Ian Fitzsimmons
Ian Fitzsimmons
Michel Turgy Champagne GC NV: I like this Champagne: high-toned, sharp and acidic, restrained, balanced. Wound rather tight the first day; much better the second, showing just enough yeast, fruit and complexity to savor reflectively.
Vissoux Cremant de Bourgogne, NV Three phases: (1) generously fruity, big-beaded bubbles, vanishingly light on the palate; (2) after half an hour, sere, stingy, difficult, flatish; (3) another half-hour, thawing to hint at depth and complexity, with a new layer of fine-grained fizz. Not a generous finish.
The fourth phase promised good things, but we had finished the bottle. At west coast direct-import prices, a good buy; at east coast three-tier prices, no bargain.
Leitz Magdelenenkreuz Spaetlese 2002: Apple pie and mild citrus on nose; sugar barely detectable at a pleasing angle of repose with acids; decent roundness and good mineral bite. Very good for most entrees short of beef and lamb. Appealing though not brilliant Rhine SL. My bottles are fully ready, but I suspect they were not perfectly cared for before I acquired them, so your mileage may vary.
Jadot GC 1er Estournelles-St. Jacques 1999: On opening, seductive coffee and chocolate (tho I don't usually look for chocolate in Burgundy) with nice earth and acid bite. After about two hours sitting open, it became lean and structured, with the fruit barely peeking out. In the decanter and our glasses, it opened modestly over the course of dinner, and the last glass was the best.
So my take would be drink immediately on opening (especially if you're pouring for 4 or 6 people), or decant (rather than just opening the bottle, as I did) for a couple of hours. Or hold. Fine wine, in any event.
Huet Vouvray Petillant Brut 2002 (second bottling): Yeasty-bready aroma, dry with restrained fizz, Vouvray mineral complexity, tang and mildly bitter bite. Good with anniversary suckling pig, good with dessert (tiramisu). Aside from the yeasty notes, not much like Champagne: both fizz and underlying wine are of a different type.
Drank this at the tail end of a sinus infection, so it probably tasted a bit better than my note suggests. Relative to the first bottling, less biscuity and generous up front, less rich in the mid-palate (for me, these are good things). Perhaps a bit more refined and complex.
Vissoux Cremant de Bourgogne, NV Three phases: (1) generously fruity, big-beaded bubbles, vanishingly light on the palate; (2) after half an hour, sere, stingy, difficult, flatish; (3) another half-hour, thawing to hint at depth and complexity, with a new layer of fine-grained fizz. Not a generous finish.
The fourth phase promised good things, but we had finished the bottle. At west coast direct-import prices, a good buy; at east coast three-tier prices, no bargain.
Leitz Magdelenenkreuz Spaetlese 2002: Apple pie and mild citrus on nose; sugar barely detectable at a pleasing angle of repose with acids; decent roundness and good mineral bite. Very good for most entrees short of beef and lamb. Appealing though not brilliant Rhine SL. My bottles are fully ready, but I suspect they were not perfectly cared for before I acquired them, so your mileage may vary.
Jadot GC 1er Estournelles-St. Jacques 1999: On opening, seductive coffee and chocolate (tho I don't usually look for chocolate in Burgundy) with nice earth and acid bite. After about two hours sitting open, it became lean and structured, with the fruit barely peeking out. In the decanter and our glasses, it opened modestly over the course of dinner, and the last glass was the best.
So my take would be drink immediately on opening (especially if you're pouring for 4 or 6 people), or decant (rather than just opening the bottle, as I did) for a couple of hours. Or hold. Fine wine, in any event.
Huet Vouvray Petillant Brut 2002 (second bottling): Yeasty-bready aroma, dry with restrained fizz, Vouvray mineral complexity, tang and mildly bitter bite. Good with anniversary suckling pig, good with dessert (tiramisu). Aside from the yeasty notes, not much like Champagne: both fizz and underlying wine are of a different type.
Drank this at the tail end of a sinus infection, so it probably tasted a bit better than my note suggests. Relative to the first bottling, less biscuity and generous up front, less rich in the mid-palate (for me, these are good things). Perhaps a bit more refined and complex.