Wade Hostler was in Finland
after a four year break so we met up to drink some wine and eat some
Raclette:
Tarlant Champagne La Vigne d'Antan Blanc de Blancs NVFrom ungrafted vines. A really lovely, bready aroma, lovely minerality; very crisp but in a friendly way, very moreish. Lovely.
Crushpad Töövi Roussanne Saralee's Vineyard 2010 -
Russian River Valley, CaliforniaQuite
closed. Some herbaceous aromas; good acidity for the grape. Clean and
focused style so it's a shame that even several hours of air didn't
really open this up.
Domaine Loew Pinot Gris Grand Cru Engelberg 2007Indice
de sucrosité 1/10. Right after opening, this was very expressively
aromatic with an almost sweet wine profile so the bone dry palate was a
bit of a shock. Revisiting this slightly later, the nose had calmed down
and the palate had improved. It is perhaps in a slightly inexpressive
stage (apart from the first five minutes after opening), but I thought
it was a pretty awesome dry PG with much extract but much structure.
Lovely. I slightly preferred this dry one to the Bruderbach below.
Domaine Loew Pinot Gris Bruderbach Clos Marienberg 2007Indice
de sucrosité 3/10. For a slightly sweet PG this is notably elegant.
Slightly spicy red fruit; crisp and acidic palate that the slight RS
ameliorates. Beautifully balanced and lovely.
L'Ostal Cazes Minervois-La Livinière 200970%
Syrah + Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre. Weird and stinky at first with
too much aromas of sweat and reduction to be enjoyable. It did somewhat
improve during the evening, but it never became enjoyable. Sweet fruit,
supremely alcoholic (14,5% on the label but I've had Islay whisky at 40%
that tastes more balanced). Not much fun to drink.
Crushpad St. Töppö 2009 -
BordeauxMerlot-Cab
Franc, c.14% abv. The hot year is obvious in this wine: it is big,
sweet, sunny and very ripe. But it also smells of Cabernet Franc and
Merlot in such a way that I can't imagine it coming from anywhere else
where a right bank blend is made. Rich and sweet but properly
structured, very concentrated but fresh. It needs time. Though moderate
for Bordeaux, the oak still does obfuscate the wine quite a bit and I
prefer to see the wine clearly.
Ch. Musar Rouge 1972Not
as good as our previous bottle four years ago. But this is most
certainly not due to this having gone downhill since then! This was
almost absurdly youthful: primary fruit aromas (peaches or some such
stone fruit); sweet palate that took four hours double decanted to
really come together. Initially the acidity lagged behind the fruit and
so the palate seemed disjointed but we managed to keep our hands off of
this for long enough for this to correct itself. Great wine, but not as
good as the previous bottle. But as we all know, there are no great
young wines, only great young bottles.
Ch. Musar Rouge 1977Finally
one more bottle that isn't corked! I have had terrible luck with this
vintage: of a dozen bottles this is only the second one to not be
corked. My other non-corked bottle was one of those rare
fuck-me-this-is-good wines. This bottle wasn't as good. The aromas
actually seemed a bit over the hill with some rye-bread/malt aromas. The
palate was really lovely however, lifted, energetic, lively and as
typical as can be for this property. Very good but not great.
Zind-Humbrecht Clos Windsbuhl VT Pinot Gris 199412%
abv. Special thanks must be given to Charles Morgan who gave this
bottle to Wade some years ago! And it was extraordinarily generous of
Wade to carry it from California to Finland! Thanks to these two awesome
winos!
A lovely botrytised wine. Spicy and exotic fruit; rich and sweet but
perfectly wonderful amounts of acidity to keep this from being cloying. I
must confess that Z-H hasn't usually been to my taste, but this was one
of the few wines of theirs that make me understand why they are held in
such esteem. No hurry with this. Drink and hold.
