Highlights/standouts from the past few weeks with some good drinking with friends and visiting family.
2006 Weingut Keller Dalsheimer Hubacker Riesling Großes Gewächs
This is quite a powerhouse; packed with grapefruit, apple and riper melon fruit with saline and slightly sweaty/funky accents. Lots of depth and power, but it's well balanced with bright acids and impressive length. One of the better GGs I've had from Keller.
2007 Dönnhoff Norheimer Dellchen Riesling Großes Gewächs
Surprisingly opulent and tropical for a Dellchen, full of bright grapefruit, peach and pear flavours seasoned with spicy and floral elements. There's impressive depth and length, though it finishes a touch warm.
2004 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape
A little tight and blocky initially, but opens beautifully with air to show a beautiful perfume of raspberry and cherry fruit seasoned with Provencal herbs and a savoury earthiness. There's a sense of power and restraint here, superb balance and the stuffing and structure to suggest plenty of time ahead.
2006 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas
Really good. Still quite primary and showing lots of youthful Syrah fruit, but with air floral, peppery and slightly meaty nuances develop. Quite dense and chewy with plenty of tannin and weight, enjoyable now but needs a lot more time.
2008 Thierry Allemand Cornas Chaillot
Amazing stuff. A seamless combination of violets, freshly ground black pepper, meat, black olives and fresh red fruits; incredibly aromatic with a scent that's hard to move away from and a light, finessed palate presence like a top Burgundy. There's superb balance with a sense of real polish and a finish that just stays. Wow!
2007 Château de Myrat
Really impressive, one of the best young Sauternes I've had. It's packed with luscious, exuberant tropical fruits drenched in honey, vanilla and floral notes, but at the same time there's a sense of freshness and lightness I've rarely found in Sauternes with really good acidity and each sip inviting another.
1979 Cordero di Montezemolo Barolo Monfalletto
Light red in colour and bricking at the rim; this is lovely - a beautiful scent with mature red fruits, developed forestal earthy notes, black tea and leathery elements combining into a wonderful fragrance; elegant and resolved with lots of depth and complexity and barely any sensation of weight. Superb.
1986 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Estate
Packed with black cherry, sandalwood and cedary notes; still very youthful with lots of fruit, plenty of tannin but superb balance and depth. Lots of tannin still left, but this has the stuffing and balance to age a lot, lot longer.
1990 Château La Fleur de Gay
A wow from the aromatics alone; a beautiful scent combining leather, pipe tobacco, cedar and mature red and dark fruited flavours. Polished, mature and elegant; great stuff.
1990 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron
Comes across feeling younger and more tannic than the other '90 Bdx. Full of leather and dark fruits with some cedar/graphite accents, but it's quite tannic and structured at first. With time it becomes more accessible, unravelling layer after layer with air and conveying flavour with a sense of power, restraint and superb balance.
1990 Château Pape Clément
Very savoury and dominated by graphite/pencil-lead like flavours at first; with time the fruit deepens and it turns more smoky, unravelling more layers and showing more depth with air. Fantastic.
1990 Château Léoville Las Cases
This is the complete package; leather, pencil lead, cigar smoke, cassis and red fruits all combining seamlessly into a fantastic, full bodied and superbly balanced whole. Drinking beautifully right now with plenty of fruit framed by mature, developed flavours, and most of the tannins resolved giving this a very polished, silken texture. Amazing wine that's hard to do justice to in words. WOW! will have to suffice here.
2010 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine L'Arpent Rouge
A lovely combination of fresh strawberry and raspberry fruit, savoury mushroomy notes and damp earth with gentle floral accents emerging with more time. Has the classic CRB sense of lightness and refreshment and a bottle disappears very quickly.
2009 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling 'Rotlay'
Another year, another great Rotlay. A spectrum of bright fruit, ranging from riper tropical flavours to more classical Mosel apple and lime, combining seamlessly with florality, honeyed elements and a vivid slatiness. Rich, sweet but superbly balanced with bright acids; fantastic balance and length. Great wine[/b]
2005 Patrick Lambert Chinon Vieilles Vignes
New Chinon producer for me. Lovely stuff, bright red fruits and cassis seasoned with forestal greenery, a touch of bell pepper and savoury earth; medium weight and well structured with grainy tannins and bright acidity beneath. Great value, I need to get more of this.
2010 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Rosé
Another great bottle. Bright raspberry and strawberry fruit, minerals, salinity, incredible lightness and refreshment value. Is there a better rosé?
2005 Schlossgut Diel Scheurebe Spätlese
Well, well - this was pretty unimpressive and blocky about a year ago with little to no distinctive Scheurebe character. Either it's really changed in a year, or that was a really off bottle as this is just outrageous - exotic and wild; a mango, pink grapefruit and sage-laden powerhouse with plenty of richness and sweetness matched by bright acids, and phenomenal length. Fantastic.
2002 St. Urbans-Hof Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese
Textbook Mosel Spätlese. A basket of orchard fruits combined with slate, florality and faint floral notes with a touch of sulfur that blows off after some air. Light on its feet with moderate sweetness, bracing acids and superb balance and refreshment value.
2001 Müller-Catoir Haardter Mandelring Scheurebe Spätlese
A little green at first, dominated by high-toned herbal elements over green mango and guava fruit, but with time the fruit flavours deepen and the herbal aspects take a step back as this becomes much more enjoyable. Rich, lusciously sweet and beautifully balanced with lots of depth and length, fantastic again though not as exuberantly tropical as it can be. Great with chicken korma.
2009 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Auslese
This is outstanding Riesling; layered, impeccably balanced and conveying amazing depth of flavour with a degree of clarity and purity that few wines ever show.
