Wine group at A.L's 27/08/2012 (TNB)

• Tondonia Gran Reserva blanco 1991 Waxy, lemony, dense, quite low acid. Lovely.
• Oloroso Seco Villapanes Rich, tangy, dark and complex. Nice texture, possibly a touch woody. Good age, I think. Top
• Oloroso 1986 (Hidalgo La Gitana) Oxo cubes. Absolutely gorgeous single vintage sherry. Lovely balance.
• Brauneberger Juffer Auslese 2005 (F. Haag) Lovely, rich, young Riesling.
• Maximin Grunberg Herrenberg Spatlese 2005 Bright, succulent, sherbety, yummy.
• Carbonnieux blanc 2006 Peachy, sauvignon fruit. Nice balance.
• Carbonnieux blanc2008 A touch of smoke about the gooseberry fruit. Very substantial, fine wine. Bare
• La Tour Martillac blanc 2005 Like a slightly lighter version of the last wine, but very precise.
• Rioja Gran Reserva 1981 (Conde de Valdemar) A touch reductive. Pencils. Hints of chocolate. Rather good. Top
• Vosne Romanee 1er cru Malconsorts 2003 (Cathiard) Slightly burnt fruit. Solid, fairy structured. Quite high-toned, at times. Very good. Top
• Vosne Romanee En Orveaux 1er cru 2001 (Cathiard) Dry, structured, pretty concentrated. Stylish stuff.
• Tondonia Gran Reserva 1985 Herby, blackcurrant. Dry. A touch oxidative - showing is age. Rather Nice.
• Montrose 2002 Hard, quite tannic. Almost burnt. Has life in it. Top
• L'Evangile 1999 Quite firm for Pomerol. Irony. Rather lovely.
• Gewurztraminer 2008 (Gramona) Grassy, like a rich Chenin. Fairly sweet, but in balance. Nice in a way.
• Rieussec 1998 Quite botrytised. Quite focused. More nimble than usual from the property. Very enjoyable.

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The dreaded pox 05/08/2012 (TNB)

So here we are, with 2005s from Burgundy suffering from Pox. (And I don't claim this is a new discovery.) I have very little confidence that the issue has been solved because it only became apparent somewhere between 5 and 9 years after the notoriuous 1996 vintage that there was a widespread, systematic problem with the wines. Is it solved now? I haven't a clue, but I would still regard white Burgundy as a speculative buy for cellaring for even modest times, where I am speaking as a traditionalist who thinks decent vintages of white Burgundy benefit from a decade or more of keeping.

One hears a lot of twaddle from vested interests about how dry white wines have never been keepable beyond a year or two, but the Riesling below gives the lie to that. And before the great Pox crisis starting around 1994-5, white Burgundies do get old and start to get a touch oxidised, but they don't rot in the bottle the way that poxed ones do.

So the story is that I opened the Jobard Burgundy (and by the way, they are one of the less affected producers) because it seemed a better plan than drinking the Riesling that had been opened the day before. But of course it was the Riesling that was in good condition.

• Meursault Les Tillets 2005 (F & A Jobard) Pox, I'm afraid. Unnaturally deep colour and that curious unpleasant rotten character of the disease - quite different from wines that are simply too old. Too unpleasant to drink much of.
• Iphofer Julius-Echter-Berg Risesling Spatlese Trocken 1993 (H. Wirsching) I have drunk a lot of this, some bottle variation (as one might expect at the age) but all drinkable and most really good like this bootle: evolved riesling character but fresh and generally delicious.

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