Wines Served May 30, 2009
2007 Chalone Chardonnay Monterey County
This is the current release of an always excellent Chardonnay made by one of the top producers of California Chardonnay. It is very rich and full of tropical fruit (pineapple) flavors and fine length. This is a perfect wine for warm summer days.
2007 J. Christopher Pinot Noir Willamette Valley
This is a tremendous Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Here is Matt Kramer's review of this wine from the Portland Oregonian, with which I agree completely: "Here, finally, is a 2007 pinot noir that I can suggest you not merely buy, but that you should lay in by the case. It's that good and --this is no small feature --it's that good a value, too.
Owner-winemaker Jay Somers has long been a deft pinot noir producer. But you can really take his measure as a winemaker in this just-released 2007 "Willamette Valley" pinot noir.
Somers makes no bones about the challenges of the 2007 vintage. "It was a really hard vintage," he says. "What we did differently from some others is that we didn't panic and pick everything just because we saw a big storm coming."
Picking too early --for understandable fear that the rains would render the crop worthless --resulted in what tasters call a "green" note in pinot noir. It's the result of grapes that simply aren't sufficiently flavor-ripe (as opposed to simply sugar-ripe). Many 2007 Oregon pinots have that green note.
"You just had to wait --and then you pick it," Somers says. "It rained nearly every day, but there were 24-hour windows of better weather. We did a lot of grape sorting at the winery, throwing away an awful lot of clusters that just weren't good."
J. Christopher "Willamette Valley" Pinot Noir 2007 is a flat-out superb pinot noir, not just for a 2007, but by the measure of any vintage (and I include the great 2005 vintage in this estimation). A blend of five Willamette Valley vineyards (Bella Vita, Charlie's, Abbey Ridge, La Collina and Croft), it includes vineyard selections that Somers usually issues as single-vineyard bottlings (Charlie's Vineyard and Abbey Ridge), which helped amp up the quality of this blend.
This is impeccable pinot noir delivering ripe-tasting, beautifully detailed fruit devoid of the excessive "sweet" fruit that can characterize some Oregon pinots, as well as any noticeable oakiness. Here you find classic, fully ripe berryish pinot noir flavors --especially wild cherry delivered in an admirably austere fashion with not a hint of greenness or excessive acidity. This is an Oregon pinot noir you could easily mistake for a very fine red Burgundy in a blind tasting."
2006 Casanovi di Neri Rosso di Casanova di Neri
This wine is made from declassified Sangiovese Grosso grapes from a top producer of Brunello di Montalcino. It is a big, rich wine that is thoroughly enjoyable now and will develop for a few years. It is the "entry-level" wine of Casanova de Neri. Try this wine with rich Italian meat dishes.
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Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
- Homer, Odyssey (9th c. B.C.)
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