This weekend we traveled up to a house on the E shore of Lake Michigan for a quick getaway. Arriving late Friday, we grilled some ribeye steaks and opened a bottle I had lugged back from the 2001 alt.food.wine "field trip" to New Zealand with Ian & Jacquie Hoare and Lord St. Helier:
1999 Te Mata Awatea (Cab S/Merlot blend) nose: dark, plummy fruit, a hint of herbs palate: dusty tannins, restrained fruit, solid acidic backbone, suppleThis bottle, the last of the cache of wines brought home from that trip in '01 didn't disappoint in the least. On the basis of our impression on Friday, I'd say that it could easily have gone another 5 years, but it was a fine accompaniment to the steak, with the tannins helping cut through the fats of the meat.
On Saturday, we returned to a restaurant we like in the town of Douglas, MI. From their list, we got:
2007 Patricia Green Croft Vineyard Pinot Noir (Wilamette Valley, OR) nose: tart red fruit, a hint of minerality palate: taut, lithe PN fruit with plenty of acids, medium bodyStill painfully young, this wine really impressed me with its clarity of fruit and taut structure. As it sat open over the course of our dinner, the fruit grew deeper and more open. I have a sneaking suspicion that we ordered this same wine at this restaurant when we ate there in August, but if so it has gained with further time in the bottle. We were very impressed with the PN Ms. Green made while at Torii Mor and she seems to have not missed a stride making wine under her own name.
Mark Lipton