Wine group at E. McC's 01/07/2009 (TNB)

A bad evening for corked or otherwise slightly faulty wines: five dubious bottles out of sixteen!

• Very Old Oloroso No 2 bottled 2004 (Reid Wines, made by Hidalgo La Gitana) Walnuts and prunes, the real deal. Very good indeed. Bare
• Chassagne Montrachet 1er cru Caillerets 2001 (Blaine-Gagnard) Quite flat and broad. Opens out to give great richness. Quite a restrained style. Ready to drink. Top
• Chassagne Montrachet 1er cru Boudriottes 2001 (Blaine-Gagnard) Slightly curious, herby, again quite a flat profile. Some suspicion this was not quite correct. Top
• Chassagne Montrachet 1er cru St Jean 2001 (Blaine-Gagnard) Back to a rich solid wine, quite big and broad but with a slightly hot streak. Lacks a touch of class compared to the Caillerets.
• Beaucastel blanc 2002 Herbs and cream, touch of glue. Will age on texture - probably rather well. Delicious. Bare
• Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1995 (Charbonniere) Rather over-evolved. Probably a cork issue.
• Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Etienne Gonnet 1995 (Font de Michelle) Lovely balance, a bit sauvage, I feel the influence of oak to some extent, but I have to say it is nicely done. If you don't mind that even
• Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes 1995 (Charbonniere) Weighty, inky, a streak of hotness - a touch unbalanced for my taste. Low
• Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1999 Cuvee Tradition (Monpertuis) Very mineral and perfumed. Salty aftertaste. This is gorgeous. No hurry to drink. Top
• Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1998 Cuvee Tradition (Monpertuis) Warmer vintage, a bit flatter and so the minerality less evident, otherwise similar. Bare
• Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieilles Vignes 1997 (Marcoux) Tending towards baked. Substantial but quite low-toned. Good but not quite my sort of thing - I don't feel like drinking a whole glass. Added later: yet it opens out with time in the glass - I need to try this properly some time. For now:
• Brauenberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Auslese 1989 (Dr Thannisch) Lightish for auslese and a touch short. Drinkable but only a decent
• Moulin Touchais 1959 Faulty
• Ramos Pinto 1983 Soft, brambly, blueberry nose. A little unforthcoming on the complexity front. Pleasant
• Dow 1983 Corked.
• Gould Campbell 1970 (Clode and Baker bottling) Sweet fruit, mature, ever so slightly woody. Probably another slightly flawed bottle. Top

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A new (to me) Champagne from Raeburn Fine Wines 22/06/2009 (TNB)

• Champagne Recolte Noire NV (Dosnon & Lepage) A low dosage, pure Pinot Noir from out in the sticks - Avirey-Lingey in the Aube, to be precise. Very pure fruit, clean and elegant - a little reminiscent of Larmandier-Bernier perhaps: the same ripe fruit, but a touch less austere. Pinot rather than Chardonnay too, I suppose, but this is a rather suave Pinot that makes the comparison a bit more reasonable. Quite vinous in style (partly from being fermented in oak, I guess), it has moderate weight and rather good persistence - it does not seem to demand more bottle age. Very drinkable and I would have guessed it came from a prestige village. A producer to pay attention to. Top

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Edinburgh Offline at the Vintners Room 13/06/2009 (TNB)

Food delicious - the Vintners Rooms seem to do these events really well. Gruaud Larose is a fine wine - it's easy to forget because it somehow doesn't have the celebrity of some other estates. The four vintages we drank were all strong.

• Champagne Cuvee William Deutz 1996 (Deutz) Great richness. Seems to be getting younger - this is less forward than some bottles I recall having of this. Quite wound up now and I am tempted to leave my remaining bottles for a year or two.
• Meursault 1er cru Charmes 1993 (F. Jobard) Gorgeous. Mineral, oily hazelnuts. Light on its feet like so many of the good 93's. Top
• Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru Combettes 1979 (Ampeau) Brown sugar with slightly woody undertones (but not corked, I think). As it opens out, quite rounded, perhaps not so complex. There's still something a touch woody about it though.
• Nuits SDt George Perrieres blanc 1989 (Gouges) White pinot noir from some mutated vines that Gouges found and developed! Red berry fruit, flat, broad, even oily - quite powerful and meaty. There's something of the Rhone about the profile of this. Really interesting and genuinely fine. Bare even.
• Chateau Coutet 2005 Broad, fruity, pretty sweet to have with foie gras. Will doubtless be pretty good. Bare
• Cypres de Climens 2002 A touch more botryrtised, a lesser wine than the Climens but slightly more balanced to my palate.
• Morey St Denis 1er cru St Luisants 1988 (Pernin-Rossin) Lovely colour, fresh, ripe, touch of metallic fishyness. Fine old Burgundy of a certain style. Good acidity.
• Chateau Gruad Larose 1981 Great colour, rounded, seems quite Merlot-influenced. A touch woody. Very drinkable.
• Chateau Gruad Larose 1985 Very easy (like the 90), but with a touch of rounded merlot rusticity (like 81). Very strong near-mature claret.
• Chateau Gruad Larose 1986 More weight, lots in reserve. Intense cassis fruit, still only just starting to open out. Will be great.
• Chateau Gruad Larose 1990 Terribly sexy, scented, actually quite concentrated. Very elegant and terribly attractive. Top
• Clos P 1998 (Naveran) Bags of fruit, but a bit hot on the finish. Pretty tannic and there's a question of how the fruit will stand up. An ambitious wine certainly. Rather hard to assess.
• Coutet 2004 Seems insubstantial? Just young Sauternes in a fairly indifferent vintage perhaps. To give it the benefit of doubt,
• Coutet 1990 Quite big botrytised barsac. A touch sweet and foresquare for me. Top
• Birbet (Filippo Gallino) Sparkling light-red, muscat-like with added rose petals and icing sugar - Turkish delight, I guess. Pleasant.

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Wine group at our place. 01/06/2009 (TNB)

Cooking again, so brief notes even by my standards!

• Champagne Vieilles Vignes de Cramant 2002 (Larmandier-Bernier) Bright and tight, high-quality fruit but needs time. One curious feature is that it seemed to lose its fizz a bit quickly in the glass. Still,
• Champagne Vieilles Vignes de Cramant 1995 (Larmandier-Bernier) This has filled out very nicely: rounded, some mature notes, complex and long.
• Savennieres Clos de la Coulee de Serrant 1986 (Joly) Mineral, lovely balance. Drinking really nicely.
• Vouvray Sec Le Haut Lieu 1988 (Huet) Quite evolved, as suggested by its pronounced orange colour. An odd contrast to the very fresh Savennieres - on its own it would be a good drink.
• Chablis 1er cru Butteaux 1998 (Raveneau) Very gorgeous - not quite as characteristically Raveneau as some (which might be a good thing). Drinking well.
• Chablis 1er cru Butteaux 1996 (Raveneau) A little more of everything - this is absolutely splendid for a 1er cru wine. A star.
• Chambolle Musigny 1er cru Gruenchers 1999 (Fourrier) Quite forward, soft, very sexy red fruits, luscious wine. Unlike some 99's there's no shortage of substance.
• Chambolle Musigny 1er cru Gruenchers 1998 (Fourrier) A little more closed and with more obvios tannins than the 99. Probably a touch more concentrated too. Rising to top
• Domaine de Trevallon 1992 Leafy cabernet - atractive wine and a good effort in the vintage, nice nose but a touch short on the palate now. Bare
• Chateau Simone 2000 A little volatile, old-fashioned ageworthy wine. Will be interesting in 10 years!
• Bandol Cabassao 1989 (Tempier) Very, very meaty, quite severe but probably mature. Top
• Vin Jaune 1997 (Puffeney) Bone dry, with none of the rustic severity of some examples. Lovely.
• Recioto della Valpolicella Classico Amabile 1994 (Alighiere - Masi) Good blackberry fruit. Went quite well with strawberries in balsamic vinegar.
• Sandeman 1977 One bottle dodgy, a replacement has attractive, almost lifted, bramble fruit. Good Port. Bare

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Evening at D.L.'s 30/05/2009 (TNB)

• Champagne Cuis 1976 (Diebolt-Vallois) Splendidly fresh. Mushrooms, slow-moving rivers, nice fruit. The best bottle of this late-disgorged wine I have had. Top
• Durnsteiner Hollerin Smaragd 2005 (F X Pichler) Talc - scented rose-petal nose, very good concentration, dry but not austere. Excellent length. Lovely. Top
• Riesling Craighall Amaranth 1998 (Dry River) Mineral, scented, great body, complex. Amazing dry richness. Rather a star! Bare even.
• Russian River Chardonnay Chloe 2005 (Du Mol) Herby, huge, a touch sweet, alcohol rather evident. (more if you like the style)
• Chambolle-Musigny 1er cru Amoureuses 1971 (Groffier - Piat) Quite delicate and elgenant, becoming a touch edgy. Fruit sweet and attractive. Top
• Chateau Ausone 1943 Fresh flowers, see breeze, fantastically delicate aetherial, subtly smoky character.
• Chateau Lynch Bages 1962 Cassis and digestive biscuits, tiny touch of mint. Fragrant, very fine. Bare
• Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 1978 (Chateau Montelena) Rounded, nice fruit, still fairly primary. At this stage at least, a little simple. Very good but suffers perhaps following the old Clarets. Top
• Chateau Siran 1953 Corked.
• Cornas 1989 (N. Verset) One bottle corked - one of those marginal cases where it was mainly the stripped flavour rather than anything more definite. Replacement bottle mineral, sauvage, succulent, absolutely delicious.
• Niederhauser Hermansholle TBA 1989 (Stadtdomain) Touch of brown sugar, lovely mature fruit, really good.

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Remoissenet reds at the SuperBOWL 07/03/2009 (TNB)

I found these notes hanging around - I thought I had put them up long ago. The current owners really know nothing about the old reds and how they might have been produced. The recent ones are pretty decent without, to my palate, being very exciting.

• Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Cazetieres 2007 (Remoissenet) Nice ripeness and natural concentartion. Nice tone.
• Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Cazetieres 2005 (Remoissenet) Solid boiled fruit, tannins apparent. Will be pretty good. Rising to top
• Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Cazetieres 1999 (Remoissenet) Quite gamy, attractive nose. A touch dry and insubstantial on the midpalate.
• Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Cazetieres 1989 (Remoissenet) Rather nice, gamey, gentle, not that dense perhaps on the palate. Top
• Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Combettes 1979 (Remoissenet) Deep colour. Quite sweet and rather obviously highly chaptalised. Bare
• Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Combettes 1969 (Remoissenet) Suspiciously full-bodied, somewhat unsubtle "English Burgundy" fruit (although this was straight from Remoissenet, I believe). Getting towards oxidised too. I'm not convinced this is "the real thing", and even if it is I am not very keen.

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11/06/2009 (TNB)

• Beaune Greves 1997 (Lafarge) Quite rich with the fruit tending to cooked, as with many wines of this vintage in my experience. Still pretty tannic, and while fine to drink one could imagine leaving it and waiting for them to soften. Good wine. Top

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A "last bottle" from the cellar 10/06/2009 (TNB)

• Wachenheimer Gerumpel Spatlese 1883 (Burklin-Wolf) Rather a pleasant old thing: apricot fruit with a nutty edge. Slightly faded perhaps, but engaging if you like mature wine. To judge by my note from two years ago, this is better than the bottle I drank then. Top

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Edinburgh Offline 09/04/2009 (TNB)

Rather delayed notes on a splendid evening.

• Champagne Terre de Verus NV (Larmandier) Lemony, floral. Great balance. Easy drinking. Top
• Chateau Coutet blanc sec 1998 Seems a bit unclean.
• Bourgogne blanc 1992 (Jobard) Lemony, not great complexity. Pretty good for the level. Top
• Cote Rotie 1983 (Jasmin) Very stylish. Lightweight, smoky, completely delicious, bare
• Tignanello 2004 Caramelised bananas. Quite cooked fruit. I guess this will develop well, although I find it hard to guess: @Top plus.
• Tignanello 1982 Young profile. Nice classic weight. Seems younger than the Jasmin but where's it going? perhaps
• Pavie 1989 Very lovely - fantastically balanced, very much coming to peak.
• Calon Segur 1982 Softer even than the Pavie, just delightful old Claret. Bare
• le Vigne di Zamo 2005 (Zamo) Caramelised bananas. Brown sugar. Not sure Where this is going,but pleasant in a way.
• Suduiraut 1997 Highly botrytised. Nice fruit, Seems quite forward.
• Pinot Gris Goldert VT 2002 (Burn) Seems a bit dull at least this late in the evening. For now, top

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Wine group at A.D.'s 27/04/2009 (TNB)

• Sonoma Pinot Gris 2005 (Seghesio) Quite pleasant, unassertive, sensibly balanced, drinkable. Top
• Russian River Arneis 2005 (Seghesio) Pine resin, mothballs, very odd. Is this as it should be?
• Gewurztraminer Sonnenglanz 2001 (Bott-Geyl) Rich, unctious - near sweet. Not my style. Bare
• Gewurztraminer 2004 (Te Whare Ra) Drier, quite elegant. Light and clean. Quite nice. Bare
• Gewurztraminer Cuvee des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre 2000 (Trimbach) Slightly off-dry, touch of smoke, not quite the finesse I would expect. Still a rather good wine. Bare
• Gewurztraminer Cuvee des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre 1998 (Trimbach) Slightly smoky mature Gewurztraminer. A bit thinner and a touch drier than the 2000. Nice but one could ask for more. Bare
• Hermitage La Sizeranne 1985 (Chapoutier) Sweet and syrupy. Wrapped in an austere case. Slightly tired and generally odd. Bare
• Beaucastel 1985 Berryish, mature, farmyardy, a touch rustic. Not the best bottle I can remember having of this. Top
• Beaucastel 88 Similar, but a touch purer and so preferable to me. Bare
• Chateau La Tour de By 1985 Lighter than the following wines but pleasant enough. Good for its level - top
• Gruaud Larose 1985 Dusty, nice fruit. Quite classic. Time to drink. Top
• Batailly 1985 Quite smoky, succulent, almost gummy. A bit more life in it than the Gruaud. even
• Orange Muscat and Flora 1985 (Brown Bros) Peachy, light, fairly dry at this age. Rather short Quite pleasant.
• Don Guido PX Solera especial 20 yrs (Williams and Humbert) Black and treacly, not in fact that sweet, a pretty nice PX. Top
• Montilla Moriles PX 1979 (Toro Albales) A little better-defined, more complex. Very nice.

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More from the cellar 30/05/2009 (TNB)

• Riesling Schlossberg 1993 (Weinbach) Drinking really well, fairly dry, the fruit still fruity, but complex secondary too. Very nice. Top
• Riesling Pflaenzerreben 1990 (Rolly-Gassmann) A touch of residual sugar now completely integrated, splendidly rich wine, drinking beautifully. even.
• Champagne Grand Cru Reserve NV (Marguet) The 2000 from this producer tried a while ago seemed a bit problematic. This is good though - fair dosage, quite large-framed but very drinkable. Top

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From the cellar recently 11/05/2009 (TNB)

• Rosa del Rosa 2006 (Sperino) Very attractive, pure strawberry fruit with (for a rose) good persistence and a touch of complexity. Rather nice. Top
• Riesling 1997 Steiner Hund Spatlese (Nikolaihof) Now for drinking, quite a lot of honey on the palate, yet bone dry. Rather austere at first but as it warms towards room temperature it becomes a fine drink.
• Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Combe aux Moins 1997 (Fourrier) Excellent wine now drinking nicely - gamy, as Fourrier's wine from this vineyard always is. The fruit has that slight cooked quality that seems a feature of the vintage to me. Very good. Top
• Savennieres Clos de la Coulee de Serrant 1986 (Joly) Fantastic: completely fresh, with great minerality and a touch of honey. To me it seems half way between a dry Loire Chenin and a Grand Cru Chablis. Delicious. Top

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Wine group at J.Mac's 30/03/2009 (TNB)

Well, the main theme was bottles (often last bottles) bought from the famed J.E. Hogg Edinburgh wine shop.

• Ayala 1976 Orangy and apply, mature fruit, quite grassy, blowsy, with an awkward, slightly bitter finish. Mushrooms too. Pleasant but not the best old fizz. A good
• Condrieu 1982 (Pichon) Peachy, broad and flat. Rather hot and alcoholic on the finish. Curious but not bad in fact.
• St Aubin Frionne 1984 (O. Leflaive) Lemony, dry. Taught and oaky. Lighter than the Chevalier. Amazingly good given what it is. Top
• Domaine de Chevalier blanc 1979 Similar to the Chevalier (surprisingly enough), concentrated, lovely texture. Great length.
• Riesling VT 1976 (Dopff et Irion) Gentle and creamy. Lovely but a bit insubstantial. Bare (in its way)
• Chambolle Amoreuses 1979 (Roumier) Tiring a touch. It has that not unpleasant slightly metallic character. Authentic Burgundy.
• Nuits St George 1er cru Porets 1978 (Gouges) Mushrooms, iodine, rich, meaty fruit. Excellent
• Cote Rotie La Ladonne 1981 (Guigal) Meaty, meaty, meaty - quite Syrah, gutsy, brawny. Very fine effort in a poor vintage. Top
• La Tour St Bonnet 1982 Quite bright, meaty, nicely balanced. Top
• Talbot 1982 Quite round fruit, rather constricted. Might come around a bit but not great at the moment.
• Ducru Beaucaillou 1975 Quite sweet fruit, pretty stylish: bare even.
• Rayne Vigneau 1976 Quite elegant, intense, controlled botrytis. Very fine. Top
• Trittenheimer Altarchen Auslese 1971 (Scholtes) Gone.
• Offlet Boa Vista 1970 Aniseed, quite rich, nice mature port. Bare

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06/05/2009 (TNB)

• Wehlener Sonnenuhr 2004 Kabinett (J-J Prum) A touch of very typical spritz, fresh sherbert-lime fruit, nice intensity and length. Probably not quite at peak.

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