TN: Friday night at Solano Cellars Hmmm, with Dale and Bill S. conspicuously absent, the TN quotient of afw seems to have tanked. Here's my attempt to remedy that situation, based on our weekly outing to a local wine bar and retailer where Jean and I tasted two flights of wines with our dinner. Agrapart NV Blanc de Blancs ($29) color: pale yellow nose: toast and green apples palate: creamy entry, medium bodied with slightly toasty character and good fruit in evidence, finishing cleanly A very nice bubbly in a style that I find particularly attractive. It went very well with the cheese plate, potato leek soup and salad. Herivault Rosé d'Orfeuilles NV ($18) c: pale salmon n: muted p: soft, fine mousse, subtle strawberry flavors Another bubbly, this a sparkling Cab Franc from the Touraine. Tasted blind, I don't think that I would have been able to tell that it wasn't a more conventional Blanc de Noirs from Pinot Noir. Simple and refreshing, but less appealing than the Agrapart. 2003 Schloss Gobelsburg Grüner Veltliner Ried Steinsetz Kamptal ($24) c: pale green-yellow n: vibrant, floral, stones and pepper p: medium body, fruity, crisp and clean Very attractive, if simple, GV. I presume that this was a Federspiel bottling, but I didn't get a chance to check the bottle and see. Not a wine for aging, but a very nice food wine for the present. 2003 Carl Loewen Riesling Spätlese Thörnicher Ritsch Mosel ($30) c: yellow, slightly darker than others n: honey, apricot, melon p: honey, grapefruit, good acidity, medium body, off-dry, clean finish Another lovely Spätlese from 2003 that had enough acidity. Not the most intense Spätlese I've had, but very attractive and the only wine to pair decently with a soft cow's milk cheese from France whose name I didn't catch. I was very gratified to see that Jean, for the second time in as many weeks, liked a Mosel Riesling, a varietal that historically she has not enjoyed. Perhaps we'll have to add some Riseling to the cellar! :-) With some white bean tartines, we had the red wine flight: 2002 Chbutteur Pinot Noir (ca. $30) n: cedar, slightly alcoholic, developing some barnyard character with time p: slightly oaky on entry, with cherryish fruit aplenty underneath and good balancing acidity; with time, it opened up and rounded out, but never entirely lost the oak notes Overall, a very decent Pinot from CA. Having recently had a number of very good Burgundies, I was prepared to find this wine too soft and flabby, but it held up surprisingly well. It certainly had deep enough fruit to make me think that a few years bottle age would help the oak integrate better. 2002 Pago de los Capellanes Joven Ribera del Duero (ca. $15) n: dusty, dark plum fruit p: acidic on entry, medium body, cherryish fruit, hints of tobacco My first 2002 from Spain, from a producer I know nothing about. A decent enough Tempranillo in the modern style with enough backbone to keep me happy. 2003 Two Hands "Angel's Share" Shiraz (ca. $26) n: oak, berryish fruit p: oak, med-full body, berries There was certainly fruit in this wine, but the oakiness just plain overwhelmed it to me. This was a very alcoholic, big, fruitplant of a wine, but it's just not a style that appeals to me. 2002 Hunnicutt Zinfandel Napa ($28) n: volatile, tart berry fruit, mint, tar developling later p: minty, acidic, berry fruit, cedar, oaky finish Just to show that I'm not prejudiced against Oz wines, here's a Zin that didn't do much for me, either. Although it had decent varietal character and no shortage of fruit, it was too oaky and had a hint of VA to it. Not a bad wine, but IMO there are plenty of Zins I'd rather be drinking than this one. The wines of the evening were, from the white flight, the Agrapart bubbly and the Schloss Gobelsburg GV; from the red flight, the Chbutteur PN and the Pago de Capellanes were the standouts. Mark Lipton 
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