Thanksgiving highlights

B

BJ

BJ
Thanksgiving with friends up on Orcas, east of Olga. On the water, watched the light fade, and listened to the wind kick up as the evening went on...big fire blazing in well worn, well used, original NW contemporary cabin in their family since built in 1963...

Vinous highlights:

Leftover Bernard Defaix Petit Chablis with cooking...au naturele style, reminded me of a Goisot Corps de Garde. Quite good.

Bulliett whiskey sours. Yum!

An Agrapart 7 cepage was delicious with Judd Cove oysters. They were little. I don't know what they were, but they were damn good.

A 96 Clape Cotes du Rhone with a dried, frozen cork was much better than it should have been. Green olives and black, well structured, no drying at all. Terrific mariage with the charcuterie. Not mine, came from the host, who said it had been kicking around their basement. What a fun surprise.

A 78 Ducru also had a frozen cork, I assumed dead, but it was just fine. Burly, fairly rounded off, great with the cheeses, of course. Also from host.

A 98 and a 94 Mt. Olivet (non-NBI) were a lot of fun, each on the darker side, and well structured fro CNP. I generally consider 94 CNP's to be a thing of the past but this was an exception.

I'm a real Mt. Olivet fan.

A 96 Soucherie Layon VV rounded out with apple pie and far breton. It was ok, but I had a little higher hopes. The crowd loved it though and thought it was fascinating - those Loire sweet wines are pretty unusual if you've never had one.

A late conversation about Alsatian wines had me out on the deck pulling out a 99 Weinbach Pinot Gris St. Catherine. It was very well liked. I thought it was fine, correct. Does anyone else remember that 85 Humbrecht Pinot Gris we had at Tamarind Tree? That was one of my best wines ever.

We're headed to Rose's for lunch and it will be fun to see what old jewels await...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
 
Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Brad: fun set of notes. For our part, it was roast goose with corn bread-smoked andouille stuffing for my gluten-free spouse, cranberry chutney and goose gravy. The wines were:

2012 Navarro Gewurztraminer Brut was a fun wine to start with. A touch of RS added some richness but it had the acidity to match and kept the aromatics well in check. I haven't had enough Cremant d'Alsace to know if it's an apt comparison. It went surprisingly well with the sides.

1995 Michel Gaunoux Pommard 1er was a fairly recent purchase from Envoyer. It started off quite young despite my having given it a hard decant, but showed fairly deep red fruit in the raspberry-cranberry side of the spectrum. The goose overwhelmed it, alas. After a couple of hours, this had really fleshed out and taken on a pronounced earthy character and it went far better with the goose.

1990 Ch. Beaucastel was initially a tad jammy but had the blueberry notes I associate with the high-Mourvedre cepage and took on increasing amounts of horseblanket character as time went on. Not as overtly Bretty as some people's have been, but certainly too Brett-inflected for a couple of friends more attuned to New World wines.

1989 Ch. Lynch-Bages didn't scream Bordeaux to me at any point, but could almost have been a quality CalCab. Very cedary with pencil lead and cassis, it really didn't move either Jean or me, sad to say. The cork on this wine was as pristine as could be, looking for all appearances to be brand new, which was a nice testament to our passively cooled cellar where it had lain for the past 22 years.

It was a very fun evening in our unseasonably warm November, with a few friends who needed to blow off steam after their rather drama-filled Thanksgivings. Our son Andrew had a blast gorging himself on the roast goose and trying all of the various wines. He even began to shed his picky eater status by trying (and liking) the cranberry chutney and some berry pie for dessert. I still had no luck trying to get him to try stuffing (which I know he would love).

Mark Lipton
 
Was it 96 Chaume from Soucherie? If it was, perhaps you were expecting something sweeter and higher acid?
I like that vino.
 
originally posted by BJ:
I generally consider 94 CNP's to be a thing of the past but this was an exception.
Click to expand...

i generally reserve my cnp for dumping on unwitting guests at joe's bbqs, but even me, hater that i am, find worth and future in the 94s.

take better care of your hooch, and learn to tune out the noise.

fb.
 
With the classic turkey, roasted cauliflower, roasted brussels sprouts, homegrown apple sauce, yada yada.

2008 Zind Humbrecht Gewürtztraminer Wintzenheim: still more-than-a-bit-screechy acidity, liberal shot of pineapple/tropical fruit to go with the fusel-y fuminess of it all. Huge. Big nose, big viscosity, lengthy afterburn, 13.5%. Not as good with the food as it was on its own (no matter what I tried), which is never a good sign for me. In turn off-putting and beguiling. A long way from ready. Still curmudgeonly on day two.

2010 JJ Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Auslese: pleasingly rounded, much better balanced than the ZH. Creamy in the mid palate, no angularity here, but enough acidity to finish well. Much better accompaniment to the bird.

2008 Henri Jouan Bourgogne Passetoutgrain: the pleasant surprise, albeit under a synthetic closure, so I'll be disposing of its brethren shortly. Plenty of gamay zip left, and a healthy, clearly defined dose of pinosity, which made it a good match for the dark meat. This did not come across as yet another Beaujolais blessed with a hasty pass from the pinot aspergillum. The best food wine in the mix. Others have reported brett, but I did not detect any. I wanted to see what this would be like on day two, but no one else would cooperate. Purchased from Weygandt by way of the WB Commerce Corner offering. This gave me cause for optimism for the Jouan Village '10 bottles and GC Aux Echezeaux in the case.
 
Although not actually in deference to the upcoming release of "The Hobbit" movie, I conducted a Second Thanksgiving at my house on Saturday. It was the full spread, all from scratch: heritage turkey (a fairly hot roast), sausage stuffing with craisins and pecans, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, orange-cranberry sauce, baby brussels sprouts sauteed with bacon and mushrooms, and four desserts (chocolate pumpkin cake, chocolate-orange ice cream, pumpkin ice cream, and a pumpkin chiffon pie contributed by Jay). Whew.

For various reasons I offered the most traditional libation, hard cider. But Jay brought a couple lovely wines, too:

Muller-Catoir 2001 Haardter Mandelring Scheurebe Spatlese - ethereal and beautiful, how can it be so tropical and so light at the same time? Jay's last bottle of it.

Goussin et Euillot "Heritage 1900" Cidre Bouche du Pays d'Othe, Cuvee Tradition Degorgee a la Volee - from Champagne near Burgundy, the fruit is harvested from an orchard planted in 1900, dry, classic flavor profile for French cider (though not too horsey), a bit elegant

Farnum Hill Semi-Dry Cider - intended for those attendees with a more American palate, this turned out to be equally horsey, not that much sweeter, and boring; I am coming to the conclusion that Farnum Hill is more about marketing than product

Muller-Catoir 1998 Mussbacher Eselshaut Riesling Eiswein - 375ml, no importer label?, crisp and lovely, hardly advanced at all (sugar is a preservative, right?), tartaric crystals in the last glass
 
BJ,

What did you find at Rose's cafe?

We had our first experience with L'Anglore Rose. Wow, what a very interesting take on Tavel. I hope to have many more.

I don't recall the ZH Pinot Gris, sorry.
 
originally posted by .sasha:
Was it 96 Chaume from Soucherie? If it was, perhaps you were expecting something sweeter and higher acid?
I like that vino.
Click to expand...

No, it was the CdL VV.
 
originally posted by Marc D:
BJ,

What did you find at Rose's cafe?

We had our first experience with L'Anglore Rose. Wow, what a very interesting take on Tavel. I hope to have many more.

I don't recall the ZH Pinot Gris, sorry.
Click to expand...

Glad you laid hands on some L'Anglore. Pretty wild stuff.

We had an 11 Brun Rose Folie at Rose's, and it was sublime. I love that wine. I think I may have contributed to Rose's getting pretty picked over, though there are still some gems on the shelf - just none that sounded good with lunch.

Had another bottle of 97 d'Estevenas, this even better than the last. Single toned, but a really nice tone.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Second ThanksgivingMuller-Catoir 2001 Haardter Mandelring Scheurebe Spatlese - ethereal and beautiful, how can it be so tropical and so light at the same time? Jay's last bottle of it.

Goussin et Euillot "Heritage 1900" Cidre Bouche du Pays d'Othe, Cuvee Tradition Degorgee a la Volee - from Champagne near Burgundy, the fruit is harvested from an orchard planted in 1900, dry, classic flavor profile for French cider (though not too horsey), a bit elegant

Farnum Hill Semi-Dry Cider - intended for those attendees with a more American palate, this turned out to be equally horsey, not that much sweeter, and boring; I am coming to the conclusion that Farnum Hill is more about marketing than product

Muller-Catoir 1998 Mussbacher Eselshaut Riesling Eiswein - 375ml, no importer label?, crisp and lovely, hardly advanced at all (sugar is a preservative, right?), tartaric crystals in the last glass
Click to expand...

I loved the Heritage 1900, The Farnum Semi-Dry was entirely forgettable as are most of their regular bottlings. But their Kingston Black is still a fine option.
 
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