TN: Dinner with Oliver

Last night. Prepared Appenzeller milk goat in beer pastry and risotto with porcini, yellow zucchini and scallion.

Daniel & Martha Gantenbein Riesling Auslese 2001
My only half bottle of this hard to find wine was cork-tainted. Bummer... Made good Risotto with it, though. Rating: N/R

Trimbach Riesling Vendanges Tardives Cuvée Frédéric Émile 1989
A wine I have had many, many times since release, the finest bottle ever. Medium to full yellow-green. Enveloping smooth ripeness and sweetness (all of a sudden, the residual sweetness appears to resurface!), deep fruit and minerality, very long, the remainder also held up very well overnight in the fridge. Oliver thought this downright perfect. Note this bottle seemed to have fully absorbed its residual CO2 in contrast to a bottle from the same case (from my collection) a year ago, same goes for that usual tiny (pretty!) lime-rind-like bitter note. Softly oily mouthfeel, albeit free from viscosity. What a great bottle! My parents shook their heads in silence when I served them the remainder with lunch the following day. Wow! Rating: 96-/95(-?)

Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1998
Perfectly stored half bottle from my collection, bought at release. Oliver remarked on the fact that this was less evolved than a full size bottle he had had in restaurant in Germany four years ago! But the good news is: this was the first bottle from our cool cellar that seemed fully open. Luminous ruby-red with a light purple hue, in contrast to bottles ordered at restaurants no orange rim whatsoever, not even the slightest hint. Round and harmonious roasted Provençal herbs and soft green pepper soaked in sweet Grenachy red fruit with a hint of Kirsch, alcohol that is so well-integrated as to be unnoticeable, refreshing and lively yet wonderfully smooth tannin. All freshness, precision and cut, although wrapped in a velvet glove, one wonders where the earlier surmaturité of the vintage has gone? Beautiful! Rating: 95

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

"J'ai gaché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ Roger Conti
 
that bitter lime rind thing in 89 Fred VT used to be a full-fledged orange rind thing early on. Which means it may still come back. Impressive.
 
originally posted by kirk wallace:
a new specialty: TCA risotto; don't bother to forage for the chanterelles.

Actually, and I'm not trying to pull anyone's leg here, if the TCA taint is very intense, making Risotto with such a wine can be a pretty horrible idea! Yuck!

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

J'ai gaché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ Roger Conti
 
originally posted by David from Switzerland:
originally posted by kirk wallace:
a new specialty: TCA risotto; don't bother to forage for the chanterelles.

Actually, and I'm not trying to pull anyone's leg here, if the TCA taint is very intense, making Risotto with such a wine can be a pretty horrible idea! Yuck!

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

J'ai gaché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ Roger Conti

Yes. I think we all agree with that.
 
originally posted by David from Switzerland:
originally posted by kirk wallace:
a new specialty: TCA risotto; don't bother to forage for the chanterelles.

Actually, and I'm not trying to pull anyone's leg here, if the TCA taint is very intense, making Risotto with such a wine can be a pretty horrible idea! Yuck!

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

J'ai gaché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ Roger Conti

Yes. I think we all agree with that.
 
We, too.

Well, I have a little 01 CFE VT, so I guess another 12 years or so will bring it into its drinking window.

By the way, David, apropos nothing, we opened an 01 Gunderloch Spaetlese last week, which I bought on release based on your notes at the time in Garr's WLDG. Beautiful wine, and hardly recognizable from what was in the bottle five years or so ago.

Thanks for the notes.
 
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