2005 Pascal COTAT La Grande Cote Beautiful wine, rich fruit on a slender but firm spine, bright, snappy minerality and acidity but incredibly smooth finish. Worth the $40. I'd buy more if I could afford it.
2000 Renee & Vincent Dauvissat Les Preuses Frankly, a disappointment even though Earl had nothing to do with it. This was the last of a case. The first three I wasted having opened them too soon after release and they were ungiving. The next eight were off the charts incredible. This one is tired, the cork was soaked and the initial stages of oxidisation are most probably to blame though the color is true. Eh.
2000 Beau Soleil, Pomerol A beast! Much bigger wine than I expected, I mean bigger as in firmly structured, well endowed but friendly tannins and plenty of hidden dark fruit. There's a touch of brown sugar on the nose but that does not translate into anything over the top in the wine itself. I thought this "lesser" Pom might be approaching drinkability but now I'm convinced this can go a long time. I won't try another for at least five more years.
1999 Hubert Lignier Morey-St-Denis 1er Cru Les Chaffots Had this wonderful wine with yesterdays' ham and it was singing. I'd left it open in the cellar for about four hours beforehand. Maybe I'm being influenced by the surroundings, but this seemed to a Christmas spice nose, complex spiced palate with loads of red and black fruit, no real secondary development but certainly not primary. Open and generous wine.
Kevin