Clos Des Lambrays, 1996 Grand Cru, Domaine Des Lambrays, Morey St. Denis

As with most good red burgundy, the name is excruciatingly long. However, the wine was surpisngly good. We found this on a wine list at a 5* restaurant in town, Nana and it seemed a fair deal. While it had a three figure price, grand cru burgundy is rarely cheap. It was decanted for us, even though it had very little sediment.

The wine itself was marvelous. It smelled of truffles, cinnamon, candied cherries, and ginger. It was well balanced, with slightly reserved acids, and still had some velvety tannins left after nearly a decade. The finish was quite long and went through layers of cedar, leather, and roses. It maintained a core of red fruit and earth.

Paired with a foie gras appetizer with an aged balsamic vinegar it worked quite well.

However, the wine changed during the dinner, in most cases for the better. By the main course it had opened up even more, with some more red fruit becoming apparent, as well as some dried fig and maple syrup. The heady truffle aroma, however was lost. This was paired with a duck breast and pistacios. A marvelous pairing.

By the end of the meal, the wine was starting to fade, but still quite tasty. More of the earth became apparent, as did some of the dried fruit. On the finish I started to note some almond...

Generally, this wine was exactly what it was supposed to be. A wine from a great region in an OK year, that had been aged the appropriate amount of time. If you see this one for under $175, and have a special meal to celbrate, I recommend it.

Platinum

Bogle Phantom 2003

Back to tasting again. It feels really nice to be opening bottles again, and I'll begin having some comparison tasting very soon.

However, one recent opening is this surprisingly good bottle. This is a blend of Petite Sirah, Zinfandel and Mouvedre. The wine is just huge, as you would expect it to be. It has a very good tannic backbone, and huge fruit in the palate. It has a rich nose of jammy blackberry, currant and tobacco. The wine is a bit lite in acidity, but overall the balance is good. This leads to a very long finish with layers of woody flavors holding up the persistent black fruit.

The wine paried well with a rich steak tartare and worked with a buffalo dish. Recommended with meat and game, particulaly those with rich, sweet sauces.

Gold

Finding Budget Wines

I'm always on the lookout for wines that are low priced, but tasty. I've been finding that increasingly difficult to do lately. I don't think that my tasts have changed signifignatnly, but I'm finding little complexity any any budget wine anymore. Last night I tried one. The first was a Broquel Malbec. Priced on a list at about $24, it was marginal. Flat, simple, but drinkable. Oh well I guess I need to keep looking

Far too little wine consumption

There are times in your life when it gets harder to sample wines. I am in one of those times right now. My wife is pregnant, and it gets harder to justify the expenditure when I'm the only one drinking.

That said I did have a nice half bottle the other night. Saintsbury and their consistently good Pinot noir. Had a nice edge of mushroom to hold up the dried cherry primary notes. The balance was good, even if the finish wasn't particularly long. Even on a wine list, the split was only $16. Silver

Happiness to Despair

A few weeks ago I was particularly excited about getting added to the Kistler mailing list, after waiting several months. It turns out that it wasn't as great as I hoped, due to no fault of the mailing. It turns out that I am not rich, and this can be a bit of an issue. Where I would likely buy two or three bottles of Kistler's wonderful ambrosia of a wine, their minimum purchase is a 12 bottle case. When you add shipping and tax, the total is around $1000. Oh, and they don't take credit cards. Not that I would condone overspending through the use of credit. Oh well...

Good Winery / Bad Winery

Part of this is subjective, but I have had some very important wine experiences over the past couple of days. I have often had the philosophy of buying a lower wine from the best producer possible. The past couple of days have reminded me why.

The first experience is with the Australian vintner Two Hands. They make some great shiraz, and one of them was a favorite from a tasting that I had a with a former wine club. Their prestige (ARES) wine runs around $130, and the "standard" stuff is between $35-$50. I haven't tried the big dog yet, but the others have been consistently good. It turns out that they have started producing a reasonably priced wine under the brand "A Lucky Country" They have two reds at our local market, one a GSM (Grenache/Shiraz/Mouvadre) and the other a cab/shiraz blend. Both are outstanding and priced well under $20. Good intensity of flavor, excellent balance, and easy to drink right now. They are everything that they should be, and I have been converted.

The bad experience comes from a new producer. They are known as Margerum, and the wines would appear to be classy, high end productions. Each bottle is individually numbered and the labels are very uncluttered. The bottles are thick, and the wine is priced at a reasonable premium. As far as the merchandising and marketing would go, this is very well done. What isn't well done is the wine inside. Both versions that I have tried were flabby, low quality affairs. They were quite out of balance, with very little backbone, and lots of alcohol. In many ways they tasted like the premium boxed wine that is growing in popularity, but without the bottom barrel pricing. Just a reminder that the answers to the quality of the wine are IN the bottle, not anywhere on the outside. Maybe they will get better, but as of right now I was highly disappointed.