Wine group at my place 30/08/2010 (TNB)

Dreadfully delayed notes, recovered from some filed away jottings!

• Champagne La Closerie Les Beguines NV Brut Nature (Prevost) Golden. Wood influence clear but very well done. Fascinating wine - pure Meunier of course. Lot LC07, meaning 07 vinyage. Bare
• Navazos-Niepoort blanc 2008 Interesting wine with that dry sherry chaarcter - it is essentially an unfortified but Fino-style table wine I think.
• Savignin Arbois 2004 (Puffeney) Lovely characterful stuff - really interesting. This rather upstaged the previous wine and not just because there was more of the oxidatibve character.
• Chardonnay 200? (Vignai Da Duline) very stylish - I do like the wines from this producer, although the other varietals are (inevitably a bit more interesting than Chardonnay.
• Malvasia 200? (Duline) Characterful and delicious. Top
• Chassagne 1er cru Chenevottes 1995 (Niellon) Creamy and very refined, in the Niellon style. Yum.
• Gevrey Chambertin 1er cru Cazetieres 1988 (Serafin) Piquant, quite hard, but very much alive and enjoyable. The unapproachability is typical of the vintage. Top
• Nuits St George 1er cru Damodes 1985 (Machard de Gramont) Rather oxidised.
• Gigondas 1989 (Raspail) Fading, but no more than you might expect. Should have been drunk a decade ago.
• Vieux Telegraph 1989 Light, also beginning to fade.
• Beaucastel 1989 A bit edgy and rustic. (The brett, I guess.) Not great on this showing. Top
• Chateauneuf-du-Pape Reserve 1989 (Pegau) Deep porty wine - really rather drinkable. Top
• Bandol Cuvee Migoua 1989 (Tempier) Lovely, fresh, elegant wine. Much more drinkable than the Rhones.
• Climens 1970 Coppery colour, green rim. Fresh and engaging - in fact completely enjoyable. Surprised by how good this is in its own terms since 70 is generally reported as poor for the property. Bare
• Quarles Harris 1977 Middle of the road port of its vintage.

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20/08/2010 (TNB)

• Le Soula blanc 2007 (Domaine Gauby) Lovely, broad South of France profile, excellent concentration. Just had a mouthful of this so hard to be sure, but say and probably improving.
• Côtes du Rhône Ceps Centenaires 1990 (Gramenon) Pleasant, gentle fruit, with what seems like a bit of reductiveness making it a touch awkward. Pleasant drinking but it confirms my feeling that this wine is best in its youth.
• Cornas 1990 (N. Verset) I thought I had tried this wine before, but apparently not. Very typical, meaty, gamy Cornas, almost slightly rustic in a good way. Very good, but not quite in the league of the 89 and 85 - indeed maybe not even quite as good as the 91. Still
• Madeira Sercial 1974 (Blandy) Rather sedimenatry, which reduced the enjoyment a bit - end of the bottle I guess. Quite a rich brown sugar take on Sercial. Pleasant with cheese.

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14/08/2010 (TNB)

• Champagne Brut NV (Dosnon & Lepage) Well-made stuff, quite weighty in the mouth and pretty good, although a touch less elegant than the Blanc de Noirs.

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In London 08/08/2010 (TNB)

Of the first wine (in a half), drunk at Tate Britain, a first one was oxidised and a second corked. They dealt with this excellently and the third was really nice.

The next three were at les Terroirs, which has an excellent, original, but sometimes too eccentric list. The Sancerre was such a wine, which I just tatsed from an open bottle.

• Sudtirol Terlaner 2006 (Cantina Terlan) Lemony, with a splendid richness as it warms. Really nice wine. Bare even.
• Txacoli do guetaria 2009 (Bodegas Ameztoi) Dry. Fruity. Rich of sour apples. 10.5%. Simple but attractive. Light fizz under ordinary cork. Top
• Sancerre Blanche akmenone 2008 (Riffault) Seriously exotic, cloudy and intense. There's something there, and one feels there are good intentions but this project needs guidance. In particular, the maker needs to realise that unfined and unfiltered does not necessarily mean cloudy.
• Grolleau Vieilles Vignes Le Cousin 2009 (O. Cousin) Very un-Loire, rich, soft, quite forward, with an apparent sweetness that's probably mainly ripe fruit. Not bad in its way.
• Chateau Musar blanc 1999 Quite soft, like a Southern rhone wine, golden coloured yet fresh, with a lovely herbyness. Rather lovely.
• Bandol Rose 2009 Lovely, bone dry and fragrant, without the woodyness I noticed before - perhaps from bad bottles. I'd heard this was a good wine and now I believe it.

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04/08/2010 (TNB)

• VdP des Cotes Catalanes Vieilles Vignes blanc 2002 (Domaine Gauby) Very fresh, lots of typically broad Southern French flavours with nice balance. High quality and very drinkable without being rivetting.

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