cellar visit

[winophite]

Visited a friends private cellar and WOW! What an investment this man has made. Quite a learning experience for me. He had several bottles open and ready when I arrived. I didn't write down the label info...and I really wasn't able to write notes but he sent me home with the leftover whites, two delightful vino's. First, well first was a rose' Champagne (made I think he said "salmon" style?), fermented with skins on for color as apposed to adding a splash of pinot at the end. Way better to me than any Champ I've ever had. Then a Calif chard, 2004 Hanzell of Sonoma, very lightly oaked, fresh and crisp very nice, showed a lot of taste similarity to the next which was a white Burg: 2002Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru Folatieres', well integrated flavors, impressive. He followed that with a premier cru red which I didn't get any info on...it was very good too! developed an interesting smokey taste as it opened in the glass. My host seemed a bit disappointed in how quickly the taste changed, but I found it to add to the interesting profile of the wine. Thankfully, no bandaids or manure... a nice earthiness among the red fruits. Delicious.
As a final note, One of the bottles of Burg white he opened was corked, knowing me as a novice, he saved it to show me. Now I will recognise it when I smell it again. Old wet moldy newspapers on the nose, and although he recommended not to abuse my palate, I tasted it anyway...YUK, same moldy newspapers. So now I know, and yes corked wine really is pretty obvious. I could see the pain in his face as he poured the remainder down the sink, he said sadly, $130 down the drain, no replacements made...he was impressed when I mentioned Lorings policy for bad bottles.
And WW was right on in an earlier post to let the big dog lead the show. It's probably not very often he gets to impress novices with his generosity and hospitality. A great experience for me. WP