Impressions July 2018

V

VLM

VLM
2009 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon La Croix Boissée
Posted on this already. In a wonderful place showing beautifully. Nice blend of fruit, acid with tannins moving to the back. Dark earth, minerals, herbs and an woodsiness give it complexity. Should continue to improve but excellent now.
2012 Cappellano Barolo Piè Rupestris Otin Fiorin
Yikes. So much for the approachability of the vintage. Bury.
1966 Ch“teau Léoville Las Cases
My last bottle of my stash of 1966s that I bought a few years back to have to drink with my parents on their anniversaries. Fully resolved, yet still lively in its mature aromas and flavors. Dried fruits, leather, earth and all the rest. A lovely drop, as they say. If it is not a great wine, it’s a profound one in that it lets us think about time, a lifetime in fact. I love my parents and it is a gift to be able to share these wines with them.
2014 Domaine Gramenon Côtes du Rhône Ceps Centenaires La Mémé
I really love this wine from Gramenon. From Grenache over 100 years old, it’s sappy, fresh and dense. Forcefully presenting spice laden, herb scented Grenache berry fruit with a firm backbone. This is lovely now, but will surely benefit from a few more years in the cellar judging from a bottle of 2005 last October (also one of the best wines I had last year). Expensive for CDR, but at least Charvin and Texier level if not Rays level good when it’s on.
2013 Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg Vosne-Romanée
This wine said fuck you and spit in my face. Strange how the village Vosne is always the most sullen of the Mugneret sisters wines. Do not touch for several years.
2012 Le Piane Boca
Having had the 2007 and 2010 recently, I was looking forward to this new vintage. Definitely needs at least 5 more years. Young and brooding, but all of the things I love about Alto Piemonte are there, they’re just waiting to come.
2005 Geantet-Pansiot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Poissenot
Absolutely singing. Might be a bit on the young side for some, but I loved the snap of minerals on the deeply pitched pitted red fruit that bordered on darker tones. Distinguishably Gevrey and a producer I think flies way under the radar. Poissenots is also a really interesting spot at the top of the Combe. If you have a stash, it’s worth opening one now but it will continue to improve for a while.
2008 Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg Vosne-Romanée
Great aromatics, which is the strong suit of 2008, but still a bit clenched on the palate. Air helped, but I think a few more years in the cellar will help more. Again, a bottle of Nuits Chaignots not too long ago was much friendlier.
2010 Rhys Pinot Noir San Mateo County
From Magnum, I really liked the way this showed. Strangely, it reminded me of Breton Morgon in weight and texture, but with CA pinot instead of gamay fruit. Delicious
2014 Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Clisson
Rich and also bracing and in a perfect spot for me. I’ll drink the rest of my bottles over the next couple of years. Those who enjoy more mature melon flavors can wait as long as they like, I think.
N.V. Jacquesson & Fils Champagne Cuvée No. 736
I really like where this wine is right now and based on current form, may put away some 740 to enjoy at the same stage. Wonderful texture and a nice balance of drive and baking spices plus doughy-ness. All the pear and apple notes you’d expect.
2014 Ceritas Chardonnay Heintz Vineyard
Ceritas make hands down my favorite wines with from CA with Burgundy grapes right now. The way the wines balance mouthwatering acidity and mineral tension with CA density of fruit can be really astonishing. Throw in the exoticism of Heintz fruit and you have a unique cocktail of a wine. Hats off, truly.
2014 Rhys Chardonnay Anderson Valley
This was really delicious chardonnay in a restrained CA style. Not remarkable in any way, but something I’d be happy to drink at any time. So maybe that alone makes it remarkable?
1998 Geantet-Pansiot Charmes-Chambertin
I think the best of this wine is in the rear view until it hits that fully mature Burgundy spot where wines become hard to distinguish. My last bottle and certainly not the best, but maybe I’m being a bit harsh. It was a perfectly good Burgundy on a weeknight with roast chicken (part of my new “fuck it” drinking plan) but I had expectations for more.

“Everyday” wines and stuff from restaurants don’t show up in my records, but from memory we went through a case of the delicious 2017 Matthiasson Rosé CA at the beach. It was great all around, at the table, as a thirst quencher, you name it. Consistently Steph’s favorite and one of mine too. We also enjoyed bottles of 2015 Hobo Zinfandel Alexander Valley in all its juicy brambliness with structure that only Kenny can seem to coax. The 2016 Monteraponi Chianti Classico is becoming out house sangiovese based wine right now. We enjoyed a delicious bottle of 2015 Le Piane Il Mimmo that was a direct, but friendlier, version of the Boca. Our summer Rieslings include the intense and unique 2016 Falkenstein Niedermenniger Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett trocken. What a bracing experience. Really drills itself into your memory. We also have been loving the 2016 Weiser-Künstler Riesling in a slightly gentler idiom. Still mineral, but with a bit more roundness and something almost earthy to it.
 
I like Geantet-Pansiot. It is also a poster child for really good Burgundy whose ageing curve is accelerated by its wood polish. Why this is, and why wood is so beneficial and even essential in ageing some high end burgs while it does *this* in other cases is left as a homework exercise that I don't think I can navigate at the moment.

Dude, of all M-G V-R vintages you could open, you pick 2008 and (gasp) 2013?! :-)
There is a difference though: while most 2013 burgundies will say fuck you in one way or another (2014s continue to please if you have an itch for young juice), in 2008 M-G stand alone, at least at the village/regional level. Even my Bourgogne is buried, which is one of the reasons I am out of many 2009s by now.
 
originally posted by VLM:

2012 Cappellano Barolo Piè Rupestris Otin Fiorin
Yikes. So much for the approachability of the vintage. Bury.
Click to expand...

I've been very much enjoying opening 2012 Giamello Barbaresco Vicenziana, so so drinkable. But I think it's a very different wine from your Cappellano.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by VLM:

2012 Cappellano Barolo Piè Rupestris Otin Fiorin
Yikes. So much for the approachability of the vintage. Bury.
Click to expand...

I've been very much enjoying opening 2012 Giamello Barbaresco Vicenziana, so so drinkable. But I think it's a very different wine from your Cappellano.
Click to expand...

A 2011 Cappellano Rupestris was approachable a few months ago (but a 2011 Pie Franco was absolutely not).
 
originally posted by VLM:.
1966 Ch“teau Léoville Las Cases
My last bottle of my stash of 1966s that I bought a few years back to have to drink with my parents on their anniversaries. Fully resolved, yet still lively in its mature aromas and flavors. Dried fruits, leather, earth and all the rest. A lovely drop, as they say. If it is not a great wine, it’s a profound one in that it lets us think about time, a lifetime in fact. I love my parents and it is a gift to be able to share these wines with them.
Click to expand...

That vintage resulted in a number of fine long-distance runners. Vintage-life correlations are one of great unique benefits of aging wine. Flowing in the other direction family-wise, a '66 Bordeaux served by my dad was the wine that first made me realize "Wow - wine can do this?!"
 
Geantet-Pansiot makes much better wines now than in the 90s. Less new oak and extraction, more stems (mmm, stems!)

I drank a bottle of the 2008M-G vosne last may and found it approachable and delicious. Not stern nor clenched at all.
 
originally posted by VLM:
Impressions July 20182009 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon La Croix Boissée
Posted on this already. In a wonderful place showing beautifully. Nice blend of fruit, acid with tannins moving to the back. Dark earth, minerals, herbs and an woodsiness give it complexity. Should continue to improve but excellent now.
2012 Cappellano Barolo Piè Rupestris Otin Fiorin
Yikes. So much for the approachability of the vintage. Bury.
1966 Ch“teau Léoville Las Cases
My last bottle of my stash of 1966s that I bought a few years back to have to drink with my parents on their anniversaries. Fully resolved, yet still lively in its mature aromas and flavors. Dried fruits, leather, earth and all the rest. A lovely drop, as they say. If it is not a great wine, it’s a profound one in that it lets us think about time, a lifetime in fact. I love my parents and it is a gift to be able to share these wines with them.
2014 Domaine Gramenon Côtes du Rhône Ceps Centenaires La Mémé
I really love this wine from Gramenon. From Grenache over 100 years old, it’s sappy, fresh and dense. Forcefully presenting spice laden, herb scented Grenache berry fruit with a firm backbone. This is lovely now, but will surely benefit from a few more years in the cellar judging from a bottle of 2005 last October (also one of the best wines I had last year). Expensive for CDR, but at least Charvin and Texier level if not Rays level good when it’s on.
2013 Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg Vosne-Romanée
This wine said fuck you and spit in my face. Strange how the village Vosne is always the most sullen of the Mugneret sisters wines. Do not touch for several years.
2012 Le Piane Boca
Having had the 2007 and 2010 recently, I was looking forward to this new vintage. Definitely needs at least 5 more years. Young and brooding, but all of the things I love about Alto Piemonte are there, they’re just waiting to come.
2005 Geantet-Pansiot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Poissenot
Absolutely singing. Might be a bit on the young side for some, but I loved the snap of minerals on the deeply pitched pitted red fruit that bordered on darker tones. Distinguishably Gevrey and a producer I think flies way under the radar. Poissenots is also a really interesting spot at the top of the Combe. If you have a stash, it’s worth opening one now but it will continue to improve for a while.
2008 Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg Vosne-Romanée
Great aromatics, which is the strong suit of 2008, but still a bit clenched on the palate. Air helped, but I think a few more years in the cellar will help more. Again, a bottle of Nuits Chaignots not too long ago was much friendlier.
2010 Rhys Pinot Noir San Mateo County
From Magnum, I really liked the way this showed. Strangely, it reminded me of Breton Morgon in weight and texture, but with CA pinot instead of gamay fruit. Delicious
2014 Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Clisson
Rich and also bracing and in a perfect spot for me. I’ll drink the rest of my bottles over the next couple of years. Those who enjoy more mature melon flavors can wait as long as they like, I think.
N.V. Jacquesson & Fils Champagne Cuvée No. 736
I really like where this wine is right now and based on current form, may put away some 740 to enjoy at the same stage. Wonderful texture and a nice balance of drive and baking spices plus doughy-ness. All the pear and apple notes you’d expect.
2014 Ceritas Chardonnay Heintz Vineyard
Ceritas make hands down my favorite wines with from CA with Burgundy grapes right now. The way the wines balance mouthwatering acidity and mineral tension with CA density of fruit can be really astonishing. Throw in the exoticism of Heintz fruit and you have a unique cocktail of a wine. Hats off, truly.
2014 Rhys Chardonnay Anderson Valley
This was really delicious chardonnay in a restrained CA style. Not remarkable in any way, but something I’d be happy to drink at any time. So maybe that alone makes it remarkable?
1998 Geantet-Pansiot Charmes-Chambertin
I think the best of this wine is in the rear view until it hits that fully mature Burgundy spot where wines become hard to distinguish. My last bottle and certainly not the best, but maybe I’m being a bit harsh. It was a perfectly good Burgundy on a weeknight with roast chicken (part of my new “fuck it” drinking plan) but I had expectations for more

“Everyday” wines and stuff from restaurants don’t show up in my records, but from memory we went through a case of the delicious 2017 Matthiasson Rosé CA at the beach. It was great all around, at the table, as a thirst quencher, you name it. Consistently Steph’s favorite and one of mine too. We also enjoyed bottles of 2015 Hobo Zinfandel Alexander Valley in all its juicy brambliness with structure that only Kenny can seem to coax. The 2016 Monteraponi Chianti Classico is becoming out house sangiovese based wine right now. We enjoyed a delicious bottle of 2015 Le Piane Il Mimmo that was a direct, but friendlier, version of the Boca. Our summer Rieslings include the intense and unique 2016 Falkenstein Niedermenniger Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett trocken. What a bracing experience. Really drills itself into your memory. We also have been loving the 2016 Weiser-Künstler Riesling in a slightly gentler idiom. Still mineral, but with a bit more roundness and something almost earthy to it.

2009 Baudry Chinon "Franc de Pied" (Not grafted on American post-phyloxxera rootstock): lovely this particular bottle of wine in August 2018 after storage in wine cellar since a (fortunate) vintage purchase from Kermit Lynch in Berkeley. I've been surprised and delighted by this wine at intervals since 2010: Wildness and black bark; griottes (cherries, not sweet,) and minerals, like you were surprised by digging up soil under your favorite black hickory tree in PA and this is what you smell; wonderfully relaxed with age without going slow; great with roast chicken and herbs in clay pot if you listen and listen, again...
Click to expand...
 
originally posted by Karen Goetz:
originally posted by VLM:
Impressions July 20182009 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon La Croix Boissée
Posted on this already. In a wonderful place showing beautifully. Nice blend of fruit, acid with tannins moving to the back. Dark earth, minerals, herbs and an woodsiness give it complexity. Should continue to improve but excellent now.
2012 Cappellano Barolo Piè Rupestris Otin Fiorin
Yikes. So much for the approachability of the vintage. Bury.
1966 Ch“teau Léoville Las Cases
My last bottle of my stash of 1966s that I bought a few years back to have to drink with my parents on their anniversaries. Fully resolved, yet still lively in its mature aromas and flavors. Dried fruits, leather, earth and all the rest. A lovely drop, as they say. If it is not a great wine, it’s a profound one in that it lets us think about time, a lifetime in fact. I love my parents and it is a gift to be able to share these wines with them.
2014 Domaine Gramenon Côtes du Rhône Ceps Centenaires La Mémé
I really love this wine from Gramenon. From Grenache over 100 years old, it’s sappy, fresh and dense. Forcefully presenting spice laden, herb scented Grenache berry fruit with a firm backbone. This is lovely now, but will surely benefit from a few more years in the cellar judging from a bottle of 2005 last October (also one of the best wines I had last year). Expensive for CDR, but at least Charvin and Texier level if not Rays level good when it’s on.
2013 Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg Vosne-Romanée
This wine said fuck you and spit in my face. Strange how the village Vosne is always the most sullen of the Mugneret sisters wines. Do not touch for several years.
2012 Le Piane Boca
Having had the 2007 and 2010 recently, I was looking forward to this new vintage. Definitely needs at least 5 more years. Young and brooding, but all of the things I love about Alto Piemonte are there, they’re just waiting to come.
2005 Geantet-Pansiot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Poissenot
Absolutely singing. Might be a bit on the young side for some, but I loved the snap of minerals on the deeply pitched pitted red fruit that bordered on darker tones. Distinguishably Gevrey and a producer I think flies way under the radar. Poissenots is also a really interesting spot at the top of the Combe. If you have a stash, it’s worth opening one now but it will continue to improve for a while.
2008 Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg Vosne-Romanée
Great aromatics, which is the strong suit of 2008, but still a bit clenched on the palate. Air helped, but I think a few more years in the cellar will help more. Again, a bottle of Nuits Chaignots not too long ago was much friendlier.
2010 Rhys Pinot Noir San Mateo County
From Magnum, I really liked the way this showed. Strangely, it reminded me of Breton Morgon in weight and texture, but with CA pinot instead of gamay fruit. Delicious
2014 Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Clisson
Rich and also bracing and in a perfect spot for me. I’ll drink the rest of my bottles over the next couple of years. Those who enjoy more mature melon flavors can wait as long as they like, I think.
N.V. Jacquesson & Fils Champagne Cuvée No. 736
I really like where this wine is right now and based on current form, may put away some 740 to enjoy at the same stage. Wonderful texture and a nice balance of drive and baking spices plus doughy-ness. All the pear and apple notes you’d expect.
2014 Ceritas Chardonnay Heintz Vineyard
Ceritas make hands down my favorite wines with from CA with Burgundy grapes right now. The way the wines balance mouthwatering acidity and mineral tension with CA density of fruit can be really astonishing. Throw in the exoticism of Heintz fruit and you have a unique cocktail of a wine. Hats off, truly.
2014 Rhys Chardonnay Anderson Valley
This was really delicious chardonnay in a restrained CA style. Not remarkable in any way, but something I’d be happy to drink at any time. So maybe that alone makes it remarkable?
1998 Geantet-Pansiot Charmes-Chambertin
I think the best of this wine is in the rear view until it hits that fully mature Burgundy spot where wines become hard to distinguish. My last bottle and certainly not the best, but maybe I’m being a bit harsh. It was a perfectly good Burgundy on a weeknight with roast chicken (part of my new “fuck it” drinking plan) but I had expectations for more

“Everyday” wines and stuff from restaurants don’t show up in my records, but from memory we went through a case of the delicious 2017 Matthiasson Rosé CA at the beach. It was great all around, at the table, as a thirst quencher, you name it. Consistently Steph’s favorite and one of mine too. We also enjoyed bottles of 2015 Hobo Zinfandel Alexander Valley in all its juicy brambliness with structure that only Kenny can seem to coax. The 2016 Monteraponi Chianti Classico is becoming out house sangiovese based wine right now. We enjoyed a delicious bottle of 2015 Le Piane Il Mimmo that was a direct, but friendlier, version of the Boca. Our summer Rieslings include the intense and unique 2016 Falkenstein Niedermenniger Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett trocken. What a bracing experience. Really drills itself into your memory. We also have been loving the 2016 Weiser-Künstler Riesling in a slightly gentler idiom. Still mineral, but with a bit more roundness and something almost earthy to it.

2009 Baudry Chinon "Franc de Pied" (Not grafted on American post-phyloxxera rootstock): lovely this particular bottle of wine in August 2018 after storage in wine cellar since a (fortunate) vintage purchase from Kermit Lynch in Berkeley. I've been surprised and delighted by this wine at intervals since 2010: Wildness and black bark; griottes (cherries, not sweet,) and minerals, like you were surprised by digging up soil under your favorite black hickory tree in PA and this is what you smell; wonderfully relaxed with age without going slow; great with roast chicken and herbs in clay pot if you listen and listen, again...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
How do you feel about the value proposition offered by le Piane Boca? Recently had a discussion with the local retailer on this subject.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
How do you feel about the value proposition offered by le Piane Boca? Recently had a discussion with the local retailer on this subject.
Click to expand...

Ian, at around $50 (retail for more, but can find some for this price) I think they are a solid buy. Not sure what price you are looking at (I've seen them as high as $70 or so, and probably would not buy them for that.)
 
$50 is what I was looking at. My friendly interlocutor at Bassin's argued that this was unduly expensive for a Boca (about which I know nothing, myself), and steered me to another Boca Vigneron, who is or was putatively a le Piane grape supplier.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
$50 is what I was looking at. My friendly interlocutor at Bassin's argued that this was unduly expensive for a Boca (about which I know nothing, myself), and steered me to another Boca Vigneron, who is or was putatively a le Piane grape supplier.
Click to expand...

Davide Carlone? Please report.
 
Yes, it was Davide Carlone; sadly, I did not keep a record. I think it was the '12, opened this spring, so too young, but I wanted to get some data on decent Boca. Additional caveat that I'm still learning to walk, where assessment of Nebbiolo-based wines is concerned; the only thing I know for sure is that I have no skill at all at predicting the profile of these wines in maturity from tasting in their youth.

So ... for what it's worth. My general impression was: good quality fruit in a large-scale frame, borne down upon by an iron curtain of dense tannins, rustic in character. I thought it was a good wine, but not one for me, personally, to stock up on - partly because I am overstocked in general now, and, in red, I'm mostly buying a very few bottles I expect to drink in the distant out years, and mostly under 14% abv.
 
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