Tasting Notes From October 2003

Palliser Estate
2002 Sauvignon Blanc
Martinborough New Zealand
Yummy! This shows loads of grapefruit on the nose. Sweet fruit on the palate. Vibrant green streak. Like it. I can't believe that Steven Tanzer thinks this rates less than an 84. $13

Aldin
2000 Red Table Wine
Napa Valley
On the nose this shows characteristics of a Bordeaux varietal blend. A touch of stemminess, cedar, some rough and raw oak notes and red currant fruit. Just barely full-bodied with fairly supple tannins. This is acceptable but a bit overpriced. $25

Andrew Murray
2000 Syrah
Roasted Slope Vineyard Santa Ynez Valley
Cool climate Syrah nose of green peppercorn, roasted rocks and earth. Full-bodied but lacking depth and flavor in the mid-palate and finish. Somewhat disappointing. $25

Domaine des Cantarelles
2002 Viognier
Vin de Pays du Gard
Yummy floral nose - honey, apricots, spicy apricots - clove? Slightly tart but with decent concentration. Has some hard mineral edges. I like this almost as much as the 2001 which rocked my world. $12

Chateau de Campuget
2002 Viognier
This Viognier seemed a bit lacking in fruit. Lots of minerality and some subdued honey and apricot flavors. Okay. $8

Tasting California-grown varieties blind at Momo's

Williams Selyem
2000 Chardonnay
Russian River Valley
Blind White 1 - Sweet wax and apple nose. A bit leesy with more sweet apple fruit on the palate. Decent juice.

Stag's Leap Winery
2000 Viognier
Napa Valley
Blind white 2 - too cold. Chardonnay like fruit and some baking spices. French oak minerality. Completely surprised that this is Viognier.

Crocker and Star
2002 Sauvignon Blanc
Napa Valley
Blind white 3 - also too cold for tasting. Shows lots of sweetness with lemon cream pear fruit. Decent.

Chateau Montelena
1987 Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley Estate
Blind Red 1 - Deep color. Bit of funk and animal on the nose. Restrained cedar and currant fruit. Tannins smell like an early '90s or maybe a '96 Cabernet. Then it was a bit soft and fading. Dust in the finish. Surprised at how old this is, but I wasn't crazy about it.

Pride Mountain
1997 Merlot
Napa Valley
Blind Red 2 - Sweet new oak initially along with rich fruit, liqueur, caramel, alcohol. Burlap, mint and chocolate are secondary flavors. Sweet fruit. A bit one-dimensional and hot. Blackberry fruit. This seems to open some with time. Nice. $40

Cuvaison
1978 Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
Blind Red 3 - Funk and old wood on the nose. Lead pencil, leather. Moderate to full-bodied. Very interesting. I prefer this mightily to the 1987 Montelena. Thanks Howard.

Viader
1995 Red
Napa Valley
Blind Red 4 - Deep. Youthful. Tannin and acid in abundance. Coffee. Probably Cabernet Sauvignon mostly. Cedar and tart currant fruit. Lots of potential and nice balance. Bit monolithic and lacking in complexity.

Hartford
2000 Pinot Noir
Sonoma Coast
14.5% alcohol. This respresents nice value in California Pinot Noir. Classic Pinot herb nose - like tomatoe skins, cinnamon, piercing black cherry. Ripe, medium-full bodied, with good intensity and length. Moderate acidity for Pinot Noir. Nice. $22

Behrens and Hitchcock
1998 Cabernet Franc
Napa Valley
14.5% alcohol. On the nose there is a suggestion of rubber, along with raw oak, cedar, and variety characteristics of violets, pencil lead, and dry herbs. Slightly leafy and astringent. Muddy flavors. This is perhaps the best showing for this yet, but it is not every going to be a great wine.

Neyers
2001 Zinfandel
Tofanelli Vineyard Napa Valley
Nice Zinfandel…15.2% alcohol. Shows clove, cinnamon and a pleasant hint of tea on the nose. Tons of crushed black berry fruit, with some warmth from the alcohol and sweetness. Fairly high acidity keeps the wine rather light on its feet. This is the best Neyers Zinfandel I have had. $30

Kirralaa
2001 Cabernet Sauvignon
South Eastern Australia
Deep opaque color. Plump and rich black currant fruit with a suggestion of burlap and cigar box. Somewhat monolithic, but pleasant. Decent length. Won't blow your mind or your wallet. $15

Celebrating Carr's 26th Birthday at Home

Lewis
1999 Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley Reserve
From magnum - the cork showed seepage, but the wine generally seemed okay. Intense black currant fruit with a dollop of cedary oak. Full bodied, rich, and concentrated. Probably could have used a year or two.

Loring
2000 Pinot Noir
Garys Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands
Piercing nose of black cherries with a pleasant streak of acidity. This is a great Pinot, but somewhat leaner than I remember it.

Chateau St. Jean
1997 Chardonnay
Robert Young Vineyard
Creamy apple juice. A nice Chardonnay that seems to be hitting its stride.

Celebrating Carr's 26th Birthday at Lola

Darioush
2002 Viognier
Napa Valley
Yummy stuff…lots of very balanced stone fruit with lovely minerality and a hint of sweetness. Excellent balance between the overly lean style of Viognier and Dolly Parton. Delicious. $30

Bergstrom
2001 Pinot Noir
Willamette
A very earthy Pinot with a disconnect between its nose and palate. Seems restrained, earthy, a bit funky, and not particularly giving on the nose. On the palate the wine has wonderful length and a decent amount of tomato and strawberry fruit wrapped in a cloak of wet earth. Big acids but they don't cut the finish short.

Torbreck
2000 The Factor
McLaren Vale
A wow wine! Done in an old world style of elevage - meaning only neutral oak., but what intensity of fruit! Intense thick, volupuous black Shiraz fruit with secondary flavors of minerals, cloth, and perhaps meat and pepper. Incredibly long and harmonious in the mouth. Killer! $100

Mason
2001 Sauvignon Blanc
Napa Valley
This wine is already losing its zippy character that I love. Rounding off and becoming more or a lemon cream Sauvignon. Ripe fruit, and a pleasant quaff, but not what I normally love about it. $14

Fox Creek
2000 Shiraz Grenache
McLaren Vale
Hmmm, this wine is a bit of a mess. Rather like the Marquis Philips first tier wines, showing tons of vanilla cream, blackberry liqueur flavors. But this wine has a chunky, raw oak side that is a bit off-putting. Okay, somewhat glad I'm down to my last bottle. $20

Castano
2001 Monastrell
Yecla
Medium ruby in the glass with a slight haze. Shows Pinon on the nose - maybe hints at wax and eucalyptus. Pleasant sweetness, medium-bodied. A quaffer. $10

A Going-away party for Christine at Michael B's House

Dal Forno Romano
1996 Valpolicella

A treat - this was a gift from Lance to Christine. 14.5% alcohol. On the nose it shows a burlap quality along with some earth and a whiff of currant fruit. The palate is different in that it shows elevated acidity along with currant fruit and a slight edge of bitterness. $100

Domaine Champig?
2000 Clos St. Denis

Clearly an earthy Pinot Noir on the nose, with strong impressions of undergrowth. On the palate the wine sings a different tune, a fairly sweet attack along with well delineated, but not fat, flavors of strawberry. Apparently this winemaker hates America, but a few bottles still get imported.

Tenuta dell'Ornellaia
1998 Ornellaia
Bolgheri
This wine shows tons of potential. It had been open all day, but Chris Hayes would have preferred it be open for about 30 hours. Smells like tannin, old wood on the nose, along with minerals and a bit of mint(?). On the palate it is rich and full-bodied with tons of black currant fruit. Tight, but very concentrated. Nice.

Pride Mountain
1998 Merlot
Napa Sonoma Counties
Magnum - this showed better than any of the previous Pride 1998 Merlots I have tasted. Still rather chunky and out of balance with caramel oak and mocha, espresso dominating the black raspberry? Fruit.

Williams Selyem
1997 Pinot Noir
Hirsch Vineyard
This smells beautiful - tons of strawberry fruit with a hint of leafiness. Sweet red fruit with moderate acidity. Lacking complexity, but I like its forward style.

Jamet
1999 Cote Rotie

This wine was rather tight and not giving up much. Mostly olives and a roasted quality on the nose. Hints of good black fruit lurk underneath the closed body of the wine on the palate. Needs time.

Tornesi
1997 Brunello di Montalcino

This was surprisingly soft and accessible. Medium-full bodied with sweet dusty cherry fruit. Not bad.

Clarendon Hills
1998 Shiraz
Brookman Vineyard Clarendon
This started off with a funky nose, a bit reduced. With time it seemed to come and go, I suppose as my palate became accustomed to it. Sweet and rich black and red fruit on the palate with a bit of creamy texture.

The Last Syrah for Christine at Lola

Pride Mountain
1995 Cabernet Franc
Sonoma County
Drinking nicely, though it is was my one and only bottle. Shows a fair amount of oak but it frames rather than dominates the wine. A touch of pencil lead, je nais se qua on the nose with rich, moderately intense currant fruit and cedar. The 25% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend seems to add a structure. $30

Carlisle
2000 Syrah
Dry Creek Valley
A very satisfying wine. Has a big nose of Eucalyptus with a creamy vanilla component. Liqueur. Rich, sweet red fruit. Very Australian in style. Kudos Mike. 15.9% alcohol. $36

Pride Mountain
2001 Syrah
Napa Valley
Not much memory of this - it had a lot of oak along with an interesting pepper/floral/rubber nuance on the nose. Full bodied and monolithic. I think I preferred the spiciness of the Carlisle.

Lignier
2000 Chambolle Musigny

A very pleasant little red Burgundy. I wonder how much it costs…rather low acidity with pretty strawberry fruit.

Lewis
1997 Syrah
Napa Valley
A very nice showing for this wine. Has a floral violet quality on the nose along with toasty oak. I might guess this sees a combination of French and American oak. Yummy crowd pleaser.

Chateau Rieussec
1983 Sauternes

Delicious stuff - lovely honey with a hint of botrytis, white raisins, and minerals. Amber color in the glass. Actually not too bad with the scallop dish I had.

Leonetti
1998 Cabernet Sauvignon
Walla Walla Columbia Valley
Fantistic nose of licorice or anise on the nose and finish of this wine. Large scaled, moderately sweet and fairly structured. Nice.

Copain
2001 Zinfandel
Arrowhead Ranch Sonoma County
about 15% alcohol. This wine was huge and tight. Actually I might call it austere. Big, intense, but lacking fruit and nuance. Judgement reserved.

Cuilleron
1999 St. Joseph

This is possibly the best St. Joseph I have tasted. Full bodied with appropriate acidity, nice peppery nose with a touch of funk. Good. One taster thought it smelled like Mourvedre.

Beaurenard
2001 Chateauneuf du Pape

This wine was surprisingly tight and unapproachable for a Chateauneuf du Pape. Tar, structure. Don't remember much else.

Texier
2001 Cotes du Rhone
Brezeme
A wine for acid freaks.

Turley
1998 Petite Sirah
Hayne Vineyard Napa Valley
I was surprised how accessible this wine was. I found it lacking characteristics of Petite Sirah, though it was round, lush, and sweet. Rather late in the evening and I may have missed some of the nuance.

Domaine les Aphillanthes
2001 Cotes du Rhone
Cuvee de Galets
A juicy wine with Grenache aromas of kirsch, strawberry and powdery soil on the nose. Juicy black cherry fruit on the palate with sappy fruit, moderate acids and medium-full body.

Domaine Corbillieres
2002 Touraine
Sauvignon
An excellent value Sauvignon Blanc with surprising fruit intensity for a Loire Sauvignon. Piercing lime, quince, gooseberry fruit on the nose with tangy acidity and lingering hints of minerals. $9

Alban
2000 Syrah
Central Coast
Round, fairly rich Syrah with a nose of smoke, burnt rubber, and pepper. Black fruits on the palate with good, not great concentration. Not bad. $20

Carlisle
2000 Zinfandel
Gum Tree Ranch Russian River Valley
Killer nose screaming with baking spices and Eucalyptus. Sweet, rich bramble fruit, crammed with flavor and interest. Spicy, jazzy, sweet. 125 cases. Includes some Petite Sirah and Alicante Bouschet. I love the spices on this wine. $30

Cheers!
James

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