1999 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne
Lazy bead, dissipating quickly after pouring. A fairly open nose of apple, lime, lemon and strawberry. The palate is dilute, with a bit of flavour initially that falls away on the mid-palate, leading to a bland, watery finish. Unstructured on the palate and very disappointing.
84/100
1998 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne
A much more vigorous bead on this. The nose shows some toast, lime, peach, smoke and perfumed floral aromas. Palate is medium weighted with good flavour. Open and approachable, but still showing restraint and elegance. Very enjoyable now and much better than the last bottle had at Mark and Hawk's birthday.
92/100
1996 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne
Corked. :\
NR/100
1990 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne
Slow, very fine bead. Light golden colour. Toasty nose, as well as caramel, raspberry, a bit of oak and a touch of ground coffee. The palate is mature, with a touch of honeyed sweetness along the length of the wine. Excellent, but this bottle was looking very developed for its vintage and it really needed to be drunk now.
93/100
1985 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne
Youthful appearance and in fact it was a lighter colour than the 1990. A great nose of citrus peel, apple pie/freshly baked pastry, vanilla and honey. The palate is delicious, with elegant flavours and really clean, fresh acid carrying the wine to a long finish. A top class wine that will continue improving in bottle.
94/100
1982 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne
The nose starts off shyly and a little bit flat, but given the chance to breath, it blossomed - with swirling aromas of honey, butterscotch, caramel, apricot and coffee. The palate also benefited from a chance to breath, taking on increased weight while maintaining a certain delicate charm the entire time. Great length and a creamy mouthfeel complete the package. Brilliant stuff!
96/100
1980 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne
Only a very slight bead. Mid-golden colour. Aromas of caramel, toffee, chocolate and a tobacco type note to it. The palate was the best on the first sip, but the fruit quickly dried up and left only the acid behind. At first I thought it a touch better than the one had at Mark's birthday, but on reflection it went downhill just as quickly and probably wasn't as explosive and interesting initially. Drink now based on these two bottles.
87/100
1973 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne
Light yellow-gold colour. Caramel and berries on the nose. Very dry on the palate with acid standing out and a slightly bitter finish. Even though this is youthful in character, I can't really see this having the structure to develop further. Still, it was nice to drink without being complex or terribly interesting.
87/100
1971 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne
Apple, cherry, mushroom on the nose. Hard acid on the austere and short palate. Not much to say about this one really. Can't believe the disparity between Gavin and myself on this bottle, but hey, that's wine sometimes!
84/100
1966 Moët et Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon Champagne (disgorged 26 June 1997)
Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies were all I could think about to begin with on this nose, eventually I got some orange peel, toast and coffee coming through as well. The palate has so much finesse to it while still showing a great deal of power. Brilliantly balanced with the creamy mouthfeel that appeared on a number of the wines evident here, but with a greater deal of complexity. Personally I disagree with Danny that this wasn't at least the equal of the 1982 from a qualitative perspective, but thought they were both magnificent.
97/100
1975 Château La Lagune (Haut-Medoc)
Leafy nose with tobacco, ash and cedar following. Medium bodied, with good length and persistence of flavour. Tannins seem to have fallen into step with the rest of the elements well (and perhaps unexpectedly for the vintage) and seemed to be pretty nicely balanced. Surprising and very good indeed.
89/100
2000 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Beaux-Monts
Entracing nose of fragrant raspberry, cherry, plum, and deep forest floor/undergrowth characters. The palate is savoury with fine tannins and very good length. Just as the nose had plenty of character to show, the palate had lots of layers to discover. I thought it had the structure to develop well over the next 5+ years.
91/100
1990 Rayas Pignan Châteauneuf-Du-Pape Réservé
Very dark colour. Nose has lots of pepper, cherry, violets and barnyard and meaty characters. There is interesting texture to the palate, but the expected depth and complexity is lacking and the tannins are a bit too strong for this to be any better than good, especially with my very high hopes for it.
87/100
1982 Penfolds Grange
Concentrated, rich and youthful nose of vanilla, licorice, raspberry, blackcurrant and various mixed spices. Really wonderful weight and depth to the palate. Balanced with no element out of place and extraordinary length. Both delicious and interesting to drink. The best bottle of Grange I've ever had without a doubt.
95/100
1976 Château Coutet
Burnt marmalade, honey and citrus aromas. Palate is nice enough, but I wish it were a bit more complex. Good length, and not overly sweet - but started to fade after a little while in the glass. Drink now.
87/100
1989 Domaine Bourillon Dorleans Vouvray Tris de Nobles Grains Moulleux
Grapefruit, honey, spice to the nose. There is just a light sweetness to the palate that is complimented by clean acidity. Would like to see this after it has put on a bit of honeyed weight in 10+ years time.
88+/100
2005 Kalleske J.M.K. Shiraz VP (Barossa Valley)
Dark purple in colour. Nose bursts forth with coffee, blueberry, dates, raspberry and chocolate. I didn't get any of the overt alcohol heat that some others did though. Palate is a little bit too sweet for its own good, almost finishing cloying. I think this will be best in its youth while the freshness on the nose remains prominent.
90/100