In honor of enjoying life, last night a merry crew converged on a not-so-bustling Alba Restaurant in central London. Myself, David ‚from Switzerland’, Victor Randall, Theresa Iverson, Jamie Goode, and Nick Alabaster had fun and wide-ranging discussions that settled once and for the fact that arrogance and ego are not the same thing, that monogamy may or may not be possible (depends on how you measure it) and therefore that Bill Clinton is in fact a dirtbag (although again that depends on how you measure it).
But I digress. We had some wine.
Starting the evening with the 1990 Pol Roger Champagne Winston Churchill was not a bad idea. It was my first taste of this cuvee and it delivered all the rich power I had been led to expect. It took some time to spread out in the glass and it had plenty of tingling mineral acidity framing the edges, but the middle was just too toasty sweet and aggresively flavored to really make me swoon. Maybe I need to try it again in many years.
Moving along, the 2006 Hans Wirsching Iphöfer Julius-Echter-Berg Riesling Kabinett Trocken was showing pretty well. I’ve had other bottles that seemed too hot and alcoholic, but well-chilled and starting the meal this was nice clean clear linear riesling with slight warm sweetness and a very firm backbone from all that alcohol (14%).
That said, everyone was eager to taste the 2000 Trimbach Clos Ste-Hune Riesling, which was broad, golden and approachable, although clearly with plenty of inner finesse grip and detail. It was very enjoyable for me although as my first CSH I couldn’t enter into the detailed discussions about how this compares to other vintages, aging curves, etc. But fear not, those discussions existed!
Moving into red wine we had a trio from the Northern Rhone.
2001 Clusel-Roch Côte Rôtie started off too volatile and bretty for my tastes. It had a few moments of glory where it showed fine and floral but over time the volatility and the new oak polish made it the weakest of the three for me.
1998 Ogier Côte Rôtie also started off too bretty for my tastes but seemed to pull itself together with air. It was deeper and richer than the Clusel-Roch and as it got firmer and more poised it became a very lovely wine.
That said, for me the 1995 Marc Sorrel Hermitage Le Gréal was delicious throughout the evening and was my favorite of this group. It was deep and firm yet fine and floral with all the brooding mineral Hermitage poise that one has to love. It was drinking very well and was a splendid match with the pasta with Devon crab and tomatoes.
We then summoned our decanter of 1990 Roberto Voerzio Barolo Cerequio that had been mysteriously stuck in a freezer by the waitstaff. Even allowing for the initial chill, the wine was hard and structured with plenty of support from the fine-grained piercing nebbiolo tannins. Not that the wine left a tannic impression. There was some speculation about the percentage of new oak but it didn’t bother me and I’m usually sensitive to these things. There was more speculation about whether the wine was showing muted because it had arrived from Germany that very day, or perhaps was just in an awkward phase. Either way, it was a brooding wine that spoke of potential, but none of the red wines were showing as well as the Le Gréal for my tastes.
Jamie took it upon himself to present us with a wine blind and from the first funky foul smell Nick suggested that it might be Musar, although speculations then ranged all the way to Piedmont. It was in fact the 2000 Musar Rouge, which some people enjoyed for its „complexity“ although I had a hard time getting past all that funk. As is usual for me and youngish Musar. Back to the Le Gréal.
To finish things off, David was kind enough to bring the 1993 István Szepsy Tokaji Aszúessencia Mádi Szölészet (was there further vineyard designation here? I didn’t catch it), which is not a common wine. As David explans, this was more oxidised than the current modern style but less oxidised than the Communist-era fashion that was still relevant in 1993, and that middle ground goes a long way towards explaining the ‚harmony’ of the wine, in David’s words. For my tastes, it was of course scrumptious and delicious – in that way most dessert wines are – but in the beginning I was left wondering if it wasn’t a bit monochrome and flat. However, with air it gained depth and richness although always with a fresh and un-sticky frame. The details of the flavors became evident as well and in the end I had to admit that this was a lovely fine fragrant gentle wine that I should be so lucky as to explore further.
