A cold night heer in the NW with snow in Seattle (??WTF). That being said, another evening in with the GF with a steak and a few bottles of vino.
2005 Colotte Marsannay Clos de Jeu
This is a house I really like, relatively new and unknown, making some great QPR wines. I have not had one of these in about a year. The nose started out very tight, dominated by red fruit. More of the same in the mouth, very tightly wound, ripe cranberry and raspberry. The mouthfeel is very dense and compact, but the flavors are muted and mostly closed down at the moment. This wine has some nice promise with excellent structure and very fine ripe fruit, but it is in an angry youth phase so not ready to drink at the moment. I have high hopes and will wait another year before cracking the next bottle. They make a very fine Chambolle Musigny for the price if you can get your hands on it.
2001 Reserve de la Comtesse Lalande, Pauillac
This is the second wine of Pichon Lalande, and last nights is the 11th bottle I have drank out of a case I bought very cheaply on a deal several years ago. I have always liked this wine, it's about as Bordeaux as you can get. The nose is cedar and black fruit with a noticable green pepper characteristic which I enjoy. Very silky in the mouth, great balance for a second wine, and a medium length finish of cassis, tobacco and more green pepper. Not quite a wine to drink on it's own, but once we started onto the steak a great match. No first growth here, but very tasty for the price and I wish I had another case of this. I would say at it's peak now.
We did open a bottle of 1998 Louis Bernard Chateauneuf du Pape but there were very pronounced oxidized sherry notes on the nose so we did not drink it. Not sure what was up. I have a few left so hopefuly this was an anomaly.
~Vitis