Jason hosted our third Thursday blind tasting group yesterday for a quite amazing lineup of wines - a really fun tasting with lots of stellar bottles. Would have been a real treat to enjoy a single bottle from a producer like Trollat, Gentaz or Truchot in an evening, but to sit through a lineup with several of them - just wow. Thanks again Jason for an incredibly generous and eye-opening lineup.
Starting wines
1999 Pol Roger Champagne Blanc de Blancs Extra Cuvée de Reserve
Great stuff; a seamless combination of freshly baked biscuits, ripe pear and citrus fruits and savoury doughy notes with bright acids and the effervescence giving it a sense of real energy and vibrancy.
2006 Dönnhoff Norheimer Dellchen Riesling Großes Gewächs
Very ripe Auslese-like scent of ripe peachy and tropical fruited flavours with some honeyed elements suggesting a little botrytis; dry and focused in the mouth though not showing the same bright fruit or complexity as the aromatics suggest.
Flight 1:
1986 Gentaz-Dervieux Côte-Rôtie Cuvée Réservée Côte Brune
Magnificent; starts out with a beautiful fragrance of bright red fruited flavours accented with a vivid meatiness and savoury earth, and it's pure silk in the mouth - incredibly finessed and polished, conveying flavour with an incredible lightness of touch.
1987 Gentaz-Dervieux Côte-Rôtie Cuvée Réservée Côte Brune
The aromatics on this are a little funky and awkward initially, but it comes together beautifully with some air as a haunting scent develops, combining olives, red fruits, forestal earthy notes and herbal elements into a perfume that's hard to move away from. There's incredible depth and complexity conveyed on a gentle, lightweight frame with impeccable balance and length - hard to do this justice in words, but a really amazing wine - my favourite of the evening.
Flight 2:
1992 Raymond Trollat St. Joseph
There's a faint medicinal note here at first, but that blows off with some air to reveal fresh red fruits and black olives seasoned with developed leathery elements and forestal greenery. Light on its feet and all too easy to drink with the tannins fully resolved, and bright acids keeping it very lively and refreshing.
1996 Noël Verset Cornas
The most polarizing wine at the table - starts out very bretty with fecal and barnyard aromas dominating. With some air the bretty elements calm down, the fruit and leathery flavours deepen and come into the foreground and it becomes quite enjoyable (others liked it a lot less though).
1997 Noël Verset Cornas
Slightly muddy and awkward aromatics initially, but those clear up with air to show a lovely combination of olives and berried fruit, herbs and developed leathery and earthy flavours. There's surprisingly high acidity (the acids are more noticeable here than in the '96 Verset alongside) that keeps it very fresh and precise; delicious.
Flight 3:
1994 Domaine de Trévallon Les Baux de Provence
After the two flights of older Rhones, this came across incredibly ripe; full of black cherries and plummy fruit but not showing much other development. It feels very young with plenty of tannin and acid structure, but I didn't find much here beyond primary fruit.
1995 Domaine du Mas Blanc (Docteur Parcé) Collioure Piloumes
Jason had opened another bottle of this on Tuesday night at my place with biryani - my impressions were very similar, so just reiterating those. A seamless combination of elegant, mature red fruited flavours, sauvage bloody and meaty notes and tarter herbal elements in a package that manages to convey both a sense of rusticity and polish at the same time, delicious.
2001 Château de Pibarnon Bandol
Incredibly ripe and primary still, showing a core of dark plummy fruit with faint leathery and earthy tinges. There's good balance here and tannic structure that suggests this has plenty of time ahead.
Flight 4:
1991 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon
Really surprised when this was unveiled - was thinking it was an old world Syrah with rich red fruited flavours seasoned with leather, spice and ferric earthy notes on a medium weight frame. Drinking really nicely now with tannins fully resolved, and a gentle, polished texture.
1994 Houghton Cabernet Sauvignon Jack Mann
Seems remarkably young still, full of ripe brambly red fruited flavours and faint herbal and savoury earthy accents. It's quite full bodied, powerful and ripe in the mouth, but very well balanced with a sense of restraint and finesse at the same time.
1997 Ridge Monte Bello
Fantastic; full of ripe dark fruits and berries framed by vanilla, toast and cedary elements in a package that's full bodied, rich and impeccably balanced with all the flavour components merging together seamlessly. This still feels very young with plenty of primary fruit and tannic structure, but it's already great to drink now.
This was followed by a mid 1950s Sandemann Amontillado that I have no notes on, and then Jason opened (non blind) a 1996 Domaine Truchot-Martin Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Sentiers .
Distinctively Truchot with its pale colour, really fresh, pure fruit and a seasoning of fresh earth, herbs and leathery funk. Incredibly fragrant, elegant and polished with that lightness of touch Truchot's wines always seem to have, a real treat to close out an incredible lineup of wines.