In Mougins 31/03/2008 (TNB)

• Chateau Simone Rose 2006 Very nice, gentle fruit with real vinousness like a pale red wine. Not (as the awful phrase has it) at all fruit-driven, but very sophisicated, smooth, top rose. Top wine even without making allowances for its being pink. A good
• Bandol Rose 2006 (Tempier) Also real wine, yeasty, notably harsher than the rather suave Simone above. A touch of apples in the fruit, good length too. Might just need to settle down in bottle for a while. Bare

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Wine group hosted by Z.M. 18/03/2008 (TNB)

• Champagne Le Mesnil 1979 (Le Mesnil) Quite evolved and maderised. Rich, mushroomy and long, but not in great condition.
• Monthelie blanc 2002 (Potinet-Ampeau) Slightly masked nose at first. Very dense wine (old vines, perhaps). Closed at the moment but will be excellent for its appelation.
• Puligny Montrachet blanc 2002 (Potinet-Ampeau) More lemony, Again densely-textured with none of the showyness of "Chardonnay". Long and mineral. Very good indeed for a village wine. Bare
• Monthelie blanc 2001 (Potinet-Ampeau) Again lemony, and in the flight of 4 whites served blind most of us were inclined to pair this with the previous Puligny. Very elegant but with slightly less stuffing than the previous wines. Rising to top
• Puligny Montrachet blanc 2001 (Potinet-Ampeau) This split the table to some extent. On the one hand it seemed a little softer than the other wines and tending to flab. On the other hand it had a great texture with gorgeous, creamy fruit. All of these four wines were quite different from much modern white Burgundy, and all the better for that. Rising to top
• Meurasult 1er cru Charmes blanc 1982 (Potinet-Ampeau) Slightly cheesy on the nose at first. Fantastically complex wine, drinking perfectly now. Bare
• Meurasult 1er cru Charmes blanc 1966 (Potinet-Ampeau) What an eye-opener. In the days when most producers seem to be incapable of making wines that develop over a decade (or in many cases even last a decade), here is a 40 year old wine that is completely fresh, with all the complexity of age and lovely herb and cream-tinged fruit. No sign that one needs to hurry to drink this. A star.
• Chianti Classico Riserva 2001 (Villa Rosa) Lovely creamy, bright fruit. To judge form the later wines in this flight, this will be excellent. Bare even
• Chianti Classico Riserva 1991 (Villa Rosa) Creamy again (in that Brunello way), a touch of smoke too. Some mature character but still very fresh. Delicious.
• Chianti Classico Riserva 1975 (Villa Rosa) Another revelation. Gorgeous fruit, quite tertiary now with meaty notes. Smoky again. Bare
• Caberlot 1998 (Podere Il Carnasciale) Rather soft, terribly suave fruit. Concentrated, quite complex, but to my palate a bit internationally-styled. A cult wine, apparently.
• Bruno Rocca 1990 (Montefili) Fine wine, quite meaty and drinking rather nicely now.
• 30 year old Tawny (Niepoort) Lovely green rim, good acidity, touch of chocolate and quite rich. Fruitier perhaps than a comparably aged Colheita because (I assume) there is some younger wine in the blend as well as some genuinely old stuff. Lovely.

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12/03/2008 (TNB)

• Bourgogne Rouge 2002 (Anne Gros) Splendid, rich, gorgeously fruity Burgundy with some structural underpinning too. A fantastic effort for a plain B. Rouge.

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07/03/2008 (TNB)

• Champagne Special Club 1996 (Jose Michel) A rich, meaty mouthful, still a bit hard. Will make a very nice mature bottle. Bare

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05/03/2008 (TNB)

• Condrieu Vendange Tardive Les Eguets 1993 (Yves Cuilleron) Pleasant enough, mature peachy fruit. Was once sweet I think, but this is ameliorated by age. Too simple to be worth more than

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Verset dinner in Edinburgh 01/03/2008 (TNB)

• Pernand Vegeleses blanc 1988 (Rollin) The cooking wine in fact, but wirth trying. Dry, ungenerous, but certainlty alive. Needs food. Bare
• Viognier de Rosine 2006 (Ogier) Fragrantly flowery, nice peachy fruit. Typically low acid. Dry and restrained. Relatively straightforward but rather enjoyable. Bare
• Condrieu 2004 (Gangloff) Richer fruit, quite cunningly tarted up with some new oak. Very interesting, pretty serious, but in some ways I almost prefer the previous wine. I enjoyed this more last time I tasted it, perhaps because it was with something more oaky rather than less! Top
• Cornas 2005 (N. Verset) Very pure framboise (and hints of cassis) fruit. Great length, although it closes up a bit on the palate currently. Will be great.
• Cornas 2004 (N. Verset) Rather lighter than the 05, more mineral, more advanced, animaly and gamy. There's a hint of edgyness about it too. Comint to top
• Cornas 2003 (N. Verset) Slightly lower register than the 05, greta fruit overlying some marked tannins. Quite spicy. A touch less mainstream than the 05 but will also be great.
• Cornas 2002 (N. Verset) Some animality emerging. It may be great, but there is also something slightly curious on the nose that I have ixed feelings about. Evem leaving that aside, there's not quite the hit of the top vintages. with reservations
• Cornas 2001 (N. Verset) Great purity and poise, this has the pure framboise fruit of the 05. Quite structured and with good length.
• Cornas 2000 (N. Verset) Back to the lower register, although not quite to the extent of the 03. Close to resolved gamy raspberry fruit. Very attractive. Top
• Cornas 1999 (N. Verset) A touch of that poultice nose one gets on old Rioja. Very meaty, Bovril-like raspberry fruit. Excellent.
• Cornas 1998 (N. Verset) Very, very, reductive. Undrinkable for me at first, but after 2 hours in the glass it's delicious. Say a top
• Cornas 1997 (N. Verset) Seems very light at first, yet attractively pure, if a bit soft. Yet it seems to put on weight in the glass. A bit of an enigma. A bare perhaps.
• Cornas 1996 (N. Verset) Good quality fruit, lighter than the top vintages but gamy with a real sense of terroir. I think this scrapes a bare too.
• Cornas 1991 (N. Verset) Coming towards resolved yet still a touch hard. Pure and balanced. Lovely.
• Cornas 1989 (N. Verset) Beatiful tone, completely balanced, complex and delicious.
• Cornas 1988 (N. Verset) Gamy and delicious, but delivering a little less on all fronts than 85 and 89. Bare
• Cornas 1985 (N. Verset) Back to those poultice hints in the nose, terribly civilized wine yet the asauvage terroir shows through too. Gorgeous. Top
• 2003 by Bollinger Frothey and exotic. Bollinger do not seem to think this is a proper vintage Champagne and neither do I. Cloying and dull, I am amazed that the house (who are clearly trying to push themselves into the elite) released this wine even under the evasive title. Somebody suggested they did this because the wine wasn't good enough to put in the NV, and I am sympathetic to that idea.
• Champagne Special Club 1985 (Bonnaire) Touch of mushrooms, nutty, with creamy fruit and honey on the finish. Lovely. Bare
• Port 1970 (Gonzales-Byass) Very evolved, quite tawny-like. Tobaccofalvours too. Pleasant but not great. Bare
• Port 1960 (Gonzales-Byass) Drier, more piquant, perhaps a bit more faded although the overall effect is more fresh and overall it is more interesting than the 70.

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