Stuff from the last couple of weeks in no particular order...
2009 Éric Texier Côtes du Rhône Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud
Stunning once again. This needs about an hour of air to really start showing its best, but after that it's an incredibly seamless, fragrant Syrah with amazing depth and complexity.
2005 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 'Rotlay'
Wow. A spectrum of Riesling fruit ranging from riper tropical and peachy flavours to fresh apples and limes, combined with florality, spice, gentle honeyed elements and a vivid slatiness. It's a rich, powerful wine with plenty of sweetness, but there's incredible balance and persistence here, and a purity and clarity to the flavours that makes it very easy to drink. An amazing buy at $35 from CSW.
1983 Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Scharzhofberger Riesling Spätlese
Cork soaked all the way through. Comes across a little light and thin initially, but fills out with air as the fruit freshens up and it picks up complexity; lovely herbal and fresh spearminty notes over fresh pear fruit and lemon candy. Very understated and elegant, drinking at peak now.
2009 Jean Foillard Morgon Côte du Py
Closing down now. There's still polished, sappy fruit, but it doesn't have the same haunting aromatic complexity and depth that other bottles I had showed straight after release. Hands off.
2007 Weingut Ökonomierat Rebholz Spätburgunder "Tradition"
This starts out showing some pleasant primary red fruited flavours, but with a little air the oak takes over and obliterates anything else pleasurable here. Ugh.
2008 Friedrich Becker Pinot Noir
Comes across really disjointed and poorly balanced with a combination of very ripe red fruited flavours and unripe sour cranberry notes, shrill acidity beneath that never integrates into the wine with time and overall unpleasant and hard to drink. 0/2 on Pfalz Pinot Noir.
2005 Marcel Juge Cornas Cuvée C
Another nasty bottle reeking of diacetyl notes. Barely recognizable as wine, let alone Syrah.
2001 Louis Jadot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Estournelles-St.-Jacques
Lovely stuff; a beautiful scent combining ripe fruit, savoury earth, spice and a faint meatiness that leads into a palate full of polished, silken fruit and earth with fairly gentle tannins underneath and bright acidity. Fantastic depth and balance, this is drinking beautifully right now but has the structure and stuffing to suggest a long life ahead. Thanks David.
1997 Müller-Catoir Haardter Herrenletten Riesling Spätlese
Comes across fully mature with a bright gold colour and an aromatic profile that combines developed burnished and smoky flavour elements with ripe white fruits, orange peel and gingery spice. Quite rich and slightly creamy in the mouth, nicely balanced and finishing almost dry (11% alc). Lovely, though after this I'm looking for an occasion to open my '97 Burgergarten Spatlese trocken.
2008 François Chidaine Vouvray Le Bouchet
Phenomenal stuff combining pure yellow fruited flavours, minerality, touches of honey and beeswax in a seamless, incredibly polished package. There's a faint hint of sweetness here and really bright acids that keep it incredibly light, precise and focused throughout. Wow! Stupid value at about $25 from Crush, though I suspect I'll go through all my bottles by mid summer.