That is litterally my wine taste in a pic!
It needs about 10 years more!
Omg that is a haul!!!
Friends round for dinner for one of those significant birthdays etc.
Brookfields Res Cab/Merlot 2014 NZ
Felton Rd Bannnocknurn Chardonnay 2022 NZ
Dom Perignon 2013
Zuccardi Chardonnay 2020 Argentina
Askerne Res Chardonnay 2020 NZ
Exactly, and one of my favourites at that point.
Popped in to Sainsbury’s earlier and came out with four Nyetimber classic cuvee. It is on offer for£29, which is excellent, and they also have Chapel Down Rose on offer for £25, another bargain.
With some birthdays and an anniversary coming up I may have to return for some more.
The bottle has a sticker telling customers that it gained 99 points but of course that could be out of a possible 1000.
You can feel the Puglian heat with the first mouthful.
£9.50 at Asda ( so within my less than £10 limit) although it will probably be on ‘special offer’ shortly.
A very generous one…
Excellent lineup at Wine Society last night with two Kanonkop winemakers who provided great background on what is an iconic Stellenbosch winery.
I’ve finally remembered to post the notes I took when visiting friends last weekend.
Batailley 2001
My contribution, picture taken before I went, the port is for this coming weekend’s “port party”. Still ruby colour with very slight lightening, the nose is classic Pauillac, cassis, pencil and cedar. The palate is well structured with lovely earthy tannin integrated, good acidity, mid-weight fresh fruit flavours, black currant and red fruits, very classy cassis powered wine. I think I have another bottle, hope so.
Léoville Poyferré 1995
The first of my hosts’ bottles, it’s a lovely light ruby with quite a lot of bricking. Nose of cassis, cedar and earthy mushroom, following through to the palate. Still good acidity, mid-weight blackcurrant fruit beautifully blending with forest floor and meaty tannins, it’s a wonderfully easy to drink mature claret.
I wasn’t a fan of Poyferré in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I found it quite clumsy and unfocused and thought it really started to perform as a Crû Classé around 2002, this beautiful example of fully mature claret has changed my mind a bit.
Cos d’Estournel 1999
Generously my hosts also opened this, it has a light ruby colour with a little bricking at the edges. Nose of cassis, tobacco and pencil. Palate has good acidity, lovely earthy tannins, some pencil notes, sweet cassis and plums with some oak and spice. Another lovely wine.
Interesting contrast of styles, despite its 20+ years in bottle the Batailley was youthful with classic Pauillac directness of fruit and great structure with clear tannins, the Poyferré was fully mature with forest floor and gamey flavours with good acidity and fully integrated tannins, the Cos was in the middle, the tannins were earthy and mainly well integrated with some oakiness still showing, sweeter cassis than the Batailley.
I was given a case of 1970 Léoville Poyferré for my 21st birthday. It didn’t last particularly long, but it wasn’t until I started a job in the wine trade that I realised that it was rather disappointing compared to other similar '70 clarets, specifically La Laguna, Gruaud Larose, and Lynch Bages. When Parker’s Bordeaux book came out he talked of the '70 LP having barnyard smells, and he may well have been right!
Moving house so sorting through some “time expired” bottles to see if there was any life left. After 4 bottles of uninspiring Aussie reds came across this gem from Rutherglen. 26 years old and still lovely. Full of fruit. Brick red. Grippy tannins and lovely long savoury finish. A lovely surprise. I bought this with my now wife on our first weekend trip away together back in the day!
It’s the horror of brettanomyces.
A spoilage yeast, and although acceptable (even positive) in minuscule quantities, adding savoury notes, too much goes, er, horsey (or worse).
Bordeaux was riddled with it in the 70s and 80s (and despite cleanliness of winemaking it remains a risk).