Lucian's Housewarming

A friend of mine knows a mind-boggling amount about wine. The other day he held my kind of party - wine only, shitloads of good stuff, and blind tasting for those of us so inclined. I stumped him by bringing a bottle of 2004 Henri Milan "Le Grand Blanc" blind (60% Grenache Blanc, 40% Rolle) - a ripper of a wine from Provence. Dried herbs, rosemary, mint, and pork scratchings on the nose; a heavily extracted palate of glue, honey and mint. That only incurred his wrath and I was repaid in kind with a string of ridiculously un-gettable white blends from Rhone grapes. Anyway, once we were too drunk to care, we got onto the really good stuff. A 2003 Trimbach Riesling and a 1994 Dr Loosen MSR Spatlase reminded me of everything that is good about Riesling.

Anyway, I couldn't possibly catalogue all the wines we got through (I had neither the time nor the inclination to scribble away in the corner all evening), but here are a few notes on some of the gems of the evening.

2004 Forges "Le Clos du Papillon" Savennieres
My readers well know my annoyance with Chenin Blanc. It's not so much that I don't like it (although it is responsible for some bloody God-awful wines), it's more that you never know what you're going to get with it. Get an awful one and you never want to drink wine again; get a great one and you want to drink nothing but. Well, this one is an absolute star. The nose is utterly incredible. It's like a liquid Cadbury Crunchie bar. Intense honeycomb, seductive chocolate. On the palate it's full, fatty, and as greasy as a pizza chef after a 16 hour shift. The finish is chalky and acidic; an austere finish so different from the opening that all it does is make you want to go back to the beginning and do it all over again (which of course I did). More, please!

1998 Balbi Malbec Shiraz
Justin has a habit of bringing curve-ball wines to blind tastings. Sometimes it's fun - like when he brought Blue Nun to a blind tasting last year - that dispatched a few ego balloons that needed bursting. But most of the time it's just annoying (in a pleasant way, I suppose) not to be able to pick what it is. Everyone else had cautiously alleged this wine to be a Pinot. Yes, the colour was light, but to my mind that was age. It's dangerous to label any light red wine "Pinot". Sure, Pinot has an incredible flavour spectrum, but it is almost never without a certain leanness that I call "stalky" to perennial blank faces. Anyway, I knew this wasn't a Pinot, but I was wrong in a completely different way. Raisins on the nose, a cabernet like palate of cassis and cedar wood, but tasting as if it's best days were only just behind it. A lesser left-bank Bordeaux, perhaps? No, an Argentinian Malbec. There you have it. Annoyingly we were all required to guess the price. £8? £12 (my guess)? £18? No, apparently £4, heavily discounted from the University Club's bin end sale! Bastard.

2001 Roda II Rioja Riserva
Have you ever wanted to take the good stuff from one wine you like and discard the crap in favour of the good element of another wine you like? I have. I love the warmth of Rioja, the smooth, hospitable palate of plums and chocolate. But I don't much care for American oak. It just makes the wine taste horsey, bitter and even a little sour. So hats of to this wine, matured as it is in French oak. What a wise choice. Brick red (no rusty oxidation here!), brickish, chocolatey nose with a hint of orange peel. The palate is warm and seductive and ends with the most elegant of tannins, rather than Don Quixote's socks.

2005 Marigny-Neuf Cabernet (Haut-Poitou)
Who says you can't make a silk purse out of the sow's ear that is Cabernet Franc? This is a great wine. It tastes like a full-blown cabernet from the new world somewhere (Chile, maybe?) The skill is that maximum extraction from the grapes has been achieved, whilst maintaining balance. Quite lovely.

1988 Quinta de la Rosa Vintage Port
Another one courtesy of Justin, and a lovely way to end the evening. Raisins, cinnamon and hot cross buns on the nose. Forward sweet fruit and Christmas cake on the palate.

I remember now (2 days after the event) that there was a lovely Vin Doux Naturel that I wanted to review but I didn't take a note of it. It tasted like sherry.

Anyway that's all for now - any of my other friends moving any time soon?