Notes from a wine dinner:
1998 Pol Roger Brut – good mousse, sweet yeasty nose with apple notes, mellow dry finish. Served with smoked salmon and cream cheese ‘boats’ (endive spears)
1999 Dom. Weinbach Schlossberg l’Inedit Cuve Ste Catherine Riesling – now showing significant colour, the nose with some petrol, but that wasn’t the primary note, which was more pear and lychee. Long silky finish, excellent concentration. With habitant ham and pea soup.
1990 Moulin Touchais Coteaux de Layon – these white wines seem to be immortal – I’ve had them well over 50 years old and they were delightful. This one showed some colour, had a citrus honey nose with floral elements and was very smooth across the tongue, finishing much more dry than I suspect the actual RS would make one expect (as did the previous wine). With foie gras salad.
1993 Ch. Musar – in great shape with both the colour and nose of a pinto despite having no pinot content (they are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cinsault and Carignan). Lots of acidity, and a nice long crisp finish. A good match for the fettucine Provencale.
1988 Solaia – this Antinori wine is, in a sense, the obverse of Tignanello, as it has about 75% cab (sauv and franc) and 25% sangio, while the percentages are reversed with Tig. I made the mistake of tasting the last ones I opened along side some Sassicia, and that wine killed it, handily winning the Itali-cab sweepstakes. This time we did two vintages of Solaia together with much better results. the 88 was getting light at the edges, had a dark cherry nose, a bit of tannin, and good balance, being the more elegant of the two. Interestingly, with time in the glass, the two wines first became closer together in nature, and finally the 88 started to fade a bit while the 90 just kept on going.
1990 Solaia – very slightly darker wine, with a riper nose with hints of tobacco and cedar, more flavour concentration, lusher and with more endurance. Both were very good and accompanied the osso bucco very nicely.
1989 Ch. Guiraud – we have tasted this pairing of Sauternes on at least six occasions side by side and this was the past pairing our hosts had. This wine started out with a lemon coconut nose, but added interesting orange notes as it opened up. It was rich in the mouth, only medium sweet and I had a slight preference for this over the next wine (we’ve gone back and forth as to which wine won a particular tasting, many times, with the Guiraud on top, then it reversed, and now it has switched back again).
1989 Ch. Suduiraut – less coconut on this nose, the colour equally as dark as the Guiraud, and this time around with a more apricot nose than orange. Sweeter and also quite well balanced, so nothing to choose between them in that respect, it was the slightly dryer finish that won me over in favour of the Guiraud. Otherwise, either is a delight.
Served with a not very sweet pecan tart, much better than a treacly sweet version with the wines (or any other time, IMHO).
Great bunch of wines.