Check out the latest tasting notes from the Terroirist team, including Rebecca’s pretty epic tasting of Opus One’s recent releases.
Rebecca Canan
I had a great week of wine. I started out on Monday with an Opus One tasting of four vintages – 2005, 2006, 2007, & 2008. I’ll be doing a more in-depth tasting next month with winemaker, Michael Silacci, but in the meantime here are brief tasting notes. Everything was, to put it technically, yummy.
The 2005 Opus One had a woodsy, cigar box nose that was dominated by secondary/tertiary scents and only with more restrained deep blackberry and blueberry notes. The palate had the same fruit profile balanced by tobacco, a little leather, and integrated tannins.
The 2006 Opus One was brighter and fresher – deep raspberry, brambly black fruit. On the palate you got the new French oak, which the wine had been aged in for ~18 months – toasty vanilla, a little spice, and then more black currant.
The 2007 Opus One had muddled blackberries, blueberries, and dark raspberry on the nose. It smelled like a young, well-made Napa cab that my mother would die for. The profile then evolved into more oak character than I’d expected from the nose (allspice/cinnamon). Still very fruit-forward, almost like a blueberry pie; delicious, but will improve gracefully with age.
On the 2008 Opus One, I got greener, vegetal notes (funky growing season? Or the Petit Verdot/Cab Franc?), cassis, a little anise. The mouth was surprisingly tannic and drying with leather, sandalwood, deep black currant, and considerable heat (alcohol content?).
I enjoyed a big messy burger for a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner Tuesday, then followed it up with a glass of 2009 Suhru Shiraz, which I’d picked up on a trip to the North Fork of Long Island. I was intrigued by this wine because it smells and tastes like peppered, teriyaki beef jerky. No joke. Beef. Jerky. Kind of weird and kind of awesome.
Saturday I went to the Tre Bicchieri Italian wine event here in New York. Be on the lookout for a separate post on this event!
Matt Latuchie
I was on the road this week and was happy to reconnect with some wine friends in both New York City and Chicago.
In New York, I met up with some friends and a wide selection of wines were opened. The NV extra brut cuvee from Marie-Noelle Ledru was closest to taking home the honors of wine of the night amongst the group. This was recommended to me from wine wunderkind Salil Benegal who spoke very highly of her wine making style. It wasn’t a powerful Champagne – in the mold of, say, Krug – but much more feminine and exotic. Beautiful floral notes merged with sweet lemon and lime tones to create an elegant and racy champagne. For me, the other highlight of the night was the 2004 Bernard Levet Côte-Rôtie La Chavaroche. This was a rustic syrah with dense olive and meat tones that, to me, are the essence of the grape. While incredibly young, this already speaks of its terroir and should only increase in complexity with time. Read my complete notes on the evening here.
While in Chicago I met up with a small group for a Clos Vougeot dinner at Acquitaine in Lincoln Park. The atmosphere was festive, the food was well prepared and the wines showed very nicely. We had four Clos Vougeot; 1996 Faiveley, 1997 Fery-Meunier, 1997 Chateau De La Tour, and the 2001 Jacques Prieur. The Faivlely seemed shut down and wasn’t incredibly interesting to me, the Prieur was too young but the two 1997s drank beautifully. This isn’t a heralded vintage at all, but both of these wines had vivid red fruit, nice earthy tones, subtle dry leaf tones and a wonderful mix of spices. Read my complete notes on the evening here. Read the rest of this entry »