A few more vibes on what's gone down over the past couple of days on my week-long holiday.
Wednesday
Piper-Heidsieck Vintage Brut 1990 - An exceptional Champagne drinking at its apoge'. From the glorious colour and heavenly nose harbouring insanely complex yeast, toasty and smoky notes to a palate riddled with abundant fruit, superb mouthfilling flavours, abundant refreshing acidity, swirling mousse and great finish, this blew us all away for its freshness, elegance, balance and sheer class. 95
Opened with smoked salmon, egg, yoghurt, mayonaise, capers and chives on a variety of flavoured crackers/biscuits.
Willian Fevre Chablis 1er Cru "Montee de Tonnerre" 2000 - Infantile pale straw/white colour. Reticient nose at first that eventually offered up some chalky minerality, a touch of lemon zest and some green melon later. Exceptionally tight and unyielding palate, way off being ready. It was decided then and there to pop this away in the fridge under cork and have a look at it the next night. The following day we were impressed by the way this had opened out with much more fruit evident on both nose and palate but with the steely resolve of a top-flight Chablis. If you have any, earmark your next bottle for opening early in the new decade. 90
Ch. Leoville-Las-Cases 1985 - Lovely wine but not up with the very best I've opened over the last several years. Still holding a healthy dark ruby core grading to a little amber/pink in the edge. Opened with a fair amount of barnyard and wet earth with underlying hints of cedar, pencil lead, herbs, dark plums and blackcurrant. This slight dirtiness dissipated slowly over the course of an hour. The palate was silky, rounded and relatively sweet showing mostly red fruits, subservient oak, low acidity but a little short on the finish. An excellent wine but as mentioned earlier just a little out of sorts with the truly great '85 LLC's I've tried before. 90
Served with a platter of soft blue cheeses, black olives and pickled vegetables.
Thursday
For dinner I prepared fresh medium-sized banana prawns with liberal quantities of crushed garlic, chopped ginger, lemongrass, spring onion and chilli, a little sesame oil and some sweet Indonesian soy sauce, quickly panfried and finished with a few dollops of sour cream and topped with finely chopped shallot.
The heat of the dish did little to dampen our enthusiasm for Trimbach's 1997 Riesling Cuvee Frederic Emile, an enthralling wine revealing outstanding integrated aromas and flavours of apricot, peach, citrus and honey, infused with the beguiling minerality Trimbach always delivers with their best wines and the merest hint of petrol. It's been quite a while since I've looked at a bottle of this and I'm glad I've kept my hands off the remaining bottles. In keeping with this Domaine's proven track record, this wine possesses equally impressive qualities in the mouth with perfectly-wrought acidity levels and a terrific depature of considerable duration. The wine had no trouble coping with the heat of the dish; the potency of the fruit and acids easily coping with the moderate heat of the dish. Drink anytime over the next 7-10 years. 93
Lyndsay procured a lovely piece of locally-raised beef eye fillet that was coated in ground black pepper, left in the fridge for 24 hours, then oven roasted in the juices of baked garlic knobs and finished in a horse radish sauce. Served with clay pot steamed potatoes, julienne carrots, brocolini and green beans.
As a precursor to the meal, we opened a magnificently (although somewhat atypical) elegant 1978 Ch. Leoville-Las-Cases that disappeared, seemingly, in next to no time. Such a surreal nose compared to the '85 the night before. Gorgeous sweet bouquet of red fruits and cedar with perplexing undertones of cigar box, mint and subtle savoury oak. In the mouth, this wine excelled with an almost unfathomable silky personalility coupled with a profound dilineation. Fully mature and totally seductive, the balance, mouthfeel and ultimate finale were all of the highest order. Without a doubt, the best bottle of this wonderful wine I've had the pleasure of trying. 95
What followed had the four of us, literally shaking our heads interspersed with "oooh's" and "aahh's" amongst other profanitities. With their 1982, Ch. Calon-Segur have produced a monumental effort. Strikingly more youthful than the just-opened Las Cases and with several decades of superior drinking in front of it, this wine threw up a bevy of classical left bank nuance - cassis, anise, cedar, spice box (cardamon), tobacco dwell with lavish savoury complimentary oak to produce a medium- to full-bodied claret with a bouquet to die for and palate that would hold its own with more expensive counterparts from this revered vintage. This wine has it all! I could wax lyrical for some time on this, but trust me, if you can get your hands on well-cellared examples at a reasonable price, buy as much you can afford. 96
We finished this session with a little offering from Australia - Henschke's old vine Shiraz - Mt Edelstone. From the very good 1994 vintage, this youthful, bright red displays bucketloads of sweet plum, licorice and christmas cake fruit, plenty of glycerin with ample fine, ripe tannin to shed as it matures over the next 10 years or more. I was particularly impressed with this wine as a youngster and bought plenty. My decision to do so now seems to be paying dividends. A solid 92 points with a slightly higher rating expected in time.
Just a question, I haven't tasted any Henschke wines, but we have the Edelstone Shiraz '01 here - is that drinkable yet or is it a complete waste of money to open one now?