In Blood & Spirit

Lest you think that commenting on politics and economics is all I do, I thought I would put up a couple of shots of the wines I have been drinking recently with my friends at Glenn Moore’s monthly wine dinners. Though much of the wine cannot be bought today as it has been stored in various friends cellars for years, I will attempt to put approximate pricing on wines that are available in our local stores so you can look for them if you choose. We sampled the wines below at the monthly December wine dinner we often have.

Glenn Moore's Tuesday Wine dinner at Mother's - December 2011

Needless to say there was an interesting variety going from vintage champagne, a nice Sicilian white, a young Cal chard, a 1983 Reisling and a Sauterne to a young but good Argentinia, a well aged St. Julien and St. Emilion, an Aussie Cab and a  great California Cab, young and old. If I remember correctly the 1983 Groth from Napa was the real stand out, but the 2007 RAZI Chard (~$35) from Sonoma was great as well and the Reisling and Sauterne were incomparable!

This January we celebrated Glenn’s birthday on a Friday instead of our usual Tuesday meeting and had another amazing collection to sample from below!

Wines we sampled at Glenn's Birthday dinner 2012

We do like old wine so the Brunello and the 1983 Talbo St. Julien were the biggest hits, however, the 2005 Bressan (~$35) from the Veneto showed as becoming a great wine and should be drinkable through 2027 or so. The 2008 Pere et Fils Bourgogne was a nice French chardonnay for the price (~$20) and both the Mumm’s Napa Brut Rose and the Mure Cremant de Alsace (both around $20) drank very nicely.

Everything from Domain de Mourchon is always good and the fact that the prices have risen by 50 to 100% recently are proof enough. If the Grande Reserve is too rich for your blood their regular 2009 Cote du Rhone goes for around $20 and is wonderful. There is also an excellent 2008 Cairanne from nearly the same area I sampled recently for around $15 which is just as good.

This is my regular house wine and I laid in enough to drink for another year or two until I find something as good (the Cairanne might be the one) I recently saw the 2009 vintage north of $25 a bottle a Central Markup. I laid in a couple of cases for around $13 a bottle to go with teh nice 2004 Barbera and 2005 Cote de Beaune that I drink for everyday wine. If you find a 2007 of this fine old vine wine pick it up.

Purchase at the vinyard in 2005 this was drinking great in 2011! All the Michel-Slumberger wines I’ve ever had have drunk great I have to admit.

This Sassela is always wonderful for around $23 and it does best drunk fairly young (5 to 10 years) and decanted.

This Chateau Gloria, though not as old as many of the wines we often drink was another real standout, but then I always love St. Julien’s.

More to come!