By Teddy Tastevin
You gotta love Monday at Graileys. We had some of our favorite members in and a great restaurant sommelier to relax, converse and drink amazing wine. Almost all the wines blew away my personal expectations-even the “bad” vintage 1997 red burg and the 1990 white burg. Here were the goodies:
We popped a bottle of 1990 Ramonet Chassagne Montrachet les Vergers 1er Cru to start off and it did not disappoint. Sometimes it feels like aged White Burg from the 90’s can be hit and miss-the was a HIT. It rode on the right side of the line when it came to honeyed richness, marzipan, quince, hazelnut, super aromatic honeysuckle, creamy rich mouthfeel and LONG finish. This drank great over 4 hours and stayed as good if not better at room temperature. My favorite 90’s White Burg I have had yet in my limited Graileys time.
Next off I spied an off vintage of the awesome 1997 Joseph Drouhin Romanee St. Vivant Grand Cru and popped it open. The nose initially was full of roses, sour cherries, dried leaves, stony minerality and dried raspberries. It was light and elegant with a nice dried herbs and spice finish. After an hour it took on a bloody meat note and added power and depth-wow. This is a great bad vintage wine from the year I started college! It got better as it stayed open and the fruit got dener and darker as did the flavor-dried black cherries, dried rose petal and violets, crushed blackberry, fresh morel mushrooms and black truffles, turned wet soil. The flavors just continued to evolve.
Next we went on to 2 seperate 1999’s from Vincent Girardin – the same year I repeated my sophomore year in college and transferred to the University of Arkansas. Great wine led me to repeat the grades-but they tasted nothing like these! First we did the 1999 Vincent Girardin Corton Renardes Grand Cru. This was a meaty, brawny style of beaune pinot that might have lacked in elegance but made up for it in brooding power. It was showy out of the bottle and smelled of potting soil, wet mushrooms, pine, raw beef, cassis, plum, black cherry, tomato and dried roses. There was noticeable grip and a slightly rustic feel to the wine.
The second was the 1999 Vincent Girardin Bonne Mares Grand Cru and it tasted downright aristocratic compared to the Corton. I have always felt that Bonne Mares can be one of the heavier, more structured, more animal Grand Crus of the Cote de Nuits. The 1999 was drinking in a beautiful window right now and heralded a nice iron minerality with cream de cassis, black licorice, anise, cherry cordial, framboise, truffle, fudge and an enjoyable round, lip smaking tannin-acid balance. Good stuff!
During this time a bottle of 1999 Comte Armand Pommard Clos des Epeneaux 1er was decanted and was coming to life. It took a few hours to unwind – classic Comte Armand! It was a meaty, burly wine of depth with loads of dried herbs, dried leaves, cured beef, fennel, cassis, and blackberry. A very long and savory finish awarded patience.
After this savory meat-fest we needed some fruit, some oak,and some chocolate. We decided to drink 3 New World classics. The first was the 2001 Penfold’s 707 Cabernet Sauvignon from South Australia and it is the best Cab they produce. It was gorgeous and seamlessly overwhelming to the palate with oodles of eucalyptus, dried herbs (dill, fennel, tarragon), coffee bean, vanilla, cassis, black cherry, brambly blackberry, leather and musk. Very classy and balanced the wine is drinking with considerable finesse on the finish.
Next was the 2010 Robert Foley Merlot from Napa. This is a house favorite and Robert Foley has a trademark signature to his wines that this one possesses in spades. The mocha, cocoa, plum, damson, juicy black cherry and black raspberry are easy to love in these seamless, round generous wine with considerable mid-palate richness and a lingering flavor of violets and fudge. Delish!
Lastly we popped the 2009 Futo OV Cab Blend from Oakville. This is by far my favorite Napa blend for the price and is the second label to my current favorite Napa Cult wine: Futo FUTO. I like Cab Franc done in an opulent Napa style akin to Crocker & Starr and this fits that bill-only on steroids! There is a liquid minerality akin to iron and stone that serves as the chassis to this monster wine of enticing aromatics and flavors. On the nose violets, plums, wood smoke and fresh tobacco spring forth from the glass. A myriad of red and blue fruits come across as perfectly ripe and ample. With all this excess of flavor the wine remains balanced with jazzy acidity to reign in some of the weight of the wine. Impressive.
We finished with two classic French wine regions from two great vintages. First was the 1982 Gruaud Larose St. Julien 2nd Growth that one of our best members was kind enough to open. The wine was vinous and broad shouldered. A touch rustic for my taste, the nose and palate was all gravel, pencil lead, barnyard, pyrezene, pipe tobacco, barnyard, mushroom, and dried herbs. The wine was medium weight, spicy and earthy. Not the best 82 I have tried but it is great for the style.
Our final wine was the magnificent 2001 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape from the Southern Rhone. Vieux Donjon always has a saturated core with exotic spices on the nose – lavender, violets, creme de cassis, liquified blueberries, licorice and hot stones. A young polished powerful Cdp that will reward further cellaring and is slutty good now. Definitely for the fan of an international style of Cdp that gets big scores and has loyal devotees-myself included. Good stuff.
The wine of the day was the 1997 Drouhin Romanee St Vivant – It made me believe once again that great vineyards and great producers make great wines in “bad” vintages. Cheers to you Burgundy!