31/08/1997 (RJB)

• Pinot Blanc Vielles Vignes 1995, Meyer-Fonne With dinner at the Three Horse Shoes, Madingley. Good Pinot Blanc with mineral and peachy overtones. A touch hollow. 87
• Domaine Gramenon 1992 Cotes-du-Rhone Good but spritzy (probably storage problems). Well made wine underneath the fizz.

  And a couple of wines had at a party in plastic glasses:

• Veritas Winery Shiraz 1995, Heysen Vineyard Big Barossa Shiraz (I'm surprised the plastic glass could hold it). Good, concentrated currant fruit. Unashamedly Oz.
• Klein Constantia Cabenet Sauvignon 1993 Weedy Cabernet.

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"Graham's farewell" at OFW 28/08/1997 (TNB)

• Echezaux 89 (Dujac) Light coloured but fragrant, slightly "animal", balanced and lovely. Suspicions that it was fading at the end of the evening, so perhaps not going anywhere. 90.
• Richbourg 91 (Mongeard-Mungeret) Darker, concentrated, creamy oak, meaty, but sweet fruit. Pretty good! 91.
• Orion Old Vines 94 (Thackeray) Concentrated, serious, but so, so, minty. Not to my taste.
• La Conseillante 86 A bit austere and tannic, but not much underneath. Really a bit thin. 85.
• Cos D'Estournel 86 Certainly not really singing at the moment, and a bit lighter than I expected. 87 (?+)
• Hermitage La Chapelle 95 Peppery, even slightly pencily concentrated fruit. At least a very good La Chapelle, but I'd guess not a great one. 89(+)
• D'Yquem 90 Lovely sauternes, quite restrained, I'd guess in the end that it won't match the much showier 89, but it is very fine, and perhaps will suprise me. 92(?+)

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26/08/1997 (TNB)

• Calco do Tanha 94 With dinner at "blue": Duoro red with real guts, but sufficient modernity to give a good dose of blackcurrenty fruit. not at all bad.

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Noel Young Wines presents a varietal tasting of Chardonnay, with special guest Malcolm Shiraz 26/08/1997 (RJB)

• Penfolds 'The Valleys' 1995, Clare and Eden Valleys (7.59) Fairly typical Oz Chardonnay, but with better acidity than is often found at this price. A bit short, but with a nutty finish. Drink now. 85
• Montagny 1er Cru 1995, Eleve en Futs de Chene, Alain Roy (9.99) Honeyed floral nose and a creamy, aniseed palate. good oak integration. Rather simple. 86+
• Riverstone 1995, J. Lohr Estates, Monterey (10.59) Not my style of wine. Big, exotic fruits and toasty oak. Overly sweet for balance. 83
• Awatere Valley 1996, Vavasour, Marlborough (11.49) Structure and acidity with a middle of pineapple. Well made wine. 87
• Langenlois Chardonnay 1994, Weingut Brundlmayer, Austria (14.99) Aged in acacia wood. Spicey, perfumed and peachy. Good wine, although it doesn't taste like any other Chardonnay I've tried. It's more like a mixture of Rhone and Alsace. 88+
• Meursault Les Grands Charrons 1995, Michel Bouzereau (18.99) Light, closed oily (walnut? olive?) nose. Good texture. Closed up, but should be good with time. 90
• Reserve Talley 1995, Arroyo Valley, Au Bon Climat (19.79) Slightly musty, varnishy nose initially. Citrus fruit nose and a big fullish oak finish. Good, but a bit clumsy. 88
• Magpie 'The Malcolm' Shiraz 1995, Barossa Valley First public showing in this country for this 16% alcohol monster. Incredible depth of colour: opaque to the rim. Brambles, cherries and chocolate on the nose with a light dose of mint. A huge mouthful that carries the alcohol with no problem. Very classy Shiraz that should age well over the long term. 94
• Moscato d'Asti 1996, Cascinacastlet Refreshing and very gluggable. Just what was needed at the end of the tasting.

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26/08/1997 (TNB)

• Trittenheimer Apotheke Auslese 83 (Grans-Fassian) Good fruit, coming along nicely. Quite sweet for Mosel Auslese.
• Chardonnay 93 (Foxen) I remember this as quite Burgundian. Now it seems a bit closed, or perhaps it is just going the way of California Chardonnay?
• Volnay Clos des Chenes 89 (Lafarge) Quite serious, pleasant but needs time.

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24/08/1997 (RJB)

• Cavas de Weinert 1989, Bodegas Weinert, Mendoza Impressive Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec blend. Tasted blind, I guessed it to be fairly classy Claret. Good colour, currant and pencil shavings nose, and fine body and structure. This should improve over the next 5 to 10 years. For its price (under a tenner) it is very good Bordeaux-style wine indeed. Not showing its age. 89+
• Norton Sangiovese 1995, Mendoza Good but unexciting. A bit rough at present, but this may well tone down with a bit of age. 85
• Libertao Sangiovese Malbec 1996, Bodegas la Rural, Mendoza Thinnish easy drinking. 82

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Gang of Three 20/08/1997 (RJB)

The themes for the evening were any white, and red Rhone (excluding Chateauneuf, Cote Rotie and Hermitage). Numbers in brackets indicate ranking of wine taken as an average of the three scores for each wine.

• Chateau de Beaucastel 1988 Chateauneuf-du-Pape (1) Restrained and fairly subtle. Good acidity. Needs time (3 years?). 91
• Petaluma Riesling 1993, Clare (3) Aromatic but flat. Initially the acidity wasn't obvious, but it came throuh later. 86
• Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay 1991 (2) Big "custard powder" mouthful. I thought it Burgundy (it reminded me of some of Jadot's wines and Chateau Fuisse Vielle Vignes). The fruit is integrating well with the oak. It will be interesting to see how well this continues to age. Concentrated, powerful wine. 90
• Cornas Domaine de Saint Pierre 1995, Jaboulet (1) Blackcurrant nose, good colour and good structure (other than some hollowness that I guess wiil fill out). 91
• Cornas 1991, Clape (2) Leather and burnt toast. Pleasantly mature, but some volatility. A thinnish finnish. 87
• Chateau des Tours Vacqueyras Reserve 1990, Reynaud (3) Big tough wine with structure, but rather too tough at present. Might be very good with more age, but it isn't very impressive at the moment. 86

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In the Lake District 15/08/1997 (RJB)

• Champagne Antoine le Vaillant Dull cheap fizz. 80
• Mas de la Dame Cuvee de la Stele 1994 Disappointing on first tasting, but opened up over the next couple of days. Liquorice and tar. 87
• Domaine de L'Hortus Classique 1994 Good but not great. Subdued and lacking concentration compared with the next wine. 86
• Domaine de L'Hortus Grande Cuvee 1995 Tasted alongside the previous wine - and clearly better. More vanillin showing through, but nicley integrated with the fruit. Initially closed, but it opened up the next day to reveal a seductive nature. 89
• Ca del Solo Malvasia Bianca 1995 Easy drinking American white. 83
• Riesling Cuvee Albert 1995, A Mann Had at the Pheasant Inn at Keystone, Cambs. Excellent Riesling with good balance of acidity and fruit. I would guess, having had this, that maybe I misjudged his Furstentum (tasted 16/7/97). This did seem very good (although after the traffic jams on the M6 near Birmingham in the midday sun my judgement might have been somewhat clouded). 90

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Misc 15/08/1997 (TNB)

• Pol Roger NV Approx seven years in cellar has left this absolutely lovely, honeyed, deep, yet fruity. Lovely! 91.
• Gewurtztraminer Pfersigberg 88 (Keuntz-bas) Drinking pretty nicely.
• Kiedricher Sandgrub Spatlese 83 (Von Simmern) Opening out very nicely.

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Pinot Noir at OFW 07/08/1997 (TNB)

Written up a week after the tasting from rather sketchy notes. Hence mainly general impressions:

• Glen Carlou 96 Jammy, oak-driven. OK for parties. (6.99) 82
• Vavasour 94 Quite a sweet cloying finish again. has pretensions above the previous wine, but no more enjoyable really. (12.99) 81.
• Pommard Les Tavannes 95 (Fery-Meunier) Honest burgundy, the difference with the above being the dry finish. (13.99) 84.
• Pommard Pezerolles 95 (Fery-Meunier) This Premier Cru has concentration over and above the previous wine. Reasonable stuff, doesn't really sing. (17.99) 86
• Pommard Epenots 95 (Fery-Meunier) This well known Premier cru seems to ghave yielded a rather lighter and slightly less interesting wine (19.99) 85.
• Hautes Cote de beaune 95 (Jayer-Gilles) Very young I know, but this reeks of freshly sawn wood. Perhaps it will settle down, but I'm not convinced. (13.99)
• Nuits St Georges 93 (Meo-Camuzet) Nice village wine, not a patch on the premier crus from this producer in 93. 87.
• Clos Vougeot 93 (Meo-Camuzet) Much more closed than when I last tasted this, but one senses the depth of fruit. 34.99 90(?+)
• Richebourg 92 (Meo-Camuzet) Impressive for the vintage. very fine. 89.

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