By Simon Roberts
The decadent wine indulgence continued on Thursday evening with Dave and his mate Mark Schwartz in town. Mark flew in from San Francisco after meeting Dave and member Brandon at a recent Golf Tourney at Spanish Bay. After hearing about the Graileys weekly shenanigans and daily wine tastings, Mark took it upon himself to check it out in person; a good move on his part. So last week was full-on, to say the least.
This little soiree started with a wonderful 1996 Hubert Lamy St Aubin 1er Cru Les Murgers de dents de chien that was drinking extremely well. Great Chardonnay like this is a pleasure to drink and cannot be missed. With pre-mox issues prevalent lately, I am happy to report this wine was showing none of it. This was a breath of fresh air and a lovely little pull from the cellar. As the night gained momentum so did the wines such that an impromptu Graileys- style dinner erupted. We initially planned on heading out to dinner but got too comfortable sitting around with a line-up of beautiful wines in front of us that we ended up ordering in. Hunan Express was the food pairing of choice… go figure. Certainly, we loaded up on it; we had enough to feed a village.
The wines for dinner included a knockout 1997 Jadot Criots-Batard-Montrachet pulled by Brandon. This screamed crème brulee with purity, balance and stunning fruit. When these white burgs are on there is nothing like them. The caveat is, you keep chasing that high. Next up was the 1998 Penfolds Grange pulled by Bill. This was a monster wine, firmly structured and brooding in the glass. This continued to evolve and for the next two hours, this blockbuster just kept getting better. This 98 Grange is definitely all it is cracked up to be; a near perfect Shiraz with undeniable aging potential.
With the pressure now fully on, Mark and I wandered in the back to fish one out that can compete with the table. I thought something a little different would do the trick; sitting on the racks, staring at me was an unassuming bottle of 1990 Burgaud Cote Rotie. A client recently bought this wine and had called back soon after for more. He went on and on about how this was drinking extremely well so I kept a couple of bottles for my personal stash and boy did he get it right. The initial nose was pure Cote Rotie with burnt tar and spice. For those few around the table who are not used to older Cote Roties, this was a little too funky for them, but this was right up my street. After half an hour, the smell of flowers started emanating from the glass replacing the initial funk… this was a seriously lovely bottle of Syrah that slowly blossomed over the course of the evening. Wine is always intriguing and this bottle of Cote Rotie is no different. How can a wine that smelled so funky evolve into this gorgeous, elegant wine? This wine just kept growing on me; there is no beating a wine that makes your pulse race, one that makes you ask questions… this is what wine is all about, right? Refusing to be outdone by the French, Joe, who had a serious baptism by fire tasting some of the world’s greatest wines on his first two visits here, opened a stunner, a 1994 Phelps Insignia. This is a great wine and I mean go-for-the-Hail-Mary-great! This vintage of Insignia is at the peak of its drinking window right now. As a matter of fact, the 94 Cabs I have tasted recently are nothing short of perfection and Phelps absolutely nailed it with the 1994 Insignia. The sweet fruit and perfect balance of this wine was beyond compare; a velvet hammer that had a finish like Tyson. This was definitely a knockout night by any measure.