TN: Grand Sichuan (6/6/11)

S

Salil Benegal

Salil Benegal
Rahsaan Maxwell, Keith Levenberg, Gene Vilensky, Jay Miller, Josh Leader and I got together for dinner at the UWS Grand Sichuan on Monday night. Seriously good food as always (with the best tea smoked duck I've had yet, the lamb with cumin and gui zhou chicken fantastic and spicy as ever) and a great lineup of wine.

2006 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph Vieilles Vignes
Spectacular. Like Keith said, this has it all - pure Syrah fruit, meaty and leathery flavours, other savoury elements and an intense seasoning of freshly ground black pepper. The aromatics give a bit more pleasure than the palate right now, but there's amazing depth, a sense of seamlessness and the structure and balance to carry it a long time.

2001 Domaine Chandon de Briailles Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Ile des Vergelesses
Pleasant to drink, though not particularly interesting - it's a little monotonic, starting out with cherry fruit and savoury earthy elements, but not much more going on and the first sip tasting pretty much the same as the last. It's nicely balanced, restrained and light on its feet, but rather unremarkable.

2007 Pichler-Krutzler Blaufränkisch Weinberg
Full of bright Gamay-like red fruited flavours, though with a strange lactic topnote that clears a little with some air.

2009 Schloss Neuweier Riesling Mauerwein Grosses Gewaechs
Fantastic stuff, one of the most enjoyable GGs I've had and I wish this producer was a bit easier to find. Immediately grabs attention with a stunning aromatic profile combining all sorts of exotic floral and spicy elements with pale, fresh Riesling fruit and a vivid stoniness, beautifully balanced with a sense of real lightness and finesse in the mouth and the acidity keeping it really vibrant and precise.

2009 Schloss Neuweier Riesling Goldenes Loch Grosses Gewaechs
Lighter and more restrained than the Mauer Wein; this doesn't have the same exotic florality or spiciness, but it's still very enjoyable with pale, refreshing Riesling fruit over a vivid minerally base, really well balanced with bright acids and enough richness to keep it from feeling too light or austere.

2002 A.J. Adam Dhronhofberger Tholey Riesling
Didn't pay much attention to this, but it seemed much more advanced than the bottles I'd had a year ago, and not quite as enjoyable with the fruit a little muddled and stale.

2009 Keller Riesling RR
A halbtrocken, apparently from Westhofener Kirchspiel. Rich yellow fruited and citrus flavours accented with spicy and stony elements; light on its feet and very refreshing with bright acids and nice balance, though not particularly complex right now.

2002 Zilliken (Forstmeister Geltz) Saarburger Rausch Riesling Kabinett
Lightly corked. A real shame, as some fruit was still noticeable underneath and the moderate sweetness and bright acidity suggested a representative bottle would have been really enjoyable.

2002 Zilliken (Forstmeister Geltz) Saarburger Rausch Riesling Spätlese
Corked. Really hideously corked in this case with the TCA stench noticeable from a distance, and overwhelming everything else in the wine.

2002 Zilliken (Forstmeister Geltz) Saarburger Rausch Riesling Auslese
A not-corked Zilliken at last! Really lovely with layers of nectarines, apples, ripe citrus fruits and faint creamy elements combining seamlessly into a very polished, silken-textured package that's nicely balanced with bright acids balancing the sweetness and impressive length.

1994 Von Schubert Maximin Grünhauser Abtsberg Riesling Spätlese
Understated pear and green citrus fruit flavours combining seamlessly with developed smoky and creamy elements with that pine cone/minty topnote that I usually find in Grunhaus - barely sweet, still very fresh and precise with bright acids and fantastic length. (AP #18-95)

2002 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese
Much better than my previous experience with this last year; all about freshness and clarity with ripe Mosel fruit seasoned with slate and floral elements, moderately sweet with plenty of acidity underneath keeping it vibrant and very refreshing. Lovely.

2002 Reinhold Haart Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Auslese
A nice reminder that I really need to drink more from Reinhold Haart; this is drinking stunningly well now with a spectrum of bright Riesling fruit ranging from fresh apples to riper peachy/nectarine flavours with floral, slatey and honeyed accents. It's very sweet, bright and luscious as expected from Goldtröpfchen, yet it's all too easy to drink with really good acidity balancing the sweetness well and keeping it very refreshing, with each sip inviting another.
 
originally posted by Salil Benegal:
2007 Pichler-Krutzler Blaufränkisch Weinberg
Full of bright Gamay-like red fruited flavours, though with a strange lactic topnote that clears a little with some air..
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Bravo to you for coming back to this. I didn't have the stomach to do it. That strange smell that was present in the beginning of the dinner was still there (to my nose) at the end of the dinner, and there was plenty of other stuff to focus on!

I was also disappointed in the Chandon de Briailles. This bottle was consistent with the other ho-hum bottle I had recently and had been hoping was an aberration. I remember enjoying this wine a lot more a few years ago and am hoping it's just a stage. (Although I read elsewhere that someone else enjoyed a bottle at the domaine recently, so who knows what role storage played).

Of course I also liked the Neuweier wines but later that night at home the Goldenes Loch wine developed more character and became more expressive although still in the more elegant framework. At the end of the day I think I like them equally, although at different times and for different reasons. (I.E. the Mauerwein is great fun right from the corkpull but the Goldenes Loch has more elegance).

And those were some excellent Ausleses. Great fun.
 
Oh, you forgot the 02 CFE.

I haven't tasted CFE and CSH 80,000 times like so many people on these boards but I thought it was tasty if a bit more reserved and difficult to hear in comparison to the Neuweier wines and of course the residual sugar wines.
 
originally posted by Salil Benegal:

2006 Pierre Gonon St. Joseph Vieilles Vignes
Spectacular. Like Keith said, this has it all - pure Syrah fruit, meaty and leathery flavours, other savoury elements and an intense seasoning of freshly ground black pepper. The aromatics give a bit more pleasure than the palate right now, but there's amazing depth, a sense of seamlessness and the structure and balance to carry it a long time.
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I've never heard of this wine. Do you know where I can find some?

2001 Domaine Chandon de Briailles Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Ile des Vergelesses
Pleasant to drink, though not particularly interesting - it's a little monotonic, starting out with cherry fruit and savoury earthy elements, but not much more going on and the first sip tasting pretty much the same as the last. It's nicely balanced, restrained and light on its feet, but rather unremarkable.
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I am amazed at what's going on with this wine. 50% of the bottles exactly as you describe. The other 50% out of this world. It's the only vintage I am aware of that's behaving this way. Premox in red, finally?
 
originally posted by .sasha:

I am amazed at what's going on with this wine. 50% of the bottles exactly as you describe. The other 50% out of this world. It's the only vintage I am aware of that's behaving this way. Premox in red, finally?
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The 1998 IdV went through a period of showing like this around 2004-2006 and then my final bottle last year had moved past it into something more interesting.

Of course I don't drink enough of Chandon de Briailles (or anything really) to know how common this is. But as I mentioned above I was very disappointed in these two recent bottles of the 01.

Let's just hope it's general aging crankiness and not premox.
 
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