Notes from a dinner tasting of older American wines:

1995 Belvedere Chardonnay Alexander Valley - this one wasn't oxidized, but it
had taken on a lot of colour and was simply not very interesting. Pity, as the
last bottle I had a few years ago was very good. We tossed it and instead
opened:

1995 Merryvale Starmont Chardonnay - decent nose and a medium weight fruit
driven wine with less oak than on expects. The acidity was still good (it must
have been even more so in youth) and it went well with salmon and crab cakes.

1975 Freemark Abbey York Creek Petite Sirah - I bought this as library release
when I was down at Laguna Seca racing in 1980 or so, and the wine was
absolutely impenetrable - you could see no light at all through it even holding
it up to the sun, until about 10 years ago. It still has excellent deep colour,
and a nose like an Amarone with dried dates. It still has considerable tannin,
now softened, and as it sat i n the glass, the nose became progressively more
raisiny. Some of these old wines are amazing.

1979 Kenwood Jack London Cabernet - still with the old label, this wine was
quite a contrast to the other - lighter colour (but then pretty much anything
would be), a sweet cassis nose that picked up a pleasant mushroom element,
sweet in the mouth, and now long and elegant. I've worked my way through a half
case of this and it was a tannin monster when young. Both went well with
truffled broiled Portobello mushrooms with garlic and parmesan.

1982 Niebaum-Coppola Rubicon - the nose was initially rubbery, but that blew
off leaving some earthy cassis. While not as elegant as the Kenwood has become,
it is a complex wine with some remaining soft tannins and a good structure.

1984 La Jota Howell Mountain Cabernet - dark wine with a sweet nose. It has
loads of sweet fruit and a very long finish to start, but it narrowed down at
the end fairly quickly in the glass and became much less attractive than it had
been at the beginning. I give the nod to the Rubicon in this pairing. Served
with a grilled quail salad.

The main event was a simple dish, butterflied leg of lamb marinated in North
African spices and grilled, served rare.

1987 Girard Napa Cabernet - dark, good fruit and vanilla in the nose, a bit
tight in the middle, but with excellent flavour concentration, and good length.
This has stood up much better than we had anticipated.

1987 Togni Napa Cabernet - big beautiful sweet nose, but marred by a touch of
sharp dill pickle. The wine was still young and vital and was smooth and long
on palate. Aside from that one flaw, which bothered different people to varying
degrees, it showed the class one expects from Togni. Perhaps this was an odd
bottle, or the dill may go away with more air than we gave it.

With cheese:

2000 Biale Zinfandel Black Chicken Ranch - at 'only' 15.9% alcohol, the nose
was understandably at least a touch warm. It was also quite ripe, though I am
not sure the producer calls this a late harvest style of wine. Sweet entry,
smooth and long with a ripe finish as well, it went quite well with cheese.

On their own as dessert:

1987 Mirassou Monterey Johannisberg Riesling Select Late Harvest - this wine
was finished at 15.2% residual sugar. Pale brown (why is it that American
white dessert wines seem able to do this without exhibiting the oxidation you'd
otherwise expect?) and an obvious Riesling nose - certainly not a given, as
high RS and age tend to conceal varietal characteristics. Good flavour
intensity and length.

1982 Ch. St. Jean Special Select Late Harvest Gewurztraminer Robert Young
Vineyard - the SSLH designation was what Dick Arrowood was using in place of
the Beerenauslese designator that international convention denied him. He used
another one for Trockenbeerenauslese - "Individually Dried Bunch Selected Late
Harvest" or IDBSLH, which isn't much better than the unwieldy German original
(although TBA makes a nice contraction). I have a dwindling stash of the latter
- the 1979 Belle Terre 'TBA' which finished at 28.2% RS (and was $25 US a half
bottle back when I bought it in 1980 - the days when 'Motel 6' really referred
to the price of the room. In any case, this wine (the 1982) had a wonderful
nose of botrycised oranges and apricots, and was very sweet but retains
sufficient acidity to balance it. A stage beyond the Mirassou in complexity.
Very dark amber now, almost brown. Sure wish I'd bought more of this nectar!

"Bill Spohn" in ...
> Notes from a dinner tasting of older American wines:
> . . .
> 1975 Freemark Abbey York Creek Petite Sirah - ... in 1980
> or so ... the wine was absolutely impenetrable - you could see
> no light at all through it even holding it up to the sun, until about
> 10 years ago. It still has excellent deep colour, ...

NB Another York Creek Petite Sirah, from Ridge Vineyards, was widely bought
in the 1978 vintage (many people probably still have some) and was prized
for two things: flavor and opacity. Completely black.

> ... went well with salmon and crab cakes
> ... went well with truffled broiled Portobello mushrooms
> with garlic and parmesan.
> ... Served with a grilled quail salad.
>
> ... a simple dish, butterflied leg of lamb marinated in North
> African spices and grilled, served rare.

Looks like a glorious menu. It leaves me wondering if it was at a
restaurant, or a well-staffed home, or from someone with near-infinite
energy?

-- Max

"Max Hauser" > wrote in message
...
> NB Another York Creek Petite Sirah, from Ridge Vineyards, was widely
bought
> in the 1978 vintage (many people probably still have some) and was prized
> for two things: flavor and opacity. Completely black.

In the early 70s, both Ridge and Freemark Abbey produced York Creek Petite
Syrahs. They were similar in inkiness and quality (very high).

Perhaps my favorite Petite Syrah _ever_ was the 1975 Carneros Creek. Huge
wine, absolutely _black_, with 15+% alcohol in *balance* with the fruit.
The finish was so long I can still taste it! I used a bottle of it to
marinade and cook a pot roast and to this day I've not made a better gravy.

The 1975 Mount Veeder Petite Syrah was a very close contender to the
Carneros Creek - but it was a bit more expensive.

Tom S

Some where in the archives is my tasting note on the 1975 Mount Veeder PS.
Had last bottle about 5 years ago, still opaque.

--
Joe "Beppe" Rosenberg
"Tom S" > wrote in message
m...
>
> "Max Hauser" > wrote in message
> ...
> > NB Another York Creek Petite Sirah, from Ridge Vineyards, was widely
> bought
> > in the 1978 vintage (many people probably still have some) and was
prized
> > for two things: flavor and opacity. Completely black.
>
> In the early 70s, both Ridge and Freemark Abbey produced York Creek Petite
> Syrahs. They were similar in inkiness and quality (very high).
>
> Perhaps my favorite Petite Syrah _ever_ was the 1975 Carneros Creek. Huge
> wine, absolutely _black_, with 15+% alcohol in *balance* with the fruit.
> The finish was so long I can still taste it! I used a bottle of it to
> marinade and cook a pot roast and to this day I've not made a better
gravy.
>
> The 1975 Mount Veeder Petite Syrah was a very close contender to the
> Carneros Creek - but it was a bit more expensive.
>
> Tom S
>
>

I have found that many of the very rich California Rieslings from the
70s and 80s are still holding very well. Being a fan of top late harvest
German Rieslings, I bought heavy stocks of these in the 70s, mainly the
outstanding 71s, 75s, and 76s. I had to special order some of these with
the help of a friendly importer. When some of the rich California
Rieslings appeared, I was greatly impressed and thought many would age
very well, but perhaps not as slowly as some of the German Rieslings.
They were nearly giving these wines away compared with the top German
BAs and TBAs. Oddly enough, the area stores were having a difficult time
selling them because there was not much of a market for ultra rich sweet
wines in the area at that time. I cleaned out the small stocks that
three wine stores had received. I still have about 50 of these wines,
mostly in half bottles, and the ones I still have all are drinking well.
Freemark Edelwein 73 (BA) is beginning to show a bit more age than I
like, but the 78 should hold a few more years.The 76 and 91 Edelwein
Gold are about TBA richness, with plenty of time to go. The Ch. St. Jean
Belle Terre IDBSLH (28% RS) is neary beyond TBA and should last many
more years. Joseph Phelps Stanton SLH (30% RS) also should have a long
life. Veedercrest 78, Individually Selected, Steltzner (about BA) still
is holding although not as rich as some of the others mentioned. All of
the mentioned wines had enough acidity to balance the great richness.
The balance is more like a top German Pfalz BA or TBA than a Mosel or
Saar.

Of course I took a chance buying these to age. If they had not held
well, I might have tried to get a hospital to buy them to use for their
glucose tolerance tests instead of that awful sugar water they use.

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>Looks like a glorious menu. It leaves me wondering if it was at a
>restaurant, or a well-staffed home, or from someone with near-infinite
>energy?

It was a good, but simple menu I could do ahead, for the most part. We tend not
to get too fancy when we want to concentrate on the wines.