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May 8, 2006
The Grapes of Man
By which I mean Man (pronounced "Mahhhn"), my brother-in-law and not Man, as in homo-sapiens. Man is a classically trained French chef and in town for a few days to visit us and his father, who is recovering successfully at our place from his recent surgery.
Boy, have we drunk some great wine. A few highlights:
1987 Niebaum-Coppola Rubicon: Still great after all these years. A strong color, if not the rich, dark Imperial purple of younger Rubicon. A seductive nose, and a nice, complex range of flavors. Perhaps not quite that long, it is nonetheless a great, great wine. It could go perhaps another 5 years and still improve somewhat.
1998 Gravner Bianco Breg-Lovely, with a rich honey color and notes on the nose of honey and straw. Man feels that it is almost like a good white Burgundy in terms of earthiness and oakiness, but with a really dry fruit quality with pears, figs, apricots.
1985 Vina Tondonia Rioja Gran Reserva-A really great wine, if only for practice: it has been a long time since I struggled with a dried out and completely unccoperative wax covering over the cork. Seriously though, a great, elegant, stately older rioja, we enjoyed it deeply on the back porch watching the rain fall.
2004 Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir-Give this one some air for 40 minutes or so, if only to let it come out and play. I think that this is much more of a cult wine in certain corners of the West Coast wine world in which Man travels. He was stunned by the price ($45). This is a big, very fruit forward California Pinot, but one that brings a range of flavors to the nose and palate on a smooth and assured, if ten lane, California alchohol expressway.
2001 Domaine Louis Latour Chambertin Grand Cru Cuvee Heritiers Latour-A nice, though not overwhelming, Burgundy. A good choice for everyday sipping with a good book. Drink within the next 2-3 years, I think.
2002 Kistler Les Noisetiers Chardonnay-Kistler is a cult Chard producer, though I think that their Les Noisetiers is less well known. I generally don't like the prevailing trends in Cailfornia Chard, but this one was solid, elegant and assured. It certainly wasn't over the top in the sense of a lot of other California Chards.
We also spent a frightful fortune wine shopping. I re-loaded on the '85 Vina Tondonia, Hobbs Pinot and picked up a 2002 Domaine des Lambrays Clos de Lambrays.
Posted by dag at May 8, 2006 10:07 PM