I had gone in to work on September 12th as a result of a personal appeal by my boss, but the absurdity of trying to get anything done quickly became obvious. Those few of my guys who showed up at all simply stumbled around like zombies, so I ended up sending everyone home and closing the place up after just a few hours.
The next day I am already in my work clothes and getting ready to go when the call comes in from internet recluse Andrew Munro Scott: Come over, he says, we'll drink and we'll hang out. I'd only taken one sick day so far this year; one quick phone call to work later we're hustling relievedly out the door, hastily-seized bottles clanking in our bags.
I don't remember much of the conversation. I don't really remember too much from that whole bleak week, but here's what I wrote down that we drank (after the customary first bottle of Bordelet PoirŽ).
At long last the Michigan riesling drought is broken with aTabor Hill Riesling Lake Michigan Shore 1998: The wine smells iof vinyl, over lightly perfumed white flower hints. It tastes recognizably rieslingesque, with a touch of sweetness filling in for some midpalate hollowness. Inoffensive, a bit limpid. Andrew suggests that it would've been better a year ago, and he suggests it authoritatively, so we nod and murmur as if we understand and agree.
I'd previously only tasted the pseudo-Buster version of the Dom. Alfonse Choufleur Gris du Toul Jardin de Lutz 1999, but the regular cuvŽe isn't too far off its big brother, not quite as openly aromatic but all the pieces are there on a smaller scale. It's a well-balanced wine that's on the lean side, white-floral and bracingly crisp, but it hasn't the rough edges that made whatever they ended up calling the other cuvŽe more interesting. Clean, crisp, decent, not much more. Can it be that I just don't 'get' Gris du Toul? Two and a half gleaming aluminum Prongs with a thin teflon coating that scratches off a little too easily.
Here's yet another go at the Huet Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Demisec 1971: This bottle is more advanced than all but one of the others I've had over the last couple years, heavier on the orange-rind/honeyed notes, lacking some of the lightness and zip of less developed bottles but still managing to finish with melting layers of tea, honey and lemon-orange citricity. How entirely individual each of these dozen or so bottles has been.: this one gets five and a half weathered Prongs carved quickly from driftwood and elkhorn, drizzled with marmalade and nailed onto the dartboard of a small-town pub for tipsy guests to take a fling at.
We eat something. I forget what, but I suspect it was some kind of meat, perhaps beef or a beef byproduct.
Eric Texier Côte-Rôtie Vieilles Vignes 1999: Robustly silky baconberry nose, smoky redfruit, velvety in the nosal zone. Tastes tangy, tight & tart; intensely flavored but rather on the hard side, and shows little sign of loosening with air or time. Great balance and poise, as well as a long tuning-fork finish. Andrew proclaims it 'pretty darn good for a negociant wine,' but it's a little difficult to enjoy viscerally right now. Give it time and it'll be a real winner. One finely-honed obsidian Prong wrapped up in the string taken from my mother's rump roast.
Turley Cellars Zinfandel California 'Juvenile' 1999: Ah, now here's a wine that you needn't wait a decade to drink. Sweetly ripe red raspberry/black cherry nose, brighter red than the other 99 Turleys, cheerier if not as complex. Smooth in the piehole, ripe and cheery at first, turning towards darker fruit tones in the midpalate along with some judicious smoky-toastiness. It's a wine of little subtlety or depth (less so than the '99 OV), but a great deal of flavor and good balance in its ripey-juicy way. Andrew proclaims it "The Second Turley I've Liked!" and it is happily gulped down and takes the Thunderbird Prize.
Quintarelli Rosso Ca del Merlo 1993: Medium ruby color, ambering slightly at the rim. Beguiling nose, there's a base of sour-cherry/cranberry redfruit over which float hints of cedar and saddle leather, and through which runs an earthy undercurrent of ... what? We start throwing out guesses... truffles? tree bark? sarsaparilla? I finally settle on horehound, but there is much uneasy debate. Medium-bodied, with a bright, easygoing mouthfeel, this has a great deal of layering, the flavors weave and bob lithely, warm and feathered at first, rallying in the midpalate round a spine of bright acidity, then ebbing slowly away, leaving behind cedary-horehound jetsam. A wine of surprising finesse, the most compelling of the reds tonight.
Andrew emerges with a bottle of Eric Texier Côte du Rhône Brézème 1998 and wails "It's fallen apart! It's fallen apart! Taste it! Taste it!" We do, and indeed it has. Tart, thin & disjointed. What has he done to this bottle? A chill runs through me, as I have been buying up this wine at high premiums on the secondary market. I can only hope it's a fluke of some kind and that my precious investment vehicle doesn't turn into another Cult Cab-type fiasco. Lisa, distraught, grabs Gus the Cat and clutches him to her bosom until he wails.
A last dry red, a Tenuta di San Leonardo San Leonardo Vino da Tavola di Vallagarina 1993 comes around, smelling of light cassis and graphite with a pronounced herbal-oregano streak. Balanced, medium bodied Bordeaux-style blend, not very concentrated. Seems like a crisp, lean, slightly underripe wine that has a measure of complexity but not much stuffing or sustain. Drinkable and even mildly interesting, but not very impressive.
Here's a motor-oil-thick sweetie, a Bodegas Toro Albal‡ Pedro XimŽnez 1972, and it's as tarry-caramel-marshmallow thick as ever, sweet and densely flavored. Too much to have more than a little until I mix it with the '71 Huet. The classmates blend well, with the orange-zestiness of the Vouvray thins out and cuts through the thickness of the PX. Interestingly, the finish of the blend has a distinct coffee-espresso tone that wasn't prominent in the PX before the blending.
A Niepoort LBV 1995 Port is the last to go, a darkly brambly-smelling wine with an interesting white coral note interwoven with the dark berry smells. On the subtle side, not big or dense or chewy, of a piece with their Vintage Character, smooth and dark and cohesive, turning cocoaberried on the finish. Very decent.
We've been drinking plenty, but no one is drunk. Or maybe we haven't been drinking after all, but just sitting and staring.
We swap "Where were you when..." stories. Someone says "Has anyone heard from Callahan?" but no one has. We're all unnerved and jittery and exhausted, but we're all in one piece and we're here at least going through the motions of enjoying ourselves. And those motions are a damn sight better than any of the other motions of the past two days.