Fine Wine Diary

With RJB in Cambridge 29/09/2002 (TNB)

Nuits St George 1er Cru Clos des Forets 1990 (Domaine d'Arlot) Plumskin Pinot with a bit of cooked fruit on the finish. Plausible Burgundy, but not so remarkable, particularly given the vintage. Scrapes
Cabernet Sauvignon 1986 (Moss Wood) Leafy, cigar-boxy old Cabernet - recognizably New World but decent for its age. A sulpherous stink becomes (oddly) more noticable the longer its open.
Chassagne Les Embrazees 1992 (B.Morey) Custard powder character with an impression of slightly faded fruit - not bad but not as good as I remember my last bottle of this wine. I suppose 92 is not a long-lived vintage.

Tasting notes added to Fine Wine Diary 29/09/2002 Return to top

Wine group at my place 29/09/2002 (TNB)

Brief notes because I was cooking too.

Champagne 1982 (A. Gratien) Evolved character but fine and long. Scrapes
Champagne Ponsardin 1982 (Veuve Cliquot) Younger seeming but perhaps less fine than the Gratien - substantial wine.
Vouvray 1989 (Chateau Gaudrelle) Quite sweet (probably the vintage), archetypical Vouvray. Bare
Vouvray Le Haut Lieu demi-sec 1989 (Huet) Fine and rich, sweet like the previous wine (again the vintage, I guess) but with a little more depth. Top
Vouvray Clos Naudin demi-sec 1985 (Foreau) Quite dry, austere, hard to taste after the rich 89s but good.
Semillon 1989 (Henschke) Kerosene like a riesling almost - intense and rather interesting.
Nuits St George Les Damodes 1985 (Machard de Gramont) Dry, meaty, tannic. Good.
Clos de Ruchottes 1985 (Rousseau) Oldish looking (sirprisingly evolved perhaps for a top wine), fine, irony mineral character.
La Tour de Pin Figeac Moueix 1985 Sound, round, berry-flavoured - about what one might hope.
Chateau Canon 1985 A bit of extra class here - deep fruitcake fruit. Has time in hand but probably won't get a lot better.
La Tour de Pin Figeac Moueix 1970 Quite a drinkable old wine if perhaps a little past its best. Like a number of wines from this vintage it has not eased up and remains a bit awkward and austere. Good
Cadet Piola 1985 High-toned, nice fruit, drinking pleasantly. From a magnum.
Shiraz, Mount Edelstone 1988 (Henschke) Sweet, scented, a bit of Australian eucalyptus, rather soft and cloying. Good in a certain way (and it has aged gracefully), but a bit disappointing. A bare
Bastor Lamontagne 1988 For drinking - bags of botrytis - everything one could hope for from this reliable minor property.
Rabaud Promis 1988 Fruity - less obvious than the previous wine - finer and with a way to go. Top
Vouvray demi-sec sparkling Clos Naudin 1983 (Foreau) Grassy, rich, in really good condition. Lovely with strawberries. Top
Ferreira 1977 Two bottles, one dissapointing with tangeringe flavours and rather soft but not obviously faulty, the second clearly better with firmer fruit and chocolate character. For the better bottle: (the other two stars only)

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Gang of Six Gewurz., Pinot Gris and Southern Rhone tasting 23/09/2002 (RJB)

Rangen Tokay 1990 (Zind-Humbrecht) Some age and with a penicillin capsule nose. Touch of sweetness. maybe
Clos du Capucins Tokay Pinot Gris 1998 (Weinbach) Sweet and young tasting (not surprisingly). I thought this Gewurztraminer - the fragrance and weight seemingly coming from that grape variety. Just
Hengst Tokay SGN 1994 (Albert Mann) 50cl bottle. Deep colour and a lovely sweet nose. Dried apricots and (good) varnish flavours. Excellent.
Gewurztraminer SGN 1989 (Rolly Gassmann) Half bottle. Deader than the Mann wine above. Sweet, but with the sweetness out of balance.
Clos du Capucins Gewurztraminer 1992 (Weinbach) Dry Gewurztraminer - thin and lacking complexity. Too old?
Tokay Pinot Gris Vielles Vignes 1989 (Zind-Humbrecht) Full and with some buttery age. Good balanced finish. plus
Tokay Pinot Gris 2000 (Albert Boxler) Sweetish wine but not great complexity - although this may be hidden by its youth. perhaps
Chateaunef-du-Pape 1989 (Domaine du Pegau) Age showing through, Dry at the finish. Not showing anywhere close to as good as other recent bottles of this.
Garnacha 2001 (Burge Family Winemakers) The highest scoring wine of the evening, but not for me. Big liquorice stuff that's very obviously new world. Almost big Pinot in nature.
Les Caillou Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1990 A touch volatile - disappointing on the night. Fading. and slipping
Cuvee Valbelle Gigondas 1998 (Chateau Saint Cosme) A fairly modern style (I thought it was possibly New World). Classily made, but not my style of Gigondas.
Blewitt Springs Old Vine Grenache 1996 (Clarendon Hills) Big late harvest style wine - too sweet for balance perhaps. I scored it lower than anyone else, and maybe on another day I would have given it more. but at a Chateauneuf (or similar) tasting it wasn't the style of wine I was looking for. Borderline
Cuvee Laurence Reserve Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1990 (Domaine du Pegau) I brought the other Pegau wine to this tasting, and thought that this was probably it. But this really wasn't showing as a together wine. And I didn't rate it highly. Again disappointing. perhaps
Chateauneuf du Pape 1986 (Chateau de Beaucastel) Good balanced gently maturing wine. Slightly metallic and with leathery overtones. Not truly great, but pretty good stuff. Is this going to surprise in the longer term? Scrapes
Les Caillou Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1993 Dead coffee grounds. Perhaps a touch harsh, but ... maximum

Tasting notes added to Fine Wine Diary 23/09/2002 Return to top

An Oddbins Fine Wine tasting 21/09/2002 (TNB)

Savigny Les Vermots Dessus 1999 (Baron de La Charriere/Girardin) Clean. Nutty hints. Very marked acidity. Orchard fruits. Good length. A decent white Burgundy at a reasonable price.
Chassagne Montrache Chenevottes 2000 (Borgeot) Richer oaky nose. Hefty style. A little less on the palate than the last wine. Drink soonish.
Rully 2000 (Borgeot) Slightly barnyard - possibly sulphur is subduing the fruit. Pineapple juice. Lower acidity. A shade short. Top
Meursault 2000 (Mestre) Fruit overpowered a bit by vanilla/toffeed oak. There's a bit of oily hazelnut hiding within. Not very French.
Saint-Romain Sous Chateau 2000 (Baron de La Charriere/Girardin) Complex - straw in Summer - perfumed nose. Very forward and a bit flabby. Slightly short finish. Not bad but I prefer the Savigny.
Pesquera 1999 Huge in-your-face cherry nose with a lot of tofee on top. Dense fruit. Nice structure, if with a fairly "modern" balance. Top
Chateau Lafite 1999 Slightly charred, burnt almost - excessively toasted oak? Dry and classy I guess - I didn't like this much at all and nobody else raved about it blind although not all were as negative as I was. It's just too much toast to my mind: possibly this will be brilliant in a few years but I have my doubts.
Tarsus 98 Lifted cherry. Creamy tropical fruit - is it too much? Not so long perhpas. Fun in its way. Decent
Pesguera Reserva 1998 Raisins, cedar and a hint of forrest floor. Dryish palate. Meaty, savoury, herby, stylish. A very pleasant surprise to see what this was.
La Mission Haut Brion 1999 Spicy berries, raspberry, scented. Dry palate, graphite (somebody said). I think the length is there and it will improve. Better than the Lafite in my view at the moment.

Tasting notes added to Fine Wine Diary 21/09/2002 Return to top

At J.M.'s 16/09/2002 (TNB)

Chassagne Montrachet Morgeot 1992 (B. Morey) Toffee and mothballs. Refined, tending a touch to blowsy perhaps. Shows more age as it sits in the glass. Fairly evolved. Drink up. Possibly scrapes if drunk reasonably soon after opening!
Chassagne Montrachet Caillerets 1992 (Jadot) A touch eggy. Better acidity than the Morey, longer, but a bit awkward with an unattractive finish. Dubious
Chassagne Montrachet Ruchottes 1992 (Ramonet) A bit green-pea, touch of ginger. Quite high-toned. Long, classy - it may even develop interestingly although it might be safer to drink it reasonably soon.
Chassagne Montrachet Champgains 1992 (Neillon) Much less flash than the Ramonet, fine understated Burgundy with a hint of that lovely creamy texture Neillon often has.
Chateaux des Trois Chardons 1998 Berryish fruit - a fair amount of merlot apparent (about 40 per cent when I looked it up later). Old-fashioned, quite high-toned. Fragrant. Good
Chateau Rouget 1998 Smoky (slightly burnt even), savoury, richly fruity, modern. The more I tried this, the more the charred wood notes dominated and the less I liked it. Others rated it rather higher!
Chateaux des Trois Chardons 1997 Slightly minty, leafy, high-toned fruit. Suave in a way. I find the style of this, or perhaps its current stage of evolution, a bit difficult - but perhaps one should just say it is a good try at making an interesting wine from a lesser vintage.
Chateaux des Trois Chardons 1994 Pleasantly rounded maturing claret. This bottle had been open overnight but was still rather fine.
Chateauneuf du Pape Bernadine 1990 (Chapoutier) Gamey. Sweet edge. Rustic. Old style Chapoutier, perhaps no better than the new, but possibly more interesting.
Chateauneuf du Pape Rouge 1983 (Beaucastel) Oranging colour - quite moderate weight of attractively textured fruit. I was surprised how Burgundian this was. Very nice.
Shiraz 1986 (Chateau Tahbilk) Jammy and almost gritty in the mouth (like good Parmesan). In great condition too, I wonder if it is still going anywhere? A good

Tasting notes added to Fine Wine Diary 16/09/2002 Return to top

A few recent Spanish wines 16/09/2002 (TNB)

Fino Sherry Pando (Williams and Humbert) Savoury, salty, appetising. Amazing what 6.99 buys you in Sherry still.
Manzanilla Pasada - Pastrana (Hidalgo) Fresh and yeasty, fruity undertones and a hint of pepper. Nice complexity and length in the mouth, dry and savoury, salty. You can get a lot of quality from sherry for less than a tenner. An easy
Rioja Reserva Vina Ardanza 1995 (La Rioja Alta) Soft vanilla, mellow, quite evolved but probably just because of its large cask aging - I expect it will hold in this attractive, drinkable state for a good few years.
Rioja Gran Reserva Prado Enea 1994 (Muga) Moderate depth of colour and hints of orange (typical of long wood aging - this was bottles in 98). At first mainly rustic, gamey notes but as it opens up hints of spices and coffee and a solid meatyness emerge. On the palate, ripe mulberry fruit and that underlay of mild, warm vanilla that ought to give good traditional Rioja away in blind tastings every time (but doesn't). Nice complexity, good acidity and a long finish. Drinkanble now but it will improve with a while in bottle I feel. I bought a few of these on the basis that it was a good property in a good vintage and I don't regret it. Probably scrapes a
Rioja Reserva 1998 (Marques de Riscal) Ripe, soft mulberry fruit. Nutty. Seems to finish a bit hot and lacks a little focus, perhaps because it was tasted a bit too warm. Might be more but for now

Tasting notes added to Fine Wine Diary 16/09/2002 Return to top

Dinner at LJM's in Edinburgh 09/09/2002 (TNB)

Chablis Blanchot 1991 (Raveneau) Fine, nutty, marzipan, oily almost in a nice way. Good length. Lovely.
Hermitage blanc 1991 (Chave) Stunning nose - herbs, creamy - fantastic, complex, very fine. Mineral.
Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain 1992 (La Jota) Quite chunky, European-styled, dry, tannic. I wonder where its going?
Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1982 (Joseph Swan) Very minty, classy mint but mint all the same! Still fresh but awkward. Good
Chateau Cap de Mourlin 1990 This St Emilion is a bit of a soft toffee job.
Chateau Magdelaine 1978 Dry mineral, classic claret. Savoury. Top
Chateau Lascombes 1961 Completely oxidised. The cork seemed weak and loose so perhaps not a surprise.
Quarts de Chaume 1986 (Baumard) Grassy. Quite dry now on the palate . Nice mature dessert Chenin.
Tokaji Aszu 5 Put 1993 (Disznoko) Luxurious, orangy, very high acid. Again quite a dry palate impression.
Smith Woodhouse 1977 Very easy drinking - bags of fruit and chocolate. Relatively forward - but doubtless there is no greathurry to drink this.

Tasting notes added to Fine Wine Diary 09/09/2002 Return to top

Guigal 09/09/2002 (RJB)

Cotes-du-Rhone Blanc 2000 (Guigal) Custardy with length and floral overtones.
Saint Joseph Blanc 2000 (Guigal) Goodish white Rhone wine with stony mineral flavours.
Condrieu 2000 (Guigal) Lightness on the palate which opens up with time to reveal white fruits. A touch heavy on the alcohol at the end.
Hermitage Blanc 1998 (Guigal) Fading floral tones being replaced by the nuttiness of early maturity.
Cotes-du-Rhone 1999 (Guigal) Slight cardboard on the nose and lighter than I remember the 1998 being. just perhaps
Crozes Hermitage 2000 (Guigal) High toned, and light. Strange for a Crozes.
Saint Joseph 1999 (Guigal) Fragrant fruit, medium bodied. Needs some time.
Gigondas 1999 (Guigal) Light wine again - surprisingly so. Not the depth or guts one might expect.
Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1999 (Guigal) More weight to this wine, but some stalkiness.
Hermitage 1998 (Guigal) Rosemary on the nose and alcohol. The best red so far with some hints of structure for age.
Cote Rotie Brune et Blonde 1999 (Guigal) Slight stalkiness, but seemingly good tannins. Not the Guigal style of old. Not that convincing.