We took the dog with us over the hill to friends’ place for dinner. Appetizers were deviled eggs and an eggplant caponata, with the NV Veuve-C liquot Brut Champagne. Rounder style, fairly high dosage, but nice bead and mousse, good finish, unremarkable but to me better than in the years LMVH really exploded production. B Dinner was brisket with vegetables, mashed potatoes, broccoli , and kale sa lad
2013 Edmunds St John North Canyon Syrah Young but quite tasty. Black cherry and wild berries, a ferric mineral note , just a hint of roast meat. Flowers and a little citrus on nose. Some tan nic structure, but this is midbodied and really quite elegant for CA Syrah. This seems less burly than say the Durrells of old, but I think it will ag e just as well. B+ for drinking now, look forward to drinking an A wine in future. 2016 Clos des Roilette Fleurie Floral, red fruited, good herbiness, fun. B+/B Friday I had some chicken sausage and sauteed arugula, and opened the 2004 Donnhoff Riesling. Yep, just the estate. Totally alive, sweet tropical and peach flavors, a little gingery note. I don’t think this has really developed any complexity, it’s just a little softer and rounder th an bottles I remember from 10 years ago, but happy to have a couple more (b asically free as I was bidding based on other Donnhoffs in lot). B Then I went to Dave’s for meeting of local (non-serious) wine group . Theme was Wines from Between 30 & 45 parallels (north). Which is pretty b road- All of US, Spain, Greece, 95% of Italy, plus south of France. There was an off theme unblind wine while we gathered. 2014 Les Feneteaux ( Bordeaux). Plum, vanilla, rather hard tannins, midbodied. B-/C+ Dave had a nice assortment of sausage, cheese, etc while we had the blind w ines #1 Red fruited, smooth, medium acids, my initial guess was Chianti. Funnily , right before we started while looking at map I had said “we shoul d do Greece sometime.” 2016 Red on Black Agiorgitiko B #2 Mine, so no guesses. Hint of spritz, black raspberry fruit, fresh young Mencia. 2014 Pradio (Ribeira Sacra). B/B+ #3- light, red and black berries, a nice earthy/leathery note. pleasant eno ugh - Cotes du Rhone? 2014 Recanati Shiraz (Galilee). B #4- ripe, low acid, jammy fruits, my guess (since northern hemisphere) was hot vintage CdP. Most expensive wine of night, my least favorite. 2015 L ’Adventure “Chloe” (Paso Robles) C+ #5- Someone got CS immediately, but I thought CA. Black berry and currant, some overt vanilla, medium. (I missed vintage on this)Gilgal Cabernet Sauv ignon (Galilee) B #6- even oakier, some loved, this is sweet and too woody for me. 2016 Dalto n Cabernet Sauvignon B-/C+ #7 Red cherry, herbs, green tea leaves, good acids. Lightest wine of the ni ght, quite fresh. 2015 Heart and Hand Pinot Noir(Fingers Lake). B+/B Who’d thunk we’d have 3 Israeli wines, and my WOTN would be NY? Fun. Saturday we went to Riverdale to join some marchers for a post-march dinner . I carried some charcuterie as well as 2 kinds of sous vide cocktail- pars ley/shallot shrimp with a traditional horseradish dip, and lemongrass shrim p with a Thai (fish sauce, sambal olek, lime) sauce. NV Lamarca Prosecco- sweet short simple, just as I remembered C+ 2012 Taittinger Brut Champagne Young, fresh, apples chalk and brioche. B+ Main was short ribs and porcini over polenta, with a nice salad. 1997 Felsina Fontalloro While ‘97 is (to me) an overrated vintage in Tuscany, there are sti ll some good/great wines. Beautiful mature Sangiovese, black cherry and dri ed cherry, a little saddle leather and dried flowers, resolved tannins, goo d acid, good finish. I’d drink up soon, but quite enjoyable. B+/A- 2015 Menage a Trois red Sweet and jammy, like eating the filling from a fruit pastry. C/C+ Good night Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a p arty where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivi ty, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.- posted
6 years ago