Favorite Fine Wine

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by Still-One

Ivan, take a look at my final suggestion in Post #2.

JIm

Yes, you did!

[Doug Lax]

Chateau Montelena chard is hard to beat

[kfr01]

Chevillon Nuits St. Georges
Leroy (just about anything)
Groffier's Chambolle-Musigny offerings
Uccelliera Brunello
Ridge Monte Bello
Paulo Scavino's Barolos
Sottimano's Barbarescos
Calera Pinots
Cristom Pinots
Gaja's Barbaresco (frankly, I think there are much better values in nebbiolo)
Badia a Coltibuono's Chiantis
Borgogno Barolo (love the library releases -- we'll see if the new owners can keep up quality)
Marchesi di Gresy Barbarescos
Vietti Barolos
La Spinetta (Rivetti) Barbaresco, Barolo, and just about everything else he makes.

I could go on... As you can probably tell, I tend to taste up and down my favorite producers (sometimes to the exclusion of trying new producers or varietals I don't really know), rather than falling in love with particular bottles.

The exception right now is Groffier's 2004 Cambolle-Musigny 1er Cru, Les Sentiers. I love it. I highly recommend picking up a bottle (or having your dealer get a case for you). Warning - I think this is a special bottling that not everyone will "get." My wife and a number of wine friends think it smells and tastes like "barnyard" or "forest floor". I think it is Burgundy done right. The earthy nose, the red fruit balanced with earth and minerals, the complexity. God, that nose!

The great news about this bottle not exactly being understood by many of those that enjoy the "american pinot fruit explosion" is that this Groffier offering can be had for a song right now. What would typically be $100-150 a bottle can be found for $70ish (current cellartracker average value), or even less if the store is having trouble unloading.

Cheers!

[-E-]

When you say barnyard/forest floor do you correlate that with a musty, barrel room smell? That, to me, is one of the most epic aroma's a wine can have for me.

(I hate when everything is "creme de cassis")

[kfr01]

Yes, that's certainly part of it. Musty without being bad. I love when some of that barrel room quality emanates on the nose for hours. This particular Groffier even seems to throw some coolness. Epic is right.

[Robert_Anderson]

Silver Oak, which used to be relatively cheap, but is now hard to find.

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by Vesuvius

When you say barnyard/forest floor do you correlate that with a musty, barrel room smell? That, to me, is one of the most epic aroma's a wine can have for me.

(I hate when everything is "creme de cassis")

Isn't the forest floor just a barnyard infused with "creme de cassis"?

:rimshot:

[-E-]

Nice meta...

Just got back from Sonoma today - some nice stops and excellent pickups - the cellar is approaching capacity - even found some solid 3L's.

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by Vesuvius

Nice meta...

Just got back from Sonoma today - some nice stops and excellent pickups - the cellar is approaching capacity - even found some solid 3L's.

Well you did throw up a softball.

Trip report? Some of us, though we may work for a northern CA company, live a long way from wine country.

[-E-]

Mostly a white wine hunt as that side of the cellar is the one that needs some new friends. We started up in North Santa Rosa, by the Fulton/River Road area, through Bennett Valley, and finished in Northern Sonoma proper, called Glen Ellen.

One thing I noticed is that wineries still have significant stock on-hand of several past vintages, and most have kept the same prices (of your middle of the road $30-$70/bottle selections) due to the strain of excess inventory coupled with lower sales volume.

This made for some fun arm-twisting as verticals of many wines were opened for my group, and we could pick and choose what we liked from there.

I had some friends in from out of town, who are wine novices, so I took them to three places I know very well, and they were treated like royalty. They received a very nice education (which they were sponges for, it was fun to watch) to boot.

All-in-all about 12 cases came back with me, and about 4 more are scheduled to ship because we ran out of room. The SUV was so weight-heavy in the rear it looked like we ghettofied an Escalade by lowering the rear end by 8".

The double-mag's I got my hands on were of Arrowood Reserve Especial 2001 Chardonnay & 2008 Chardonnay - really nice bottle, smoked glass with gold etching and the red/blue crest of winery.

I've started to see some of our better white wine producers in N.CA back off on the overly buttery chardonnays now (sans Rombauer, who took the acid-butterball effect way out of line), and produce a clean, floral, long finishing chard with a nice hint of oak... It's a pleasure to drink, even on a day where it was horrifically cold and wet (high for the day yesterday was 44 degrees, and snow was visible on the entire Mayacamas mountain range down to ~800 feet or so).

Also picked up a couple of Sauvignon Blancs and Pinot Blancs in prep for spring/summer, and some really stellar Merlot & Cab that have the hand of a 100-point winemaker in them, but done rather secretively (and thus the price/bottle is about a quarter of what the main label costs).

As I look outside today I see sunlight and blue skies! Gasp! If only we could have gone today.