Ian Fitzsimmons
Ian Fitzsimmons
Miscellaneous wines mostly enjoyed at home with informal meals.
1996 Jacquesson & Fils Champagne Extra Brut Avize Grand Cru.
From magnum, wife’s birthday: yeasty, minerally, appley, medium-bodied; pleasant mousse. All good things and crisp. The fizz dissipates on the second day with no compensating improvement in flavor, so maybe this wine in this format should be drunk up in the next year or two.
2005 Domaine de la Pépière Briords
From magnum. Starting to open some. A bit of rich sensation early, though the wine is dry; with air time, resolves to tangy, minerally, multi-dimensional muscadet. Drink or hold.
2007 François Pinon Vouvray Silex Noir.
Honeyed nose, straw-colored, medium bodied with a restrainedly plump, luxurious texture. This wine showed really great right out of the bottle: mineral, acid, sweet, and tangy Chenin tastes gelling with the wine's body. I've read more effusive praise of the 08, but this bottle was not to be faulted last night.
2008 Domaine du Ch“teau de Chorey (Germain) Pernand-Vergelesses Les Combottes.
Tangy, stoney, savory nose-bleed white Burgundy with a solid foundation. Youthful but tasty, classy and fine. Opened four hours before drinking.
Reds
2005 Ch“teau Thivin Côte de Brouilly.
This wine’s burly structure is thinning out year-by-year, now beginning to approach silkiness, very modestly plumped with the suggestion of cherryish fruit. Delicious with food. On the third day the fruit sings melody and the tannins form the chorus. With Granger Moulin-a-Vent, one of my two favorite 05s.
2008 Coudert Fleurie Clos de la Roilette Cuvée Tardive
From magnum. Pretty nice, peppery, spicy; with air time, depth to ballast the flavors and aroma. Just a hint of Beaujolais mid-palate candy. Since it’s Coudert’s CT, it should get better, I imagine, but it’s drinking quite well now.
2005 Charles Joguet Chinon Les Petites Roches.
Youthfully lean and firm, but accessible, with cab pencil lead on the nose and stern structure, set off by restrained but dense cab fruit. A nice, rather cerebral glass on its own, but with food its personality flips to that of a gay and lively extrovert: it practically reaches into the crevices between your taste buds to titillate with vivacious, lithe red fruit, sappy acidity, and a kind of resilient freshness. The contrast is striking.
2002 Joël Taluau Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil Vieilles Vignes.
The green is gone - wine is chemistry you can drink. Very tight out of the bottle; slow-ox’ed for abouit six hours, and it was just beginning to creak open with decent tannins and fresh Loire cabernet fruit. Nicely proportioned, not lean, not fat. Suitable now for adherents of the Vandergrift school, but will still be young for years to come.
2007 Marc Plouzeau Touraine Ante Phylloxera Clos de Maulevrier.
Elegant, round, fragrant, especially for a young Loire Cab, undergirded by firm substance, structure, and almost peppery acidity. A striking mouthful, delicious and characterful, with a pleasant bite that gets you in the back of the throat on the finish. Pre-phyloxera vines planted, reportedly, in 1865 (or 1853?).
2006 Jean et Gilles LaFouge Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru La Chapelle.
Opened tough and stingy, with a sere tannic edge I've noticed in other 06 Beaune's. With air, mellows to give some balancing fruit. Second night, the wine pulled itself inside out, giving appealingly soft pinot fruit with just a hint of the tannic edge that dominated the night previous. Winningly sincere, I'm hopeful there is some concentration lurking hidden, which will give depth and complexity with time.
1996 Jacquesson & Fils Champagne Extra Brut Avize Grand Cru.
From magnum, wife’s birthday: yeasty, minerally, appley, medium-bodied; pleasant mousse. All good things and crisp. The fizz dissipates on the second day with no compensating improvement in flavor, so maybe this wine in this format should be drunk up in the next year or two.
2005 Domaine de la Pépière Briords
From magnum. Starting to open some. A bit of rich sensation early, though the wine is dry; with air time, resolves to tangy, minerally, multi-dimensional muscadet. Drink or hold.
2007 François Pinon Vouvray Silex Noir.
Honeyed nose, straw-colored, medium bodied with a restrainedly plump, luxurious texture. This wine showed really great right out of the bottle: mineral, acid, sweet, and tangy Chenin tastes gelling with the wine's body. I've read more effusive praise of the 08, but this bottle was not to be faulted last night.
2008 Domaine du Ch“teau de Chorey (Germain) Pernand-Vergelesses Les Combottes.
Tangy, stoney, savory nose-bleed white Burgundy with a solid foundation. Youthful but tasty, classy and fine. Opened four hours before drinking.
Reds
2005 Ch“teau Thivin Côte de Brouilly.
This wine’s burly structure is thinning out year-by-year, now beginning to approach silkiness, very modestly plumped with the suggestion of cherryish fruit. Delicious with food. On the third day the fruit sings melody and the tannins form the chorus. With Granger Moulin-a-Vent, one of my two favorite 05s.
2008 Coudert Fleurie Clos de la Roilette Cuvée Tardive
From magnum. Pretty nice, peppery, spicy; with air time, depth to ballast the flavors and aroma. Just a hint of Beaujolais mid-palate candy. Since it’s Coudert’s CT, it should get better, I imagine, but it’s drinking quite well now.
2005 Charles Joguet Chinon Les Petites Roches.
Youthfully lean and firm, but accessible, with cab pencil lead on the nose and stern structure, set off by restrained but dense cab fruit. A nice, rather cerebral glass on its own, but with food its personality flips to that of a gay and lively extrovert: it practically reaches into the crevices between your taste buds to titillate with vivacious, lithe red fruit, sappy acidity, and a kind of resilient freshness. The contrast is striking.
2002 Joël Taluau Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil Vieilles Vignes.
The green is gone - wine is chemistry you can drink. Very tight out of the bottle; slow-ox’ed for abouit six hours, and it was just beginning to creak open with decent tannins and fresh Loire cabernet fruit. Nicely proportioned, not lean, not fat. Suitable now for adherents of the Vandergrift school, but will still be young for years to come.
2007 Marc Plouzeau Touraine Ante Phylloxera Clos de Maulevrier.
Elegant, round, fragrant, especially for a young Loire Cab, undergirded by firm substance, structure, and almost peppery acidity. A striking mouthful, delicious and characterful, with a pleasant bite that gets you in the back of the throat on the finish. Pre-phyloxera vines planted, reportedly, in 1865 (or 1853?).
2006 Jean et Gilles LaFouge Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru La Chapelle.
Opened tough and stingy, with a sere tannic edge I've noticed in other 06 Beaune's. With air, mellows to give some balancing fruit. Second night, the wine pulled itself inside out, giving appealingly soft pinot fruit with just a hint of the tannic edge that dominated the night previous. Winningly sincere, I'm hopeful there is some concentration lurking hidden, which will give depth and complexity with time.