Those delicious wines I tried in 2009…
There were many wonderful wine tastings this year and terrific producers. Larger than life and ebullient Michel Chapoutier explored 2006 vintage meandering though the Rhone, North and South. The aristocratic Frenchman, Christian Moueix opining on the beauty of Petrus and Trotanoy. And of course, the philosophical musings of Andre Ostertag, charming us about the benefits of “good farming” and the wines of Alsace.
I set a challenge and applied specific criteria to the ranking of these wines. From the regions I had explored this year, I was allowed to select only one wine. I would also record the best vintage, having tasted 1966 Chateau Batailley through to a Torrontes 2009, that’s quite tricky. Then mention the most hedonistic wine tasted this year, that is, the most ridiculously expensive.
It was a fun little exercise. Trawling through my notes, I was heady from the nostalgia, the pungent spices, fruits and vegetal notes that were lifting off the page. Yum.
My favorites, in brief:
1) The region is Alsace and the wine is a Riesling. Trimbach, Cuvee Fredrick Emile, 2001
Pale gold in colour, with a discernible nose of lime, linden, apple, peach, petrol and honey. These flavours are as perceptible on the palate as on the nose. A dry wine with a good level of acidity and no tannins. Medium to full body and a wonderfully long finish. Very good quality, whilst drinking now it can age to develop those extraordinary petrol and honey aromas. I would say it probably goes best with food.
2) The Vintage of 1990.
In particular, Chateau Batailley in Bordeaux. A gloriously balanced wine. Aromas of black fruits and oak-aged smokiness, with hints of chocolate and silky smooth tannins. My two other favorites from this Vintage were from the Rhone area. Chateauneuf du Pape from the Chateau de Beaucastel, which had a vegetal base to it, and notes of toffee emanating from the second, J-L Chave’s Vin de Paille. Outstanding.
3) The most expensive bottle of wine.
1989 vintage of Domaine J-L Chave, Hermitage (rouge). Far from feeling hedonistic, this is my favorite wine region. My notes read: a garnet coloured wine with an orange hue. Menthol, tobacco, spices and vegetal notes. It was a little sherry-like (which was a positive remark). Outstanding.
I was not given the prices per bottle for either the Petrus or Trotanoy, I would imagine these wines of the Pomerol far exceed the prices of Hermitage. If I recall, the wine journalist seated next to me, and Monsieur Moueix who was up on stage, were appropriately drooling and in praise of these two wines of 1998.
Heaven can wait another year!
