|
Le Cuvier Library Wines List
The Collected Library Wines - Fall 2008
1992 Chardonnay – is a very elegant lady whose charms are apparent when paired with pork loin with fruit glaze, or butter-fried sole with caraway seed. These plates, or many others for that matter, are quite agreeable with this wine. Le Cuvier wines are made with only the “wild yeast” which naturally evolves in vineyards, and no cultures or fermentation starters produced in laboratories are used. Typically no sulfite or any other chemical additive is used during fermentation of the grapes because we want to encourage all the wonderful beasties which university scientists mistakenly call “pathogens.” Ask us about real cheese made from whole milk versus cheese made from pasteurized milk. Our chardonnay ages for two years or more on the lees in barrels before bottling. You can only take this kind of risk with ultra special grapes that are naturally balanced. Grapes: all Westside grapes, but we can’t remember from where. Ageability: Lovely when last we poured it at the Library Wine Dinner in May of 2008, so quite a while still, no doubt.
Club Library Price: $125/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
1993 Chardonnay –is coconut, hazelnut, pineapple, ginger & cloves; citrus, but with an opulently viscous mouth feel; unction to the soul and palate. A whole lot is going on in this wine which is rather tropical on the one hand and yet reminds us of a desert bazaar in North Africa; a swirl of spice & exotic flavors. Because Le Cuvier wines are made with only “wild yeast” which naturally evolves in vineyards, & sets their own stamp on the wine year by year. Grapes: all Westside grapes, but as with the 1992, we don’t recall from where. Ageability: we suspect quite a while, but the wine is so rich & unusual that no experience guides our comments in this respect & we are down to the last case, so only a very few will ever know.
Club Library Price: $100/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
1997 Chardonnay –rich, burnished gold, a brightly gilded Balinese Buddha sitting in a jungle clearing of cool morning sunshine. Comice & ripe Asian pears swirling with pungent dried orange peel are there along with Dundee marmalade & sassafras. Certainly there is a bit of Garam Marsala here: cumin, cardamom, cinnamon & cloves with a wafting touch of vanilla: spices, yes, but also honeysuckle with an intriguing back note of violet. Try a little filé gumbo with a wine which dances down the tongue while taking a few side steps along the way. If this Chardonnay were a person it would be the soprano Kiri Te Kanawa singing Mozart while wearing her Rolex. Grapes: one seems to recall that the grapes came from the Carver vineyard within the York Mountain appellation. Ageability: like our dear soprano, one anticipates many years of opulent pleasure (15 to 20, who knows???).
Club Library Price: $95/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
1998 Chardonnay –a tall, lithe stand of burnished straw viewed against Autumn’s light blue sky. Juicy ripe leechee with vanilla & clove, followed by hazelnut and pear drizzled with key lime. Sensually full on the lips…Uma Thurman comes to mind. Le Cuvier enjoys questionable notoriety for extremely long barrel aging of our red wines. The ’98 Chardonnay was bottled on the same day as the ’99 Cabernet Sauvignon & ’99 Zinfandel. A bit perverse, perhaps, but quite lovely for all the long wait. Grapes: McBride Vineyard. Ageability: easily 15 years.
Club Library Price: $75/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
2001 Chardonnay –As exotic & rare as an elegantly feathered quetzal wrapped in mist & shinning sunlight swirling down a steep, wooded slope in the highlands of Guatemala – this is what you see, & the smells too are mountain tropical: smoke from a corn husk cooking fire, layered with fresh slices of pineapple. Strong chicha offered by a fat, laughing bruja with gold-capped teeth & a practical smile. Grapes: a barrel fermented blend of wine made from the McBride & Carver vineyards in the York Mountain appellation west of Paso Robles. Aged: 30 months or so in barrel. Ageability: the 1992 vintage Chardonnay made from these vineyards is still going strong, so expect great longevity.
Club Library Price: $75/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
2002 Cabernet Franc –Mongol hordes sweeping down on some innocent civilization or other would place goat flesh & dried berries in a leather sack which served as padding between rider & horse. Thus prepared, the contents tenderized by friction between the rider & the lathered heat of the horse would cook the noontime meals. Like Mongol stew, there’s a whole lot bouncing around in this Cab Franc: raspberry pastille, floral notes intertwined with camphor resin, musk & vanilla, pomegranate & a lingering juicy blueberry brightness. Not unexpectedly, this wine pairs quite nicely with roasted goat. Ageability: Easily 10 to 15 years more.
Club Library Price: $90/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
1999 Cabernet Sauvignon –is something altogether special & as profoundly rich a wine as ever I’ve been associated with. This wine calls for meat, rich & saucy, something you can really sink your talons into. It has the intense staining quality of ripely dark wild mulberry, a multiplexed layering of darkest chocolate with cherry coulis, cinnamon & a number of exotic spices I don’t recognize, pungent earthy notes, hints of cedar & leather, fully mouth watering, a complete experience sliding down the throat. I do believe that I even detected the wafting perfume of flowering barrel cactus when I set my tongue & nose to a glass this morning . . . purely to arrive at this description, you understand. Grapes: Carver Vineyard in the York Mountain area. Ageability: At least 15 years, and will likely hold much longer.
Club Library Price: $135/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
2000 Cabernet Sauvignon –is a distinctly masculine wine, though with some elements of interesting ambiguity, like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. Sweet fruit-wood smoke with licorice-tar & other grand aromatics of tobacco & leather, a medley of ripe, black berries & cassis in a finely carved cedar cask, & perhaps a trace of mint & something of lavender? This Cabernet is so extracted & dark that you cannot see though it unless you hold your glass above your head at a sharp horizontal angle, looking up through a thin layer of wine in your tilted glass towards a bright light, thus revealing its limpid clarity. Occasionally, some of the fine liquid will spill upon your pate, in which case consider yourself properly anointed. Grapes: Carver Vineyard in the York Mountain appellation west of Paso Robles. Aged: barrel fermented & aged 43 months in oak. Ageability: If you can resist it, another 10 years or more.
Club Library Price: $120/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
2001 Cabernet Sauvignon –In 22 years of playing with grapes, this is the richest, deepest Cabernet I’ve ever made. It is an oriental mix of Garam Masala & Chinese Five Spice with resinous hints of wild rosemary & a curious touch of citrus & tangerine peel. It is also very broad & long of flavor, certainly rippling with ripe cassis, chocolate, pungent tobacco leaf & blackest licorice. This is an androgynous wine: on the one hand it has more jewels than the Italians left with the Abyssinians; at the same time, it is profoundly feminine, with appealing scents that are as dangerous & difficult to hide as a Senator’s mistress, richly expensive in her new full-length fur coat of some endangered species, but allow her to warm up before trying to engage her. Elegant & delightful with a crown of roasted roots, especially the sweet of parsnips, surrounding a lovely rarely roasted joint of some beast or other. Grapes: the Carver Vineyard in the York Mountain appellation west of Paso Robles. Ageability: alas, if you were over fifty in 2001, you’ll probably never get to know.
Club Library Price: $105/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
2001 Sangiovese –This is surely a pagan wine: “Sangiovese” translates as “Jove’s Blood,” but I don’t believe that it refers to the blood coursing the god’s veins – metallic green, I’m told; rather, the color here is more appropriately that of a sacrificial offering poured upon the earth in the vernal chill of early Spring to ensure a good crop through proper fertility of the Goddess. Yet Jove & the Goddess are known for giving more than they take, & the proof lies in the aromatics of a grand harvest in your glass, pungent autumnal fields still warm from the sun, ripe juicy black cherries, & bright tartness to bring joy to the pleasures of roasted flesh. Can you smell the scent of a rumpled bed of crushed roses? Makes you want to cry out with a resounding “yes!” while waiving a dinner bone over your head. Admit it. You are a pagan at heart, or you would not smile so knowingly while staring into a candle’s flame. Grapes: from the McGourty Vineyard just around the corner from Le Cuvier on Chimney Rock Road. Ageability: Sangiovese is an Italian grape. Italians give a rude gesture when describing the extraordinary longevity of Sangiovese wines, a gesture one suspects inappropriate to American sensibilities.
Club Library Price: $95/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
1999 Zinfandel –Have you ever strolled through a bazaar in North Africa, exotic notes of camel & goat, incense & leather, pounded copper bowls filled with herbs, dates & unknown dried fruit, dusty carpets & pepper, curiously dangerous citizens with gold teeth & wicked smiles smoking questionable herbs. This wine is a passport of sorts, & is especially enjoyable for its total lack of subtlety & for its exuberance of excess. Grapes: All West Side Paso Robles limestone vineyards - Martinelli, Kiler Creek, WillPete, McGourty, Pesenti.Ageability: at least a very long time more.
Club Library Price: $90/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
2000 Zinfandel (final blend) –“Elegant” is a relative term when applied to Zinfandel, but elegant is indeed an appropriate descriptor for this wine. Brambles & black pepper with rich black fruit, complex with wild rosemary & wafting notes of citrus flowers decadently crushed under linen sheets. A fine opera, & as subtle as Wagner’s The Valkyrie, conducted by Bacchus & performed by Frank Zappa & Tom Waits on a soft mid-summer’s night on the isle of Corfu. The Le Cuvier 2000 Zinfandel is a blend of Zins made from five west side Paso Robles vineyards [35.33% Kiler Creek vineyard; 20.59% Martinelli Vineyard; 20.39% McGourty Vineyard; 16.17% Beckwith Vineyard; & 7.52% Tonesi Vineyard].Ageability: someday we will know, won’t we?
Club Library Price: $95/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
Martinelli Vineyard 2000 Zinfandel –watered only once from off the back of a mule at the time of it’s planting some 80 plus years ago, Martinelli is a dry-farmed, head pruned vineyard located on a North-West slope in the hills west of Templeton. The wine from the 2000 vintage is all spice & rich treacle dusted with fresh ground black pepper, & is as deeply experienced as one of those fine, old Louisiana brothels with elegant balconies & delicate lace in the windows. Whips & leather, do not venture to drink this wine alone. Ageability: past experience suggests many years of joy in the bottle, if you can resist opening it, past your next special occasion.
Club Library Price: $95/bottle. [ORDER NOW]
|
