Friday, September 24, 2010

Barolo in the Mountains

August provided a rare alignment of the stars in which I found myself in the mountains of Colorado for work, mysteriously not all that far from Aspen and the Roaring Fork River valley. Fortune would have it that Rico Thompson was in the area and ready for some fly fishing, and maybe an after fishing tasting of wines from another distant mountain range. We met up on the Crystal River, a tributary of the Roaring Fork and tried our luck on a gorgeous day in the canyon lined with the Pennsylvanian age Maroon Formation. Two of us were fly fishing neophytes, and the results at the end of the day tended to reinforce this fact, but one could not fail to enjoy the turbulent, textured waters of the Crystal. The river was not easy to fish, and late in the day Rico found himself upside down in a large and fast moving pool. I myself chose to lean on a boulder that seemed much too large to move, but then found myself immersed as well (at least right side up).

For wines, we started at lunch with a couple of glasses of the 1996 Duval-Leroy Champagne Brut, which had been opened the night before. The straw yellow wine, despite lacking a bit of the fizz of a freshly opened bottle, showed the (successful) characteristics of the vintage, with powerful, bold, clearly etched flavors of great intensity, with just a touch of creaminess and sweetness to round out the edges. At dinner that night in Carbondale, we sampled two Barolo of different styles, the 1998 Giacosa Barolo Falletto di Serralunga (white label) and a1999 Sandrone Barolo le Vigne. While this seemed to be an opportunity to wax eloquent upon the differences between “traditional” and “modernist” approaches, we mostly just enjoyed the wines for what they were. The Sandrone was showing impressively right out of the gate, with deep and ripe flavors of dark cherry flavors and aromas of smoke, leather, dust, tar, and cherry showing at least some oak influence. I thought that the oak on the Sandrone was perhaps 80% integrated, and there certainly was no shortage of raw materials there to balance these effects out. The tannins that were present were sweet and fine, not drying. But next to the Giacosa, the wine showed a bit less clarity and precision than what one might hope for, but I strongly suspect that a couple of more years in the bottle will help considerably in this respect.

The 1998 Giacosa Falletto started a bit slow, having been opened just before dinner, but its ascent was as steep as some of the cliffs along the Crystal River. Aromas of tar, balsamico, and violets emerged with time in the glass, and the wine showed a remarkable transparency and weightlessness that not everyone will associate with Barolo. The precisely defined sour cherry flavors were infused with spice notes that added to the intensity of the wine on the mid-palate and carried through on the long finish. By two hours, the wine was drinking beautifully, the boundaries between the aromatic and the flavors on the palate nicely blurred by wine’s inner mouth perfume.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Two Recent Chablis

I had an opportunity over the summer to taste two bottles of the 2002 Brocard Chablis les Clos, a wine I drank some years ago at our Chablis Fest. In between the bottles this summer and that tasting, I tasted one or two bottles that had struck me as pleasant, but otherwise not particularly compelling. What a little bottle age will do! This wine is now starting to drink very well, but perhaps even more interesting is the way in which it has developed (probably recognizable to the Chablis experts out there). The 2002 Brocard les Clos shows the characteristic almost oily richness of the vintage that others have noted, but the wine started out as a round, juicy, well built Chablis dominated by rich citrus notes that have now given way to a kind of two-toned character--an even sweeter, almost viscous initial attack on the mid-palate that is followed by long, slightly bitter quinine notes on the finish. It is almost as if the initially largely monolithic (if flavorful) wine has bifurcated, morphing to a much more complex and interesting two-headed beast in which the sweet and acidic elements appear at different times.

Another recent wine is the 2006 Fevre Montmains, which I have seen some refer to as beginning to show tropical fruit notes. I myself picked up no such tropical fruit notes, but noted instead a distinct development of more pronounced (white) floral aromas infused by finely comminuted chalk dust. In short, on an excellent aging trajectory from what I tasted a few years ago now, although maturity is still a couple of years out.

Two Pinot for Lunch

At lunch at Wood Tavern in Oakland we were able to sample two Pinot Noirs that provided an interesting contrast in styles. The 2006 Windy Oaks Proprietor's Reserve showed an ethereal, high-toned aromatic profile, with distinct notes of dill that provided a suggestion of incipient complexity in this still quite young wine. Seamless and light footed in the mouth, this struck me as actually closer in style to the high altitude Rhys from 2007 that I have tried than it did the 2004 Rhys Alpine Vineyard tasted along side of it. The 2004 Rhys Alpine showed darker fruit and a much spicier flavor profile, apparently linked to the use of whole stems, with a slightly rustic side that suggested a Nuits-St-George to Lou Rittenhouse. (An interesting contrast was the dark fruited 2007 Rhys Home Vineyard tasted earlier, which shows greater depth, even darker fruit, and significantly greater length than the 2004--here the comparison in my mind was a spicy version of a Vosne-Romanee Malconsorts, just to the north of the NSG border). The 2004 Rhys Alpine doesn't show the weightlessness of the 2007 (or even 2006) high altitude Rhys wines, nor their finesse and length, but still it is an enjoyable wine that could still benefit from a few years in the bottle. In the case of the 2006 Windy Oaks Proprietor's Reserve, the lack of structure and minerality has me wondering how much this will improve with time in the bottle, but perhaps it is just meant to evolve along different lines...

2000 Grand Puy Lacoste

I am slowly tasting my way into the 2000 Bordeaux, but this was my first GPL from that vintage. Decanted for nearly 2 hours, this gave me some additional confidence that the overall vintage will come through as advertised. On the nose, this is still reserved, but the very deep cassis and dusty leather and smoke aromas make themselves known nontheless, to the point where I had a hard time pulling my nose out of the glass at all. Some times these brooding, dark and deep aromas are more beguiling than those in a fully mature (20 year) Bordeaux, and this seemed to be a case in point. In the mouth, this is positively succulent, with excellent volume and density, and an almost creamy mouthfeel that comes across as perfectly balanced in all respects--the complete palate experience.

A Space-Time Warp in the East Bay Hills


The usual suspects convened in a cul de sac deep in the hills of the East San Francisco Bay for an attempt at a space-time warp, connecting with Piemonte through wine and food, and maybe even a different era if we were lucky.


1999 Pol Roger Blanc de Blancs
Golden in color, a fine mousse, terrific energy and definition, but with a creamy aspect revealing notes of yeast and orchard fruits. At least one taster’s favorite of the night, this showed a complicating bitter element on the palate that went beyond the usual citrus with its suggestions of anise and quince. I might have guessed this blind as a 1996 because of its power, energy, and clarity on the palate. This certainly served its role as a suitably aristocratic aperitif, making the hairs on the back of the neck stand up in anticipation of what was to come.

2009 Giovanni Almondo Roero Arneis Bricco delle Ciliegie
Bright, charming fall quaffer, certainly a bit simple compared to the big boys in the lineup, but offering a seductive combination of gravelly citrus and tropical fruit on the nose.

1999 Valentini Trebbiano d’Abruzzo
This was the best bottle yet of this wine, obviously benefiting from 2+ hours of aeration. On the nose, exceedingly complex, with asynchronous elements miraculously melding—nuts, apple, yeast, and a distinctly sauvage element of thistles and underbrush lurking there. On the palate the complexity is perhaps not so obvious, but the nutty apple and yeast flavors turn sweet, focused, and palate-coating in the mouth. This one gets extra points for its complete originality—this isn’t your mother in law’s wine, as they say.

1998 Giacosa Barbaresco Rabaja
I guessed this to be a much older wine based on the apparent maturity of the nose, and as compared to a 1998 Giacosa Barolo tasted a couple of months ago with Rico Thompson. But this one apparently benefited from the six hours of air time that Lou gave it (in contrast to the hour or so that Rico gave his, but then he was upside down in the river prior to that), with sweeping aromas of tarry dark cherry and wild underbrush. On the palate, equally energetic, with sour cherry flavors beginning to emerge, but also an impressive viscosity and palate coating quality. It seems Giacosa never disappoints…

1998 Borgogno Barolo Riserva
Less approachable than the Giacosa, this has not yet shed it substantial tannins, but the depth and the dark cherry profile promise something special in the future. Surprisingly deep and rich on the palate, this is just beginning to emerge from its shell.

1967 Borgogno Barolo Riserva
Objectively, if I was a paid critic, I would probably give this 94 points or so in recognition of its perfect balance, its excellent depth, and harmonious aging. Subjectively, this is a different story, at least for me for whom it provided an out of body experience. Was Odysseus handing out points to the Sirens while chained to the mast? I think not. How do you analyze the pleasure this wine gives, which is so obviously subjective? I cannot discount the intellectual and emotional impact of the time warp here—one literally feels transposed to another time when tasting this wine. All I can say is that I had a hard time pulling my nose out of the glass, even stooping so far as to commandeer a few extra tastes from one of the others who had reached their limit. On the nose this provided a range of dried flower aromas that would take a botanist the better part of a year to catalogue, like opening an old mahogany chest of drawers filled with dried flowers as somebody remarked. Fruit seems to be an afterthought here, at least on the nose, although the suave, perfectly poised dark cherry flavors are there saturating the palate. This wine seems to have shed all of its tannin without sacrificing any of its fruit. This reconditioned wine is in perfect shape, or at its “apogee” as Parker might say, a textbook example of why you cellar wine.

1997 Avignonesi Vin Santo
Another completely original wine, so dark and viscous that the physical lingering of the wine on the palate contributed obviously to its length. Flavors of plum and dark cherry, with a vibrant acid core that seemed to energize the wine. Perhaps others could do better justice to this wine, since I was still strung out by the 1967 Borgogno…