It’s hard to beat kicking back at Sean and Sonja’s lovely house in Leadville, CO and it doesn’t get much better than walking in, grabbing a glass of champagne, a handful of freshly popped popcorn and starting to work out the menu and courses for the evening.. We always work like dogs in the kitchen but I wouldn’t have it any other way and just have a fantastic time.

Starter Whites and a Red

While the girls jumped in the hot tub, we got to work on the first course and sucked down glasses of the N.V. G. H. Mumm & Cie Champagne Cordon Rouge Brut. Young and tight, this is delicious and shows nice underlying structure with plenty of richness. I readily admit to liking wines on the young side but champagne is one place where I feel cellar time is handsomely rewarded and I think this bottle deserves a couple years. The 1996 Klein aux Vieux Remparts Riesling Burgreben was consumed with a salad course and showed beautiful aromatics with a high acid and slightly disjointed palate. The 2006 Más Que Vinos Tempranillo Ercavio Roble was the starter red (and partially donated to the simmering short ribs) and while it possesses an upfront, fruit driven personality, it showed some nice class on the finish. For fruit driven, great wines, bottlings like this continue to show that Spain is hard to beat.

• 1996 Klein aux Vieux Remparts Riesling Burgreben - France, Alsace, Alsace AOC
  The nose on this thing is just packed with diesel and petrol notes mixed with ripe, honeyed lychee and peach notes. While the palate is good, it’s definitely the weaker point to the wine and seems a little jagged with the acidity kicking things out of wack. Still, excellent and very enjoyable. (89 pts.)
• N.V. G. H. Mumm & Cie Champagne Cordon Rouge Brut - France, Champagne
  Solid and really a class act. Very young but this shows some nice richness and depth on the backend that would have me sticking these in the cellar for a couple years to see what happens. (89 pts.)
• 2006 Más Que Vinos Tempranillo Ercavio Roble - Spain, Castilla-La Mancha, Vino de la Tierra de Castilla
  This is a ripe, upfront wine that is surprisingly restrained and balanced on the palate. Sweet blueberry and earthy cassis notes show up on the nose and the palate is medium to full bodied with a soft, lush and easy drinking character. This really does impress on the finish where it firms up, shows nice delineation and plenty of length. (89 pts.)

2006 in the Southern Rhone

We lead off with the two youngsters (paired with braised short ribs and polenta) and the 2006 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul didn’t disappoint. This showed the best right after opening and then later on the second day so I’d suggest not decanting if drinking anytime soon. While it is fruit forward and accessible, there’s some real concentration to this wine and plenty of solid structure. The 2006 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a big, structured and dense wine and flys in the face of the vintage billing of soft and easy drinking wines. This is a traditional, structured CdP and needs some cellar time. The tannins are ripe but they’re certainly not sweet either but this is a great wine. Quite a bit better then the 2004 in my opinion and on par with the 2005.

• 2006 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Fantastic right out of the bottle, this shut down quite a bit over the evening but then was screaming good on the next day as well… At its best, this shows ripe, sweet and forward fruit notes of blackberry and raspberry with decadent licorice, lavender, herbs de provence and mineral aromas showing up in the background. The palate is as good as the nose and shows beautifully concentrated fruit, a supurb and lush texture, perfect balance and a long, enjoyable finish. Really something and this seems to be as good as any of the other top Mon Aieuls, including the 2003. (97 pts.)
• 2006 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Right out of the bottle, this wasn’t giving up anything on the nose and the palate was locked tight and tannic as all hell… A couple hours in the decanted did wonders for it though and this was still going strong (better?) on the second day with ripe, peppery and earthy dark fruit, leather, violets and lots of garrigue notes. Very young and concentrated but also very traditional. The palate is medium to full bodied and structured with plenty of concentration, impeccable balance and nice length. This is a young, dense wine and while there’s enough up front fruit to make this really enjoyable now, it really needs to be packed away for 5+ years. This is better than the 2004 and worth checking out! (93 pts.)

1997 in the Northern Rhone

Easily the best drinking wine of the evening, the 1997 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Château d’Ampuis was fantastic. Integrated, silky, smooth and showing beautifully ripe fruit, this is drinking perfectly. Paired with roasted game hens and potatoes, it’s hard to imagine this getting any better but the last sip of this later in the evening was still awesome so it has plenty of prime time drinking left. The 1997 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie was very different with higher acid and a brighter fruit profile. It showed down right stinky at first but with air, it softened up, gained complexity and more fruit and was a solid, if not hugely exciting drink. The amount of acid, tannin and depth (or lack of) to the mid-palate would have me drinking these up.

• 1997 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie Château d’Ampuis - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
  Wow, just drinking spectacularly well, this shows rich, ripe and borderline mature aromas of earthy and peppery dark fruit, cassis, subtle barnyard and spicey aromas that lead into a medium to full bodied palate. With low acidity, lush fruit and a seamless texture, this is really at a sweet spot and should stay here for some time. A beautiful wine! (94 pts.)
• 1997 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie
  Quite the contrast to the Guigal Ampuis, this shows a much brighter, higher acid profile and also a much more earthy and barnyard driven personality.. The nose is big and piercing with rampant barnyard, horse, leather and earthy notes but with air, the fruit really comes out and this picks up a coffee grind and mineral aromas. Really complex and interesting, this changed a lot over the evening. The palate is medium bodied with noticeable acidity, a streamlined personality and plenty of tannins on the finish. I’m not sure this has enough fruit but it did show the best later in the evening and has complex, rich aromatics so who knows. (89 pts.)

And I mean the fly over part tongue in cheek because hanging out with the likes of Brad England, Chris Larson, Chris Palm and Steve Sigmond make the lovely city of Minneapolis a destination unto itself. Absolutely class act folks and I’m more than a little happy to have family in the area to give me an excuse to visit.

Starter Whites at Steve’s

We started this evening at Steve’s where we sucked down the 2007 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé and after just having a bottle of the 2006, I’m even more convinced that these wines are the best right out of the gate. This had a similar structure to the 2006 but had a big wallop of juicy fruit as well. The N.V. Taittinger Champagne Prelude Grand Cru is a special N.V. cuvee sourced all from Grand Cru vineyards and was big, full bodied, soft and lush.

• 2007 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé - France, Provence, Bandol
  Along with the 2007 Mordoree Tavel, one of the best Rosé wines I’ve ever had. Just stacked with ripe, juicy strawberry fruit on the nose, this picks up minerals, flowers and orange rind notes with air. The palate is medium to full bodied and is perfectly balanced, structured, completely dry and looong. While this doesn’t have the massive fruit component present in the Mordoree, it makes up for it with amazing structure, precision and edge. (94 pts.)
• N.V. Taittinger Champagne Prelude Grand Cru - France, Champagne
  Very yeasty with tons of toasted bread aromas, this shows plump, soft, full bodied fruit backed up by nice mineral notes. Not terribly structured so this isn’t something I would hang onto for too long but man is it drinking well now. (93 pts.)

Chateauneufs at Heidi’s

What a lineup of wines… Aside from the Baron and Solitude, I thought all of these were borderline perfection and there wasn’t a dog to be found. Maybe the wines really are this good or maybe the company made them all taste better; one thing I do know is that it wasn’t the freaking heat making them show so well and while we waited for a table in the 85+ degree and 100 percent humidity entry way, I could only shudder when the trusty maitre d’ commented that he might have to seat us in the sauna room…

While we waited for a table, we sucked down glasses of the 2003 Château Fortia Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée du Baron and it was served double blind. I’m a fan of this wine and while this didn’t seem as structured as some previous bottles, it was still a delicious, hedonistic and lush wine. The 1989 Domaine de la Solitude (Lançon Père et Fils) Châteauneuf-du-Pape was a solid bottle but both of these were overshadowed by the next two wines.

Apparently, Brad special orders his 1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape with only the good flavors of brett and this bottle had em in spades. Ripe, lush and silky, this wine is just fantastic and I’ll never grow tired of drinking it. The 2003 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape was as good as I remembered from a previous bottle and I thought it was hilarious when someone proclaimed that they wanted to dislike the wine since it was so fashionable to hate it. So true and I completely understand the statement. This bottle was my second favorite of the night and it had the sheer drinkablity and elegance of the Beaucastel but also blockbuster, ripe and spectacular fruit to go along with it.

The 2001 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul was just pure grenache to the core and hard to fault. One of the few wines of the night that seemed backwards and a little closed on the nose at first. This really opened up in the glass and was a stunning bottle. The 2001 Domaine de la Janasse Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes showed just like they always do. Ripe, jammy, black fruited and slightly atypical… Actually, the damn things stick out like sore thumbs in lineups. I thought this bottle was fantastic though and really showed impressive fruit with plenty of underlying structure. As to when to drink these, they just don’t seem to close down and with the fruit quality here, I have to say I’d lean towards drinking these babies on the young side if you don’t mind ripe tannins.

This was my first taste of the 2003 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée da Capo and thank you, thank you and thank you to Steve for sharing this! Tight on the nose, this continued to open up over the evening and this wine is unbelievable on the palate. Would I be able to distinguish this from the Réservée? Tough to say but this was one seriously endowed wine and I think everyone at the table was a fan.

• 2003 Château Fortia Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée du Baron - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  From Mag. Showing pure raspberry liquor and kirsch on the nose, this is ripe, heady stuff. Medium to full bodied on the palate, this bottle was slightly softer than previous ones but still had good density, nice balance and plenty of fine grained tannins on the finish. (92 pts.)
• 1989 Domaine de la Solitude (Lançon Père et Fils) Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Very dark, earthy and almost bloody, this is packed with licorice infused dark fruit, spice and subtle balsamic aromas that lead into a medium to full bodied palate. While better on the nose, this has a rich, savory texture and decent length. Improved with air. (89 pts.)
• 1990 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Not much I can say about this wine that hasn’t already been stated and this bottle was rocking. Seamless, silky and just drinking perfectly. I don’t think this bottle is going to fade anytime soon but I’d drink em if you got em cuz I can’t imagine this getting better than right now. (97 pts.)
• 2003 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  The only other wine of the night to come close to the silky seamlessness of the Beaucastel, this was screaming good and close to my WOTN. Aromatically, this is absolutely fantastic and shows pure raspberry liquor, kirsch, licorice and perfumed spice notes and while it is very ripe, everything works and the elegant, seamless character pulls everything together. Full bodied, lush, seamless, long and perfectly built, there wasn’t a hint of the heat or the roasted aromas that other have found in this wine. (98 pts.)
• 2001 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  While this started out almost broodingly backwards on the nose, it really opened up with air and is an amazing example of old vine grenache. Just packed with blackberry and raspberry fruit, leather and garrigue aromas on the nose, this has real depth and richness. I couldn’t find a fault with the palate and it’s full bodied, perfectly balanced with solid underlying structure, a lush texture and an amazingly long finish. (97+ pts.)
• 2001 Domaine de la Janasse Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  These wines always come across as so modern and almost jammy that it’s difficult to put them in a lineup of other CdPs and really appreciate it. Regardless, this wine is utterly fantastic and is very similar to the 2005 with massive aromatics of blackberry, cassis, graphite, licorice and spice. Very fruit driven but this has structure to burn and is full bodied, perfectly balanced and amazingly clean with a finish that won’t quit. (97 pts.)
• 2003 Domaine du Pégaü Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée da Capo - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
  Very tight on the nose with dark, fantastically rich and dense fruit, spice, black pepper (lots) and meaty notes; this continued to open up on the nose over the course of the evening but still remained slightly backwards. The palate however is as good as it gets and is bursting at the seems with extract, fruit and structure. Full bodied, absolutely massive and with a finish that goes on and on; this is really just a beast of a wine. (99 pts.)

Just an outstanding time with great people, food and wine… and you know it’s a successful evening when you start getting glares and sporadic “shuss” from nearby tables. I think the da Capo was the clear favorite of the group but it spread out from there without any clear consensus.

Thanks again to the Minneapolis crowd for their amazing hospitality!

Jeb