A night with friends, practice for the Crusting Pipe

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RonnieRoots
Fonseca 1980
Posts: 1981
Joined: 08:28 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: Middle Earth

A night with friends, practice for the Crusting Pipe

Post by RonnieRoots »

For a while now, we've had the Niepoort 1966 on 'death row'. Yesterday, we finally got to drink it. We invited Stevie and our friends Joost and Sandra over and of course drank a little bit more than just the VP. No one took formal notes (except Stevie on the VP), so only impressions. All wines (again except the VP) were tasted blind.

Bott-Freres Pinot Gris Cuvee Particuliere 2004 - Alsace
Chose this wine as an easy starter, but it had its own plan. Annoyingly sweet and doesn't have the palate to compensate. Out of balance and simply not so good.

Weingut Kanzemer Berg/Von Othegraven Riesling Auslese Kanzemer Altenberg 1975 - Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
Brought by Joost and Sandra. Our first guess was riesling, but we drifted from this path and ended up guessing Chenin Blanc from Vouvray from the late '80's beginning '90's. Really good and lively still, with tea and spice on the nose. Medium body and sweetness, nice and fruity still, again with lots of spices. Amazingly good. And what's even more amazing: LadyR and I selected the same wine from our cellar to drink. We didn't even know from each other we had this wine!

Heinrich Mayer Jr. Riesling Beerenauslese Zeller Petersborn-Kapertchen 1976 - Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
This was an emergency choice. When I found out we both selected the same wine, I ran down to the cellar and threw this in the freezer. Again, everyone guessed this to be much younger, an auslese from the beginning of the nineties seemed to be the consensus. This was a big surprise. I didn't expect much from this wine, but it was very good, full of live and drinking superb. LadyR and I drank the last bit today and it was still holding strong.

Philippe Chesnelong Les Brunes 2000 - Vin de Pays d'Oc
Brought by Stevie. We all guessed this to be new world, only Sandra had her doubts. Very concentrated in style, with notable high alcohol level, thick, sweet cherries and fierce tannins. One of those wines from the Languedoc region that are made in a very modern, new world style. Very good, but it needs time to get together, and IMO it could do with a bit less alcohol. It will be very interesting though to hide a few bottles in the cellar and come back at them after 10 years.

Markus Molitor Spätburgunder Trocken unfiltriert Trarbacher Schlossberg 2003 - Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
Brought by LadyR and me. Closed on the nose, I couldn't get much more than stone. Gave much more on the palate. A very nice, ripe, but not overly concentrated spätburgunder. Lovely flavours, and a long dry finish. Definitely needs more time to develop more, but already delicious. Joost guessed this to be a Burgundy. If I can find some more of this, I will certainly buy.

Celler Sangenis Vaque Clos Monlleo 2000 - Priorat
Brought by Joost and Sandra. We were right in guessing this should be either Spain or Portugal, but we were leaning more towards Portugal, because it reminded us very much of the Quinta da Leda wines. Very nice, compact and well knit. A good concentration of flavours, but all in moderation. Lots of dark fruit, spices and herbs, fine tannins. A lovely wine that drinks very well now but will certainly improve with age.

Niepoort Vintage Port 1966 (bottled 1969)
This was bought last year. Just before we bought it, it was recorked. Therefore I didn't want to let this sit too long in our cellar. Very light, brown colour when we poured it in the decanter. Smelled like a good colheita. We left it to rest in the decanter for about 30 minutes before our first taste. It had gained some colour by then but still mostly brown. Lots of tawny characteristics on the nose, but also a hint of light red fruit. Again mostly tawny on the taste, but also some chocolate and light strawberries. Lovely to drink, but this was heading towards the eternal tawny fields pretty fast. When we came back to it after a while, much of the light fruit had already disappeared. This port is part of an ongoing tasting of 1963, 1966, 1970, 1975 and 1977 (of which the first three are now tasted). This was clearly the weakest of the three. I don't know if the recorking had any influence, but I guess it was already a light port before this happened. I gave it 89 points. Stevie will post a proper TN on this port.

Marie-Line Barré Tannatis Vin de Liqueur 2004 - Viella/Sud-Ouest, France
Joost brought this as a gimmick, and that was indeed what it was. Very sweet, and very one dimensional. But funny to taste.

It was a great evening, and some good practice for the offline next week. Of course, we had our share of fine cheeses (KillerB's stilton did a good job!) and LadyR produced a lovely spicy Laksa. Today... well, let's say I'm a bit hungover... :roll: :lol:
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