Rauzan-Ségla 2011 & Durfort-Vivens 2005
My best friend popped for dinner Wednesday and we had these wines. We started with the Rauzan, it had had about 3 hours in decanter, it’s still youthful in colour. Really pure fruit cassis and blackberry nose immediately draws you in, a nice medium-body wine following the palate. Cassis and black fruits are supported by quite mature tannins, oaky vanilla, but also leather, tobacco, and then some nice aromatic spiciness. Really drinkable wine, we’d had half the bottle before we knew it, very classy (the wine, not us).
We moved on to the Durfort, which had had a couple,of hours in decanter, it was a nice ruby with some bricking at the rim. Attractive nose of cassis and red fruits with tobacco, not quite as pure at the Raizan. The tannins are fully mature, some earthiness, leather, tobacco, mushroom, some clumsiness, there is quite strong acidity. The fruit is nice, cassis and red fruits like the nose, again slightly more clumsy than the Rauzan. But It’s a very fine wine, perhaps an older style of claret, but like the first wine of the evening a lovely drink.
Great lunch at Blacklock in Manchester today. Theme of left bank/Graves claret shared by 7 of us. Great fizz to start with a very fresh 14 Bollinger LGA and a fully evolved 02 Pol Roger. The flight of three Langoa Bartons not originally planned with the 99 a backup replacing one of two 2000 bottles that were DOA. All three excellent with our first meat course. Leoville 07 delicious before a trio of 04 with the Pontet Canet the least developed and some way of full maturity whereas GPL and Fieuzal both ready to go. The dessert wine was particularly unctuous and such a pleasure.
Domaine Courbis ‘Les Royes’ St Joseph 2017. Since my beloved Gonon has got insanely expensive, I’ve had to find other producers of St Joseph Syrahs. This doesn’t have the same complexity and balance of the Gonon but is very good all the same
We were fortunate to receive a gift at Christmas of a bottle of bubbly that I hadn’t come across before. We only opened it a couple of weeks ago when some friends were over for an afternoon snack. Surprised at how good it was I searched and found the small outfit that produces it. 6 bottles ordered 3 tradition and 3 blanc de blanc. Buttery, hint of pear and amazingly smooth on the palate. All for less than 20 euro. It’s good to support smaller businesses.
