It is looking like I might be going back to work soon (probably early March), so I have been packing in a few wine lunches and dinners. I also got my cellar sorted out, which is a result. I will still attend some events, but less frequently. Big events on the horizon are Maureen's northern rhone dinner on 22nd March, where we hope to get at least three mature Noel Verset Cornases. Then on 12th April I am hosting a 1982 Bordeaux dinner to mark the 30th anniversary of this esteemed vintage. Is it all it is cracked up to be? We have many of the most reputable wines, including all of the first growths, so I can't wait to find out.
Last Friday my good friend Jeremy organised a burgundy lunch at La Trompette, one of Nigel Platts-Martin's establishments and therefore one of the best restaurants in London. And we only paid £50 a head for a four course meal. We started off with Joseph Perrier Cuvee Josephine (after my daughter) 2002 (she, however is a 1997 vintage). Very good chunky champagne, needs more time. In the first flight we had:
Denis Mortet Chambolle Musigny Beaux Bruns 1993 (wine 2)
This was quite restrained earthy and mushroomy for a Chambolle; quite an austere style in line with the vintage and perhaps the grower. I liked it a lot.
Thomas Bassot Griottes Chambertin 1970 (wine 1)
The original number one Jean Grivot Vosne Romanee Les Brulees was corked. This number 1 smelt like a number 2. It is the shittiest wine I have ever smelt. It didnt just smell like a toilet, but a freshly laid turd. That is a compliment by the way. It was cloudy as anything but still holding up.
Then on to the next flight:
Jean Grivot Nuits Saint Georges Les Boudots (3) - this was reticent but had a delightful shy perfume and a lovely texture.
Louis Jadot Clos Saint Denis 1996 (4) - my contribution - this was quite rustic bumptious and chewy, with just a hint of 'petillance.' It has a nice core of rch, ripe berry fruit. Much more forward that the last one I tried.
Louis Jadot Clos Saint Denis 1998 (5) - much rounder, smoother and more polished than the 1996, and a markedly different wine. Very good but I liked the 1996 slightly more.
Last flight
Louis Jadot Chambolle Musigny Les Amoureuses 1998 - the real experts around the table - Jeremy and Tom - were very impressed by this. I remember it being quite taut and a bit tannic, but really well poised. Probably a wine that will give more pleasure in the future.
Louis Jadot Charmes Chambertin 1999 - quite similar in fact to the 1996 Clos saint Denis and purchased from the same place (WH Frank in Long Island, New York).
Rene Engel Echezeaux 1999 - this was very wound up and tight - it was the most backward wine here.
To finish off:
Fonseca Port 1985 - this was a fabulous bottle of Port from my favourite Port producer. In fact this vies with the 1977 Fonseca for the best port I have ever drunk (never tasted '63 Nacional). Without taking anything away from the burgundies it was wine of the day.
Last night Jeremy organised a 'macro dinner' - where a group of us meet up - ostensibly - to discuss economics and markets: and to taste some bally good wines as well.
To kick off we had a Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler Bernkasteler Badstube am Doctorberg Riesling Spätlese, really impressive cut and thrust here. The burgundies didnt impress: a 1978 Icard Savigny Berry Bros bottling, it was still alive but all over the place and not in a good way. It did improve but I think the Algerian rotgot stole the show. A Perrot Minot Morey Saint Denis Les Riottes 1999 was tough and a bit charmless.
The rhone flight was very good with Jasmin's 1984 Cote Rotie edging Chapoutier's 1983 Hermitage Sizeranne; both very good examples of mature northern rhone - not often you see that. On the Bordeaux flight we had two 2000s - Vieux Chateau Certan and La Tour Haut Brion - and one 2001 - Rausan Segla. The Segla was delightful, but surprisingly sweet on the attack. The LTHB was also sweet on the attack - disconcertingly so, as if it had been souped up - otherwise it wasn't showing anything. Neither was the VCC but the class really shone through on this one. You will need to be very patient. We finished off with 1999 Rieussec. Sheer delight.
Wednesday 22 February 2012
Monday 6 February 2012
Winter drinking round up
Since the last post on my 100 top wines of 2011, I realised I omitted Chateau Trotanoy 2001, which would have probably come in the top 85, if not 75. Also 2012 has started off quite well with a lot of good wines.
Wine of the year so far is this (the one on the right):
It is a Henri Bonneau Chateauneuf Du Pape, Cuvee Marie Beurrier 1988. I really don't usually care for chateauneuf du pape, dominated as it usually is by the grenache grape (the ugly stepchild of syrah?)...but this was absolutely delicious...the best chateauneuf I have ever tried...unfortunately it costs the earth (about £300 a bottle I think), no doubt because an influential and esteemed critic drew the same conclusion.
Next to it on the left was Grand Puy Lacoste 1996, a wine with mixed - but mostly good - reviews, which was as hard as nails when I last tried it way back in 2004. Happily this wine has evolved splendidly. It is still of course on the young side but oh-so promising. It is dense and powerful in the mid-palate with lashings of lead pencil...something they don't do in California or Australia. I wouldn't be surprised if this is showing better than the '95, another superb GPL.
The Chateau Palmer half in the picture was the 1986, which was strangely mte and off form.
That was a couple of weeks ago, and going back to New Year's Eve I spent it with good friends Maureen, Laurence and Jeremy. This is what we drank between us.
It was difficult to chose between the three red wines...the L'Evangile 1989 (is that you Godot?) has nearly arrived but is not quite there yet, and the Landonne was splendid (this got included in the top 100, 60 actually, see below)...and the Griottes was as good as the Ponsot Clos De La Roche 1997, also in the 2011 top list.
Privacy reasons prevents me from publishing photos of any of the other participants on the night.
But talking of Ponsot one of the highlights was the Ponsot vs Dujac Clos De La Roche dinner on Australia Day (26th Jan) at the Square in London's swanky Mayfair district. Being part Australian that was unpatriotic of me, especially as there was an Australia 'Wimps' lunch at the Ledbury that day.
The wines did not disappoint but this was one occasion where the food outshone the wine, magnificent as both were...for a good write up with the food dishes see Maureen's write up here:
http://www.wine-source.com/winesource-collection-blog.html
The champagnes were equally accomplished, and we started off with the 97s and 00s...the 97 Ponsot has breeding, restraint, tension and complexity next to the relatively simple, albeit delicious, Dujac. The 2000 Ponsot was strangely a bit cooked, while the 2000 Dujac was a little warm but more balanced. One-one.
The 95s were equally poor by comparison, expectedly for the Ponsot but unexpectedly for the Dujac, and the 98s were made of sterner stuff. Not as elegant as the 97s, I gave the nod to Ponsot. Three-two Ponsot.
Then we had the infamous white wine intermission. Two very good wines, which were not taken seriously. It was a disaster drinking them in the intermission. But Ceritas Porter Bass Chardonnay, woefully misunderstood by the crowd and a PYCM Chassagne Caillerets 08, which was tight but promising.
Then we had the best flight of the evening...99s, Ponsot 01 and the 02 Dujacs, CdlR and Clos Saint Denis. The CSD had wonderful CSD terroir, but I think the wine of the flight was probably the 99 Ponsot, which was powerful and authoratitive. The 01 Ponsot was the surprise package, and out of all these wines, THE wine to buy given that the 99s and 02s are priced to kill these days. The 1989s and 1991s in the last flight were not very memorable...one of them was a bit oxidised.
I digress. Both good producers, but Ponsot is more cerebral and complex. In short, it is the better producer; but, I think, not quite up to DRC and Rousseau. Dujac is rather simple and crowd pleasing in comparison to Ponsot. It is a wine for rich Sunday drinkers who don't want to think about their wines.
Four hundred and forty-one quid for an '09 Dujac CdlR according to Decanter magasine...tcchh; curr...but for 12 or 13 hundred quid you can pick up a case of Ponsot CdlR '01. That is not terrible value for money for a good - actually excellent - burgundy grand cru producer.
Another super wine that rates a mention is this little possum:
Maurice Drouhin's Beaune 1er Cru Hospices De Beaune 2002, it was magical in the small format. Produced for Albert Roux at the Waterside Inn, it was surplus to requirements, but he should have held on to it.
Last Thursday night I had dinner with Jono, who runs a current account deficit of 95% of his GDP (having said that I am at 100%)...it was New England cold, with wind chill...as we trudged up Ladbrook Grove with eight bottles of Joseph Perrier Cuvee Josephine...to an Iraqi gaff up the street at the harbourside.
I had been clearing out my stash when I came across a bin soiled bottle, which I knew to be either Cheval Blanc 82 or 83 - I could tell by the capsule - so I brought it along. The crumbly cork confirmed it was the 83 and it was simply brilliant. Earthy, mushroomy and complex it was very mature. Mature Cheval Blanc. It doesn't get much better. Jono's Lamarche Grands Echezeaux was delicious and stayed in touch the whole night while the 1996 Sandrone Cannubis Boschis was left in the cold. It is a modern wine, which isn't ready; but I am not sure it ever will be.
Then on Friday night M and J and I had these, plus my Cappellano Barolo Pie Rupestris 1999, a young beauty.
The 2000 Hermitage La Chapelle was disappointingly simple...a charming northern rhone but you expect more even at the knock down price of £54. The Jadot Corton 1995 was in a different league. It takes no prisoners, and has a magnificent tension and typicite.
Wines of the year so far, excluidng NYE wines, are dominated by burgundy:
1. Henri Bonneau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Marie Beurrrier 1988
2. Chateau Cheval Blanc 1983
3. Ponsot Clos De La Roche 1999
4. Dujac Clos St-Denis 2002
5. Jadot Corton 1995
6. Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste 1996
7. Ponsot Clos De La Roche 2001
8. Lamarche Grands- Echezeaux 2004
9. Maurice Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Hospices De Beaune 2002
10. Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Le Clos 2008
Wines I have bought recently:
Pierre Yves Colin Morey Bourgogne Blanc 2010
Pierre Yves Colin Morey St Aubin La Chateniere 2010
Pierre Yves Colin Morey Meursault Genevrieres 2008
Jean Marc Brocard Chablis Grand Cru Le Clos 2008
Jean Marc Brocard Chablis 1er Cru Montmains 2010
Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon La Croix Boissée 2009
Noel Verset Cornas 1990
Noel Verset Cornas 1995
Chateau Belair, St-Emilion 1995
Chateau Belair, St-Emilion 1998
Chateau Berliquet, St-Emilion 2001
Chateau Palmer, Margaux, 1999
As the Greeks say
Ya sus!
Wine of the year so far is this (the one on the right):
It is a Henri Bonneau Chateauneuf Du Pape, Cuvee Marie Beurrier 1988. I really don't usually care for chateauneuf du pape, dominated as it usually is by the grenache grape (the ugly stepchild of syrah?)...but this was absolutely delicious...the best chateauneuf I have ever tried...unfortunately it costs the earth (about £300 a bottle I think), no doubt because an influential and esteemed critic drew the same conclusion.
Next to it on the left was Grand Puy Lacoste 1996, a wine with mixed - but mostly good - reviews, which was as hard as nails when I last tried it way back in 2004. Happily this wine has evolved splendidly. It is still of course on the young side but oh-so promising. It is dense and powerful in the mid-palate with lashings of lead pencil...something they don't do in California or Australia. I wouldn't be surprised if this is showing better than the '95, another superb GPL.
The Chateau Palmer half in the picture was the 1986, which was strangely mte and off form.
That was a couple of weeks ago, and going back to New Year's Eve I spent it with good friends Maureen, Laurence and Jeremy. This is what we drank between us.
It was difficult to chose between the three red wines...the L'Evangile 1989 (is that you Godot?) has nearly arrived but is not quite there yet, and the Landonne was splendid (this got included in the top 100, 60 actually, see below)...and the Griottes was as good as the Ponsot Clos De La Roche 1997, also in the 2011 top list.
Privacy reasons prevents me from publishing photos of any of the other participants on the night.
But talking of Ponsot one of the highlights was the Ponsot vs Dujac Clos De La Roche dinner on Australia Day (26th Jan) at the Square in London's swanky Mayfair district. Being part Australian that was unpatriotic of me, especially as there was an Australia 'Wimps' lunch at the Ledbury that day.
The wines did not disappoint but this was one occasion where the food outshone the wine, magnificent as both were...for a good write up with the food dishes see Maureen's write up here:
http://www.wine-source.com/winesource-collection-blog.html
The champagnes were equally accomplished, and we started off with the 97s and 00s...the 97 Ponsot has breeding, restraint, tension and complexity next to the relatively simple, albeit delicious, Dujac. The 2000 Ponsot was strangely a bit cooked, while the 2000 Dujac was a little warm but more balanced. One-one.
The 95s were equally poor by comparison, expectedly for the Ponsot but unexpectedly for the Dujac, and the 98s were made of sterner stuff. Not as elegant as the 97s, I gave the nod to Ponsot. Three-two Ponsot.
Then we had the infamous white wine intermission. Two very good wines, which were not taken seriously. It was a disaster drinking them in the intermission. But Ceritas Porter Bass Chardonnay, woefully misunderstood by the crowd and a PYCM Chassagne Caillerets 08, which was tight but promising.
Then we had the best flight of the evening...99s, Ponsot 01 and the 02 Dujacs, CdlR and Clos Saint Denis. The CSD had wonderful CSD terroir, but I think the wine of the flight was probably the 99 Ponsot, which was powerful and authoratitive. The 01 Ponsot was the surprise package, and out of all these wines, THE wine to buy given that the 99s and 02s are priced to kill these days. The 1989s and 1991s in the last flight were not very memorable...one of them was a bit oxidised.
I digress. Both good producers, but Ponsot is more cerebral and complex. In short, it is the better producer; but, I think, not quite up to DRC and Rousseau. Dujac is rather simple and crowd pleasing in comparison to Ponsot. It is a wine for rich Sunday drinkers who don't want to think about their wines.
Four hundred and forty-one quid for an '09 Dujac CdlR according to Decanter magasine...tcchh; curr...but for 12 or 13 hundred quid you can pick up a case of Ponsot CdlR '01. That is not terrible value for money for a good - actually excellent - burgundy grand cru producer.
Another super wine that rates a mention is this little possum:
Maurice Drouhin's Beaune 1er Cru Hospices De Beaune 2002, it was magical in the small format. Produced for Albert Roux at the Waterside Inn, it was surplus to requirements, but he should have held on to it.
Last Thursday night I had dinner with Jono, who runs a current account deficit of 95% of his GDP (having said that I am at 100%)...it was New England cold, with wind chill...as we trudged up Ladbrook Grove with eight bottles of Joseph Perrier Cuvee Josephine...to an Iraqi gaff up the street at the harbourside.
I had been clearing out my stash when I came across a bin soiled bottle, which I knew to be either Cheval Blanc 82 or 83 - I could tell by the capsule - so I brought it along. The crumbly cork confirmed it was the 83 and it was simply brilliant. Earthy, mushroomy and complex it was very mature. Mature Cheval Blanc. It doesn't get much better. Jono's Lamarche Grands Echezeaux was delicious and stayed in touch the whole night while the 1996 Sandrone Cannubis Boschis was left in the cold. It is a modern wine, which isn't ready; but I am not sure it ever will be.
Then on Friday night M and J and I had these, plus my Cappellano Barolo Pie Rupestris 1999, a young beauty.
The 2000 Hermitage La Chapelle was disappointingly simple...a charming northern rhone but you expect more even at the knock down price of £54. The Jadot Corton 1995 was in a different league. It takes no prisoners, and has a magnificent tension and typicite.
Wines of the year so far, excluidng NYE wines, are dominated by burgundy:
1. Henri Bonneau Chateauneuf du Pape Cuvee Marie Beurrrier 1988
2. Chateau Cheval Blanc 1983
3. Ponsot Clos De La Roche 1999
4. Dujac Clos St-Denis 2002
5. Jadot Corton 1995
6. Chateau Grand Puy Lacoste 1996
7. Ponsot Clos De La Roche 2001
8. Lamarche Grands- Echezeaux 2004
9. Maurice Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru Hospices De Beaune 2002
10. Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Le Clos 2008
Wines I have bought recently:
Pierre Yves Colin Morey Bourgogne Blanc 2010
Pierre Yves Colin Morey St Aubin La Chateniere 2010
Pierre Yves Colin Morey Meursault Genevrieres 2008
Jean Marc Brocard Chablis Grand Cru Le Clos 2008
Jean Marc Brocard Chablis 1er Cru Montmains 2010
Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon La Croix Boissée 2009
Noel Verset Cornas 1990
Noel Verset Cornas 1995
Chateau Belair, St-Emilion 1995
Chateau Belair, St-Emilion 1998
Chateau Berliquet, St-Emilion 2001
Chateau Palmer, Margaux, 1999
As the Greeks say
Ya sus!
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