Wine group at the Vintners Rooms 30/03/2010 (TNB)

• Champagne Le Parcel 2002 (C. Bouchard) Wet straw nose, very classy with great puity, precision and length.
• Riesling Vom Stein Federspiel 1998 (Nikolaihof) Fragrant, delicate nose, bone-dry, apple and peach palate. Tremendous wine - it shows how well wines fromthis estate age. Top almost more.
• Gruner Veltliner Weingeberger Smaragd 1998 (Nikolaihof) Less rich, and a bit less presence on the palate, quite gentle with a touch of honey. Also very good but perhaps G-V is just not as great a grape as Riesling. A strong
• Vire Clesse 2000 (R. Michel) Creamy, dry, clean, with a nice length. Excellent for the level, this has aged rather well. Bare even.
• Batard Montrachet 2000 (Ramonet) Eggy and difficult. Probably a dodgy bottle. Seems pretty serious under it all.
• Barolo la Rocca e la Pira Riserva 1997 (Roagna) Fantastic again - I have had this before and didn't take many notes this time.
• Mystery Barolo 1995 Profoundly perfumed, deeply fruity, yet structured. Will be great. I have been asked not to identify this wine!
• Magma 2004 VA and VB (Cornelisson) Unfortunately I found both of these wines forbiddingly reductive, something I think I am more sensitive to than many. I suspect (like certain Barolos) that they would be pretty interesting after an hour or two open but I do not feel able to judge them at all except to say they are pretty unusual.
• Munjebel (Cornelisson) A blend of 2006 and 2007 apparently, reductive but less forbiddingly so. Interesting wine, quite unusual: the grower takes "natural winemaking" to extremes. I must say I feel a bit jaded by this sort of thing and I am not sure I have the patience to come to terms with it. That said, I'd like to try a bottle of this again. For now,
• Maximin Grunhaus Abtsberg Auslese 1999 Apricot, pineapple, quite tropical. Suprisingly airy - almost weightless.
• Graacher Himmelreich Auslese 1999 (W. Schaefer) Slightly sweeter, good density. Very good maturing Riesling. Top
• Niepoort 1980 Lovely pruney port, with the balance you expect from Niepoort. Lovely.

At D.L's 27/03/2010 (TNB)

• La Bota de Manzanilla Pasada - number 10 (Equipo Navazos) Tangy, quite salty, lovely fruit. I brought the remains of this home and it was delicious even 10 days later. Very good.
• Navazos-Niepoort 2008 Grapy, quite salty again, intense yet understated fruit. I tried this wine again a week later and in fact it has quite a presence of sherry flor character which was not noticeable after the previous wine. Something quite different - a strong
• Chablis Forchaume 1er cru 1990 (Duplessis) Honey and cream, ravishing mature Chablis. On this sort of form Duplessis is top class. Easy
• Meursault Clos de la Barre 1984 (Lafon) Shimmering gold, apricot fruit, quite maderised but in the best possible way. Top almost more.
• Champagne 1997 (Diebolt-Valois) Very mineral, taut, Cramant-style. Lovely freshness and none of the laxness of the vintage. Very strong.
• Langoa Barton 1981 Attractive cedary fragrant nose, but perhaps a touch light and drying a bit on the palate.
• Leoville Barton 1981 Far chunkier and more rounded. Less elegant, not beginning to tire like the Langoa, but also a touch less elegant.
• Malescot St Expury 1962 Bright (as 62's tend to be), deliciously fragrant with a smoky edge and old Bordeaux rose petal. Lovely.
• Niepoort 1970 Very nice and fresh, rounded , almost buttery with a hint of figs. Good length and it sits so pleasingly lightly on the palate.