TN: A Thursday Afternoon (Oct 15, 2015)

J

Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
My office group comes to the cellar again. Buon Italia made out like bandits.

Wines were good:

Francoli 1967 Spanna Riserva - Birth-year wine for my brother and the reason for the visit to the cellar today. Tinny when opened, it got much sweeter and rounder over the course of a few hours in the decanter, but it never broke into full song. Rates "OK", maybe even "good", but certainly not more than that.

Franchino 2009 Gattinara - While waiting for the Spanna to come around, let's try some more mountain nebbiolo. This is promising and traditional but very young now. Wait on any further bottles for 5 years.

Brooks 2012 Riesling "Bois Jolie" - The calling card wine for my office group.

O. Leflaive 1993 Puligny-Montrachet 1er "Les Champs Gains" - Beautiful. Rich, old chardonnay with the vineyard's lemony snap still in there. Is there more out there?

Baudry 2012 Chinon "La Croix Boissee" - (Still) open for business. Somehow manages to be substantial and deft at the same time. So good.

ETA: Thank you, Jay, for the last two wines, both wonderful.

ETA: Oh, yeah, I have a photo for this one:
2015-10-15_cellar.jpg
 
The '67 Spanna had a remarkably lovely nose but I agree it fell down on the palate.

I see your co-worker didn't bid on those '93 CCs last week.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
The '67 Spanna had a remarkably lovely nose but I agree it fell down on the palate.

I see your co-worker didn't bid on those '93 CCs last week.
Click to expand...
She did not know where to look, and neither did I.
 
Jay, thanks.

Keith, This is my first bottle of 2009. (You can search here for a happy note or two on the 2008, which was the first vintage brought in, I think.) The 2009 is a "too young" nebbiolo wine -- meaning that the acidity is there and the roots of the roses are there but it's muted. It is also a mountain wine -- it will never have the ballast, structure and black earth of a barolo but it will be more red-fruity, a little lifted, a better match with some foods because it will not overwhelm them. It is also a traditional wine -- I can find hints of salt, iron, some far away tea and twigs, and even further away nutmeg and camphor. Nose is superior to the palate, but acidity is good. HTH.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
I'm curious about the Franchino, as it was pumped by both Flatiron and MCF recently and I'm a big Gattinara fan. What's it like?
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Mauro Franchino is a very small producer of Gattinara made in a classic, traditional style; minerality for days, violets and savory notes on the palate. Had the '08 in Gattinara last summer, and have had many vintages going back to the `90's. In Gattinara itself its actually much cheaper than many of the better known producers (Travaglini, Antoniolo, etc.). Lorella Antoniolo sells it in her shop, and she tends to carry more traditional, small producers from Alto Piemonte, as well as some from the Langhe.
 
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