Vancouver had a visitor from New York this week, John Morris, who was
in town at just the right time to attend a small Piemonte dinner put
on by one of the local wine aficionados.

2004 Maxim Andorter Anna Leidenschaft – an Austrian wine blended from
chardonnay, Gruner Veltliner and sauvignon blanc. A little oak in the
nose, and vanilla up front in the mouth, fairly full bodied, with
decent length, perhaps a tad hot. At retail of $75 a tough price range
to try and compete with more traditional wines.

With corn veloute with crispy guanciale and saffron.

2000 Nervi Vigneto Molsino Gattinara – unusual candle wax nose, medium
colour, some tannin, fairly smooth with clean acidity. Not as bad as
the ratings I’ve seen on this wine.

1988 Dessilani Caramino – these two were sort of a rogue’s gallery of
questionable wines. RP gave the first wine 80 and this one 58! This
Nebbiolo was mellow and mature, but the nose was a bit funky and it
lacked fruit while showing considerable acidity and some tannin. Too
lean for any real pleasure.

With heirloom tomato salad.

1990 Borgogno Reserva – an old style Barolo with nice ar and roses,
medium colour and obvious maturity. Nice sweet note at the end. I
drank mine some time ago as it matured early. Still have some 1989 I
should get into.

With lamb carpaccio (seared very rare)

1993 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo – tar and leather in the nose with a
licorice overlay. Some nice fruit on palate, the tannins soft,
drinking well now. I like the 93s and have had considerable enjoyment
from that vintage.

1990 Vajra Freisa delle Langhe – a surprise as most people think of
Freisas in the lightweight category. A serious wine with a warm spice
driven nose, decent fruit and significant tannin. Fooled many of us
into thinking it a Barolo (it is supposed to be related to nebbiolo).
A real ringer and a fun wine to try to figure out. Thanks John!

With ricotta gnocchi and mushroom ragu

1967 Capellano (Gabutti) – Burgundian colour, great mature nose with
cinnamon and later some celery, sweet in the mouth, but still showing
some tannin and ample acidity

1967 Fratelli Barali – wax and chestnuts (and some volatile acidity)
in this nose. Similar light colour. Very traditional wine that I
thought worked better with the fish and it improved in the glass. Both
were very interesting wines.

With lightly smoked sablefish with fennel oranges and star anise
1989 Pio Cesare Barbaresco – the nose on this one was closed a bit,
and it was still pretty tannic, but it had lots of weight and some
spicy notes emerged with time. The fruit made an appearance and the
finish was commendably long, but I felt this one needed either more
time in the glass or more time in the cellar.

1989 Vietti Brunate – an immediately attractive nose of sweet fruit,
tar and flowers, delicious on palate and all coming together nicely
with very good length. I liked this one a lot.

With sliced rare veal, truffled new potatoes and braised greens

Finally, with cheese, we opened a notable bottle of another sort:

1989 Hugel Gewurztraminer Selection des Grains Nobles – these late
harvest wines of Hugel are always great fun, and this one retained the
gewurz characteristics which not all sweeter wines do. It showed an
apricot, rose, and spiced honey nose, fair bit of residual sugar, but
also very good balance with excellent flavour intensity and length.
Coming two days after I’d drunk a bottle of German Eiswein, this
seemed to be a great week for late harvest experiences.

Thanks for the great meal and interesting wines, Rasoul!

On Aug 22, 10:14*am, "Bill S." > wrote:
> Vancouver had a visitor from New York this week, John Morris, who was
> in town at just the right time to attend a small Piemonte dinner put
> on by one of the local wine aficionados.
>
> 2004 Maxim Andorter Anna Leidenschaft – an Austrian wine blended from
> chardonnay, Gruner Veltliner and sauvignon blanc. A little oak in the
> nose, and vanilla up front in the mouth, fairly full bodied, with
> decent length, perhaps a tad hot. At retail of $75 a tough price range
> to try and compete with more traditional wines.
>
> With corn veloute with crispy guanciale and saffron.
>
> 2000 Nervi Vigneto Molsino Gattinara – unusual candle wax nose, medium
> colour, some tannin, fairly smooth with clean acidity. Not as bad as
> the ratings I’ve seen on this wine.
>
> 1988 Dessilani Caramino – these two were sort of a rogue’s gallery of
> questionable wines. RP gave the first wine 80 and this one 58! *This
> Nebbiolo was mellow and mature, but the nose was a bit funky and it
> lacked fruit while showing considerable acidity and some tannin. Too
> lean for any real pleasure.
>
> With heirloom tomato salad.
>
> 1990 Borgogno Reserva – an old style Barolo with nice ar and roses,
> medium colour and obvious maturity. Nice sweet note at the end. I
> drank mine some time ago as it matured early. Still have some 1989 I
> should get into.
>
> With lamb carpaccio (seared very rare)
>
> 1993 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo – tar and leather in the nose with a
> licorice overlay. Some nice fruit on palate, the tannins soft,
> drinking well now. I like the 93s and have had considerable enjoyment
> from that vintage.
>
> 1990 Vajra Freisa delle Langhe – a surprise as most people think of
> Freisas in the lightweight category. A serious wine with a warm spice
> driven nose, decent fruit and significant tannin. Fooled many of us
> into thinking it a Barolo (it is supposed to be related to nebbiolo).
> A real ringer and a fun wine to try to figure out. Thanks John!
>
> With ricotta gnocchi and mushroom ragu
>
> 1967 Capellano (Gabutti) – Burgundian colour, great mature nose with
> cinnamon and later some celery, sweet in the mouth, but still showing
> some tannin and ample acidity
>
> 1967 Fratelli Barali – wax and chestnuts (and some volatile acidity)
> in this nose. Similar light colour. Very traditional wine that I
> thought worked better with the fish and it improved in the glass. Both
> were very interesting wines.
>
> With lightly smoked sablefish with fennel oranges and star anise
> 1989 Pio Cesare Barbaresco – the nose on this one was closed a bit,
> and it was still pretty tannic, but it had lots of weight and some
> spicy notes emerged with time. The fruit made an appearance and the
> finish was commendably long, but I felt this one needed either more
> time in the glass or more time in the cellar.
>
> 1989 Vietti Brunate – an immediately attractive nose of sweet fruit,
> tar and flowers, delicious on palate and all coming together nicely
> with very good length. I liked this one a lot.
>
> With sliced rare veal, truffled new potatoes and braised greens
>
> Finally, with cheese, we opened a notable bottle of another sort:
>
> 1989 Hugel Gewurztraminer Selection des Grains Nobles – these late
> harvest wines of Hugel are always great fun, and this one retained the
> gewurz characteristics which not all sweeter wines do. It showed an
> apricot, rose, and spiced honey nose, fair bit of residual sugar, but
> also very good balance with excellent flavour intensity and length.
> Coming two days after I’d drunk a bottle of German Eiswein, this
> seemed to be a great week for late harvest experiences.
>
> Thanks for the great meal and interesting wines, Rasoul!

The Freisa is a surprise.
I think '93 was generally underrated, lots of nice Nebbiolo.
Thanks for notes

> The Freisa is a surprise.
> I think '93 was generally underrated, lots of nice Nebbiolo.
> Thanks for notes-

Yeah, for anyone that just knows the lightweight often frizzy kind,
this was serious juice!

On Aug 22, 9:14*am, "Bill S." > wrote:
> Vancouver had a visitor from New York this week, John Morris, who was
> in town at just the right time to attend a small Piemonte dinner put
> on by one of the local wine aficionados.

> 1989 Hugel Gewurztraminer Selection des Grains Nobles – these late
> harvest wines of Hugel are always great fun, and this one retained the
> gewurz characteristics which not all sweeter wines do. It showed an
> apricot, rose, and spiced honey nose, fair bit of residual sugar, but
> also very good balance with excellent flavour intensity and length.
> Coming two days after I’d drunk a bottle of German Eiswein, this
> seemed to be a great week for late harvest experiences.

Given a very ripe year, Hugel can make SGN that ranks among the best.
I have not seen the 1989 you mention. However I have 4 bottles of
their 1976 SGN Gewurztraminer. This was sold in several fut numbers.
I have three fut 67 and one fut 28. Michael Broadbent had fut 20
which was Hugel's greatest cask, which he rated as 5 star out of 5
star in 1990. It was 135 Oechsle, alcohol 13.7%, residual sugar 53g/l,
100% botrytis-affected grapes. Broadbent calls it ambrosial syrup of
figs, intensely rich and fragrant.

Schlumberger made an outstanding Gewurztraminer Cuvee Anne 1976, of
which I have 4 bottles. I do not have a review of it at hand, but it
likely is of about the same quality as the Hugel.

I do have 4 half bottles of Trimbach's Riesling Cuvee Frederic Emile
SGN 1989, but I have not tasted it yet and do not have a review at
hand.

Both 1976 and 1989 produced many top SGN wines in the hands of the
best estates. On the average, I would say that top 1976 SGN wines are
a bit richer than the 1989 ones.