Belated notes from November or December, 2006.
Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande Pauillac 1995
Thanks to my parents. Deep lightly purple ruby-black to the rim. Coffee, chocolate, cedar, thick blackcurrant and Amarena cherry, opulence and meaty sweetness thanks to the high percentage of Merlot, softly smoky tobacco, aromatic and flavourful tannin. Highly concentrated, creamy, full-bodied and very, very long. Faintest bell pepper and green licorice. A little tomato essence. Some cinnamon and clove. Great balance. Smooth texture, a mouthfilling, alluring wine. With airing increasingly floral at first, then firming up, gaining focus, finally closing up in the glass, all too soon (after about two hours). It was only at this point that some coconut and marzipan oak. Rating: ~95
Martinez Vintage Port 1987
Half bottle thanks to my parents. A hugely sweet and viscous milk chocolate and grapey plum, perfumey-volatile bottle, not too hot, though. Artichoke note to the tannin. As I wrote before: “Apart from a couple of half bottles that showed excessive volatile acidity, all others showed full colours and excellent, sweet plum- and milk chocolate-based fruit density and complexity, and very good to excellent length. All such bottles were just on the borderline of excellent to outstanding quality, very tasty in an uncomplicated way, although in fact among the finest 1987s.” Rating: 88
Clemens Busch Riesling Spätlese #22 Pündericher Marienburg 2004
Concentrated, medium-dark slate, apple, underripe physalis, American blueberry and nice florality. Hard to tell if there is anything to gain from cellaring Busch’s wines, my gut instinct says yes, even if this is perhaps not the wine I am going to experiment with. Rating: ~90(+/-?)
Weingut Karlsmühle Riesling Auslese Long Gold Capsule #15 Lorenzhöfer 2003
500 ml bottle thanks to Rainer. Small yellow Austrian apricot (marille), melon, very ripe physalis, some white blossoms, a bit exotic Keller Rieslaner-like grapefruit, half rose, half mace. Medium viscosity, soft CO2, ripe yet impressively high, natural-tasting acidity. Quite long. Rating: 90-?
Greetings from Switzerland, David.