2004 Alzinger Riesling Smaragd Loibner Steinertal
I've posted several praise-filled notes on this; this bottle's no different. Awesome, stony, smoky and perfectly balanced with fantastic depth and precision.
2002 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett
Wonderful stuff; elegant pear and apple fruit over stone and gentle smoky notes with a sense of calm and gentleness. Drinking absolutely beautifully right now with a great mix of youthful fruit and the start of developing flavours.
2008 Weingut Robert Weil Riesling Spätlese
Much more impressive than the last time I had it with fresh, vibrant peach, citrus and pear fruit around a core of intense minerality. There's fantastic acidity here that keeps it very bright and racy. Delicious!
2007 Huët Vouvray Demi-Sec Le Haut-Lieu
Stunning wine. Not one of those that wows you with the first sip, it's reticent at first but slowly evolves and opens to show an incredible fragrance combining quince and pear fruit with floral, beeswax, earthy and faintly wooly notes. There's an incredibly polished, glossy texture, incredible depth of flavour conveyed with barely any sensation of weight and by the end of the bottle I was making sure I had more of this.
2002 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage Blanc
Quite developed aromatics with floral and waxy notes on top of rich white fruits and faint medicinal notes. Round and medium bodied in the mouth, a bit soft and lacking a little in acidity and precision, but showing ripe peach and apricot fruit combined with honeyed and earthy elements with a surprising savoury black tea-like element emerging on the back end. Really nice, though certainly won't win any QPR awards.
2008 Marcarini Langhe Nebbiolo Lasarin
This however will. Stupid good value for the money; violet and rose petal scented cherries with savoury tarry and earthy notes beneath, nicely structured with bright acids and plenty of firm grained tannins on the back end but it's surprisingly approachable now and I am glad there's more.
2006 Clonakilla Shiraz - Viognier
My first taste of Clonakilla and it certainly lives up to the hype I've read for these wines. A wow wine from the aromatics alone which combine all sorts of exotic gingery, clove, anise and violet-like floral scents with fresh plums and red fruits. Very polished and finessed in the mouth, matching power with a sense of grace - the fruit's certainly quite ripe and unashamedly new world in style, but it's very sophisticated with a glossy texture, bright acids and fantastic length.