TN: Kremstal, Napa, St Aubin, St Amour, Mercurey

Apr 18, 2023 Last reply: 3 years ago 1 Replies

Curried chicken breast with zucchini dish, with cauliflower, noodles,& salad



2020 Nigl Urgestein Riesling Apple and peach, citrus zest, with pine needles and peach blossoms. This is less overtly mineral than some other Nigl bottlings, but there’s plenty of verve in this snappy food friendly wine. B+/B

No wine with red snapper, quinoa, & spinach



Grilled pork tenderloin, squash, Japanese sweet potato, salad. The 2020 Bastide Blanc Bandol rose still had fruit, but it also had TCA (it occurred to me how it seems much less incidence of corked bottles in recent releases, but it ain’t zero).


2019 Billards St Amour Fuller riper edition, but still has a good acidic spine, crunchy red raspberry fruit, some menthol and pepper. B/B+

Salmon, asparagus, peppers, salad



2005 Genot-Boulanger “ Les Saumonts” Mercurey 1er Cru So I didn’t actually mean to leave this to age this long. Found some low end ‘05s in a box, looked and saw that on CT in 2008 I thought 2-3 years would do some good. Had a backup ready, didn’t need. Black cherry, coffee, bonfire. Pretty lively, with plenty of tertiary notes but also solid body of fresh fruit. Light but not empty, Quite happily surprised. B+/B

Grey sole, lentils with walnut oil, broccolini



2017 Joseph Colin Sur le Sentier du Clou St. Aubin 1er Cru. Full but with verve, pear and Crispin apple, citrus blossoms, lightly nutty, very good finish. B+/A-

Flank steak, squash, grilled ramps , grain salad



2004 BV Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon At less than 20 years old this is showing its age. Ripe kirschy fruit but with some ashtray, prune and a bit too much forest floor, short finish. Comes across as hot too. The old GdlT could age 50 years, styles have changed. C+

No wine with tandoori chicken Monday



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 party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.


Bah! The Portuguese menace strikes again. Maybe I'm just not very sensitive to reduction, but AFAIC bring on the screwcaps.

I pretty much avoided buying Beaujolais in 2018-2020 as they were just too ripe for my tastes. However, I've gone long on '21 and will post a full report in due time (as in, I have to start opening a few). As an aspiring Gamay producer myself, I've got to educate my palate on my preferred style (semi-CM vs full-on Burgundian).

Boo! :(

Thanks for the engaging notes, Mark Lipton

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