Day after Thanksgiving Wines

Day 2 on the magnum of 2006 Mas Doix Salanques (Priorat). Also opened a 2010 Quinta Sardonia to accompany the Salanques with dinner.

The "06 Salanques was as good, maybe better a bit, on day 2. But I dont think there's any reason to hold onto this for a lot longer.  Beautiful red berry (this is mostly Grenache) and smoothly burnished tannins. 

The '10 Quinta Sardonia ( Ribera del Duero) has improved dramatically over the past 2 years.  Pop and pour with decant.  This was the more popular of the two wines because of its complexity. Mostly Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon with the balance being Syrah, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. It takes a few years for these components to meld. Once they do, the results are fascinating. This wine will be hitting peak drinking window in another 3 to 5 years perhaps. Peter Sisseck left the project, but Jerome Bougnaud is continuing on in fine fashion ...

Paired these with:
- sauteed crab cakes and grilled octopus in harrissa sauce as first course
- veal tortellini and sauteed spinach as second course

Thanksgiving Wines

The 2014 Chappaz Fendant was at a disadvantage being teed up next to the 2014 Lamy St. Aubin En Remilly. The Fendant was kind of a shrinking violet next to the crystalline beauty of the St. Aubin. Lamy is a reference point for that cru, IMO.

The 2010 DJP Beaune Clos de la Feguine was the clear standout of the pinot noirs. This has everything one might wish for in Beaune 1er cru..... Satiny morello cherry (more savory than tart) with irresistible sous bois, spice and mushroom accents. Delicious finish that that makes it hard to put down. This will only get more complex over time. A very well crafted monopole wine. 

The 2012 Anthill Farms Comptche Ridge showed well, if a bit young.  Nicely balanced, medium bodied with red fruit, spice and a slightly tart finish.

DDO Laurene is one of my favorite new world pinot noir's. The 2009 seemed a bit disjointed at first. Made in a lighter bodied style. It came together nicely about 2.5 hours later. Leaning more toward the black fruit spectrum. Savory forest floor and sweet spicey aromatics that provided a contemplative dimension to this wine later in the evening. 

The 2004 Gianni Brunelli BdM is a classic in the making.  It is very tasty, still a bit tight and could benefit from a few more years of cellaring...

Brought out a magnum of 2006 Mas Doix Salanques later in the evening as the dinner wines were finished up.  Pop and pour, this was a beauty right out of the gate. Deliciously mature red berry, finely polished tannins, smooth flowing palate. Nose that evokes the arid, rocky hillsides and beauty of the Priorat region complemented by cooling maritime breezes at night. Everything balanced and in harmony....  in a beautiful stage right now. A treat to enjoy this from magnum.  Very popular wine at the end of the evening.  

2013 Reinhold Haart Wintricher Ohligsberg Riesling Spatlese A.P. #14

PnP 7.0% abv

This disappeared all too quickly.  :) A very nice wine. Quite heady stuff.

Delicious blast of tropical fruit with a finely chiseled edge of acidity to balance things out. Savory ripeness and salinity. One of my favorite 2013's so far.  The intensity of fruit reminded me of the 2013 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg "Schmitt", yet it stops short of being an Auslese.

The nose is a bit shy but has alluring waft of petrol scent that is intoxicating...

Paired this with speck prior to dinner, and then stuffed pork chops with arancini...

Notes from the Mosel Fine Wines Report...

"...Johannes Haart replied with a short and to-the-point “surprisingly satisfied” to the question on his impression of the vintage before providing some explanation to this statement: “Honestly, I was fearing the worst when we came to the hot period of the harvest. We wanted to wait for the acidity to come down but we had no choice as the grapes, which are mostly trained on wire, started to take on a brown color, sometimes overnight (!) and this threatened to jeopardize our whole harvest. I would not have believed anyone who would have told me the delicious result we got out of those grapes! We did the harvest in two waves, a first Vorlese from October 15 to October 23, during which we brought in the bulk of the fruit, and then a
second, for the top wines, from October 27 until November 2, during which we also brought in a small amount of highly botrytized fruit. As a result, we were able to save some of the fruit and ended of course with low yields (of 40 hl/ha) but, at least, we had some yields! The fermentation (done with ambient yeasts) was quicker than usual. In order to give the wines more body, we decided to leave the dry wines on their fine lees, without sulfur, for a short period of time, and more generally left the wines longer than usual on their fine lees. Furthermore we only bottled between end of May and mid-June.” Theo Haart compares the vintage to his 1991 (“1991 was also quite high in acidity and we had some issues of rot … and at the end the vintage turned out much better than initially expected!”) while Johannes sees more parallels with their 1996 (NB: a quite successful vintage 
at this Estate)...."

The picture shows the Goldtröpfchen Amphitheatre with Ohligsberg to the right.

2012 Zilliken Forstmeister Geltz Saarburger Rausch Riesling "Diabas"

Very pretty, crisp feinherb (off-dry) style. Citrus and honeysuckle palate with mouthwatering salinity. Vacuvin'd and forgot about it for a week. Coming back to it, there are lovely hints of petrol on the nose.  Honeyed beeswax on the mid-palate and a superb pop of saline minerality on the finish.  Bravo!

NV Nathalie Falmet Le Val Cornet Brut

Disgorged October 2016. 12% abv. Zero dosage.

My first foray with this producer. Pop and pour. Blend of pinot noir and pinot meunier.

Impressive. Beautifully lithe, elegant palate is the first thing that strikes you. Very harmonious tonality. Crisp but not sharp. Simply dances on the tongue with tiny bubbles of red fruit (small berries, as Marius would say).  Saline minerality on the attractive dusty finish indicates an added degree of complexity in the offing with further cellaring.  This should go very well with food a bit later today. Honeyed, yeasty nose that is again finely presented....
......
A bit later...This is a delightful wine.  Settled into an irresistible groove of crystalline pleasure that reminded me of a great Chablis... possibly the influence of half the blend being pinot meunier... also being zero dosage contributes to the alluring dryness of the wine...

I think that Rob Lloyd mentioned his wife, Alice, being fond of pinot meunier based Champagne... if this Le Val Cornet is an indication of what that varietal can do, then I am a fan...