TN: A good Friday in the cellar (April 18, 2014)

Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
attendees: Jay, Jeff, Craig, Suzanne, Ataru, Adam

Rhys 2011 Pinot Noir, Alpine Vineyard - stemmy, lactic, tight, do not disturb; did not improve with time open

Prince Florent de Merode 1998 Corton GC "Les Bressandes" - red fruits, violets, maybe a note of mint or camphor, silky, a yummy treat

Huet 2002 Vouvray Brut Petillant - waxy and wooly, disturbing note of caramel; not damaged but tastes older than its years and no concomitant gain in complexity

Spring Mountain 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon - Ricola! Ricola! piney, skunky, palate is better than the nose; this improves a bit with air

Dunn 1993 Howell Mountain - beautifully preserved, the wall of tannins is just starting to crumble, revealing perfect red currant fruit

B. Morey 1991 Beaune Greves 1er - potent, red fruit galore, only gently tannic, a good little brother for the Corton

Kiminoi Junmai Dai-Ginjo "Emperor's Well" - bottled Dec 2006. Mr. Kobayashi passes by our little table and peers at the many bottles. We encourage him to get a glass and join us... which he does. He is a sake importer who provides to many of the better sake destinations in the City. This sake is made by his brother using an old style of preparing the yeast that leads to greater complexity in the finished wine. This particular bottle has been aged for 7 years, which is very unusual for sake as it is almost always drunk within a year of manufacture. Alas, the reason for its venerable age is that his business wasn't so good when it first started so he had to sit on a lot of inventory. Things are better now but there are old bottles to move. He describes the nose as slightly cheesey although the palate is still good. My notes agree: the nose is a bit musty or even lactic, palate is dry but rich with green melon flavors and a pronounced streak of cinnamon; not as crisp-zing as young sake but still interesting and worth remembering

Details are here.

Lafarge 2007 Volnay - drying tannins, a bit simple, maybe just closed?, someone says, "The opposite of charming"

J.J. Prum 1993 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese - 2 576 511 14 94, yowsa: good acidity, gently sweet, gently tutti-frutti, complex, great bottle
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

Huet 2002 Vouvray Brut Petillant - waxy and wooly, disturbing note of caramel; not damaged but tastes older than its years and no concomitant gain in complexity

Aside from my anger at the large quantity of these in the cellar, this provides an interesting test case for the mechanism of premox--this closure is so different from a regular cork.

Or do you think this one might have been cooked?
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

Huet 2002 Vouvray Brut Petillant - waxy and wooly, disturbing note of caramel; not damaged but tastes older than its years and no concomitant gain in complexity

Aside from my anger at the large quantity of these in the cellar, this provides an interesting test case for the mechanism of premox--this closure is so different from a regular cork.

Or do you think this one might have been cooked?
FWIW, these are first bottling; I bought on release.

I agree that the caramel note is suspicious. If it comes from heat damage (and not some weird manifestation of oxidation) then it was just enough to spoil the wine but not so much as to be grossly aversive. I have 5 more to try, perhaps sooner than later.

It is very disappointing to miss one fault only to find another.
 
Niigata Sake Selections is/was a great portfolio - I bought a mixed case of pretty much everything they had a few years ago and enjoyed every bottle. Sorry to hear they weren't successful, but glad they're still around - I will look for some again.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
Niigata Sake Selections is/was a great portfolio - I bought a mixed case of pretty much everything they had a few years ago and enjoyed every bottle. Sorry to hear they weren't successful, but glad they're still around - I will look for some again.
"Is" -- they are doing very well now.
 
Great seeing everyone, fun time.

Rhys 2011 Pinot Noir, Alpine Vineyard - Rich, a bit lactic, not my thing. The good news is that Kevin says the style of the 2012 is much more to my taste. This bottle was shipped by accident instead of a 2011 Alpine Chardonnay, he told me to keep it and he'd send the chard. The customer service at Rhys is amazing. And the 2011 Bearwallow Pinot was really nice. And can you tell I feel guilty badmouthing a wine I was effectively given for free?

Prince Florent de Merode 1998 Corton GC "Les Bressandes" - Beautiful flowery melange of soft red fruit and earth.

Huet 2002 Vouvray Brut Petillant - i enjoyed it, especially with the cheese, but it definitely seemed much further advanced than I would have expected.

Spring Mountain 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon - Very offputting nose on first pour which thankfully eventually blew off. The palate was nice from the beginning and kept getting better. Very pleasant old CA Cab.

Dunn 1993 Howell Mountain - Not undrinkably tannic (surprising for such a young Dunn Howell) it is in a very nice place already. Young, vibrant, pure, very good indeed.

B. Morey 1991 Beaune Greves 1er - lovely, perfectly mature wine.

Kiminoi Junmai Dai-Ginjo "Emperor's Well" - bottled Dec 2006.
I know nothing about sake but this was very good and far more complex than I expected. Quite enjoyable.

Lafarge 2007 Volnay - pretty well shut down.

J.J. Prum 1993 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese - delicious.

Jeff - I believe the missing name is Adam.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
Any other sparklers having this kind of issue?
Strangely enough, I have a comment on that question.

Other wines that I have drunk lately, either at home or BTG at a restaurant:

Les Vignerons de Sigoules 2011 Cotes de Bergerac Blanc Moelleux "Domea" - mostly semillon and a bit of muscadelle, gently sweet, round, pleasant, cut in the same style as other sweet white from this part of France just on a small scale

Ch. Tour Grise 2002 Saumur Brut Non-Dose - must be a typo on the menu as this does not taste that old, varietally correct, not profound, OK for by the glass

Ratti 2011 Langhe - soft and tutti-frutti, I'll drink this glass of it but I won't order it again

Sula NV Chenin Blanc, Nashik (India) - supposedly the off-driest wine on the list, vegetal, charmless, industrial wine
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Yes, I've put my mass quantities of 2002 Huets into the heavy rotation.

And I finally got some cellar reorganization done yesterday afternoon after missing my dentist appointment. Most of my non-sparkling '02s are now out in front and will be opened over the next year or so.

I thought I was so smart with the Petillants, putting them where it would be a tremendous pain to unearth them...
 
My cellar is such a mess, I sometimes fancy I discern the shade of Virgil loitering about the entrance.

Anyway, you guys are freaking me out; I guess we'll do some more sampling soon.
 
At dinner tonight PMac said he has recently opened Huet 2002 Sec and Demi-Sec -- still wines, obviously -- and both were fine. This was confirmed by other (MA area) winos at the table.

Perhaps it was the NY shipment that was spoiled.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
At dinner tonight PMac said he has recently opened Huet 2002 Sec and Demi-Sec -- still wines, obviously -- and both were fine. This was confirmed by other (MA area) winos at the table.

Perhaps it was the NY shipment that was spoiled.

We've been through this before. Wishful thinking. Far too many notes out there from many different sources.
 
originally posted by Brad Kane:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
At dinner tonight PMac said he has recently opened Huet 2002 Sec and Demi-Sec -- still wines, obviously -- and both were fine. This was confirmed by other (MA area) winos at the table.

Perhaps it was the NY shipment that was spoiled.

We've been through this before. Wishful thinking. Far too many notes out there from many different sources.

I would love to hear about a good sample from Europe.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
I would love to hear about a good sample from Europe.

Why? You've heard about a great sample thus far, from your own cage. That just means the bad ones were in boxes too inconvenient to reach. It's a time bomb, here or in Europe.

I just had a dead vintage of a group favourite from Alsace, from a 50F cellar in Europe. It wasn't dead but it would have been in 5-7 years.
 
originally posted by .sasha:

I just had a dead vintage of a group favourite from Alsace

do d00ds still drink shit from teh border flatlands?

fb.
 
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by .sasha:

I just had a dead vintage of a group favourite from Alsace

do d00ds still drink shit from teh border flatlands?

fb.

Confused by 15th century European maps, undoubtedly.
 
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