Stamina/Old Wine

For so many folks the holidays are a wonderful and joyful, albeit stressful time of year. Not to belittle the work of anyone working in other sectors, but for those in the retail and service industries you especially can relate to the 'stressful' descriptor. Extra long lines to manage, harried customers to appease, additional hours to work in addition to the seasonal assortment of holiday preparation and partying. All of this would explain the paucity of material on this site of late. I'm in the midst of working 11 of 12 days, so maintaining stamina is key. Unfortunately, blogging has not been part of the regimen of late. Setting aside time for chorizo making, however, has been - look for a post on that soon. For now, though, how about some notes for older wines drunk recently? The Bordeaux and Silver Oak were all large format, I think 6L but cannot remember for certain.

1981 Cos d'Estournel St Estephe

Mature traditional Bordeaux nose, nothing too exciting. Rustic dark cherry fruits were shy and restrained initially, gaining more depth, floral qualities, and intrigue as it opened up in the glass. No revelation, but no slouch either, especially, I imagine, if you spend a bit more time with it than I did.

1986 Chateau Bellegrave Pauillac

Somewhat smoky nose. Red fruited palate that initially impressed for its brightness and proceeded to disappoint with a hollow feel on the mid-palate and a short finish.

1988 Chasse-Spleen Moulis en Medoc

Unyielding, or perhaps drying out? This was a quick 1 oz taste, not too carefully considered. And I must admit some prejudice as I have found this particular wine to be unexciting when tasted several times over the past few years. 1989, much better.

1983 Silver Oak Bonny's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Classic, spicy, dill inflected American oak driven nose. Fruit tastes clipped and has no purity, intensity or length. Not much to like on the palate, unfortunately. Didn't do it for me.

1955 Sandeman Port

Very herbal, sort of eucalypt/medicinal like aromas and flavors. Sweet red fruit. Yep, still quite sweet. While I may change my tune after tasting more older Taylor, as of yet the vintage port rarely makes me notice or care to drink it, let alone purchase it and drink it.

1973 D'Oliveira Verdelho

Yes! Deep chestnut honey colored, the wine has a terrific interplay of acid, dark brown sugar sweetness, and subtle spice notes. Hints of vanilla creme brulee. A winner.

1988 Barbeito Sercial Frasqueira

Holy shit! This golden-amber colored madeira has just a hint of residual sugar and a whole lot of acid. Be sure to decant it after opening to get this one going. And go it will. For the money, this is my favorite Madeira of the year. Granted, I've only had a half dozen or so madeiras this year, but given their performance this will definitely have to change in 2011.

1864 Averys Solera Madeira

Yes, you are reading this correctly. Some Civil War era madeira, or at least that's when the solera was formed. It was likely bottled in the 1960's, I believe, by the long established Bristol based wine merchant. This had a nice balance of sweet, dried fruits and spicy intrigue, though it definitely showed a bit of fatigue in the way that an older bottling of solera fortified wine can show. Sort of an element of grandma's old spice rack combined with her old brown liquor in the bar.

Long time, no youtube®

Proto yacht rock by the Beach Boys. Perhaps that's not really a fair description. This jam is delicious. Especially the B section. Live from 1973.

Fallen Glass Soldiers

Happy December.

Some very quick notes on what has been in the glass over the past week, primarily during the Thanksgiving break.

2009 Trabanco Sidra
Delicious as always

2009 Domaine de la Pepieres Clos de Briords (1.5L)
Ripe but mineral, forward, juicy and still complex. Awesome.

2009 Vinya San Felieu Rosat
Sans soufre trepat grape tastiness. Cornelissen Contadino with more upfront fruit. No more available in CA until 2010 - damn!

2007 Pedralonga Vendetta
Fancy albariño with a fancy price. Better than I remember it. Great texture, richness and minerality.

2000 Peciña Crianza Rioja (1.5L)
Beautifully mature Rioja. Soft, delicious fruit with some earthy/meaty savory development. Texture and balance define this wine. I'm glad we purchased 120 for the store.

2000 Monje "Monje de Autor" Tacaronte Acentejo
Intriguing, smoky/ashy dark fruit from Tenerife in Canary Islands.

2009 Michel Delhommeau Clos Armand Muscadet Sevre et Maine (1.5L)
A very decent drink, but when the bar was recently set by Briords this definitely falls short.

2009 Pierre Chermette Beaujolais Village
Supremely disappointing, this tasted too much like a good grower nouveau shipped to the States - not my cup. I've never had Nouveau in its natural habitat, so I can't make a blanket judgement about all nouveau, but the better ones I've had here don't do it for me. Based on my recent experience with this Beaujolais Village, 09 Chermette doesn't cut it either. I had one delicious bottle 2 months ago purchased from Chambers St. Maybe I just wanted to like the wine that night and my palate enabled me to do so?

2001 Luis Rodriguez Vazquez Viña Martin "Escolma" Ribeiro

Lots of words in that wine's name...anyway my mixed emotions about godello continue, even with this - one of the best growers. Initially, it is very ripe tasting, with lots of starfruit and an appley quality as well. Almost a sweet, orangey caramel candy quality. Think bulk caramel, not that butttery toffee-ish Werther's stuff. With a few days of fridge time, though, the intensity of flavors and minerality reveal themselves. Ruby red grapefruit and a cutting acidity that takes a while to reveal itself on the mid palate. Though I'm still on the fence with godello, the potential for greatness is clearly there. Would be curious to see the result of less stainless steel, less "sobre lias" (extended time on lees) and maybe some more experimentation in the realm of fermentation and aging vessels and possible extended skin contact (even if just a few days) to name a few possibilities.

Two Thanksgiving Recs

The holidays are for enjoying, not for stressing. They're for cooking simple foods, not driving yourself crazy over that 5 page recipe you read in The Way You Ought to Cook but Don't® magazine. As for wine, you could check out one of the two daily US newspapers who actually have intelligent, well informed reporters covering primarily wine on a full-time basis. Here is one and, right here, the other. Their suggestions are typically spot on. Or, you could check out a quick, witty take on the situation from any number of blogs, perhaps starting right here with these two suggestions:

1. Keep it Simple

Offering too many choices will confuse and ultimately, depress, your guests. You want your guests to be happy, not depressed. The holidays can be depressing enough on their own without you, Mr(s) Host, providing a perfectly roasted, brined, heritage turkey with foraged morel mushrooms, stuffing made from the rustic bread you baked from the new Tartine bread book, mashed potatoes grown in your backyard garden and a homemade galette from heirloom apples you picked off your neighbor's tree. And you're going to serve 6 different cru Beaujolais, including a normal and 'N' no sulphur added Marcel Lapierre Morgon, as well as Chenin Blanc from Anjou, Jasnieres, Vouvray and Montlouis? Get a fucking grip, douche. Keep it simple.

2. Drink what you like

Like Turley Ueberroth? Cool, do it up. It's your party and your guests might be miserable, but you are the one hosting all those begging Turkey freeloaders anyway, so as long as you're happy, go ahead and serve the Paso Robles zinfandel. Alternatively, perhaps you plan to serve only magnums of Thierry Puzelat La Tesniere Blanc? If that's what you feel, go on now and do it. Just save some for me.

What drinks are we serving Chez 360? Magnums of Rioja and Muscadet. Some variety of Deschutes for the beer drinkers. Trabanco sidre and cava for the chef and special guests while we party and prep beforehand.

We keeps it simple and we drinks what we like.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. See you after the hangover is over and the house is cleaned.

Four Rieslings in Five Days

Apropos to last week’s post on focused drinking, I decided that Riesling would be a logical place to experiment given that, over the past year I have, I’m embarrassed to say, dialed back the Riesling consumption. So, 2009 is supposed to be a terrific vintage for Riesling. Plenty ripe, I’m sure, as it was all over Europe, but likely producing many delicious wines to drink and age. I’m starting with the trocken (dry) styles, given that these are the wines I know the least, and that trocken wines in ripe vintages tend to be a pretty good combination.

There are four wines, tasted over the course of five days, which I will try to shed some light on here in three stages.

Day 1 – Introduction to the Trockens

I selected four wines priced from $14-$20:

2009 Josef Rosch Riesling Trocken

Very simple, ripe, stone fruit without a whole lot of interest texturally. One for uncritical drinking to sip without much thought or expecting much pleasure. Meh.

2009 Von Schubert Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Trocken

Whoa – sulphuric funkiness on the nose. Slatey as well, that double Ruwer combo of slate and sulphur, I believe, is painfully bad in trocken form. Not a big fan. Also, some weird bitter cherry cough drop type aromas as well. Maybe will improve with some fridge time.

2009 Keller Estate Riesling Trocken

Soft, pure, poached pear and ripe orange citric deliciousness. The wine managed to be the ripest of the bunch, but still refreshing, balanced and mineral as well. At the time, I was thinking this to be texturally closer to demi-sec to sec tendre Loire chenin than to riesling.

2009 Okonomierat Rebholz Riesling Trocken.

Very compressed, tight, mineral, tangy and DRY. Sort of a greenish quality to it, with subtle citric and vege notes that brought lighter gruner veltliner to mind more than riesling. A tough one to initially guage.

Day 2 – Sunday lunch

A glass or 2 of wine with lunch is one of life’s simple pleasures which unfortunately so many of us stressed out, overworked Americans miss out on – regular wine drinkers included. Anyway, I continued to check the development of these wines, this time in a more leisurely format while enjoying my Sunday away from work.

2009 Josef Rosch Riesling Trocken

Improving. Firming up, brighter fruit and acidity, more focus. Let’s upgrade this one from “meh” to not bad.

2009 Von Schubert Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Trocken

Still more ‘nast than Conde.

2009 Keller Estate Riesling Trocken

This was one of my two lunch glasses. Delicious but maybe starting to taste a little too ripe? Getting spicier and the texture, which I formerly though of as soft, is getting a little bit heavy and viscous. A glass was just the right amount.

2009 Okonomierat Rebholz Riesling Trocken

Markedly better. Fleshing out a bit, still showing wonderful minerality and bright, snappy citric fruits, but spreading throughout the palate more. At this point I am beginning to favor this one to the Keller.

Day 5 – Final Impressions

2009 Josef Rosch Riesling Trocken

Starting to lose some intensity and impact. Still, its not a bad drier Riesling for the masses.

2009 Von Schubert Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Trocken

Nope. Never again.

2009 Keller Estate Riesling Trocken

Alright, there is likely some botrytis in this wine. The texture is too viscous, the flavors too ripe and spicy, for this not to be the case. Without a doubt, this wine was at its best for me on day one.

2009 Okonomierat Rebholz Riesling Trocken

My favorite. Compared with a few days ago, it opened up slightly, though not remarkably. Mineral, fresh, invigorating, decidedly dry, but balanced trocken Riesling.

Random Oldies Tasted Recently

A self explanatory title. And here we go.

1999 Hanzell Chardonnay Sonoma Valley

Rich, ripe, oaky chard, as expected. Getting on just fine, though, provided that rich, ripe and oaky is what you like. Sort of a fat balance. The George Foreman of chardonnay based wine.

1996 Frederic Esmonin Griottes Chambertin Grand Cru

Stemmy, earthy, sour cherry nose leads to a palate that is rather firm and acidic, yet one dimensional. Closed? Or goin' nowhere? If I were a betting man I'd say the latter but I know better than to bet, particularly when a wine's development is in question. That said, 5-2 odds that this wine only gets marginally better.

1996 Frederic Esmonin Gevrey Chambertin Estournelles 1er Cru

Baked red fruit aromas show some interesting advancement, though they do lack focus and layered nuance. A bit rough and tumble on the palate, with tangy dried cherry fruit and slightly unbalanced acidity. Still, this is a much more enjoyable bottle than the GC above.

1970 Chateau Beychevelle St Julien

A gem from the famous Mahler Besse cellars in Bordeaux, always a good sign regarding a wine's provenance, provided it hasn't changed hands much or at all along the way, of course. In this case the bottle came directly from their cellars, though, and it showed terrifically. A slightly sweet smoky balance of fruity and savory aromatics waft from the glass. Classic. Savory cherry flavors on the palate, with just a hint of herbaceousness, velvety texture, good length, and elegance for days. Once again, a classic. Five stars, Five mics, Five @'s, and 95 points.

1994 Pahlmeyer Merlot Napa Valley

'70 Beych was a tough act to follow, and unfortunately for Pahlmeyer it was in such a position. Perfectly acceptable wine, with a ripe sweet, dark fruited nose leading to a more ripe, front loaded example of red wine. Still balanced, just a different type of balance from a different part of the vine growing world.

1985 Veuve Clicquot (1.5L)

Big, toasty, yellow fruited nose, with some golden currants and other ripe fruits present. Ripe and showing a bit softer, fleshier, and flabbier (that's champagne flab, by the way, so not all that flabby) than I might have expected. Better, and enjoyed in the past year: Clicquot's 1988 and 1980. At least that's how the respective bottles showed for me this year.

1962 La Lagune Haut Medoc (1.5L)

La Lagune is, for lack of a better way of putting it, something of a 'super haut medoc' for the quality of its terroir, its wine, and track record of ageing. I have enjoyed tasting this wine from such diverse vintages as 2003 and 1998, which says something as I rarely enjoy the taste of young to middle aged Bordeaux these days. This showed a real smoky, meaty quality on the nose. Think Bubby's brisket - if you had a bubby who made brisket, that is. Otherwise, just think braised short ribs. Sweet and savory flavors are ripe and spicy, sort of a vinous version of the house chipotle ketchup at Monk's Kettle in San Francisco (purveyors of the best tasting best value plate of fries in the city). With all respect to this bottle of wine, which is still drinking at 48 years of age, I would prefer those fries and chipotle house ketchup.

1995 Ridge Jimsomare Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains

One of my favorites of this group, from the great state of California and the premier grape growing region of the Santa Cruz mountains, Jimsomare is composed of all cabernet from this little known Ridge vineyard, located below the Monte Bello vineyard, and below the fog line. It generally only goes to Ridge wine club members. For those nostalgic for classic Paul Draper wines, here's one for you. 12.9% abv. Rustic dark berries and currants on the nose (brambly currants, not syrupy cassis, ya listening Napa?). Firm but elegant flavors on the palate, with very pretty dark and blue fruits, bright acidity, tannins that are still on the youthful side and overall just a wonderful balance and presence. Terrific.

Drinking: A focused practice

"I'm focused, man" - Jay-Z

At some point last week, I remember the one and only El-P, independent rapper/producer extraordinaire and head "Def Jukie" (founder/head of Def Jux Records) tweeting something to the effect of "Attn: rappers. I don't need to know how focused you are every time you rap" (this is a commonly overused word in the rapper's lexicon - 'focused'). It brought a smile to my face, though for the past two weeks, at least as it relates to my drinking habits, I must admit: I'm focused. It has been a very sherry dominant period, as I have probably had eight sherries up in the mix, in the fridge and in the wine "cellar" of my apartment.

There is something you learn by comparative tasting flights, no doubt. However, what you can learn by picking a handful of wines from the same region, or perhaps contrasting in whichever ways you choose to select, and drinking them over the course of a week or two, is invaluable. I plan on doing so more frequently.

I am towards the end of the sherry focus (though there will still be plenty of it around regardless, you can believe that).

Next?