Living here in flyover country, one grows used to the lack of out-of-town visitors, so it merits special attention when one does happen to land in our little burgh. So it was that, when I learned that sometime Disorderly Loren Sonkin was coming to town to visit his daughter, we arranged to meet for dinner and wine. We settled on a very good local Thai restaurant run by some friends of mine and thus Loren, his wife and daughter and I shared a lovely meal with some really good wines.
It was all I could do to convince Loren to let me bring a wine, but he relented and let me bring a "Loire white." My contribution to the meal was a bottle of 2008 Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Tuffeaux that, while still young, is oh-so-good right now: vibrant and lively, mineral-inflected citrus and quince, imparting a sense of near-dryness (sec-tendre). It worked really well with the appetizers (basil rolls, spring rolls and mango salad) as well as my main course. I had brought along a second bottle as backup wherein I discovered that one was a grey market bottle and the other a US import. This was the US version.
Loren had divined from my CT profile that I love the wines of Dujac, so he very graciously brought along a bottle of 2002 Dujac Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Gruenchers, which was still quite young and masculine but already showing quite a bit of appeal. The color had taken on a bit of bricking and the nose was a mix of dark raspberry fruit with some earthy undertones. The tannins were still in evidence and it was quite full-bodied on the palate but all seemed in balance and it should be a beauty in another decade or so.
Loren is also now a winemaker, proprietor of Sonkin Cellars, a Crushpad operation that purchases Syrah fruit from various sources. He treated me to a preview of his 2013 Sonkin Cellars Unmasked. He told me that this is a cool-climate Syrah, sourced from a vineyard located on the Mendocino Coast and made with a nod to Cote-Rotie. Loren had opened this recently-bottled wine 36 hours prior to service, and even so it seemed very primary. Clearly CA in nature, it is a big wine with lots of Syrah fruit, but also a strong spine of acidity that, in combination with the fuzzy tannins, gave the wine a sense of balance. Loren told me that the wine isn't acidulated, but that he does pick at greater ripeness (9°) than Copain does. Even so, there was no sense of overripeness, nor did it seem overly alcoholic. This is a wine that will need lots of time in the cellar.
At the end of dinner, Loren went one step farther and opened up a dessert wine, the 2000 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Goldert VT. As I explained to him, this was my first Z-H wine in probably close to two decades, and it confounded expectations by having sufficient acidity to avoid coming across as cloying. Instead, I got a huge whack of lychee fruit and a cleansing palate feel that kept it feeling not too heavy. The restaurant owner, after tasting some, brought over some fresh lychee fruit and lychee ice cream that went fabulously with the wine.
It was a night of fun conversation with newly-met people, very good food and a great lineup of interesting wines. With any luck, we will have a few more times to reprise this event during his daughter's 4 (5?) years at Purdue.
Mark Lipton
It was all I could do to convince Loren to let me bring a wine, but he relented and let me bring a "Loire white." My contribution to the meal was a bottle of 2008 Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Tuffeaux that, while still young, is oh-so-good right now: vibrant and lively, mineral-inflected citrus and quince, imparting a sense of near-dryness (sec-tendre). It worked really well with the appetizers (basil rolls, spring rolls and mango salad) as well as my main course. I had brought along a second bottle as backup wherein I discovered that one was a grey market bottle and the other a US import. This was the US version.
Loren had divined from my CT profile that I love the wines of Dujac, so he very graciously brought along a bottle of 2002 Dujac Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Gruenchers, which was still quite young and masculine but already showing quite a bit of appeal. The color had taken on a bit of bricking and the nose was a mix of dark raspberry fruit with some earthy undertones. The tannins were still in evidence and it was quite full-bodied on the palate but all seemed in balance and it should be a beauty in another decade or so.
Loren is also now a winemaker, proprietor of Sonkin Cellars, a Crushpad operation that purchases Syrah fruit from various sources. He treated me to a preview of his 2013 Sonkin Cellars Unmasked. He told me that this is a cool-climate Syrah, sourced from a vineyard located on the Mendocino Coast and made with a nod to Cote-Rotie. Loren had opened this recently-bottled wine 36 hours prior to service, and even so it seemed very primary. Clearly CA in nature, it is a big wine with lots of Syrah fruit, but also a strong spine of acidity that, in combination with the fuzzy tannins, gave the wine a sense of balance. Loren told me that the wine isn't acidulated, but that he does pick at greater ripeness (9°) than Copain does. Even so, there was no sense of overripeness, nor did it seem overly alcoholic. This is a wine that will need lots of time in the cellar.
At the end of dinner, Loren went one step farther and opened up a dessert wine, the 2000 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Goldert VT. As I explained to him, this was my first Z-H wine in probably close to two decades, and it confounded expectations by having sufficient acidity to avoid coming across as cloying. Instead, I got a huge whack of lychee fruit and a cleansing palate feel that kept it feeling not too heavy. The restaurant owner, after tasting some, brought over some fresh lychee fruit and lychee ice cream that went fabulously with the wine.
It was a night of fun conversation with newly-met people, very good food and a great lineup of interesting wines. With any luck, we will have a few more times to reprise this event during his daughter's 4 (5?) years at Purdue.
Mark Lipton