2007 Huët Vouvray Demi-Sec Le Haut-Lieu
A friend's bottle this time, still the same pleasure with impeccable balance, fantastic depth and complexity and gentle, understated flavours that slowly unravel with each sip. Wonderful.
2007 Zind-Humbrecht Muscat Goldert
Pretty aromatics of flowers and spice over ripe white fruited flavours, but it's a little blowsy and viscous in the mouth, lacking acidity and finishing a bit hot. Eh. (Yixin says 'not bad for a Zind-Humbrecht'.)
2006 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Romanée
A seamless combination of ripe citrus and white fruited flavours, chalky minerals, gentle hazelnut, vanilla and herbal notes in a very polished, medium weight package. This is as much about texture as it is about flavour with an expansive, satiny mouthfeel and nice acids beneath. Really impressive.
1988 R. López de Heredia Rioja Reserva Viña Tondonia
Drinking beautifully, combining fresh quince and citrus fruit flavours with savoury nutty, smoky, herbal and waxy flavour elements - incredibly complex and layered with a gentle, faintly creamy texture and impressive length. Delicious.
1996 Château Beausejour (Duffau Lagarrosse)
Ack! What happened here? First impression's quite nice; earth and herbs on the nose with some red fruit underneath - but after the first sip it immediately heads downhill as the fruit takes on a strange tinned, metallic quality until it eventually tastes like canned tomato essence.
2001 Château L'Eglise-Clinet (Pomerol)
Very rich, full of dark berried and plummy fruit with more than a touch of oak. There's a sense of coiled power here with plenty of extract and firm tannins, and this finishes with a slight cedary bitterness on the back end. Not too bad (certainly not as woody/heavy as I'd feared), but not particularly interesting either.
2007 Cullen Wines Diana Madeline (Margaret River)
A baby right now, packed with rich, slightly sweet Cabernet fruit elegantly framed by touches of oak and floral accents. There's plenty of ripeness and stuffing here, but it's very nicely balanced with chewy tannins beneath the plush fruit and good acidity giving it a sense of freshness. I'd love to taste this a decade or so from now.
2009 Crabtree Watervale Riesling (South Australia)
Dilute and boring, with gentle lemony fruit and very little else.
2001 Chateau Musar
My first taste of Musar, and if this is anything to go by, I need some of this in my cellar! This is awesome stuff; a kaleidoscope of flavour with all sorts of wild floral, earthy and funky elements over fresh red fruits and touches of olive and fig. Very finessed and elegant, medium weight in the mouth with really bright acidity keeping it fresh and precise. Yum.
2006 Yabby Lake Vineyard Pinot Noir (Mornington Peninsula, Victoria)
Very much a one-note wine with bright, fresh red fruited flavours and not much else going on. Tasty enough and certainly quite well balanced and refreshing with a nice acid spine, but there's nothing here to hold interest after a few sips.
2006 Michel & Stéphane Ogier Côte-Rôtie
I've heard quite a few horror stories about oaked up Ogiers, but there's nothing untoward about this - pretty aromatics of red fruits and plums accented with violet and spicy notes and gentle touches of oak in the background. Medium weight in the mouth with a spine of grainy tannins and bright acids beneath the fruit, only finishing a little short. Not too bad, aside from the price which is a joke.
