A quiet week for tasting notes, but quite a few wines were sampled and consumed. Early in the week I tried:
- Kooyong Ferrous Pinot Noir 2004: better than the standard 2005 Kooyong I had recently, but not very exciting
- Barons de Rothschild Rose n/v: very tasty, complex, full flavoured, almost a meal in itself
- Domaine Dupont-Tisserandot Gevrey-Chambertin “Les Cazetiers” 1er cru 2007: very youthful but with a strong spine of minerality. Needs some time
And then I went to a tasting at Black Pearl Epicure, who are offering a range of French wines imported by One Hundred Wine. Notes off the top of my head, as my scribblings have been left at home. Quite a nice set of wines:
- Pierre Moncuit Hugues de Coulmet Champagne n/v: blanc de blancs, tasty lemon acid driven with some yeasty brioche notes
- Pierre Moncuit Delos Brut Grand Cru n/v: blanc de blancs with 100% Grand Cru fruit from Mesnil-sur-Oger. A lot more complex and subdued. I think I preferred the brightness in the previous wine
- Gevrey-Chambertin par Mark Haisma 2007: light red fruits, but a bit of a hard edge to it
- Domaine Grand Veneur “Les Champauvins” 2006: dark fruits and spice, 15%, showing too much alcohol, but others liked it a lot
- Domaine Grand Veneur Lirac 2007: again, dark fruited and 15% abv, showing too much alcohol for me, but others liked it a lot
- Domaine Aphillanthes Cotes du Rhone 2006: nice fruits with stoney minerality. Good balance and value at $25
- Domaine Les Aphillanthes “Cuvée Des Galets” Cotes du Rhone 2007: a bit raisiny for me. YMMV.
- Domaine Vincent Paris Saint Joseph 2008: very good, pepper and dried spices, lovely cherry fruits. Nicely restrained
And the week concluded thus:
- Seppelt Grand Tokay n/v: burnt. Muscat is much better
- Meerea Park “Alexander Munro” Shiraz 2003: a bad bottle. Too acidic and though I hoped it would come good with some time in the glass it remained a bit limp
- Louis Jadot Beaujolais Brouilly 2003: tasty, as always
- Bouchard Pere et Fils Meursault “Boucheres” 1er cru 2004: a different Meursault, quite buttery and rounded, old lemons….. think I prefer the Genevrieres and Perrieres
- Dujac Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 2000: excellent wine, a touch of stalk, cherries, a bit of smoke, lovely balance and flavours. Great tannins
- Frédéric Esmonin Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru 2000: looked a bit hard after the Dujac, some greenness and cleaner on the palate, not that that’s always a good thing. Perhaps needs more time.
- Meo-Camuzet Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2001: another fine wine, from vines at the top of the hill no doubt.
- J.-F. Mugnier Nuits-Saint-Georges “Clos de la Maréchale” 2006: tight and way too primary and young – should be left another 5 years at least
And that’s it. There were a couple of Yalumba wines sampled yesterday, but I will definitely be writing full notes on these because they were both excellent.