Hi everyone, I thought it worth sharing notes on a tip top set of wines with dinner on Saturday night:
93 Zilliken Saarburger Rausch Spatlese: What an excellent aperitif this is. Juicy acids do exactly the job required, and being from an age past where acids were greener than now really helps. Racy limes oranges, unripe pineapple and passionfruit with some petrol notes. Long and laserlike. Lovely start.
06 Louis Carillon Puligny Montrachet 1er Champ-Canet: Served at room temperature. Matchstick and sulphur at the beginning. Cashews melon and peach are the palate entry. Its taut and has great presence. Vanilla and lemon elements join a savoury finish where the well judged oak becomes more evident. Lovely ? give it time for the sulphur to blow off.
95 Jean Boillot et Fils Volnay 1er les Fremiets: Served Blind. This opened volatile and hessian like, and for the briefest moment I wondered about TCA. Not to be ? some stewed plums and soy sauce emerge first. This is at the end of its life so fruit flavours are hard to distinguish, but the the acid profile says Pinot Noir and the tannic structure and fruit weight say burgundy. Volatile, and reflecting its year.
99 Hubert Lignier Morey St Denis 1er les Chaffots: Wow. I don?t drink 99?s very often, and if they are all like this, with good reason. It still needs years to come together! Rich and powerful, very primary in its fruit. Some aged scents on the nose, but all primary forest berries on the palate. This is elemental and not yet well integrated, and texturally not silky but richer ? perhaps buttery. Leave for a long sleep.
Mystery wine: For reasons that become apparent in a few lines, I?ll describe the wine first as i saw it before it was unmasked, and then reveal its identity. The nose on this is lifted and extremely pretty. I got violets initially on the nose (but no one else did) then raspberry, vanilla and honeycomb which might be an oak nuance. Airtime brings deeper purple berry fruit and nicely judged slightly nutty oak. Finely but powerfully tannic. The fruit here is intense dense and powerful as well. Nice package. Me likey. Joy and bliss here in the glass. And the reason why a usually cautious blind note is so positive? The wine is the 07 Comte de Vogue Musigny. Respect.
01 Mugneret Gibourg Ruchottes Chambertin: More grand cru Burgundy?but not served blind this time. Densely coloured rich ripe red berry nose. Raspberry and cream palate. Lovely structure. Subtly tannic slightly nutty oak. Silky texture, but slight acid poking out.
05 Denis Mortet Gevrey Chambertin 1er: Plum, forest floor and black fruit along with some attractive perfumed elements. Bright and polished and almost prickly/spritzy when served. At the same time this is a m?lange of berries, fine tannin and elegance. A lovely pure, fresh fruit driven wine in the end. Very tasty.
06 JJ Christoffel Urziger Wurzgarten Auslese***: Golden colour apricot and ripe orange nose. Palate is similar with vanilla, brown spices and apricot marmalade. Acids are all in the right place but this has a powdery texture and is disappointingly short . Big botrytis and toast. Bugger.
04 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett: Straight after the sweet botrytised Christoffel this was hard going but everyone was still thirsty. Heavily sulphured - haven?t noticed this so much on other bottles, although it is the Prum way. Also tight and unyielding, less advanced than earlier bottles of this. Be patient with Prum?
Sipping the leftover JJ Prum the next day, and its tight lemony florals tell of a long life ahead of it and leaves me wondering why I keep drinking these.
Cheers
Andrew