Clear and bright with a pale gold core out to a watery rim. Clean with medium aged aromas of cheese rind, lemon rind and a waxy apple aroma. Clean and dry in the mouth with medium plus acidity and a long finish. Excellent length a little alcoholic but a-okay. Tasty. 2008 Vouvray?
2006 Brokenwood Semillion Reserve $39.99 and 11%
(only one of our group got this wine right and it was a good job, too.)
Deep gold color out to a bubbly rim. Slightly earthy and loamy with a funky long waxy finish. Bret? Finishes dry with lots of acidity and sparkling. Ultimately not supposed to sparkling. Grand Cru Alsace Pinot Gris?
1998 Zin Humbrecht Clos Windsbuhl Vendange Tardive Riesling
(I was the closest to this one but I didn't get that it was Riesling. It was funky and weird. Totally refermented in the bottle and slightly oxidized.)
Clear with pale gold core out to a watery rim. Clean and salty with green apple notes with citrus lemon and medium plus acidity and a long finish. A little hot in the mouth. Pretty simple. Stainless steel chardonnay? Chablis?
2009 LaRoche Grand Cru Les Blanchot in screw cap
(This was nailed by a few people in the group and it showed well. I really like screw cap wines from France.)
Clear and bright with a deep core of ruby out to a watery rim orange rim. Clean with pronounced developed aromas of soy, cedar, cranberry, sawdust, undergrowth, licorice and spice and pencil lead and iron. Dry with plummy notes of green tea and medium plus tannins and a dark finish. Bordeaux. 1998 or maybe older? Excellent. Pommerol?
1987 La Jota Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain 13.5%
(This was the surprise of the night. I would say that no one was even close. We all thought it was Bordeaux. All of us.)
Clear and bright with a medium ruby core out to an orange rim. Clean with pronounced developing aromas of dill and plummy flavors of plum. Lots of truffle. Excellent acidity and long finish. Rioja for sure. Vintage? Older.
1995 La Rioja Alta Gran Riserva
(Everyone picked up on this wine right away because of the American oak. It was pretty tasty wine, too.)
Clear with medium ruby core out to a watery orange rim. Pronounced developing aromas of cedar and spice and rose and lavender and plummy and slightly hot and and a spicy long finish. Soy, tobacco. Lots of tannin and rough finish. Needs so much time. Barolo?
2001 Altesino Brunello Montosoli 14.5%
(We all thought this was Barolo although a few thought it would be from something else in Italy, but no one guessed even remotely that this was Brunello. Good wine but a little rough for the money. I think it was $135 or something?)
Overall, a fantastic tasting with great wines. There was a Smaragd Gruner Veltliner from Knoll that we didn't try because it was corked but besides that and the Vendange Tardive from Zind Humbrecht, all the wines were tasting fantastic.
And as I said, the shocker was the elegance and power of the La Jota 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon.
Cheers.
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