by Bill Spohn » Sun Jan 28, 2018 4:37 pm
My notes:
2015 Bouchard Père et Fils Pouilly-Fuissé - some colour, and an initially very Chablis nose, but with time it opened up to show more richness so we started thinking about a different area and ended up in the right spot. It seemed a tad lean on palate as well (probably too cold) but also opened up with time and showed some nice good stone fruit and citrus notes. Medium length.
2005 Vincent Girardin Charmes-Chambertin - medium colour, very good varietal fruit and tasty in the mouth with clean finish
2001 Concha y Toro Cabernet Sauvignon Don Melchor - medium to dark colour, some very nice fruit, mostly dark fruit in the nose, and that carried through in the mouth. Very nice wine. No rush
1958 Enrico Serafino Barolo - glad I was there to at least try this, but the wine was pretty much toast - an odd cheesy nose, and little fruit and all acidity. Not offensive, but nothing noteworthy either.
2001 Ornellaia - a ripe, sweet nose with some mint, plum and cedar notes, significant soft tannin that didn't really get in the way of enjoying the wine, but it needs time.
1990 Rocca delle Macìe Ser Gioveto - nic medium colour after all the dark wines, Nose of muted mature fruit, not very expressive, some decent initial fruit on palate but that faded away with a bit of time in the glass. Past it's prime.
2009 Averhoff Estate Cabernet - hard to get all the info off this label as it was partly in Greek! Dark concentrated wine with significant tannins. Good and almost impossible to peg to Greece!
2012 Wind Gap Wines Syrah (Sonoma) - dark wine with a lifted Syrah nose of red fruit, not too ripe, and quite enjoyable. A surprise.
2004 Bodega Numanthia (Toro) -- dark wine with a sweet nose of dark fruit and American oak, with some almost Rhone notes, good mouth feel and a smooth long finish. Quite good.
1998 Yalumba The Menzies Cabernet - this Coonawara cab nicely avoided the overdone ripeness of some 98s and showed some nice dark fruit and mocha notes and a smooth finish with lots of soft tannins. No rush but nice now.
2004 Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle - medium colour but an odd almost asparagus element in the nose threw me off and the fact that it started well in the mouth but swiftly narrowed on palate wasn't a good sign either. It did improve a bit with time but there was something not right about this bottle.
1985 Grahams Port - I correctly got the vintage. Colour is starting to get a bit pale, the nose was very good with lots of ripe fruit , a tad hot and not as sweet as many Grahams are. Lots of ripe fruit in the mouth and some nutty elements - walnut, marzipan, and some ripe fig. Long finish with softening tannins, this seems to be nearing optimum drinking, or at least the start of that period.