Recent notes:
2001 Markus Molitor Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Spatlese: I often choose a spatlese with some age to serve with food as the dry out just a bit with age and retain the character of the wine. This one had good colour and an excellent varietal nose, and was quite rich and full on palate with a lingering clean finish. Went well with a salad of sautéed pears with bacon.
1982 Marchesi di Barolo Barolo – dark Burgundy colour, and with cherry fruit and leather in the nose, this elderly Barolo was a very traditional style and opened nicely in the glass. Finished quite dry. Some nice earthy/mushroomy notes developed in the nose with time.
1990 Parusso Barolo Bussia – I still have the regulare and the Mariondino in this vintage so was interested to see how this would show. Much sweeter fruit in the nose, with cherries and spice, and a much less traditional presentation featuring sweet fruit and now softening tannins. Very nice showing.
2000 Ch. Pegau CNduP – and now for something completely different! A lovely attractive sweet spicy nose with some pepper and meat notes. On palate it showed soft tannins and was full and long. Initially the preferred wine of this pair.
2000 Clos des Papes CNduP – slightly heavier fruit in the otherwise similar nose, a tad leaner in the mouth at first, but then it opened up nicely and showed as a good mate to the Pegau, although I felt this one was a tad more simple. Very attractive now.
1988 Ch. Rieussec – (from half bottle) lots of amber colour here, and a bvutterscotch and burnt sugar nose that had them wondering what it was. Quite evolved and dark (full bottles probably have more time left) with interesting coffee and apricot flavours. Drink up.
I’ll add a couple of clarets I had a night later:
1989 Ch. St. Pierre – we wondered how this St. Julien would have held up, but it showed quite well with good dark colour, a pleasant claret nose with vanilla and black currant in the nose and smooth mature supple mouth feel. Good length, fully mature – drink uop. We spent an entertaining 5 minutes discussing when they changed the name of this by dropping the ‘Servaistre’, but in the end neither of us could remember so we moved on. We have similar contests about when the Cordier wines like Meyney and Talbot switched from the old style squat bottles to modern style, or what year Mouton Baronne Philippe changed its name to Armailhac (1991). FYI, it was after 1982 when Henri Martin (Ch. Gloria) bought both Servaistre and Bontemps that he reunited the two vineyards and revised the names.
1988 Ch. Batailley – this Pauillac has always been a fave of ime, though it often gets little press (which is good as far as pricing goes). It was darker and showed some nice cocoa notes in the nose as well as anticipated earth, cedar and currant. It is drinking very well now for this often slightly austere vintage, and on reflection I have to award the prize for (slightly) best wine to this one.
