A 50th Birthday Party 21/01/2012 (TNB)

At Mithas, with a lot of lovely Indian dishes.

• Heidsieck Diamant Bleu 1962 Beautifully fresh. Honey, very bright, nice creamy testure. Savoury. Really good old Champagne.
• Chablis Montee de Tonnerre 1970 (Raveneau) A poor vintage apparently: even from a magnum this is weak and past it.
• Vouray Le Haut Lieu Sec 1962 (Huet) Completely fresh, dry, sour-edged fruit of great complexity, finesse and length. Very beautiful indeed.
• Clos de Beze 1962 (Clair-Dau) Lovely fruit, warm and round. Dry on the palate wioth that complex almost metallic note of top Burgiundy. Lovely.
• Rioja Imperial 1962 From halves with no clear indication ofwhether Gran Reservea or not. Goo old Riuoja, but I was not as keen as some on this. Say bare
• Chianti Classic Riserva Ducale 1962 (Ruffino) Very piquant, very much alive. Excellent for what was never a very expensive wine at 50 years old!
• Gattinara 1962 (Narvi) Two bottles, the nicer one rather charming although it fades quite quickly in the glass. Bare
• La Gaffeliere 1962 Oxidised.
• Ausone 1962 Iodine, sea air, a touch of smoke. Fantastic fruit, drinking beautifully. Totally, totally gorgeous.
• Leoville Barton 1962 From a magnum: fruitcake quality - gentleman's Claret. Very good if slightly chunky for my taste. A strong
• Gruaud Larose 1962 Finer, more scented and more complex than the Barton. Lovely.
• Leoville Poyferre 1962 High-toned, high acid, rather hollow inside. This may always have been rather austere but perhaps better a decade ago. Bare
• Lynch Bages 1962 (Wine Society bottling) Cassis fruit, quite light but rounded and terribly easy to drink. Top
• Climens 1962 (bottled Lebegue) In excellent condition, bright and fresh with rather beautiful flavours. But the whole thing lacked the concentartion and oomph you would expect. Some sort of "second wine" bottling perhaps? Still, it's pleasant drinking. Top
• Taylor 1966 This too seemed a bit insubstantial without really having a fault you could point to. Good, but not top-top. Bare

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A 2010 Fleurie 05/01/2012 (TNB)

• Fleurie 2010 (Clos de la Roilette) This is concentrated, fragrant and attractively high toned. Nicely balanced too, with some structure. This is what people are saying about 2010: not tending to blowsy as the 2009s can, but tighter with better acid and mouthwatering fruit. Delicious. Top

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Wine group Xmas - postscript 28/12/2011 (TNB)

One wine I forgot to note. I'd been wanting to try it again having sampled it in London.

• Crozes Hermitage 2009 (Dard & Ribo) Excellent quality fruit, with all the purity you expect from natural winemaking. I think I have to agree with those present who thought that it did not really have much terroir character and so lacked real distinction.

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Wine group Xmas dinner 28/12/2011 (TNB)

With a fantastic tasting menu at Mithas

• Champagne Polisy 1999, disgorged Oct 2010 (A Beaufort) Deep colour. Rich ripe-apple fruit - it has something of the style of a good "natural" table wine. Quite oxidative in style, a one-off. Slightly off-dry although some of the impression of sweetness is down to top-quality ripe fruit. Lovely.
• Champagne Coeur de Cuvee 1999 (Vilmart) Very stylish, the oak gives a touch of vanilla but it is very deftly handled. Top Champagne, if a bit more mainstream than the Beaufort. Bare
• Krug 1989 Becoming mature now - a touch of slow-moving rivers about it. Bright colour, quite a deep gold. Rich, as usual with Krug. Bare
• Riesling vom Stein Smaragd 1998 (Nikolaihof) From a magnum, great mature riesling nose and palate, bone dry, nice weight and balance. Very, very good.
• Malvasia Istriana 2007 (Duline) Bitter almonds. So, so delicate with fantastic complexity once it opens up in the glass. Repays attention the more you study it. Gorgeous.
• Santenay 1er cru La Comme 2002 (Belland) Quite dry and a little lacking in charm. Pleasant enough Burgundy. Scrapes
• La Conseillante 1981 Another magnum. Very rounded, fruitcake Pomerol, with classic mature Claret character. pretty much at peak, I would say. Delicious.
• La Conseillante 1997 I think I started some dessert at the wrong time and so wrecked my palate for this: my impression is that it was a pretty good but I won't try and rate it.
• Colheita 1988 (Niepoort) Beautiful sparkly, bright colour. Thoroughly transparent, delicious fruit. This seems a good Colheita vintage for Niepoort.

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25/12/2011 (TNB)

• Nerello Mascalese Nonna Concetta 2007 (Calabretta) Lovely, transparent, high-toned fruit from this producer on Mount Etna. Quite severely structured, but a few more years in bottle will soften that a bit - now it is one to open a few hours in advance. Real wine.
• Leoville Barton 1986 A lovely drink now - classically cedary Claret. Top
• Smith Woodhouse 1977 I might (as so often with Port) have imagined this was a bit younger if tasting blind. Nice fruit, and is it still a touch hard on the finish? Top

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18/12/2011 (TNB)

• Moulin a Vent Cuveé Lucile-Msaud 2007 (Domaine du Granit) Luxurious old-vine texture. Really nice fruit if little less interestingly challenging than the La Rochelle from here tasted recently.
• Champagne Special Club 1996 (José Michel) This has come on beautifully. Quite a large wine, needing food, with a flowery background that I attribute to the large amount of (high quality) Meunier in the blend. Splendind now.

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Edinburgh Offline at Hewat's 24/11/2011 (TNB)

An evening where most bottles (except my faulty Rostaing) were pretty good, but nothing really sang. But a good time was had by all.

Hewat's were on pretty good form and served up an enjoyable dinner.

• Berncasteler Doctor 1982 Auslese (Lauerberg) Classic, gentle, fresh. Rather good for the vintage.
• Cote du Rhone blanc 1995 (A. Clape) Rather mineral, seemed a bit light at first but it put on weight with air and a bit of warming. I like this more and more as I came back to it. Top
• Pinot Noir 2008 (Tummil Flat) Quite a beetrooty style of NZ pinot, gamy in that way that Pinot used to be. Quite a pleasant balance.
• Mas La Plana 2003 (Torres) The "Black Label" of old. Fragrant, strawberries almost, very drinkable. It's that super-hot vintage again, I guess. Top
• Chateauneuf du Pape 1998 (Vieux Telegraphe) A bit clumsy but not as badly as some from this vintage. Very decent.
• Cote Rotie L Landonne 1991 (Rostaing) A poor bottle, nowhere near the quality of others from the same lot that I have drunk.
• Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Pfersigberg VT 2006 (Barmes-Buecher) Lovely lychee fruit, but at least at this stage a bit short on the spice.
• Vouvray Le Haut Lieu 1er Trie 1989 (Huet) Fine Vouvray as expected but perhaps this is in a stage of evolution where it has gone a little quiet. I'm inclined to say
• Banyuls Cuvee Mediterraneane 2003 (Pietri-Geraud) Quite a well-known producer, I find, but not one I knew before. Rather fine, solid fruit, lots of character nd a nice, balanced sweetness. I would like to try this again, not after quite so many other wines. Top - possibly more in time.

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More exploration of Beaujolais Crus 13/12/2011 (TNB)

• Moulin-à-Vent 2007 "La Rochelle" (Domaine du Granit) Quite high-toned, lifted, juicy red fruits, still with some succulent tannins. A nice touch of minerality too: I think this is still improving. Top perhaps more eventually in its way.
• Cote de Brouilly 2009 Cuvee Zaccharie (Chateau Thivin) Another rather fine 2009 from this region. This seems a bit more mainstream: rather good but without the excitement of a few comparable things I have tried recently. Sti;;, worth trying again.

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Beaujolais again 04/12/2011 (TNB)

• Brouilly Pisse Vieille 2009 (Gravallon and Lathuilière) This particularly caught my attention - more even than this producer's Morgon Cote du Py. Lovely, ripe but fresh cherry fruit, great tannins and that so desirable touch of minerality. Top - almost more!

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