Impromptu success

A great impromptu dinner when my folks were here with some great friends, great food and excellent wine. It is for nights like these that I have a wine cellar. A wonderful evening at Vin Rouge.

2006 Fonterenza Toscano IGT Sangiovese
Good wine, but lacked the nuance of the rosso, as one would expect, I guess. Still a very pleasant wine and would likely have been perceived differently on its own.

2006 Fonterenza Rosso di Montalcino
This was really, really appealing. If only all sangiovese tasted like this. Nothing black fruited or chocolate about it. Just full of pure red fruits, a good hit of earth and leather with incisive grip and punctuality. These vines will become the Brunello when mature and I look forward to following them.

2002 Pépière Clos des Briords
Ugh, corked. The thing is, despite being corked, which for me is not something I can even remotely drink through; I almost could with this wine. The underlying wine with its gorgeous structure and mineral thrust is right around the edge of the flaw. Oh well.

2002 Domaine de Montbourgeau L'Etoile Savagnin
We decanted this for about an hour or so. More rounded than the last bottle, especially towards the end of the night. Still a very good wine.

1997 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage
Wow. Sometimes I forget how great Chave Hermitage can be. This has never been a “great” vintage of Chave, but it is a remarkable wine. Complete is the best term for it. There is nothing you could wish were there. What more to say? To try to pick the wine apart is to do it a disservice.

1991 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain
Decanted for about 2 hours, this was not a wall of tannin!!! Actually, it was more or less resolved. There is a ton of fruit that is sliding over towards secondary and tertiary nuance. It has a large herbal component, that I like in cabernet based wines. My only complaint, and this is going to sound weird talking about a Dunn wine, is that the fruit might be overwhelming the structure a bit. Crazy, I know, but true. My instinct is that this will come back in tune when the fruit goes fully tertiary.

1990 Giovanni Corino Barolo Vigna Giachini
Decanted for several hours. Finally a modernist Barolo from 1990 that does not disappoint. To be fair, I stacked the deck as this has always showed well for me. In fact, I still like this wine and it’s gentle, very feminine approach to Barolo. All the classic La Morra elements were in effect and the tannin had come to be a nice framing element rather. IMO, fully mature and ready to go, but will probably stay in this neighborhood for several years.