The intervening month has been brought to you by a two week vacation and a two week cold. Most of the former was embellished with drinking astonishingly good scotch with a scot. Glenmorangie's Quinta Ruban is a gift from the gods.
This week, though, now that I can drink wine without coughing my lungs out has seen the return of some gorgeous offerings. Earlier in the summer, I shared a bottle of 2000 Lopez de Heredia Vina Gravonia with a close group of friends and it b-l-e-w m-e a-w-a-y! A ten year old white rioja that was among the finest beverages I have ever consumed. So, I sought out a sequel (I can't believe this wine is still around) and it was equally astonishing. 100% viura grapes...mystical, strange spices, reminded me of retsina in spice profile (KT agreed). Just an extraordinary wine of amazing depth and I didn't find it oxidized or showing any deleterious signs of age. I wish I could drink it weekly.
Later in the week, we had a great bar-b-que burger fest (the Oregon fall is devine) and I opened a 2000 Perrin Cote du Rhone Reserve. It too was tasting at its peak, with a profound cinnamon nose and delightful balanced dark fruit (plum, fig, prune) taste and a very, very long finish. The full flavor that I always associate with CDR (wild herbs and spice) but with an elegance that I've not known in a generic rhone.
Tonight I'm back at a wine that I bought a case of and it is tasting so much better than when we first opened a few bottles. It restores my faith in the wine seller who tempted me into a case. The 2005 Domaine du Prieure Bourgogne is a delightful unpretentious great food wine. Pork and pasta were the guests and monsieur Prieure was a perfect companion. Light bodied, but full of classic pinot elegance, sour cherries, cloves and a blood/iron flavor that speaks of the dirt. The fruit is so much more apparent tonight. In previous openings it had mostly seemed like tart cherries and little else. Nice to know that it, like we, is/are evolving.
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