Friday, June 19, 2009

Today's wines

I had dinner with a few friends at Bottega Louie tonight. I really love this place, because the space is so gorgeous and the food is really good and very reasonable! We brought wines to the dinner.

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2003 Domaine Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet...Aromas of butter, ripe peach, dry apricot, and spice. The palate is so rich, yet it has the serious minerality. I wish I could've tasted this wine somewhere so quiet, so that I could indulge myself in this wine by using all my senses. The noise level was sooo high at this restaurant. The wine opened-up even better after 30 minutes in the glass.

1994 Au Bon Climat, Pinot Noir, Arroyo Grande Valley, Rincon and Rosemary's...I was so impressed by the balance and youth of this 15-year-old wine. The color was still deep and the aroma was like raspberry, earth, and tea smoke. The palate had the fresh quality and very smooth.

2005 Domaine La Barroche, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Reserve...Old-vine Grenache based. Average 60 years old and some are 100 years old vines. Although the wine was still very young, it was very ready and the body was rather light on the palate. The balance was very nice and it didn't taste like it has such a high alcohol (15%!). Light spices of cinnamon, and white pepper on the nose. After 15-20 minutes in the glass, the wine's rich structure showed up. Interesting!