William Fèvre Chablis Le Clos 2007
Thanks to Asher. Pale gold. Ripe straw and lime, green melon, soft spice, a suggestion of crustacea. Soft grey peppery minerality. Quite finesseful. Nicely fresh herbs with airing. Round ripe acidity. Good medium-plus body. Fèvre’s wines virtually always lack the definition and depth of some of my favourite white Burgundies, but this is thoroughly ripe, nicely expressive, lively, quite racy, and so tasty we drank the whole bottle – in addition to the red! Rating: 94
Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle 1997
Less powerful than the best bottles I have had of the 1997 (inexplicably, it seems as if there were at least two different lots, ranging from one which is a bit ageless, consistently lighter in colour, with a minor bitterness to the tannin, as if more filtered/stripped, to one that would put the 1997 into the top ten if it were the norm – this may have been a more forward, possibly a bit more warmly stored example of the latter), but as expressive as any, beautiful aromatically, as well as in terms of complexity and depth. Lightly glossy, ruby-red-black, more than usual orange at the rim. Smoky rusty iron and minerality. “Strawberry-rhubarb”, Asher said. Complex fruit, earth, woodear mushroom. Pepper. Black tea tannin, barely rustic. Nice acids. Barely sweaty at all. Feminine but intense Syrah, with wonderful, typical Hermitage expression. Sweeter and smoother, a little nuttier with airing, with a hint of mocha. Warming, plummier, soft blood orange, olive tapenade. Drinking extremely well from the moment the cork was pulled, gorgeous in fact, but starting to oxidize after three hours – by which time we finished off the last few drops. Wow! Rating: 94-/93
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti