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Roederer Estate Brut Anderson Valley Champagne 1999

Winemaker's Notes

The Roederer Estate Brut is crisp and elegant with complex pear, spice and hazelnut flavors. It is fresh and lightly fruity with great finesse and depth of flavor.

Winemaking

 Roederer's winemaking style is based on two elements: complete ownership of its vineyards and the addition of oak-aged reserve wines to each year's blend or cuvée. All the grapes for the wines are grown on the Estate. Oak-aged wines from the Estate's reserve cellars are added to the blend, creating a multi-vintage cuvée in the traditional Roederer style. Only the cuvée (first pressing of 120 gallons/ton) is used; no premiere or deuxieme taille. The fermentation takes place in high-grade stainless steel tanks at 65 degrees Fahrenheit. None to minimal malolactic fermentation is used in order to ensure that the wines age well and retain the fresh, somewhat austere style that is one of the characteristics of Roederer wines.

2001 Bruno Giacosa Barolo Riserva Le Rocche del Falletto di Serralunga d'Alba 2001

Review

Extremely intense and fruity nose of strawberries and some toffee. In the mouth this appears round as the immense amount of fruit completely hides the structure. The fruit has a spicy edge to it on the backend, but other than that it is difficult to coax anything but very fresh and immensely intense red fruit out of it. In that sense this is very primary and a bit onedimensional. A bit like the 2005 Vogue Musigny VV that I reported on resently, only even more extreme.

Chateau Mouton Rothschild Pauillac 1986

Winemaker's Notes

After stumbling over some wines I thought were high class Bordeaux, I nailed this wine in one of the blind tastings for this article. In most tastings where a great Bordeaux is inserted with California Cabernets, the Bordeaux comes across as drier, more austere, and not nearly as rich and concentrated (California wines are inevitably fruitier and more massive). To put it mildly, the 1986 Mouton-Rothschild held its own (and then some), in a flight that included the Caymus Special Selection, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23, Dunn Howell Mountain, and Joseph Phelps Eisele Vineyard.

Review

read moGood medium ruby. Currant, currant leaf, cedar and dusty oak on the nose. Tightly wound and classic, with fabulous acids contributing to its powerful spine. Wonderfully pure and intense, with great verve and grip. But still quite locked up, and hiding its density. Finishes firmly tannic and extremely long. I remember mistaking the '86 Mouton for such international stars as Sassicaia in the early '90s, when it showed greater sweetness, but this wine has been quite shut down for the past several years. The '86 and the '82 appear clearly to be the two greatest vintages for Mouton since the 1959.

Château Lafite Rothschild Pauillac 1959

Winemaker's Notes

Deep colour. An intense, delicate, subtle and complex nose. Very neat and regular on the palate upon attack leading to volume and a nicely round structure. Highly powerful, great length, dense and purely elegant.

Review

Dark ruby color, ripe black currants, violets and vanilla, spicy, excellent scents. The wine has great finesse and a particular softness imparted by the Merlot. It tends to be firm yet delicate and supple, great elegance develops with age.


Conterno Giacomo Barolo Riserva Monfortino 1999

Review

Good full red. Very deep, sappy, complex nose combines black fruits, violet, rose and minerals. Then sweet, dense and lush, with terrific clarity of flavor and inner-mouth perfume. This has all the elements of great Barolo. Finishes with compelling aromatic complexity, noble tannins and great length.

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Last Updated: July,12 2008