I was tasting wines at another Chicago locals spot tonight and we opened a bottle of 2005 Domaine du Caillou Chateauneuf du Pape. Holy Cow! It is dellllllicious! The Vacheron family and winemaker Bruno Gaspard have some amazing vineyards and it really speaks true with this wine. I can’t believe that this wine is almost all grenache (99%). It was a silky smoothness that I don’t normally find in pure grenache ( not the normal dusty tannins and juvenile grip). Perhaps it has to do with the 100+ year old vines, or the modern wine making technique. Tasting this wine tonight shows the clean, pure and vibrant texture of brilliant CNDP. It is darker in aroma than the last time I was fortunate to taste it, with more country side floral aromas and blackberry than raspberry tones. The small amount of bottle age is treating the wine extremely well. Excellent finish and garrigue like terroir. I only wished that we’d had some duck or rabbit to go with it. Well, even if the dollar is slumping against the Euro, the price of oil continues to rise, and the value of my house is going steadily down, at least I know that there is still breathtaking wine out there.
Archive for March, 2008
I was having lunch at my favorite Chicago Italian restaurant, Gioco, in the South Loop. The General Manager was kind enough to pour us some killer Gavi di Gavi. 2006 Stephano Massone Masera Gavi from Marc de Grazia Selection Imports. It was brilliant in structure, citrus and almond notes on the nose with a very good dose of terroir that is reminiscent of sun-baked granite. The structure and balance rings true on the palate and the wine was perfect with our first 60 degree day in Chicago this year!
And then we noticed a bottle on the back bar that just screamed SNAFU. Another blunderbuss in the wine industry. 40cs of Jewel Collection pinot noir of Provincia di Pavia made at Woodbridge were shipped to Chicago with the front label printed upside down. What, upside down? Who was on the bottling line having a smoke break? I was told the story over lunch and just couldn’t resist in sharing. Here’s to all the daily snafu’s that we meet in all walks of life.
The night before last I was sitting with a poetic bottle of syrah that makes me a believer again in the nobleness of this grape. It was bottle #278 of 3100 of 2006 Owen Roe Lady Rosa Syrah. Mr David O’Reilly really has a magic touch and it doesn’t hurt that the fruit for Lady Rosa is one of the most profound terroir vineyards of the North West, Dubrul. Hugh and Kathy Shiels spend so many diligent hours in their vineyard maintaining and improving the land, the terroir, the fruit, that high kudos has to go to them. That being said, how magical is it when you open a new world bottle of syrah and your senses are hit with wild game aromas, dark freshly ground coffee with just a dash of bitter Mexican chocolate, grilled bacon, and then the fruit. David is a master of blending vineyard and primary expressions. It’s the balance of letting the land, the terroir speak, at the same time giving us a nearly hedonistic wine that screams to be drunk. The sad but true part of the story is that on day two (I was saving the bottle to appreciate its amelioration over several days) I found that the remaining juice in the bottle had been used in a meat and pasta dish that my wife made! Suffice it to say the sauce was dramatically good, I was just wishing the whole time for another sip while we twirled spaghetti.
