Oswaldo Costa
Oswaldo Costa
Thirded.
Thanksgiving wines
- Thread starter Jeff Grossman
- Start date
Thirded.
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
I was worried about it, after all the talk here, so I scheduled it for the drink-soon pile. Then, my Scottish house guests wanted a sweet wine so....
It was a really good bottle.
With a gaggle of inlaws, only a few of whom drink wine:
NV Piper-Heidsieck Cuvée 1785 struck a nice balance between richness and zippiness, with a lively sense of restraint. Great as an aperitif but also one of the most successful wines with the traditional fare. This house is rising on my estimation, though it won't displace non-dosé. Fizz from my affections.
Red wines proved to be a shitshow of problems. The 2010 Dupasquier Pinot Noir I'd lugged along was maderized and undrinkable, as was the 1999 Chateau Beaucastel pulled from my brother-in-laws Vinotheque as a replacement. Fortunately, the 2014 Yvan Metras Beaujolais I'd brought proved to be it's normal, beautiful self and proved to be a crowd pleaser.
Mark Lipton
NV Piper-Heidsieck Cuvée 1785 struck a nice balance between richness and zippiness, with a lively sense of restraint. Great as an aperitif but also one of the most successful wines with the traditional fare. This house is rising on my estimation, though it won't displace non-dosé. Fizz from my affections.
Red wines proved to be a shitshow of problems. The 2010 Dupasquier Pinot Noir I'd lugged along was maderized and undrinkable, as was the 1999 Chateau Beaucastel pulled from my brother-in-laws Vinotheque as a replacement. Fortunately, the 2014 Yvan Metras Beaujolais I'd brought proved to be it's normal, beautiful self and proved to be a crowd pleaser.
Mark Lipton
Peter Creasey
Peter Creasey
Mark, that is a BIG shock about the Beaucastel '99. It had to have been damaged at some point.
Jim, I had the Pegau '03 not long ago and it was terrific.
. . . . Pete
Jim, I had the Pegau '03 not long ago and it was terrific.
. . . . Pete
Terry Angleton
Terry Angleton
Nerleux reliably turns out delicious Cab Franc much of it VV and on occasion lightened with pinot d'aunis. They're shapeshifters. In a good way. More a Creighton Tull than Chingachgook punch. Ah-ooo, draw blood
Clos Roche Blanche 2014 Pinot d’Aunis Rose was a little unsettled out of the bottle but calmed and drank nicely with cheeses and Brie en croute. I don’t think it has much longer life in it but I’ve hidden a couple bottles just in case. Dauvissat-Camus 2005 La Forest was just beautiful pure Chablis with plenty of life left, while Coudert 2009 Clos de la Roillette began to sing after 90 minutes in a decanter; both paired well with my daughter’s first Thanksgiving dinner on our quick hit trip to the Upper East Side.
Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis
Was the CRB Pinot d'Aunis the rose? I do not recall a red Pinot d'Aunis in 2014, but perhaps I missed it somehow.
Christian Miller (CMM)
Christian Miller
American holiday usually means American wines for us. A better than expected Nicholson Ranch 2014 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, very much in the new restrained idiom with background oak, decent acid but still mouth-coating appley fruit.
Main pour was a stellar L'Ecole #41 2007 Columbia Valley Merlot from magnum - smooth deep not overripe current and marionberry fruit, modest oak spice, very long, not very complex but delicious. Followed by a 2014 Keenan Spring Mountain Zin , also tasty but unlike the usual Keenan style for Zin (more akin to Storybook), this one featured lively raspberry fruit that reminded several of us of Dry Creek, rather than Napa mountain fruit.
Main pour was a stellar L'Ecole #41 2007 Columbia Valley Merlot from magnum - smooth deep not overripe current and marionberry fruit, modest oak spice, very long, not very complex but delicious. Followed by a 2014 Keenan Spring Mountain Zin , also tasty but unlike the usual Keenan style for Zin (more akin to Storybook), this one featured lively raspberry fruit that reminded several of us of Dry Creek, rather than Napa mountain fruit.
There were many other bottles making the rounds, but these are things I had at least a glass of.
NV Egly-Ouriet Brut 1er Cru Les Vignes de Vrigny
A younger disgorgment but a great showing nonetheless. Smile-inducing complexity and richness over a tightrope of acidity with the low dosage already well-integrated. Perhaps my favorite pinot meunier Champagne.
2006 Gimonnet Blanc de Blancs Brut 1er Cru Cuvee Fleuron
Tasty, with good freshness to the chardonnay fruit, firm acid and a pleasing touch of reduction. This was at the extra brut end of the spectrum but was less austere and showed more classic Cote de Blancs character compared to a bottle one year ago.
As a side note, I'm sort of on the fence with Gimonnet overall but he made very good wines in this vintage. The '06 Special Club is perhaps the best wine I've ever had from this house; I've contributed to the demise of many bottles.
2002 Lanson Noble Cuvee Blanc de Blancs
Delicious with some nice development starting in at the corners. Big, creamy, classic Blanc de Blancs style that is too easy to drink. This kind of put the Gimonnet in the corner.
2010 Hudelot-Noellat Bourgogne Rouge
This was the most badly soaked and leaking bottle of 2010 HN I've opened so far, and the first that was strongly advanced. Drinkable but not right. Real shame about this vintage, I still have a few of the '10s and will drink them up in short order.
2007 Camus-Bruchon Savigny-les-Beaune
It's not going to change your world, but this was a quite pleasing glass of SlB pinot noir. Mostly harmless were the words that came to mind. It's nicely in the pocket in terms of maturity and I see no upside to holding this any further. Will be getting into some of the 1ers soon.
NV Egly-Ouriet Brut 1er Cru Les Vignes de Vrigny
A younger disgorgment but a great showing nonetheless. Smile-inducing complexity and richness over a tightrope of acidity with the low dosage already well-integrated. Perhaps my favorite pinot meunier Champagne.
2006 Gimonnet Blanc de Blancs Brut 1er Cru Cuvee Fleuron
Tasty, with good freshness to the chardonnay fruit, firm acid and a pleasing touch of reduction. This was at the extra brut end of the spectrum but was less austere and showed more classic Cote de Blancs character compared to a bottle one year ago.
As a side note, I'm sort of on the fence with Gimonnet overall but he made very good wines in this vintage. The '06 Special Club is perhaps the best wine I've ever had from this house; I've contributed to the demise of many bottles.
2002 Lanson Noble Cuvee Blanc de Blancs
Delicious with some nice development starting in at the corners. Big, creamy, classic Blanc de Blancs style that is too easy to drink. This kind of put the Gimonnet in the corner.
2010 Hudelot-Noellat Bourgogne Rouge
This was the most badly soaked and leaking bottle of 2010 HN I've opened so far, and the first that was strongly advanced. Drinkable but not right. Real shame about this vintage, I still have a few of the '10s and will drink them up in short order.
2007 Camus-Bruchon Savigny-les-Beaune
It's not going to change your world, but this was a quite pleasing glass of SlB pinot noir. Mostly harmless were the words that came to mind. It's nicely in the pocket in terms of maturity and I see no upside to holding this any further. Will be getting into some of the 1ers soon.
BJ, sorry to hear about this although it doesn't surprise me. I went through a half case of 750s of this vintage over the first year after release. One or two were ethereal beauties and the rest were all moderately to very unclean/off. These were all "N" bottles (no sulfur) purchased directly from Kermit's store in Berkeley.
Larry Stein
Larry Stein
Slaton, were these sourced through Premier Cru? I have 4 bottles that I purchased from them.
My family aren't wine geeks so I didn't bring anything too fancy.
NV Dom. Dupasquier Blanc de Blancs "Perles d'Aimavigne"
Cellared for around 3 years. Nice balance, toasty with lively fruit
2009 Marsannay "Cuvee Marie Ragonneau", Charles Audoin
Earthy notes, in a good spot, drink up now. Drank above its pedigree.
My step-daughter provided the following:
2016 Sancerre blanc, Dom. Daulny
Decent enough, but Sauvignon Blanc ain't my thing unless it's blended with Semillon.
There was a 2015 Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir. Don't recall the winery name. Too frooty for me.
Yes. IIRC the domaine acknowledged a bottling issue with this vintage, don't recall exact details but perhaps a combination of excess dissolved CO2 with overfill. Claude, Maureen or Keith probably know the full story.
As a result nearly every cork shows significant travel and many (most?) are leakers. As you might expect, with each year under cork the wines are showing more variation. I only have a few left.
Larry Stein
Larry Stein
Thanks for the heads-up. I hadn't planned on opening the first bottle for a couple of years. I'm going to storage this week and will grab one.
Hi Nathan,
Legrand is a classic producer in a Rosenthalesque sort of way. I had come across a handful of bottles in the US, but the encounter that connected was a bottle (or two) from Francois Chidaine's shop - I'm unsure of the cuvee or vintage, but it registered. Not top tier, but very solid.
Tremblay, I believe, used to be imported by Kermit. My main source of affection comes from a bike tour I did with a friend in the Outer Hebrides, where there is a lot of great shellfish - the only Chablis available was the straight ahead Tremblay village - it was in every decent restaurant, pub, and cafe. I drank a lot of it. A second tier, solid producer.
Nerleux is a new find, and it is worth seeking out. I should have mentioned the note is for the Chatains cuvee. Vines from 1933.
Jay Miller
Jay Miller
1997 von Schubert MG Herrenberg Spatlese. Unfortunately with my cold blocking everything up I couldn't really appreciate it.
Pavel Tchichikov
Pavel Tchichikov
lightly re-fermented, every single bottle
requires rigorous triple-decanting and a 20-30 minutes wait thereafter.
but well worth the trouble
Pavel Tchichikov
Pavel Tchichikov
This kinda doesn't add up. C-B were tremendously successful in 2007 (relative to the field), and leaving the 1er aside for the moment the lieu-dits (Pimentiers & Grands Liards) have outperformed gloriously. The aforementioned wines have also been cyclical - crazy delicious 5 years ago, but somewhat primary and a little superficially too-sweet lately. I am in no way questioning the accuracy of the report, but am surprised. I don't have any village 07 left unfortunately, but would have expected it either to mimic the others in closing up a bit or to be ahead of the curve and be delightfully complex by now, as this bottling is in most vintages.