Looking back at my blog posts it turns out that this is the oldest bottle of American wine I have ever reviewed for the "What I'm Drinking Tonight" blog. A friend called us up and said she was coming over for dinner with two bottles of wine under her arms. Both bottles were American, one from 1990 and the other '95 but the one we opened on this night was the 1990 Dominus. She let me know about the Dominus beforehand and I looked it up to see what people were saying. In 1997 Parker said it would drink well up to 2017 while the folks on CellarTracker seemed a bit confused, saying things like "fishy" and "Any longer in the bottle this may not have been as good", yet still giving it low to mid 90's ... I had a different take. The nose and taste followed similar lines: plenty of dried leaves and oak dominant, with tannins providing most of the flavour. I wouldn't exactly call the wine dead, but it sure has crested the hill of aging and is on its way down ... Nice to see that a well-known label can still add a few mercy points to a score. I, on the other hand, am totally in agreement with this Cellar Tracker user who said in December 2009: "Losing it's fruit. I think this is on a downward spiral." ... and I'm trying it almost two years later.
Showing posts with label 1990. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1990. Show all posts
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Dominus 1990 Proprietor's Red (California)
Looking back at my blog posts it turns out that this is the oldest bottle of American wine I have ever reviewed for the "What I'm Drinking Tonight" blog. A friend called us up and said she was coming over for dinner with two bottles of wine under her arms. Both bottles were American, one from 1990 and the other '95 but the one we opened on this night was the 1990 Dominus. She let me know about the Dominus beforehand and I looked it up to see what people were saying. In 1997 Parker said it would drink well up to 2017 while the folks on CellarTracker seemed a bit confused, saying things like "fishy" and "Any longer in the bottle this may not have been as good", yet still giving it low to mid 90's ... I had a different take. The nose and taste followed similar lines: plenty of dried leaves and oak dominant, with tannins providing most of the flavour. I wouldn't exactly call the wine dead, but it sure has crested the hill of aging and is on its way down ... Nice to see that a well-known label can still add a few mercy points to a score. I, on the other hand, am totally in agreement with this Cellar Tracker user who said in December 2009: "Losing it's fruit. I think this is on a downward spiral." ... and I'm trying it almost two years later. 
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Happy Birthday Raiding of the Cellar (Australia / France / USA)
I attended a 60th birthday party last night and it was a riches of old wines that materialized out of the old man's cellar. The youngest wine was 11 years old, the oldest 21. Kicking things off was a 1999 Cape Mentelle 'Trinder Vineyard' Cabernet-Merlot from Western Australia; lots of leather, dried fruit, tobacco, anise, and forest floor notes throughout ... smooth across the tongue, not a lot of life left in it but I wouldn't be dumping it down the toilet anytime soon either. Another Cape Mentelle proved to be equally up to the task of still be drinkably good, the 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon, with its dried red berries taste and cherry Fruit Roll-up smells, a touch foresty but still very nice to sip on. Neither wine stayed in the glass long because there was always another set to be opened.
Leaving Australia we set sail for the Old World with a bottle of 1995 Chateau Clarke from Bordeaux, dried berries and dried leaves, it was time to drink this one and drink it we did - happily. The oldest wine materialized, a 1990 Chateau Cruzeau - not a well known house from Bordeaux but one that made a very good wine in 1990. Surprisingly alive with red fruit, a touch of red berries and soft leather notes. Quite possibly the most interesting wine of the night ... Until the American showed up.
The final cork to pop, that I was present for anyway, was a Ridge 1994 Geyserville, a blend of 68% Zinfandel, 20% Carignan, 8% Petite Sirah and 4% Mataro, 16 years old and the fruit still showed through, though it was definitely all dried, raspberry and cherry with some semblance of tannins (though not intrusive) and a hint of sweetness - I meant to look at the alcohol content but missed my opportunity. Finally, as mother nature began to dump snow on the land, we decided it was time to leave, just as a bottle of Vouvray was on deck. But as in baseball the on deck batter never gets up to the plate (or the glass in this case) once the game is pronounced over.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
A Get-Together with a Whole Lotta Wine (Ontario, Austria, California, Australia, and France)
Getting together with friends is always a lot of fun, especially when it's those you've shared a lot with and haven't seen one another in awhile. It had been a good six months since we had a little get together so we had plenty to catch up on and plenty to share - especially wine.
We kicked the evening off with a bottle of Chateau des Charmes Estate Bottled Brut sparkling wine, because all good bashes begin with bubbly.
Next up, an Austrian oddity, Sauvignon Blanc: Tement Berghausen 2006 Zieregg. This wine took a good ten minutes to fully open. At first it lacked the freshness of fruit you expect from a Sauvignon Blanc, especially on the nose; the palate had hints of vanilla and a high sulfur content that detracted from both the nose and taste. Ten minutes later the wine came alive with grassy-vanilla and grapefruit notes, there was also a citrus-tangerine tang on the finish. Quite nice afterall, though we were ready to write it off, thankfully some of us are more persistent and passionate about Sauv Blanc that others.
The cap was then twisted on a bottle of Bonny Doon's Ca'Del Solo 2008 Albarino from California. This one was more Sauvignon Blanc-esque than the Austria Sauvignon Blanc; lots of grapefruit and citrus accosted the nose. The Sauv Blanc character continued through to the mid-palate, though it had less than expected acidity. Flavours are citrus, vanilla and spice.
We moved on to the late last of the night, an Australian McPherson 2007 Basilisk Marsanne Vignier, which was underwhelming to us all: under-ripe fruit like peach and pear along with high tone petrol notes; the palate was bland, flavours were bosc pear, petrol and wet stone, but very boring with a lack of balancing acidity ... time did not improve this wine; the bringer kept going back to it hoping his bottle would improve ... it never did.
We plowed through the whites in record time (more tasting them then drinking full glasses) because we were all looking ahead ot the very special bottle: Bouchard Pere et Fils 1990 Vigne de L'enfant Jesus (Pinot Noir from Burgundy) ... according to Mr. Robert Parker this wine was 2 years past its drinking date, yet it still tasted fine to all of us. The nose showed earthy, bacony, black cherry, leather and cigar ash notes, while the palate had dried fruit (cherries and cranberries mostly) with a woody character which still held some smooth tannins within. Parker wasn't far off, I think the bottle is on the decline, had we waited another year or two it wouldn't have been very enjoyable - as it was it was quite good, and it's always fun to taste a piece of history, 20 year history at that.
Two more bottles were popped, both from Ontario: a Lailey Vineyard 2002 Canadian Oak Pinot Noir and a Thirty-Bench Winemakers 2006 Small Lot Cabernet Franc - you can read abotu those on my two other blogs (click to be linked over). We left about half of each bottle behind for out hostess, except for the Bouchard Pinot and the Thirty-Bench Franc ... those we polished off pretty quickly.
We kicked the evening off with a bottle of Chateau des Charmes Estate Bottled Brut sparkling wine, because all good bashes begin with bubbly.
Next up, an Austrian oddity, Sauvignon Blanc: Tement Berghausen 2006 Zieregg. This wine took a good ten minutes to fully open. At first it lacked the freshness of fruit you expect from a Sauvignon Blanc, especially on the nose; the palate had hints of vanilla and a high sulfur content that detracted from both the nose and taste. Ten minutes later the wine came alive with grassy-vanilla and grapefruit notes, there was also a citrus-tangerine tang on the finish. Quite nice afterall, though we were ready to write it off, thankfully some of us are more persistent and passionate about Sauv Blanc that others.
The cap was then twisted on a bottle of Bonny Doon's Ca'Del Solo 2008 Albarino from California. This one was more Sauvignon Blanc-esque than the Austria Sauvignon Blanc; lots of grapefruit and citrus accosted the nose. The Sauv Blanc character continued through to the mid-palate, though it had less than expected acidity. Flavours are citrus, vanilla and spice.
We moved on to the late last of the night, an Australian McPherson 2007 Basilisk Marsanne Vignier, which was underwhelming to us all: under-ripe fruit like peach and pear along with high tone petrol notes; the palate was bland, flavours were bosc pear, petrol and wet stone, but very boring with a lack of balancing acidity ... time did not improve this wine; the bringer kept going back to it hoping his bottle would improve ... it never did.
We plowed through the whites in record time (more tasting them then drinking full glasses) because we were all looking ahead ot the very special bottle: Bouchard Pere et Fils 1990 Vigne de L'enfant Jesus (Pinot Noir from Burgundy) ... according to Mr. Robert Parker this wine was 2 years past its drinking date, yet it still tasted fine to all of us. The nose showed earthy, bacony, black cherry, leather and cigar ash notes, while the palate had dried fruit (cherries and cranberries mostly) with a woody character which still held some smooth tannins within. Parker wasn't far off, I think the bottle is on the decline, had we waited another year or two it wouldn't have been very enjoyable - as it was it was quite good, and it's always fun to taste a piece of history, 20 year history at that.
Two more bottles were popped, both from Ontario: a Lailey Vineyard 2002 Canadian Oak Pinot Noir and a Thirty-Bench Winemakers 2006 Small Lot Cabernet Franc - you can read abotu those on my two other blogs (click to be linked over). We left about half of each bottle behind for out hostess, except for the Bouchard Pinot and the Thirty-Bench Franc ... those we polished off pretty quickly.
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