Wine Musings Vol#46

Wine of Merit: ****Aubert, Lauren Vineyard, Sonoma coast, chardonnay, 2004: Very Special. Even more Burgundian than the Ritchie vineyard. Rich, perfumed, unctuous nose of clover honey, white flowers, marzipan and linseed. Over time, more tropical fruit is added. Fat, but not flabby, the palate shows more candied orange zest, lovely minerals and a hint of café latte. Finish is long, with Asian spice and more citrus. Like the Ritchie, I am impressed that a wine of this complexity can still be so seamlessly presented and so fresh. So worth it - though on the open market it is getting pricey.

***++Favia, Cerro Sur, Napa valley, cabernet franc, 2004: Wonderful, open knit signature of ripe plum, red fruit, espresso and black truffle. Very inviting – like a crackling fire on a winter day. The palate is seamlessly integrated and coating, and not shy on oak, adding licorice, sandalwood and baker’s chocolate. Firm, fine finish that still integrates beautifully with the rest of the palate tells me that this wine is age worthy – meaning it is great now and I am sure will develop added complexity and nuance if you can just keep you hands off of it in the short term. Good luck! I bought a few bottles at Amanti Vino but will buy more, even at $80+.

***++Andrew Will, Ciel du Cheval Red, Washington State, 2005: Fabulous. I have paid tribute to Chris Camarada in other postings…I dig his wines very much. They age effortlessly and always put balance and flavor integration at the head of the class – where they belong. This wine is simply delicious. Ripe and velvety, it offers warm, merlot-driven aromas and flavors of blackberry, violets, black cherry and mocha. Plenty of well integrated oak. The cab franc adds yummy black truffle, bay leaf and earth. Satiny, lush, but not flabby at all it still has great concentration, nice minerals and even though very approachable – a promise of a long life. The finish is long, succulent and sweet. Dynamite. At $50 a pop I would buy this before I would buy say Blackbird vineyard merlot from Napa – not that the latter is not delicious…it is just $30 more a bottle and I’m not sure why.

***++Beringer, Private Reserve, Napa valley, cabernet sauvignon, 1990: I have heard about inconsistent aging for this wine, so I wasn’t sure. Instead it was lovely. Juicy, almost chewy…delicious, right out of the bottle. Elements of ripe plums and chocolate covered blueberry, licorice root and fresh topsoil…wonderfully complex and intense but very much integrated. This wine has great stuffing…it approaches my “meal in a glass” definition. The palate is expansive and shows off that juicy-fruit goodness. The finish is long and silky. Nice balance throughout. A wine you can very much enjoy now, though it is not going anywhere soon. Hooray!

***+Paolo Scavino, Carobric, Barolo, 2000: Poetic. Lyrical. Surprisingly light in hue and intensity of color, the wine still delivers lovely, almost pinot like aromas of red currant, ripe plum and black cherry fruit, slate, green tea and spice box. With time more blue fruit and a beautiful candied violet. The palate is still very firm, adding more minerals and briar. Great, seamless structure. Long, fine finish – lots to spare here. Amazing how the fragile flavors complement the huge frame in almost a harmonic way. Wine as song! Surprisingly affordable at under $70.

***+JL Chave, Silene, Crozes Hermitage, 2005: What a buy this wine is. Available at under $20 a pop, this unassuming Crozes is well crafted, almost delicate and absolutely delicious. Bright red cherry and currant fruit, a nuance of garrigue, briar and cracked pepper, each element amazingly detailed, jump from the glass. The palate is also bright and lively, with a nice backbone from beginning to end, red fruit and iron, the finish medium-long, peppery and fine – a great food wine. Easy to drink, correct, could be a killer every day wine…as in I could drink it everyday! Super!

**++Eric Texier, Brezeme Pergault VV, Cotes du Rhone, 2005: Texier and I definitely see eye to eye. He has a clear and strong appreciation for balance, integration and natural flavors. This CdR was offered by Crush Wines in NYC as their best buy in 2007 (@$26). It is an old vines, 100% syrah based wine. In fact, it is much more Hermitage than it is Cotes du Rhone. Initially very racy red/blue berry, pine needle and chalk and camphor, time in the glass reveals bacon fat, grilled meat and groovy Mediterranean / North African spices. Wonderful integration of flavors and aromas. The palate perhaps is more CdR, bright acids, black pepper, more red fruit and olives – but still showing a strong backbone. Long, firm finish. This wine shows the balance and structure that will reward aging. Very nice.

**+Herman Story, White Hawk vineyard, syrah, Santa Barbara county, 2005: I was drawn to this wine because of its shared provenance with our own Trois Fils syrah, of the same vintage. Further, this wine has received accolades; including a 93 point score from Vinfolio and an assertion that winemaker Russell From was their “Winemaker of the Year”. Fair enough. To the wine: Trois Fils on steroids! It is the wine Pax would have made with my grapes. Everything about it is, in my opinion, exaggerated. 16.2% alcohol, it is a huge wine, with a fiercely tannic backbone and maximum extraction. The fruit characteristics are almost identical to Trois Fils; baked blueberry cobbler, mulling spices, vanilla bean, white flowers…all there with perhaps a more syrupy juiciness about them. The palate and finish are disjointed, at once fat and harsh. It has an added element of briar and green-ness…I am guessing because of an increased addition of stems or “whole cluster” as it is called (Trois Fils is whole berry, no stems). Honestly, very much a Pax-let’s-make-jet-fuel style of wine that I am sure Parker would love. Russell From says that as a winemaker he is more a carpenter than an architect…he sees himself as a cook, using the best ingredients – and I would agree. I think this wine lacks finesse…it is not like art that emerges from its medium but it is rather built from components - much more a recipe wine. Regardless of pride of authorship, I find it yummy but recognize that the White Hawk vineyard can make better wine. I think I should add a star to the Trois Fils rating!