfetzen Ale (Massachusetts) Light on the smoke, and fairly insufficient otherwise. Its an easy quaff, but it doesnt mean anything. On the positive side, its more drinkable as a standalone than most brews in this style. (2/09)

Occhipinti 2006 Il Frappato (Sicily) Red and black raspberries, a touch of volatile acidity, and a nudge of brett. Very pointed and angular. A fun, sprightly wine with zing and zip (though watch those prickly biochemical issues), and one that slashes and hacks through food in a most enjoyable way. This is a very different wine than the one I tasted a year ago, and I dont know whether to blame evolution or deviation. Or both. In this incarnation, however, an important caveat: its not really worth its tariff, which is significant. (2/09)
 
I enjoyed the description of the Zind Humbrecht wine. Great details. I wish I had given as much thought to a description of my first wife. If I had I might have missed the whole experience of that marriage
 
Ken Forrester 2005 T Noble Late Harvest Holy Mother of God, is this sweet...a highly particular style that will definitely not appeal to everyone. Id love to revisit this in a few decades.
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By highly particular style do you mean that it is just full-on sweet and rich and thick? More so than anything found in the Loire, Germany, or Sauternes? Like Kracher? Or something else?

I understand these wines have only been made for about a few decades, any idea how the older ones are holding up/developing?
 
I wish I had given as much thought to a description of my first wife. If I had I might have missed the whole experience of that marriage
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I'm not sure wife tasting notes are in our future or past...

By highly particular style do you mean that it is just full-on sweet and rich and thick? More so than anything found in the Loire, Germany, or Sauternes? Like Kracher? Or something else?
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I haven't had an enormous number of those unctuous ultra-late-harvest Loire chenins, but I would say that while this was along those lines in terms of sugar density (not to compare actual numbers; I think those Loire stickies get higher), it tasted a little less geographically specific than that. I don't know enough to recognize if there's a late-harvest Stellenbosch terroir signature or not, so if it's in this wine it's lost on me. On the other hand, I do think it tasted more like chenin than other grapes I've seen pushed that far (like, say, riesling or smillon), but not to the point that you'd say it was unquestionably chenin while tasting it. Basically, though, the "particular style" means that I know not everyone thinks wines of this sweetness level are of any use at all. At times, I'm one of them. This wine, at least, had a good measure of alcohol that many of them don't (being unable to accomplish much fermentation before bottling), and so at least deserves to be called wine rather than grape syrup.

I'm not sure that helps answer your question. But the idea is that it's very, very sweet, and thus might not be for everyone.

I understand these wines have only been made for about a few decades, any idea how the older ones are holding up/developing?
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No, and I don't know if they know either. (Jake, if you're out there, do you?) I don't know if wines like the one in question have even been made that long. And in general, the winemakers I talked to tend to suggest fairly rapid aging curves for their wines; horizons that, were I to try to guess based on my own tastings, I'd say were far too pessimistic. But then, they know their wines better than I do, so who knows? Of the oldest wines I tasted, the results were mixed: one (a pinotage) was still vibrant but showing some early maturity, one cabernet was in need of more time and other was over the hill, a sparkling wine held on the lees for a decade was stunning as it was disgorged, and a pinot noir was probably mature but not showing much in the way of development.

With this wine in question, obviously I can't imagine it won't at least hold for a long, long while...with that much sugar and 14.5% alcohol, it pretty much has to. Will it develop? No idea. The winery makes four chenins...a cheap quaffer ($1.20 in one Franschhoek supermarket and thanks to the rand/dollar exchange rate), a "basic" estate chenin, an aspirational oaked chenin (a common style there), and this one. The only one I tasted with any age at all was the basic estate version, which is typically (for the region) fruity right out of the gate, but with just a few years' aging takes a rather dramatic shift towards Loire-like characteristics and tensions. I didn't expect that at all, but it was very interesting to taste. So maybe this will as well, though farther down the road; it's from the same vines.
 
originally posted by Thor:
in general, the winemakers I talked to tend to suggest fairly rapid aging curves for their wines; horizons that, were I to try to guess based on my own tastings, I'd say were far too pessimistic. But then, they know their wines better than I do, so who knows?
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Aha. Playing it safe? Or do they not value aging as much down there?

Or of course there is always the possibility that they know their wines better than you do, but that doesn't mean they can perfectly predict aging either.
 
I don't know the answer to your question. I think in some cases, it's the usual playing-it-safe response. In others, it's vine age and the related issue of vine quality; there seems to be a good deal of replanting to better stock since the post-1994 influx of money. And cellar tech/practice upgrades, for the same reason and on the same timeline.

But I will say that more than one winemaker suggested that the rich, ripe wines produced by some of the terroirs in which their otherwise ageworthy grapes are planted are not conducive to aging, and thus there's little sense in trying to fight the climate when it's the rich, ripe wines that sell. In other words, an admission that they've got stuff planted in too-hot/too-fertile places, but that there are economic rewards to doing so. In other other words, refreshing and unusual honesty.
 
Yes, which is why I'm loathe to use it. But my question was more about the gender of the word.
 
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