Farewell to Donn Reisen

Donn Reisen, 61, President of Ridge Vineyards, passed away Monday morning January 26. I met Donn twice over the past two years at Wine Spectator wine tastings. Donn had a quick smile and a good sense of humor, and I enjoyed tasting and discussing wines with him immensely. My condolences to his family and friends.

The Wine Who Didn't Leave Her Number

This is the wine you won't write home to mommy about. It's the wine with the slight French accent you met at a discotech - some throwback to an age when discotech was cool. It's the wine you were looking for but didn't even know it. It's the wine you danced with all night and then found yourself cooling off at the bar against and realized when she smiled it was actually quite a lovely smile, besides which you can't remember much about her except the way she moved against you and the mellow scent of her perfume on your sheets, the texture of her hair; her size; the shape of her face; the red-pink-purple of the lights. You realize it's the wine who found you - not the other way around, as it usually happens. You remember much more than you should now. Maybe you were more assertive and maybe she was paying you more attention. You didn't say very much and she didn't ask you very many questions. (No that's not right. That's not right at all. Right now in the blurry half-morning you cannot impose yourself upon this memory. You must allow it to surface on its own.) What is true is you didn't understand her at all. You didn't understand why and maybe that was how she drew you so completely in.

You don't remember leaving the club but she was the one who hailed a cab and you found yourself in the back seat when she looked at you it was all eyes. You were in Chelsea traveling west and then south. When you got out of the taxi you looked up at the old elevated train tracks, overgrown now and much too dangerous at night. She was talking animatedly and you were smiling like a child and she found this very funny. Now you are standing in front of a gallery and she pulls your arm tight against her side, and there it is, in low level lighting, near the end of the Hudson River Drive. It is a painting on display in the rear of a gallery of which you have never heard. It is well past midnight and if you woke up now it would have been a perfect night. Later, you are in another taxi, traveling much too fast around the tip of Manhattan, up the FDR, and across the Brooklyn Bridge, the semi-lit docks and Governor's Island in the distance.

This is the wine that left nothing behind when she left except this memory and this scent and this empty bottle. This fuzzy image. 2006 Paul Jaboulet Aine Chateauneuf du Pape "Les Cedres" ****     Now, in the grey light on the snow covered streets in Chelsea you wonder where she is, what she is thinking, what she is doing right now, and it occurs to you, you know exactly where to find her.

NY Wine Bloggers Unite

A new site exists featuring information provided exclusively by NY wine bloggers, and it's pretty cool: NYWineBloggers. Launched by Gary Landsman - the Wine Tasting Guy - the new site is updated with posts from various bloggers. You can find links to the new site in the starboard sidebar. Thanks to Gary for the shout out and good luck on the new site.

1992 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello **

The 1992 Monte Bello ** is a very similar creature to the 1993. It continues to display good dark purple color. Mellow hyacinth on the nose, in a nicely juicy and bloody texture, the wine showcases good acidity on attack, with orange marmalade, bay leaf, and dark cocoa notes throughout. Not as lush or concentrated as the 1994 or 1996, the wine puts on a little weight with decanting and strikes me as very Bordeaux in style.

I picked this particular bottle up from Vinfolio, a retail site which, I must confess, hasn't sent me a bad bottle yet, despite their rather inflated pricing.

My quest to drink every Monte Bello produced continues. You might have noticed I did not post about the 1993, and jumped straight to the 1992. I skipped the 1993 this time around (most recently tasted at Christmas 2007) because I only have one bottle of that vintage left. If I remember correctly, the 1993 was a **/*** wine...very mellow, with soft round tannin and ripe strawberry, pine and cedar typical of the vineyard.

1994 Ridge Vineyards Zinfandel Lytton Estate ***

We've been on a high quality-to-price ratio role recently and I'd be remiss not to add this scrumptious wine to the list. Purchased off WineBid.com for a song, I've only been able to keep the corkscrew out of this one for about three months.

Aged zinfandel can be deep, velvety and utterly complex, if considerably less racy and brash than their younger siblings. The wines from Ridge Vineyard's Lytton Estate can age as well as, if not better than, many Rhone Ranger and cabernet based wines, and 1994 seems to have been a particularly good vintage across the board for California.

The 1994 ATP Zinfandel Lytton Estate was dark -- nearly opaque. Soft notes of dried flowers and prunes emanated from the glass. Shy acidity, but soft tannin, allowed the hidden red and purple fruits to surface, reminding me of hand-picking blackberries in eastern Washington.

If you're looking for the type of grab-your-ass sex appeal notable in high-price new vintages of zinfandel (Turley's wines come to mind) this may not be your thing. But there are many notable proponents of the wonders of aged zinfandel, and I now count myself among them.

Week-end Round-Up & A Plug for Vacuum Sealers

Somehow I ended up with five bottles of unifinished wine at the end of last week. It was sort of cool seeing them all lined up like wines by the glass in a restaurant. I numbered them and we did a blind tasting, pitting Girard's 2002 Cabernet Franc *** against a 2000 Ch. Charmail **, a 2005 Mondavi Napa Valley Merlot, 2000 Ch. Haut Gravet ** and the fifth wheel 2005 La Crema Pinot Noir Russian River Valley *

It was interesting to note how these wines had evolved over the past 3-6 days. The Mondavi 2005 Merlot, which we had opened the night before but left half-full, uncovered, had already spoiled. The wines closed with Vacuum Sealers had performed the best, clearly evolving in bottle (Girard and Charmail). The wines on which we'd just put back the corks had stayed good, but had been better fresh (La Crema and Haut Gravet). The wine left open had spoiled (duh).

The backbone in Girard's 2002 Cabernet Franc *** had emerged finally and it showed complex notes of spice, fresh red bell pepper, celery and a strong coconut note on the finish. This had deepened and evolved well beyond the bright and luscious strawberry notes it displayed upon first opening.

The 2000 Chateau Haut Gravet * a little known St. Emilion Grand Cru, displayed strong but round, dry tannins, with mint and pine on the back end, and I would have fingered it for a Heitz Cellars Napa Valley. This had a mild strawberry bubblegum tinge that had not been there when we opened it.

Chateau Charmail 2000 ** received 92 points from Robert Parker. This was a near ringer for aged Chateauneuf du Pape. It displayed rich caramel notes with mild CdP spice, burnt toast, and rich round tannin on the finish.

After the spoiled Mondavi merlot, the La Crema pinot noir * was easy to spot. Light to medium bodied now, with some overripe vegetable notes, and sweet but elegant scents of dried herbs, this was strong on the attack and mellow on the finish.

2004 Dom. Robert Chevillon Les Pruliers Nuits St George ***

If there's one thing I like about stagflation, it's the fact that you can call an hour ahead and still get a table at Gramercy Tavern. In my case, I called at 7:30pm, just as I was getting out of work, and managed to get a table for two at 8:30. I'd call that genius. I'd call that freaking brilliant.

Lucky for me, Veritas is right across the street, and Veritas is a nice place to have a drink for an hour. I'm not sure exactly which vineyard it was, but I had a glass of J. Faiveley's 2006 Mercurey ** Amethyst in color, with wonderful tart raspberry and very striking acidity made this a pleasure to drink before dinner. Later, across the street at Gramercy Tavern, we pulled the trigger on a Robert Chevillon Les Pruliers 2004 *** from Nuit St Georges. The Chevillon was medium bodied, ultra dry, nearly velvety, with freeze dried strawberries, brine, asian spices and a mild perfume on the nose. Sage, moss, and complex woodsy notes developed as the wine breathed. The purity of the fruit -- the characterization of the pinot noir varietal -- is what makes this Burgundy striking.

Hidden Gems of California Pinot Noir

The La Crema Pinot Noir Anderson Valley 2005 ** from the "cool" region of Mendocino ($35) made by winemaker Melissa Stackhouse is by far and away the best wine I have tasted from here in years. The website states, "Vineyards are 10-15 miles from the rugged Mendocino coast, and vines struggle on steep slopes, developing complex, small berries." From 98% Anderson Valley fruit with 2% Russian River Valley blended in, this purple tinged pinot noir with minor iridescence spent nine months in 100% French oak, 35% new. Predominantly mixed berry notes without overt sweetness but sweet soft tannin, mild woodsy mid palate notes and good intensity on the palate. This is a good find. 2000 cases produced.

A leg up in quality, we also tasted the Hartford Court Pinot Noir Fog Dance Vineyards *** from the Green Valley of the Russian River Valley AVA ($45). The winery will tell you, "This wine reflects its cool Green Valley terroir, showing the brightness and purity of cherry and cranberry flavors along with an elegant and refined texture." But that's not right at all. This is darker and more concentrated than many Green Valley pinot noirs I have tasted, and has a pine, woodsy, damp earth and musk complexity that confounded me at first. Aged 11 months in 100% French oak, 55% of which was new, the oak is completely hidden. 1000 cases produced. Get one if you can.

Many thanks to our friends at the Kendall Jackson legal department for bringing these wines to our attention!

1994 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello ****

Opaque dark purple with tightly knit mixed berries and cedar on the nose. This is Marilyn Monroe's body. Uber dry texture -- toasted walnut -- mouth puckering extraction, with a seamless berry-oak-cedar-violet transition from the lips down the gullet. Just gorgeous.

2002 Quilceda Creek Columbia Valley Red Wine ***

In light of today's release of the 2006 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon I opened this 2002 second wine, first reviewed in the early days of the blog. This is simply a marvelous wine right now. Decanted for only 30 minutes, this is opaque, thick, chunky, unctuous, with chalky mixed berry notes and a big ripe raspberry liquor finish. Not quite as elegant as the estate cabernet, with less toasty oak, this is pure ripe fruit driven and drinking great now.

2004 Ambullneo Pinot Noir Canis Major ***

I purchased this wine at the Bounty Hounter during the historically wet March of 2005 in Napa Valley. In the interests of full disclosure I should admit that I was pretty drunk at the time. I was part of a group that had been tasting all day, had done very little spitting, and had just eaten a heap of the Bounty Hunter's notorious BBQ. At the time, the "Canis Major" was one of the best pinot noirs from California I had ever tasted. It cut through that misty March haze and BBQ sauce like Darth Vader cut through Luke Skywalker's wrist. (Sorry for the Star Wars simile, but I watched a lot of SpikeTV over the weekend.)

As Greg Linn explains at his Ambullneo Vineyards website, the Canis Major is a selection of barrels to produce "the best of the best. As always, this is the wine that combines all the superior aspects of our northern and southern programs and blends them for harmony, structure for a long-lived creation that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. It is by nature, extremely limited."

I tasted this wine only once since that rainy Napa night and I was unimpressed, but I was probably unimpressed because soon after I purchased this lot I learned that all of Ambullneo's wines - and in fact the name itself - are dog-related. As it turns out, Linn is a big dog guy, not just a big pinot noir guy. Don't get me wrong - I love dogs. I own a dog. I think dogs are great. Man's best friend and all that. But somehow naming one's entire operation after a dog breed is, even for me, a dog lover, over the top. Marketing aside, we opened the 2004 Canis Major *** to enjoy The Empire Strikes Back last weekend, and as my tasting notes indicate, this wine kicked ass.

A pinot noir cum Chateauneuf du Pape without the pepper/spice, this wine has at least two decades of aging potential. It is still an infant; well protected by the heavy glass bottle and deep punt. I double decanted it and it lay open for at least four hours before we finally finished it off. Deep purple color (rare for a California pinot noir) with strong dried herbs, mud, and raspberry jam on the nose. The wine is full-bodied, with good acidity and flash, lots of wow in the mouth, dry enough with a note of lamp chop juice and rosemary on a finish lasting well over a minute. Overall a hell of a cuvee, and worth a spot in the cellar.

Bow wow!

2005 Zinfandels **

On New Year's day we opened a couple new zinfandels from the 2005 vintage to bring in the new year with hearty fare (chips and salsa) as we watched the Big 10 get eviscerated, once again, in the BCS bowls. Our first wine, a 2005 Hendry Zinfandel Block 28 Napa ** put on weight after decanting but failed to achieve the qualitative heights of the 2004 in terms of concentration and depth. Look for good dark fruits and mild loam, but no "wow."

Likewise, the last Advanced Tasting Program release of 2008, Ridge Vineyards 2005 Zinfandel Nervo Vineyard ** from Sonoma, gained depth and complexity 30 minutes after opening. This has the myriad red fruits and scorched barrel note evident in the Carmichael and, to a less extant, the Lytton Springs, but lacks the concentration of either. An interesting wine nonetheless, and this will only get more interesting with a couple years in the cellar, but not as good for me as the 2006 offerings.

1996 Dom Perignon ****

You can never have enough Champagne, and New Year's Eve is the opportunity to open your best bottle of the bubbly lying around, so in light of our house arrest we opened a bottle of Dom Perignon 1996 **** the very same I purchased from a duty free shop in Puerto Rico some years ago. As did the 1999 **** the predominant note on the 1996 Dom Perignon was chardonnay, chardonnay, chardonnay. A pale hay color with a light foam and very good effervescence, this 1996 displayed lime and salt stone notes with honeyed citrus and very mild dry herbs.

After thinking about these wines, it occurs to me that while I like to say that I have a love-hate relationship with Dom Perignon, the truth is that I really have a guilty-love relationship with it. I don't want to like it as much as I do, and I feel guilty about enjoying it as much as I do, but I wished I drank more of it, and besides for a 1990 tasted many years ago (which may not have been stored properly, in retrospect) I have always loved these wines.