Heavy Hitters Night
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2004 7:40 am
The evening started at Chez Seaquam with a couple of interesting white wines:
Balthazar Ress Hattenheimer Spatlese, Mosel '97
Seaquam and I went down memory road with this wine, it was a rather high scoring WS selection (92pnts) for it's modest price tag. I remember buying several for cellar back then, none remain after a hot summer a few years ago when my thirst for German Rieslings couldn't be quenched. Lovely sweet fruit of marmalade and nutmeg on the nose. Lovely and long finish of smart acid and apricot fruit. Loved it !!
Peter Lehmann Semillon 1995
Interesting wine that's great to pull out for wine geeks. Within showing it's age through a rather dull yellow/green glint colour, it had a remarkable nose of freshness of fruit. Lovely citrus lime and intense mandarin. The palate is bone dry with a rich viscosity.
The dinner, wines were poured blind:
Flight one
Krug Grande Cuvee
Bready/yeasty lemon, quintessential nutty almond, some earthy wet leafy decay and wet dog or wet wool. I think the thought of this having a bit of age comes from the earthy nature of this wine. Very fresh and zesty with acid and lemon on the palate.
Bollinger Grande Annee 1990
Deep and rich golden colour. The nose was filled with interesting cheesy notes of Brie, lockeroom and brulee pudding caramel. Spicy cinnamon and caramel on the palate with fresh acidity made this one of top wines of the night for me. Big heady Champer.
Flight two:
Freemark Abbey 'Bosche Vineyard', Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 1992
Beautiful rich and deep Cabernet colour, no signs of age in this 12 year old Cabernet. It was quite remarkable in what seemed to depict amazing longevity. Even on the palate this wine still showed youth and exuberance, powerful tannins within the deep currant fruit and nutmeg spice. There was some earth and leather on the finish with a sturdy set of tannins gave us a great thrill. A remarkable wine that could easily go another 10 years.
Château Musar, Lebanon, 1995
Just in looking at this wine I could tell this was the Musar, I've had it many times and the tell-tale sign of cloudy cranberry juice is almost always a stand-out feature. I have had one Musar I liked, but the others always reminded me of sweet candy-floss. Medium bodied, strawberry sweet fruit upon first opening is right away a turn-off for me. I am not a fan of Musar and I never understood the hype and cult following either. The strangest thing happened with this wine in a half hour in that it morphed into something quite different in a short period of time. Noted by Patty suddenly it became fuller, richer and extremely earthy. The palate gave away some barny manure and slight astringency on the finish. Interesting but weird, I'm still on the fence but astonished by it's evolution with air.
Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 1997
This wine has been the subject of much bashing on the wine BBs for it's over-use of new American oak, and it was obvious which wine was the SO just on the nose.
Full richness of colour, deep and dark with coconut and sweet black fruits, certainly masked by the massive oaky nature. It's actually an enjoyable wine if you're not oak adverse, yet it's hard to discern much more beyond that vanillin.
Argiano Solengo Toscana 2000
This was a brilliant Bordeaux blend of various proportions with no native Italian varietals. The nose blasted out with great expression of Christmas forthcoming, I was quite surprised this was Italian as the richness indicated a warm climate New World blend. The aromas were both rich and intense with licorice, nutmeg and clove spices. Stunning structure and bone dry tannins, yet a plush mouth-feel of chocolate and black fruit carried an amazingly long finish.
Stunning wine, my WOTN.
Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 1997
Classy, sexy and sensuous, a bit of old world nuances with pencil lead and cocoa. Not over the top, rather silky and medium bodied and elegant with soft ripe fruit. A classic Napa and an old favourite of mine.
Chateau Suduiraut, Sauternes 1990
Canned orange fruits, evolved earthy deep rich farm honey, apricot pits, some richness with motor oil nuances and burnt caramel. A beautiful pairing with pear tart and vanilla Ice cream.
Thanks so much to Bart for putting this evening together and donating many of the wines, it was a great blast-off to the Christmas season.
Cheers,
Mishy
Balthazar Ress Hattenheimer Spatlese, Mosel '97
Seaquam and I went down memory road with this wine, it was a rather high scoring WS selection (92pnts) for it's modest price tag. I remember buying several for cellar back then, none remain after a hot summer a few years ago when my thirst for German Rieslings couldn't be quenched. Lovely sweet fruit of marmalade and nutmeg on the nose. Lovely and long finish of smart acid and apricot fruit. Loved it !!
Peter Lehmann Semillon 1995
Interesting wine that's great to pull out for wine geeks. Within showing it's age through a rather dull yellow/green glint colour, it had a remarkable nose of freshness of fruit. Lovely citrus lime and intense mandarin. The palate is bone dry with a rich viscosity.
The dinner, wines were poured blind:
Flight one
Krug Grande Cuvee
Bready/yeasty lemon, quintessential nutty almond, some earthy wet leafy decay and wet dog or wet wool. I think the thought of this having a bit of age comes from the earthy nature of this wine. Very fresh and zesty with acid and lemon on the palate.
Bollinger Grande Annee 1990
Deep and rich golden colour. The nose was filled with interesting cheesy notes of Brie, lockeroom and brulee pudding caramel. Spicy cinnamon and caramel on the palate with fresh acidity made this one of top wines of the night for me. Big heady Champer.
Flight two:
Freemark Abbey 'Bosche Vineyard', Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 1992
Beautiful rich and deep Cabernet colour, no signs of age in this 12 year old Cabernet. It was quite remarkable in what seemed to depict amazing longevity. Even on the palate this wine still showed youth and exuberance, powerful tannins within the deep currant fruit and nutmeg spice. There was some earth and leather on the finish with a sturdy set of tannins gave us a great thrill. A remarkable wine that could easily go another 10 years.
Château Musar, Lebanon, 1995
Just in looking at this wine I could tell this was the Musar, I've had it many times and the tell-tale sign of cloudy cranberry juice is almost always a stand-out feature. I have had one Musar I liked, but the others always reminded me of sweet candy-floss. Medium bodied, strawberry sweet fruit upon first opening is right away a turn-off for me. I am not a fan of Musar and I never understood the hype and cult following either. The strangest thing happened with this wine in a half hour in that it morphed into something quite different in a short period of time. Noted by Patty suddenly it became fuller, richer and extremely earthy. The palate gave away some barny manure and slight astringency on the finish. Interesting but weird, I'm still on the fence but astonished by it's evolution with air.
Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 1997
This wine has been the subject of much bashing on the wine BBs for it's over-use of new American oak, and it was obvious which wine was the SO just on the nose.
Full richness of colour, deep and dark with coconut and sweet black fruits, certainly masked by the massive oaky nature. It's actually an enjoyable wine if you're not oak adverse, yet it's hard to discern much more beyond that vanillin.
Argiano Solengo Toscana 2000
This was a brilliant Bordeaux blend of various proportions with no native Italian varietals. The nose blasted out with great expression of Christmas forthcoming, I was quite surprised this was Italian as the richness indicated a warm climate New World blend. The aromas were both rich and intense with licorice, nutmeg and clove spices. Stunning structure and bone dry tannins, yet a plush mouth-feel of chocolate and black fruit carried an amazingly long finish.
Stunning wine, my WOTN.
Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 1997
Classy, sexy and sensuous, a bit of old world nuances with pencil lead and cocoa. Not over the top, rather silky and medium bodied and elegant with soft ripe fruit. A classic Napa and an old favourite of mine.
Chateau Suduiraut, Sauternes 1990
Canned orange fruits, evolved earthy deep rich farm honey, apricot pits, some richness with motor oil nuances and burnt caramel. A beautiful pairing with pear tart and vanilla Ice cream.
Thanks so much to Bart for putting this evening together and donating many of the wines, it was a great blast-off to the Christmas season.
Cheers,
Mishy
I was expecting some 15.5% Ozzie 
.