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?
Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts
Monday, 2 April 2007
Tuesday, 27 March 2007
A small selection of luncheon wines
At a typical Saturday blind tasting lunch recently I served the following. Well, I should say that the following bottles were consumed at a lunch hosted by me - some were brought by my delightful guests, my former blind tasting teammates.
1992 Reinhold Haart Piersporter Goldtropfschen Kabinett Riesling (Mosel)
I acquired this for a mere £10 at a bin-end sale. £10! I would gladly have paid £30 of somebody else's money to purchase this wine. The nose leaps out of the glass, as if it was a year old (Sarah thought it was a 2003!) - petrol, grapefruit, lime, and clean as a whistle. The palate is bracing, lime driven, with matronly acidity, the tiniest hint of sherbet and and extraordinarily long, minerally finish. A stunning wine. I could have this wine for breakfast.
2004 Henri Milan "Le Grand Blanc" (Grenache Blanc/Rolle, St-Remy-de-Provence)
Just when you were getting bored, here comes this wine! The consensus was that if we had been blindfolded, we would have thought it was red. An intriguing nose of dried herbs - rosemary, thyme, oregano and mint. The palate is minty and very herbaceous and it wouldn't even be out of place to say the wine had tannins! Very unusual.
1990 Bourgueil Cuvee Prestige
Such a nice wine, it's hard to admit that it's a cabernet franc. Leafy, tobacco nose, almost left-Bank Bordeaux in character. Elegant red fruit palate, with a fine tannin finish.
2004 EQ Syrah (Chile)
By this stage we were eating rare roast beef. The debate raged over whether it was a grenache/shiraz blend from the Rhone, or a cabernet from Chile. Anyone should know that a debate like that can only end one way - it's a Syrah from Chile. And who would trust Piers to bring anything not from South America? A powerful, juicy, well balanced wine.
2003 Altavins Domus Pensi Terra Alta (Grenache/Syrah, Catalonia)
Jammy fruit on the nose with dark chocolate and even a hint of mint. Palate is full and chocolatey, supported by red fruits. Firm tannins, full body, well made. Will age.
2003 Nerojbleo Nero d'Alvola (Sicily)
The nose leads with anise and black jelly-babies, following with brambly black fruit. The palate begins a little sweet, full red and black jammy fruits. At this point you might think it was a Zinfandel. But then it goes tits up with a mouthful of tannins as gripping as nonna's farewell hug last Christmas. And then you know you're in Sicily.
2005 Les Amis de la Bouissiere (Grenache/Syrah/Merlot, Cotes du Rhone)
Now this is a shit hot wine for £9. I defy anyone to find such a powerful, well-balanced, mouth-filling, moreish, elegant, complex wine for the price. Superb.
1996 Chateau les Ormes de Pez (St Estephe)
Now you're talking. Classic Bordeaux nose - olives, tobacco and cedar. Powerful palate of black fruits - well balanced and delightfully mature. To think that Sarah had the audacity to claim it was slightly oxidised. I don't care whether she's been working vintages across Europe for the last 3 months. Her glass should have been confiscated immediately.
2000 Chateau Cormeil Figeac (St Emilion)
By this stage I was a bit drunk to be taking proper notes, but it was bloody lovely.
2005 Magnotta Vidal Ice Wine (Lake Erie North Shore, Canada)
Who cares really - aren't all sweet wines the same? It was sweet. And looked orange.
2004 Domaine Sauveroy Coteaux du Layon
Not as horrible as I might have thought. Less sweet than the Ice Wine - it should have come first. But that's the problem when you're tasting blind.
NV LeNoble Brut Intense
OK, so we had run out of wine so I opened this bottle, which I had won in an advocacy competition a couple of weeks previously. It was chilled, and by this stage we were a little too pissed to care. Alun had fallen asleep and Janet and I just needed to rinse our mouths out a bit. It actually wasn't too bad for something I was initially suspicious of.
1992 Reinhold Haart Piersporter Goldtropfschen Kabinett Riesling (Mosel)
I acquired this for a mere £10 at a bin-end sale. £10! I would gladly have paid £30 of somebody else's money to purchase this wine. The nose leaps out of the glass, as if it was a year old (Sarah thought it was a 2003!) - petrol, grapefruit, lime, and clean as a whistle. The palate is bracing, lime driven, with matronly acidity, the tiniest hint of sherbet and and extraordinarily long, minerally finish. A stunning wine. I could have this wine for breakfast.
2004 Henri Milan "Le Grand Blanc" (Grenache Blanc/Rolle, St-Remy-de-Provence)
Just when you were getting bored, here comes this wine! The consensus was that if we had been blindfolded, we would have thought it was red. An intriguing nose of dried herbs - rosemary, thyme, oregano and mint. The palate is minty and very herbaceous and it wouldn't even be out of place to say the wine had tannins! Very unusual.
1990 Bourgueil Cuvee Prestige
Such a nice wine, it's hard to admit that it's a cabernet franc. Leafy, tobacco nose, almost left-Bank Bordeaux in character. Elegant red fruit palate, with a fine tannin finish.
2004 EQ Syrah (Chile)
By this stage we were eating rare roast beef. The debate raged over whether it was a grenache/shiraz blend from the Rhone, or a cabernet from Chile. Anyone should know that a debate like that can only end one way - it's a Syrah from Chile. And who would trust Piers to bring anything not from South America? A powerful, juicy, well balanced wine.
2003 Altavins Domus Pensi Terra Alta (Grenache/Syrah, Catalonia)
Jammy fruit on the nose with dark chocolate and even a hint of mint. Palate is full and chocolatey, supported by red fruits. Firm tannins, full body, well made. Will age.
2003 Nerojbleo Nero d'Alvola (Sicily)
The nose leads with anise and black jelly-babies, following with brambly black fruit. The palate begins a little sweet, full red and black jammy fruits. At this point you might think it was a Zinfandel. But then it goes tits up with a mouthful of tannins as gripping as nonna's farewell hug last Christmas. And then you know you're in Sicily.
2005 Les Amis de la Bouissiere (Grenache/Syrah/Merlot, Cotes du Rhone)
Now this is a shit hot wine for £9. I defy anyone to find such a powerful, well-balanced, mouth-filling, moreish, elegant, complex wine for the price. Superb.
1996 Chateau les Ormes de Pez (St Estephe)
Now you're talking. Classic Bordeaux nose - olives, tobacco and cedar. Powerful palate of black fruits - well balanced and delightfully mature. To think that Sarah had the audacity to claim it was slightly oxidised. I don't care whether she's been working vintages across Europe for the last 3 months. Her glass should have been confiscated immediately.
2000 Chateau Cormeil Figeac (St Emilion)
By this stage I was a bit drunk to be taking proper notes, but it was bloody lovely.
2005 Magnotta Vidal Ice Wine (Lake Erie North Shore, Canada)
Who cares really - aren't all sweet wines the same? It was sweet. And looked orange.
2004 Domaine Sauveroy Coteaux du Layon
Not as horrible as I might have thought. Less sweet than the Ice Wine - it should have come first. But that's the problem when you're tasting blind.
NV LeNoble Brut Intense
OK, so we had run out of wine so I opened this bottle, which I had won in an advocacy competition a couple of weeks previously. It was chilled, and by this stage we were a little too pissed to care. Alun had fallen asleep and Janet and I just needed to rinse our mouths out a bit. It actually wasn't too bad for something I was initially suspicious of.
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