Casual dinner at Benson's.
1997 A.-F. Gros Richebourg - naturally smooth but a bit on the weak side due to the vintage, and faded quickly in the glass.
2006 Araujo Viognier Eisele Vineyard - this is quite a rarity, since the grapes are grown to be blended with the winery's Sauvignon Blanc as well as co-fermented with the Syrah. The bottling of the Viognier only occurs in vintages where there are excess grapes, and apparently only 30 cases were made. This was very interesting - very Californian - and the nose was a bit sharp with a hint of tropical fruit.
1997 Dominique Laurent Charmes-Chambertin - I had opened this in the office, and the wine had more than a hour of breathing time when we got around to it. This was classic grand cru Burgundy, and much more powerful compared to the Richebourg. Nose of five spice and smoked meats. Given the weak vintage I was satisfied with the performance.
2000 Prieure-Roch Chambertin Clos de Beze - this was a couple of years younger, and it was easy to sense the youthfulness of the wine, and the black cherries in the nose was also a lot more obvious. Overall it was pretty good.
Chateau du Terte - unfortunately I don't remember the vintage, but the wine performed better than I expected. It was, after all, a Fifth Growth Margaux that I had never tried before...
2001 Lokoya Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain - surprisingly this was not as "Cali" as I expected, and the alcohol level as well as concentration were more in line with Bordeaux classed growths of recent production. Very nice indeed.
Full post on dinner is here.
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