Another top bit of kit. I love The Sampler.
Very young colour. Not showing its age.
Gentle nose of soft red fruit and a bit of forest floor. Pretty.
Palate is sensual. Plush red fruit guided by gorgeous tannins. Mouth-coating, long and elegant. Juicy and still young. Just that silkiness of the tannins that show the age, and perhaps a touch of stinginess to the fruit.
*****
Tasted 14 September 2012 at The Sampler
The wine section at M&S always flusters me. I know their buying has great strengths, and there are, as supermarket wines go, some good bottles. But I don't know many of the producers and so I always feel I'm flailing about, unable to make an informed decision.
We're having lamb shanks, and so I thought lamb shanks in the summer would be great with a Bandol. So I took a punt on this. Mostly Mourvèdre with a bit of Grenache and Syrah.
Dark core with ruby going to purple on the edges.
Touch hot on the nose, with garrigue, herby notes of rosemary and a bit of sage. Fruit takes some coaxing, but when it appears, it's blueberries with edges of redder fruit.
That heat from the nose disappears on the palate. The fruit is nicely integrated with those herbal notes, and there's lovely, modern mouthfeel to it; polished garrigue if such a thing exists. The only thing that's lacking is a touch of structure. It doesn't seem to have any edges and without anything to pull it in, it feels too heavy in the mouth. The flavours compliment the food, but its weight makes an already rich meal a bit too much. Seems to put on weight with air. Not worth £15.
**
Tasted at Miller's Court, 29 July 2012
I've been aware of The Sampler for some time, though fear for my wallet led me to avoid it. This was pure idiocy on my part, and I can only hope that the wine gods look down on my attempts at fiscal responsibility as a mere temporary lapse of reason. Bizarrely, I didn't browse much, but what I saw suggested a meticulous selection - names that were familiar brought glee, while the unfamiliar looked exciting and seemed to be screaming 'buy me'. That's about as good as it gets with wine shops.
The reason I didn't browse was because I was there to taste. The Sampler has several banks of enomatic machines. These machines keep wine bottles in a neutral atmosphere, allowing samples to be dispensed pretty much indefinitely without the wine oxidising. They're pretty much the most awesome thing since bacon.
My mate Pete and I decided on two rather epic cuvées to kick things off. 1992 was not the greatest vintage in history of the Northern Rhône, but it was better than in Bordeaux.
Guigal Côte Rôtie La Mouline 1992
Mature but no amber. Faded purple and ruby.
Nose is dusty and sweet, with piercing juiciness on the end, as though to remind you that there's still life there.
Intense, concentrated on the palate. The fruit is dark, ripe and knit tightly to the wood and secondaries. You don't just taste them together, you feel how they mesh with each other. Oak apparent, but feels old, tempered. Very long, with quite a fresh juiciness to it.
****
Guigal Côte Rôtie La Landonne 1992
Darker than the La Mouline. More purple and less ruby.
Nose has a nice earthiness to it. It's a bit more rounded - less dust and more suede, softer fruit.
Palate follows the nose. More rounded and supple, with greater harmony between the fruit and the secondaries. It's like silk, plums and bitter chocolate. It seems gentler, but as the finish arrives it reveals a tight stoniness underneath.
*****
Both impressive wines, and ageing with elegance. I think perhaps the Mouline wanted a bit more for food, though the Landonne was the sexier at the moment. The Landonne had me discovering more, hence the extra star, but scores are stupid anyway.
Tasted 28/7/2012 at The Sampler, South Kensington
So I've got a job at the moment, with a small wine importer/retailer/wholesaler in West London. I've always liked their wines, and have noted a few up here before. One of my favourites is this little number. Far finer wine writers have already noted their approval of this cuvée, but I thought I'd throw my two cents in nonetheless.
It's a strange wine; an NV blended from 2007 & 2008 fruit.
Quite a rich, young gold.
Full, fleshy nose with quince, pineapple, biscuits, roasted walnuts and buttered toast. It's a nose that makes you want to take a sip, maybe even a gulp.
You'd be forgiven for thinking it's a fat wine. It leaps out from the mid-palate, rich and bursting with fleshy, fibrous pineapple and lashings of toasted, buttered nuts. But then there's this great lemon-citrus that tugs back as the finish begins and pulls everything with it, leaving the tongue pleasingly stuck to the roof of the mouth. Lingering, but never sticky. Folks keep comparing this to Burgundy, and I see where they're coming from, but I feel this is of its own. There's a lot of Southern France in this glass, in the best possible way.
*****
Tasted a lot, but most recently 28 July 2012 at Miller's Court.
I really like Jurançon. I should endeavour to drink more. You should too.
Nose is roasted apricots with nutmeg and toffee.
So unbelievably good with the lemon posset. Texture, fruit and sweetness all in superb harmony - spices and nutmeg come through as the finish begins and takes quite some time to end.
****(*) five stars with a good food pairing.
Tasted on Crawford Gardens, Summer 2010
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