Nose is forest fruit, cassis, tar, bitter cherries, licorice, allspice, cinnamon and quite incredible mulled notes. Beautiful to sniff - a bit of heat but not too much.
Tasted while gorging on Christmas Stilton. Delightful and more-ish. Why fine port should lay down for a time. Balanced and a perfect compliment to the cheese. All those complexities from the nose in perfect harmony on the palate. Delightful - the ideal Christmas Port.
****
Tasted at Miller's Court 25/12/08
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Chateau Pontet-Canet 1995
The edges are just beginning to crimson. Held up to the light and it's pure brilliance, deep and bloody and reflective of its character.
The nose is cedar wood and savoury with a touch of nuttiness, smokey with confit cassis compote. Potent and punchy on the front, softening as it lingers.
The palate is all the nose promises - a class Christmas claret that leaps up to the food - particularly good with the roast beef. Texture is silk and sandpaper - right at the middle of its maturity. Still some of the grip and aggression of youth but some softness creeping through. Lovely.
****
Tasted at Miller's Court 25/12/08
The nose is cedar wood and savoury with a touch of nuttiness, smokey with confit cassis compote. Potent and punchy on the front, softening as it lingers.
The palate is all the nose promises - a class Christmas claret that leaps up to the food - particularly good with the roast beef. Texture is silk and sandpaper - right at the middle of its maturity. Still some of the grip and aggression of youth but some softness creeping through. Lovely.
****
Tasted at Miller's Court 25/12/08
Barbeito Verdelho 1980
Tasting notes from the latter half of the evening tend to get shorter, more direct. Possibly due to the effect of all the wines to come before.
Smells of roast nuts & toffee, marzipan, financier cake and all manner of goodies. All of that follows through to the palate from the nose, but with salted oats and excellent gristy texture. Epic length with a lingering finish. Brilliant wine.
*****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Smells of roast nuts & toffee, marzipan, financier cake and all manner of goodies. All of that follows through to the palate from the nose, but with salted oats and excellent gristy texture. Epic length with a lingering finish. Brilliant wine.
*****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Warre's 1985
Reductive and tasting sadly of cough syrup. Needs a few years to wake up. Pity.
*(***?)
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
*(***?)
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Huet Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moulleux 1971 1ere Tres
Toasted honey and roasted lime with hints of winter spice backed by gripping acidity - beautifully balanced with sweet zing. The underlying minerality and flint provide great depth. This is a treat of a wine, fresh in spite of its age and truly fine. Lovely with the apple crumble.
*****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
*****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Chateau La Lagune 1985
A touch of Victorian office about the nose - mahogany and leather with hints of cigar box.
Very soft on the palate - gentle stone fruit with supple texture. Slightly simple, but lovely nonetheless. Definitely at its peak.
****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Very soft on the palate - gentle stone fruit with supple texture. Slightly simple, but lovely nonetheless. Definitely at its peak.
****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1995 & 1996
These two wines caused a debate at the dinner table, dividing the diners. Some preferred the classic restraint of the '95, others the hedonistic opulence of the '96. Both were spectacular, reflecting their vintages, rendering the debate simply a matter of personal taste, rather than a judgement of quality.
I remained neutral.
1995
Roast meat, eucalyptus, blackcurrant and cedar - a classic claret nose with edges of licorice, spearmint, cloves and nutmeg.
The palate is not as expressive. Remarkably closed but promising - it's mostly mint coming through, with dark chocolate cherry & currant. Sinfully young, yet hard to resist.
****(*)
1996
Very spicy on the nose, much livelier - sweeter smoke with a touch more eucalyptus. Far headier.
The palate is almost monolithic - tar and glacé cherries with a touch of mint. Long and tactile, but still extraordinarily immature.
***(**)
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
I remained neutral.
1995
Roast meat, eucalyptus, blackcurrant and cedar - a classic claret nose with edges of licorice, spearmint, cloves and nutmeg.
The palate is not as expressive. Remarkably closed but promising - it's mostly mint coming through, with dark chocolate cherry & currant. Sinfully young, yet hard to resist.
****(*)
1996
Very spicy on the nose, much livelier - sweeter smoke with a touch more eucalyptus. Far headier.
The palate is almost monolithic - tar and glacé cherries with a touch of mint. Long and tactile, but still extraordinarily immature.
***(**)
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Domaine de la Romanée Conti La Tache 1998 (bottle no. 7198)
There's a point - for those in the wine trade - where you decide whether you're a Burgundy person or a Bordeaux person. It's hotly debated. Arguably the two most influential wine writers in the world are Bordeaux people - Michael Broadbent and Robert Parker. They just don't like Burgundy as much. The latter openly admits that he just doesn't get Burgundy.
I fall on the other side of the fence. I'm a Burgundy person. I love them and seek them out. Often I'm disappointed. Sometimes they just aren't good enough. The fickleness of Pinot Noir and the high prices the wines command sometimes combine to fall short of expectations. There are few guarantees. Claret can be a safer bet: a more defineable quantity. Because when Burgundy's good, when it exceeds expectations, it's hard to describe. It's not necessarily a linear or quantifiable pleasure. It goes more for feeling than flavour, and it's wonderful.
High expectations are dangerous in wine. The more you want something to taste good, the more likely you are to find fault, to be disappointed. Especially at the very heights of wine. There is the tendency to think that a constantly evolving agricultural product must be perfect when it's opened, regardless of what phase of maturity it has reached.
Being a Burgundy fan puts La Tache quite close to the top of my must-drink list. I'd never tried it before, and in the lead up to the dinner where we opened this bottle I tried to keep my hopes down to prevent any disappointment. What if it was corked? What if it was too young? What if it was going through an irksome 'reductive' phase (the wine equivelent of an annoying adolescent)?
The nose is explosive, gamey with a hint of smoke, forest floor and wild berries. There's a touch of stewed fruit but that clears with a bit of air. Aromatically intense, at actually bursts behind the eyes.
Sweet and hedonistic on the palate - cherries and cranberries with a touch of pipe tobacco. The finish goes on for ages, fading into the ephemeral and leaving its sensation long after the actual flavour has departed. This is a masculine style of Burgundy, with savoury game notes as well. There's something a touch reductive and enclosed though, not as much lift as I was expecting. Mouth-filling, beautiful, but something lacking?
It would be worth 5* if it weren't so bloody expensive. It also needed to be closer to perfect. Was I disappointed? Maybe a little.
****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
I fall on the other side of the fence. I'm a Burgundy person. I love them and seek them out. Often I'm disappointed. Sometimes they just aren't good enough. The fickleness of Pinot Noir and the high prices the wines command sometimes combine to fall short of expectations. There are few guarantees. Claret can be a safer bet: a more defineable quantity. Because when Burgundy's good, when it exceeds expectations, it's hard to describe. It's not necessarily a linear or quantifiable pleasure. It goes more for feeling than flavour, and it's wonderful.
High expectations are dangerous in wine. The more you want something to taste good, the more likely you are to find fault, to be disappointed. Especially at the very heights of wine. There is the tendency to think that a constantly evolving agricultural product must be perfect when it's opened, regardless of what phase of maturity it has reached.
Being a Burgundy fan puts La Tache quite close to the top of my must-drink list. I'd never tried it before, and in the lead up to the dinner where we opened this bottle I tried to keep my hopes down to prevent any disappointment. What if it was corked? What if it was too young? What if it was going through an irksome 'reductive' phase (the wine equivelent of an annoying adolescent)?
The nose is explosive, gamey with a hint of smoke, forest floor and wild berries. There's a touch of stewed fruit but that clears with a bit of air. Aromatically intense, at actually bursts behind the eyes.
Sweet and hedonistic on the palate - cherries and cranberries with a touch of pipe tobacco. The finish goes on for ages, fading into the ephemeral and leaving its sensation long after the actual flavour has departed. This is a masculine style of Burgundy, with savoury game notes as well. There's something a touch reductive and enclosed though, not as much lift as I was expecting. Mouth-filling, beautiful, but something lacking?
It would be worth 5* if it weren't so bloody expensive. It also needed to be closer to perfect. Was I disappointed? Maybe a little.
****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Corton Charlemagne 2000 Bonneau du Martray
There's something about great whites from terroir that lends itself more often to reds. I don't know what it is, but the result tends to be fantastically exotic. Jadot's Beaune Gréves Le Clos Blanc, Roy's Marsannay blanc, and this, the banner wine of the vineyard, all boast some underlying connection. It's getting to the point where I may not be able to spot blind whether a wine's from the Côte de Nuits or Côte de Beaune, but I could possibly spot whether the surrounding vineyards were Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.
Rich and toasted and touched by hints of caramel and spiced vanilla on the nose. Deep and intense. The palate is big and exotic - textured oak notes backed by zingy structured acidity. Clotted cream. cloves and cinammon provide fantastic secondaries. The fruit's tropical but tempered by pristine structure. This is mouth-filling, decadent, brilliant Burgundy. Still quite young. Drink with hand-dived scallops or perfectly seared foie gras. Or both.
****(*)
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Rich and toasted and touched by hints of caramel and spiced vanilla on the nose. Deep and intense. The palate is big and exotic - textured oak notes backed by zingy structured acidity. Clotted cream. cloves and cinammon provide fantastic secondaries. The fruit's tropical but tempered by pristine structure. This is mouth-filling, decadent, brilliant Burgundy. Still quite young. Drink with hand-dived scallops or perfectly seared foie gras. Or both.
****(*)
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Pieropan La Rocca Soave 2006 (from magnum)
I've never been disappointed by any of Pieropan's wines. They sit atop the whites of the Veneto, proving to the wine-swigging snobs out there that Italy's native varietals can compete without conforming to the increasingly boring international quality white paradigms. Pieropan makes Soave - not garganega (though garganega is the grape he thrives with) - and he makes it beautifully.
There's a touch of licorice and flint, backed by perfumed pineapple on the nose. The journey to the palate turns that perfume into spice, with fresh vibrant pear drop and a lovely richness that leads to a long finish. There are some cracking and far more expensive wines being drunk this evening. And while this may be one of the more simple and pleasing wines, it is in no way out-classed. Lovely.
****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
There's a touch of licorice and flint, backed by perfumed pineapple on the nose. The journey to the palate turns that perfume into spice, with fresh vibrant pear drop and a lovely richness that leads to a long finish. There are some cracking and far more expensive wines being drunk this evening. And while this may be one of the more simple and pleasing wines, it is in no way out-classed. Lovely.
****
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Salon 1990 (from magnum)
Salon has long been my favourite Champagne house. Long-lived and exceptionally fine, they achieve depth and poise equal to great white Burgundy. I've written about their wines before - they are a rare treat. I wish I had the means to enjoy them more often.
Brilliant platinum gold colour - youthful but classy.
Young, slightly spiced green apples on the nose. No toast or butter yet, no hint of wild mushrooms, just a touch of citrus zest and a fullness of body that pervades with a whisper of honey on the edges.
The palate seems slightly closed, young and tight. Incredibly promising though - textured and lingering with a remarkable finish that goes on and on. Erupts with food (a saffron & Prosecco risotto served pan-fried medallions of pork loin) - all the blank spots, those closed and quiet points in the mid-palate, open and a brilliant view of this wine's future pours in - rich with fresh blossom honey, candied apples and fresh baked croissants. Youthful, vigorous and promising. This will keep and improve for decades to come. Glorious.
****(*)
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
Brilliant platinum gold colour - youthful but classy.
Young, slightly spiced green apples on the nose. No toast or butter yet, no hint of wild mushrooms, just a touch of citrus zest and a fullness of body that pervades with a whisper of honey on the edges.
The palate seems slightly closed, young and tight. Incredibly promising though - textured and lingering with a remarkable finish that goes on and on. Erupts with food (a saffron & Prosecco risotto served pan-fried medallions of pork loin) - all the blank spots, those closed and quiet points in the mid-palate, open and a brilliant view of this wine's future pours in - rich with fresh blossom honey, candied apples and fresh baked croissants. Youthful, vigorous and promising. This will keep and improve for decades to come. Glorious.
****(*)
Tasted at Shorehead 7/12/08
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