Dinner with friends

Florida Jim

Florida Jim
To begin:
2007 Dom. Chandon, Unoaked Chardonnay Monterey County:
14.1% alcohol; it may be unoaked but it still smells like wood with chardonnay fruit and maybe a little hint of lees; slim in the mouth with flavors that follow the nose; moderate length. There is something vaguely manufactured about this wine although I can’t put my finger on it. Not my style.

With vegetable stuffed baked potato:
1999 Bizot, Vosne-Romanee Les Réas:
12.5% alcohol; a complex and interesting nose with fruit, earth and other vinous aromas; feminine on the palate but still intense and complex, it reminds me of walking by restaurants with a different cooking smell coming from each; balanced and long. Not as spicy as I would have expected but savory and something I could drink often. Superb with the dish.

With cheeses:
1995 Edmunds St. John, Syrah Durell Vnyd.:
14.4% alcohol; quite feral on the nose, solid fruit and some mineral, very expansive and wonderful to smell; medium bodied and balanced but packed with layers of flavor and complexity, showing some age but not in a tired way, intense and wild; medium length. The development here is remarkable and reminds me why I like good syrah so much.
A recent re-release.
(Aside: I recently had this same bottle and it had an unpleasant menthol character so I am now guessing that the previous bottle was corked. This certainly was not and had no menthol note at all.)

Best, Jim
 
I have definitely had TCA show up as a really overt, smothering, green menthol-eucalyptus aroma, so that sounds accurate on your previous Durell...
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Alas, the Durells are bottle to bottle nowadays.
Opened a gorgeous one tonight: so youthful, I had to let a whiff of Robitussin blow off. And then there is gorgeous syrah... porky, earthy, and, in this bottle, still so young. The cork was hardly soaked a 1/4". So good.
 
Ya learn something new everyday. I had never thought of TCA showing as menthol but that sure makes sense given the rash of menthol-laced syrah I've had recently. Graillot, Yann Chave, and Domaine Les Bruyères Crozes in particular.
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
Dinner with friends
To begin:
2007 Dom. Chandon, Unoaked Chardonnay Monterey County:
it may be unoaked but it still smells like wood with chardonnay fruit
It's a characteristic of Chardonnay, at least from certain clones, terroirs, and/or wine raised a certain way. I've frequently picked it up in M“cons that have seen no oak whatsoever.
 
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