Some wines served with a birthday dinner for a friend.
Pol Roger NV Brut Champagne
Pale golden color, lots of toasty doughy aromas, tiny bubbles, good fruit and a long balanced dry finish. My “house NV Brut”. I miss the days when this was $19.99
2006 Domaine Belleville Rully “La Perche” (Cote Chalonnaise)
This is a surprisingly nice, ripe mouth coating white Burgundy. Nicely balanced with good acidity and a long complex finish of tropical fruit, honey and gravel. This was surprisingly good for a relatively inexpensive White Burgundy. This quality would certainly cost significantly more if it were from the Cote de Beaune.
2000 Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel
Incredible nose of perfumed sweet ripe berry fruit. On the palate lots of ripe jammy sweet berry fruit layered with some woody/nutty/coffee flavors and some exotics spices. The concentration/thickness of this was almost over the top. Nice acidity though with almost a sweet port-like finish. This wine had a lot going on in the glass and was showing great. If you love Ridge this is a wine for you.
1990 Poggio Antico Brunello di Montalicino Riserva
This was probably the wine of the night. A nice aged Brunello. Beautiful intense ruby red in color. On the nose georgeous hints of cherry, blackberry, tar and licorice. On the palate just a beautiful extremely long and elegant mix of fruit, tannins and spices. Very nice on this night. Last bottle in my cellar.*
2001 Mocali Brunello di Montalcino
Lots of cherry and plum fruit, tobacco, chocolate and coffee. Moderate tannins and concentration with a nice bright finish. Probably better with a few years in the cellar and somewhat overshadowed by the Poggio Antico.
1955 Chateau Rieussec
This was from the birthday boy’s birth year. I bought this on ebay a few years ago so I have no idea about the cellaring conditions. Almost the color of Coca Cola. On the nose some nuts, figs and Madeira. On the palate some caramel and sweetness but definitely somewhat Madeirized. Interesting and fun but somewhat over the hill and possibly suffering from poor storage conditions.
*I have a friend who swears the last bottle is always the best particularly when you can’t easily obtain more.
