Blizzard Wine!

K

kirk wallace

kirk wallace
What are folks on the east coast drinking with Blizzard Jonas?

As it got started last eve in NYC I reached for Côte rotie -- a too young and a touch too rustic (for me) 2010 Benetiere "Cordeloux". So that put aside for assay later, I found a 97 Bertrand Ambroise Corton "Le Rognet". Turned out perfect for watching the storm with some roast chicken and RG Moro beans & rice. 13.5% abv, but doesn't come across as that big. And nicely dense for a '97, but I don't have huge experience with Corton from Ambroise so I didn't know what the wines are like in other vintages. This one was appropriately muscular, but tannins and oak are nicely integrated. Supple but still with plenty of tension and dark fruit flavor. On the whole, I was glad I found it.

Today, as the storm arrives in earnest: Lauer Kupp 56 Fass 18 2011. 1/3 of the bottle to braised spareribs for tonigh. The rest with lunch. White flowers, wet stones and rainwater. Lemon rind (& a touch of pith). Great depth and just. beautiful. Perfect for blizzard b/c it reminds me of summer.
 
Last night, in preparation for what seems like a perfectly delightful January day for building a snowman that looks like Jacky Truchot in the park:

2014 Marnes Blanches Cotes du Jura Chardonnay “Vieilles Vignes" with shrimp curry. Not an ideal match, but the wine is outstanding and we were itching to see a spice pack from a great source in action. Smelled Jurassic all the way last night, but very much like a Meursault this morning.

This evening 2004 Breton Picasses with pork roast.
 
originally posted by kirk wallace: Lauer Kupp 56 Fass 18 2011. 1/3 of the bottle to braised spareribs for tonigh. The rest with lunch. White flowers, wet stones and rainwater. Lemon rind (& a touch of pith). Great depth and just. beautiful. Perfect for blizzard b/c it reminds me of summer.
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Sounds very nice. Tonight's Willi Schaefer 2011 GH Spatlese #8 is showing the downsides of the vintage, tasty enough but just a bit too dull. (And nothing like the brilliant 2012, which shows more succulent fruit and more dazzling mineral acidity)
 
A glass of 2014 Famille Laurent Saint-Pourçain seems about right for this charge of the elements.

Just read Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West and am now on John McPhee's Annals of the Former World.

Years ago I went to the volcanoes in Auvergne and swam in the Sioule.
 
Very happy to report that the Benetiere was all violets, crushed rocks and delicate purple fruit after 18 hours with vacuu vin stopper in the fridge. Really beautiful. So, my suggestion is leave it sleep, or open way ahead of when you want to drink it.
 
Last night before the snow was an excellent dinner at a new Jersey City BYO with perhaps the most incompetent waiter I've ever encountered.

2011 Bereche Rive Gauche was not as good as a bottle at La Fete du Champagne
1994 Torre Muga was a tad oakier than the last bottle I had but was a great match with the warm spices in the moussaka
1998 Giacomo Conterno Barolo was good with food but really needs another decade for my palate
2004 Lisini Brunello was delicious, probably my wotn

There were also two excellent Burgundies, a white and a red that I don't remember anything but the vintages, 2011 and 2005.

Today was a glass of 1978 Ravignan
 
originally posted by mlawton:
mmmmm. Rustic.
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If this is by chance a comment on my pork roast & chinon combo, I must point out that the pork is from Dickson's.

Fancy.

OK, it was meant to be rustic. It's the weather.
 
2002 Huet le Mont demi - another good bottle. When good, the wine is so on: exquisite sweet-sour balance with all the complexity notes that ageing brings. Precise like an extended Doc Watson solo. Only down side is the forced pace of drinking these 2002s every couple of months in fear of premature oxidation makes it feel a bit like chugging. But, things could be worse.

Moved to a 2005 D'Ardhuy Corton Hautes-Mourrotes, dominated by acid structure out of the bottle, with fine tannins and ... where is the fruit? What was there was good, but it verged on screechy. Day two, the fruit checks in and the wine is suddenly extremely good: fruit, structure, size and scale, everything in place. If not a top-tier grand cru Burgundy, at least a top-tier 1er. This bottle was a Premier Cru artifact, purchased years back for $25.

Walked through town this evening as the snowfall wound down, winds still gusting at 12-14 mph, was like a landscape from one of the post-apocalytic sci-fi books my son thrives on. But gorgeous.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
2002 Huet le Mont demi - another good bottle. When good, the wine is so on: exquisite sweet-sour balance with all the complexity notes that ageing brings. Precise like an extended Doc Watson solo. Only down side is the forced pace of drinking these 2002s every couple of months in fear of premature oxidation makes it feel a bit like chugging. But, things could be worse.

Moved to a 2005 D'Ardhuy Corton Hautes-Mourrotes, dominated by acid structure out of the bottle, with fine tannins and ... where is the fruit? What was there was good, but it verged on screechy. Day two, the fruit checks in and the wine is suddenly extremely good: fruit, structure, size and scale, everything in place. If not a top-tier grand cru Burgundy, at least a top-tier 1er. This bottle was a Premier Cru artifact, purchased years back for $25.

Walked through town this evening as the snowfall wound down, winds still gusting at 12-14 mph, was like a landscape from one of the post-apocalytic sci-fi books my son thrives on. But gorgeous.
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Post-apocalyptic scii-fi? Deus Irae? A Canticle for Leibowitz? Are there other examples of the genre? BTW, you know that the alternate title for the Book of Revelation is the Apocalypse of St. John, which helps explain the semantic drift of that word?

Apocalyptically yours,
Mark Lipton
 
I arrived and mentioned my reservation for a part of five. He seemed confused at the idea of a reservation but set up a table for five. A little while later he came over and asked if I'd like water I said yes and he asked, "water for six?" I replied , "no, five."

About five minutes later he came out of the kitchen with a tray of water glasses and dropped them on the floor.

About five minutes after that I asked if we could get another try with the water. He asked, "water for six?" I replied, "no, five."

About five minutes after that the water arrived and I asked if we could get menus. About five minutes later they arrived.

We ordered the selection of dips for the table while deciding on apps and entrees.

After 5 or 6 attempts to flag him down (he always stared straight ahead and ignored any customers trying to get his attention) we ordered appetizers and entrees.

About ten minutes later we asked about the dips. About 15 minutes later two of the appetizers arrived. After 5 or 6 attempts to flag him down we asked about the dips and the other apps. He consulted his notes and apologized. About fifteen minutes later the dips arrived. We asked about the remaining appetizers.

About 10 minutes later one of the remaining appetizers arrived. We asked about the other 2. He apologized again. About 10 minutes later the mains arrived shortly followed by the remaining two appetizers.

It was the tunnel vision that really did it for me. It is a tiny restaurant with 6-7 seatings. I would sit there waving my hand wildly while he was about 10 feet away to attract his attention and he'd proceed straight ahead glancing neither right nor left.
 
originally posted by MLipton:

Post-apocalyptic scii-fi? Deus Irae? A Canticle for Leibowitz? Are there other examples of the genre? BTW, you know that the alternate title for the Book of Revelation is the Apocalypse of St. John, which helps explain the semantic drift of that word?

Apocalyptically yours,
Mark Lipton
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Well, your posts do occasionally seem to presage the onset of the end of days - or did you mean to write 'apocryphally yours?'

Anyway, the St. John's has a somewhat longer pedigree and broader currency than Lenny Bruces routines; so, yes, this is a meme I'm acquainted with. Also, I've probably watched The Seventh Seal more times than is good for me.

Canticle for Liebowitz is a blast from the past, along with Zamyatin's We and 1984; takes me back to junior-year seminar in high school. We called them anti-utopias back then.

Nowadays, series like The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Legend qualify, under popular classification, as post-apocolyptic dystopias; at least according to my son, who has become something of an authority on such matters. He passes them on to me, and I read them at night when I wake up and can't get back to sleep.

Getting back to the Hautes Mourrotes, however, what a good wine - the memory still haunts me.
 
No blizzard here but the Domaine Pegau Chateauneuf du Pape Reservee '95 was outstanding tonight with Turkish food...arnavut cigeri, babaganush, lamb shesh kabob, tibuli, and Turkish bread with olive oil (sp on all of these?), then chocolate mignardises.

Really a special wine...and, yes, we drank it too young but have no regrets!

. . . . Pete
 
among a bunch of other wines last night was 1996 Scarpa Rouchet. sublime with chicken braised with mushrooms, bacon, and endive. worth seeking out.
 
Just guessing: complexity or complex notes.

And in the depth of the snow, I opened an '11 Les Chamois des Paradis. Mainly because it seemed like a chamois would be the right creature to be out there. It is a lovely bottle of Chardonnay. But complex it is not.
 
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