WTN: Wines from the weekend

[Brad Ballinger]

Friday -- Marcia and I had our next-door neighbors over for what is turning out to be a bi-weekly event. I have a bunch of venison in the freezer, so any excuse to try something new on people...

For starters, we had smoked salmon on rye toasts with dill butter. With it, we served a 1995 Pierre Moncuit "Cuvee Nicole Moncuit" Brut Blanc de Blancs VV, Le Mesnil sur Oger Grand Cru. Medium straw color. Active bead. Nose of yeast, wax, lemons. In the mouth, the wine gave me the impression that the time for drinking is now and it's not going to improve much. It was pleasant enough with it's pear and dough flavor profile turning quite lemony on the finish. But it was starting to show some age. The mousse was a bit coarse and loose and didn't seem to be part of the wine at all. I had this wine three years ago, and preferred it more at that time. This one was purchased recently close out from a retailer, and storage may have been an issue.

Dinner was a venison ragout over parmesan polenta. Accompanying it was a 1995 Volpaia Coltassala. This is a Tuscan IGT wine that is 95% sangioveto clone and 5% mammolo thats sees time in barrique, but I don't know how much. These were my last two bottles from a case, and the wine is squarely in its drinking window. The complexity was amazing. The nose showed graphite, dried cherries, cinnamon, earth. Nice acidity in the mouth with more dried cherry and mineral. Nothing overly woody. Tannins not yet fully resolved, but smooth. Nice length to the finish.

Our neighbors brought over a lemon and orange tart for dessert and I opened a 2002 Donnafugata Ben Rye, Passito di Pantelleria. At this time, this wine is all about flowers and apricot nectar. They dominates the nose and the palate. It has the acid to go several years. So we'll see how it develops.

Saturday was our monthly gourmet group with five couples. The theme was April Fool. Bring something "different" for people to guess what it is. Mask the wines.

For this one, we were assigned appetizers and I grilled venison tenderloin, and served it on crostini with a horseradish creme fraiche. With it I poured a 2002 Cascina Castle't "Goj" Barbera del Monferrato Frizzante. This is a dry spritzy wine I felt fit with the April Fool theme. I'm pretty sure it's meant to drink young. This one was fairly grapey with some bright red fruit accents. The fizz was quite slight, just enough to make the wine appear whimsical. The Piemontese drink this with a cured meat platter, and it would be a great match for that food. It was a fun and uncomplicated starter. "Goj" translates as "joy," and that's what this wine symbolizes.

With a monkfish and black fungus soup, two white wines were poured from tall bottles. The first one was floral and spicy and I figured it for Gewurztraminer, but the owner was talking like it was Riesling. "Are you sure?" I asked. He was. Then the foil was removed and it was a 2000 Mittnacht Klack Gewurztraminer, Alsace. "Oops," he said, "wrong wine." The wine was waaaay low in the acid department and didn't do much for me. The riesling was a 2002 Von Buhl "Armand" Riesling Qba, Pfalz that was very lively and refreshing.

The next course was roasted potatoes of various varieties with a rose sparkler. Very faint pink. Sweetness that spoke to me more of California than Champagne. A bit too sweet for me. It was something from Domaine Chandon, but I didn't see anymore details.

The main course was Wagyu beef -- ribeyes and NY strip roast. The host asked me about wines he was going to serve so I knew what these were going in. One was a 1998 Bellegrave, Pomerol. It was lush and showing very nicely. Fairly fruit forward with some oaken vanilla and silky tannin. The other was a 1998 Canon Saint-Michel, Canon Fronsac. By comparison this was more austere and seemed to be more interested in showing off the non-fruit elements it had to offer -- some spice, herb, and earth. It was the tighter of the two wines and may need to be left alone whereas the Bellegrave can be enjoyed right now.

Dessert was lavender ice cream with lavender/rosemary cookies. The wine was something that had seen better days and was past its prime -- a 1995 Grigich Hills "Violetta," Napa Valley, a late harvest blend of chardonnay, johannisberg riesling, and sauvignon blanc. But it was fading fast.