Dinner Notes

Notes from a wine dinner (the noted menu choices are mine, others had different items):

With Foie gras terrine and duck rillette:

1996 Zind Humbrecht Clos Hauserer Riesling - now showing a bit of colour, this wine had a fairly rich nose of sweet fruit with only the obligatory touch of petrol, and it has tons of acidity and a long finish. I think it was better with food, which slightly moderated the acidity, than it would have been on its own. Very nice.

With Pan seared duck foie gras with fleur de sel on chef's brioche with apple, mustard and Parma ham, mixed organic greens salad

2001 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne Montrachet Clos de la Boudriottes - a red Burgundy from a white area and thus of reasonable price, I expect. An excellent fruit driven nose without any hint of ponginess but with a slight bit of tar, the wine very smooth and seamless in the mouth, finishing with medium length, clean and crisp.

With Roasted rack of local lamb with thyme, eggplant caviar, garlic puree with almonds

1989 Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou - this wine has received some lukewarm press, but it presented very well, and much more forward than the last time I tasted it. There was a good Bordeaux nose with cedar and berries, medium to full body with excellent concentration and the tannins are definitely still there, but are no longer obtrusive. Good length. I figure this wine will continue to improve for the next 2-3 years, with the remaining tannins blending in a bit better, and will then coast on the plateau for many years.

With cheese and nuts:

1993 Topolos Rossi Ranch Zinfandel - this late picked 15% wine was still in great shape - dark with a sweet blackberry and black pepper nose, soft tannins and a long, slightly hot and raisiny finish. A good complement to the cheese.

Back at home for some more cheese:

2001 Clos Mogador Priorat - a mere baby, but showing great class - dark, with some animal fur notes in the otherwise fruit based nose, the fruit on palate mellow, big framework and good length. Short on complexity right now, but it is an excellent wine and should show even better with a few years age on it.

1997 Bonny Doon Cigar Volante - my attempt at a Rhone clone to contrast with the previous wine, but when we smelled it, there was a cheesy nose, with rotting hay, very one dimensional. This was like being offered a nice Cuban cigar by a friend and seeing an 'It's a Girl' message in pink on the wrapper. This one goes back - previous bottles have shown reasonably Rhonish, even if they wouldn't make on guess it was a Beaucastel.

1999 Masi Grandirella - this recioto style wine had dark cherries in the nose, with a ripe obviously hot country facet, a bit of earth and a smooth long presentation on palate. It went well with cheese and continues to show much better than the 2000 did.
Reply to
Bill Spohn
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Thanks very much for that! I have a single bottle and was wondering how it was developing. Sounds like I don't need to feel guilty about diving into it now, but I'll probably wait awhile.

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

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