WINE NOTES BECAUSE, WELL, I CAN. COLD-SIT ON IT, Y'ALL!

Spent some time on Friday with a good friend of mine from my old wine distribution company. Like me, Dan is a fan of high-acid, funky European wines. Unlike me, he's extremely talented at sales and is making a damn good living at it. We watched the first McCain-Obama debate while drinking, which detracted only slightly from the enjoyment of the wines.

J.K. Carriere 2001 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley

High-end, boutique Pinot Noir from Newburg, Oregon. This was already open when I arrived at Dan's apartment, a relic perhaps from the coffers at Maverick (or more likely a sample bottle he never tasted out with customers.) Aromas of rose water, orange rind, and crushed cherries that yield on the palate to flavors of Pinot fruit, cherry liqueur, and violet petals. There's a minerally, chalky texture on the palate that takes a moment to get used to. Tannins are much softer and more muted than when I first tasted this bottle two years ago, and the mid-palate is much more generous. There's acidity aplenty here, causing the much-loved post-swallow salivation, and oak is hardly a factor. Beautiful Pinot; you wouldn't confuse this with Burgundy but you would (or at least, I would) drink as much of this as was offered to you and then look around for more. In an era when so many producers are simply ruining their Pinots, Jim Prosser at J.K. Carriere has all the right moves.

Donnhoff 2000 Schlossbockelheimer Kupfergrube Riesling Spatlese

This was my contribution to the party, a bargain I unearthed at Chicago's best wine shop, and oh my sweet tits it's magic. Even in a bad vintage Donnhoff shows that they are the undisputed heavyweight champions of the Nahe. Aromas of sulphur and matchstick on opening quickly evolve into decomposing slate, petrol, and peach aromas. On the palate it's sweeter than I anticipated, with a fleshy stone fruit nectar attack and softer acidity than in other recent German vintages. Weighty through the mid-palate with more peach and nectarine flavors, then a musky honeycomb note that adds intrigue. Unlike the wines I've had from, say, Fritz Haag or Schloss Lieser in the Mosel which seem to dance and flit on the palate, this was more languid; it rolled and flexed rather than danced. It also tightened up over the half hour that it was consumed, ended better than it began. Not an all-time great for this producer, and certainly not like the experience of a 2004 Donnhoff related here, but head and shoulders above many other 2000 German Rieslings I've tried.

There was one more bottle in the goodie bag I'd brought, a bit of a novelty bottle from my current place of employ. My boss had found it in the dismal basement of the shop and offered it to me to take home, most likely because even he realized he would never be able to sell it. It was a 1996 Saumur-Champigny Rouge from producer Chateau de Targé. I remember pouring out a more recent vintage of this wine at a tasting several years back, and thinking it a fairly classy if basic bottle of Cabernet Franc. Would the 12 year old Targé hold up? Would we have three kickass wines back-to-back? No. The Saumur was tired, had lost a good measure of its fruit; what's more, no secondary flavors of interest had emerged in its place. It tasted listless and worn-out, almost depressed. Lots of wines merit contemplation even if they've lost a step or two, but this was mildly unpleasant. Score another point for my boss, he really knows how to pick 'em. It's telling when you work at a wine shop and yet sell hardly anything you'd ever want to take home.

I gotta get out of that place, if it's the last thing I ever do. As for the wines on this night, well, two out of three ain't bad.