Ronnie and LadyRoots' 'Day After' Party TNs

[SimonSaysDrink]

2002 Andrew Peller Cab Franc Icewine, Peller Estates, VQA Niagara, Canada. Dreadful. In all respects. If someone had told me this were new age cough suppressant, I would have believed them steadfastly.

1999 Kreglinger Brut, Sparkling Wine of Tasmania, Australia. Quite a funny story to this, and no one is quite willing to accept total blame, nor should they. It was certainly a team effort on behalf of StevieCage, RonnieRoots and the loud-mouthed twit at Henri Bloom's who apparently knew British price points exceedingly better than KillerB, and wasn't afraid to pontificate that fact. Everyone was in the dark except for that fart, and somehow, some inconceivable way, he ushered KillerB to the counter and money spewed forth, to an undisclosable tune of say, what a rather good bottle of bubbly might have cost. But we were feeling brave and frisky that day, and hoped to be wildly surprised. Uhh, we were. This was crap. Total, utterly revolting crap. Surprisingly so.

2002 Marcel Deiss Bergheimer Engelgarten, Alsace, France. A field blend. A rather flawed field blend. Three duds so far...not what we envisioned for our 'Day After' party.

1994 Kruger-Rumpf Muensterer Pittersberg Riesling Spaetlese Silberkapsel, Nahe, Germany. Incredibly light color for the vintage, and deceptively so, given that the wine was served somewhat blind. I couldn't confidently say this was the wine I brought from the Rumpf's, but given the state of the nose-prolific petrol-and the somewhat tired, bitter palate, I had no choice but to emphatically say German Riesling, but no idea as to the producer or the vintage. Citrusy lime and grapefruit on the palate, and a bit disjointed and tired through the finish. Substantially better than the first three wines though.

1998 Robert Weil 'Rheingau' Riesling Spaetlese, Rheingau, Germany. The first really good wine of the lot. Restrained nose, lightly fruited, quite a lot of honey there, too. On the palate, this wine was still quite fresh, even reductively streamlined. The fruitiness in this wine hits you pleasantly and fades gracefully to the rather dry and long, full finish.

2002 Keller Dalsheimer Hubacker Riesling Spaetlese Goldkapsel #26, Rheinhessen, Germany. Acidic but extremely subtle, restrained bouquet. The cork in this wine was straight glued onto the neck. Consequently, we bore a whole through the cork and extracted what became a beaute of a wine. As it blossomed, creamy, confectionary-like vanilla sugar notes appeared on the nose, with soft tropical nuances. A very meringue-like palate with a looooong finish and delicious caramel apple bursts along the way. Yum.

1995 Niepoort Redoma, Douro, Portugal. Cherries and oak on the nose with hints of sappy evergreen and nettle. Oak. Did I mention oak? Olivey oak. Palate still distinctly oak-influenced, with forest fruit, bay leaf and black pepper notes leading to a long and pronounced oak finish.

1998 Pio Cesare Barolo 'Ornato', Langhe, Piedmont, Italy. The unanimous WOTN. On the nose, herbs-sage, oak and not much else at this point. As time progressed, the nose and everything else blossomed into something quite floral and beautiful. What a heavyweight palate, but what a match for KillerB's linguine bolognese. Piercing, youthful acidity on the palate, with black cherries, mouth-coating young tannin and deep tar notes courtesy of this famous terroir. What a young and beautiful wine.

1997 Niepoort Redoma, Douro, Portugal. Perfumey violet, celery and peanut butter on the nose, with hints of minty eucalyptus. Very subtle black cherry on the palate, but this note grew and grew with more air, morphing into quite a gooey and delicious cherry melange, with brilliant tannin lifting the acidity and keeping this wine full of youth still. Immaculate finish.

2000 Niepoort Quinta de Napoles, Douro, Portugal. Green: agreed. LadyRoots chimed in with cooked meat. Agreed. Mulched leaves, red meat, and ever so stalky. A great blend piece, had it been so chosen. Quite concentrated, great wine, but really a piece of a more brilliant puzzle.

2003 D'Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz, McClaren Vale, Australia. No notes, but did remember it being decidedly more Old World than the Torbreck factor. Very good indeed, and certainly youthful with a great life ahead of it. Thanks to KillerB for this experimental offering.

2001 Torbreck The Factor Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia. No notes, but I do recall it as a rich and provocative Shiraz, but not what I would consider 'Grand' like the Dead Arm. There seemed to be a fresh-pressed, pulpy fruit character to this wine which suggested confection to me. Not entirely my thing, but I'd be way off in calling this wine a slouch. Really good stuff, just not my idea of cellar stalwart. I've got many a worthless idea though...like showing up to a wedding in jeans. Hi-five retard!

1998 Dow Quinta do Bomfim, SQVP, Douro, Portugal. No notes, but I do recall RonnieRoots and KillerB being a bit hard on this bottling. Being utterly ignorant of all 1998 Port, I'll say that I found the wine to be interesting and tasty, but not extremely compelling. However, had I not felt so intoxicated and tired by that point, I would have drunk the whole decanter. It wasn't so much refreshing as it was, uhh, Port-y. And I do like Port so very much.

1999 Chateau Rieussec, Sauternes, Bordeaux, France. No notes, but had we not drunk this wine, I'm almost positive my head would have split wide open in the morning. Somehow the massive fruit and sugar in this wine put us to sleep in fairytale fashion and eliminated any possibility of a post-party hangover. Unbelievable and therefore my #2 WOTN. What good juice, and if I may say, licorice-y. Could have drunk this whole bottle, too, had I known its future effects (if only to multiply them somehow...high on Rieussec...ever tried it??? You should.)

All in all, a spectacular evening with great, even non-wine-related conversation. We even ventured into forbidden territory for the better part of an hour: Religion. And none of us raised our voices or hurt someone's feelings, advertantly or inadvertantly. Just a really splendid night in the midst of an even more splendid wedding-filled weekend. To the Roots!!!

[jdaw1]

Sounds completely splendid.

[RonnieRoots]

Great notes SSD. And thanks for bringing those killer wines!

[KillerB]

It was splendid, as much for the excellent company as the excellent wines. First three were staggeringly rotten. The tale of the Tasmanian Devil sparkler will remain a source of anecdotes for years to come but will never be worth the bottle of Champagne that we could have had instead.

No doubts about the WOTN, it was the Barolo. I think I was a little hard on the Dow and the Rieussec, claiming the first to have a vegetal back flavour and the second to be a little simple. What rot, they were both good.

I have never encountered a cork like the Spatlese, but would like to know what they glued it with as I have a wide variety of uses for it. The wine was much better when it was filtered through a coffee filter rather than my front teeth - very good, possibly third after the Barolo and Riuessec.

Excellent night followed by a difficult journey home.

[Simon Lisle]

I've tasted that very sauternes and it is a good one.I must admit on the wine front I dislike overly oaked wines.

[RonnieRoots]

Excellent night followed by a difficult journey home.

I can imagine. You didn't get a whole lot of sleep. How did you survive?

[KillerB]

Excellent night followed by a difficult journey home.

I can imagine. You didn't get a whole lot of sleep. How did you survive?

Got out of your place at a little after 7:00 and then walked in a random direction until I hit the station. Got a coffee and a train to Duivendrecht whereupon I waited in the rain for the replacement bus service, which somehow took half an hour to get to Schipol. Checked in and then had to queue for forty minutes to drop my bag off. Bought some cheese then had to wait on the plane whilst clearance came. Got to Brum and was told to watch baggage carousel 1 whilst my case got sent them to number 2 instead. Got to the train station just in time to wave to the train as it disappeared off the platform. Eventually got home and decided that sleep was the only option.

Still all worth it though.