The 2015 came in a bin end case courtesy of The Wine Society. Put in a box to,be forgotten for a year or three.
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TWS delivery yesterday - time to make room in the cellar. So the weekend will now start on a Thursday.
Today it’s my first taste of the 2014 Altitude 420 from Domaine Jaume.
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I love Valpolicella and this ripasso is excellent. Spaghetti with a lentil and tomato sauce, in the garden and with cooler temperatures. Lovely.
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A close friend and I have just holidayed for a week in the Cotswolds, slightly embarrassingly this was our intake for the week.
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Does your friend not drink 
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Class…you beat me to it😁
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Two reasons for opening this tonight:
- To celebrate the homecoming of my ‘new’ pride and joy LP12 - see show us your sondek thread for details.
- This is part of my best stash and in the recent heatwave, even my ‘cellar’ got up to 27C. I wanted to check that no damage had been done. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it
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Perrin family make great wines hope it went down well following drive back from Rearsby
Eoin, I think we need to know how they went down. I have happy memories of drinking older vintages of La Lagune and Grand Puy Lacoste.
I have to admit to some hazy memories Richard, but here we go.
2009 D’Armailhac - lovely rich plump wine. Classy rich nose, sweet cassis fruits with a hint of pencil. Very rich and plump on the palate, cassis and dark berries, nice gentle tannins, hint of spice. Rich and plump, but supremely balanced when at the right temperature. My main memory of d’Armhailac is from the ‘80s and early ‘90s vintages when it was cycling names, around Mouton Baron Philippe etc. Then I remember it as a classic Pauillac, austere cassis with strong backbone, this has the fruit profile, but the vintage (and maybe changed winemaking) has made this much richer. It needs at least an hour air. I’ll be interested to try another recent vintage to see whether it’s 2009 which makes the difference. Rich and plump are the words that have sprung to mind with all the ‘09s I’ve had. Given the 30 degree temperature last week, the first bottle we tried (admittedly a long way into our first evening there) was too much. It was over-plump, put into the travel decanter and left for a night in the fridge, much better the second day. Second bottle was cooled in the fridge, then decanted for an hour, much better immediately.
Edited to note that although it is rich it has good underlying structure and won’t fall apart, at least another 10 years.
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2009 Grand Puy Lacoste
Classy classy wine. Poured after a quick 30 minute decant (both times), fantastic deep ruby colour. Powerful nose, cassis, graphite, some cedar. Lovely well balanced wine on the palate, good acidity, some fantastic cedar tannins and graphite. Superb fruit balance, strong powerful blackcurrant flavours with some gentle floral notes. It’s rich, but not plump. Delicious and moreish, it balances the lovely pure old school Bordeaux style of GPL with the richness of 2009 superbly. Class act, I’m enjoying the ‘09s I’m drinking very much, but finding them slightly too lush and plump for my personal taste, I’m preferring the leaner ‘08s, this is right in my sweet spot. Lovely now, and it’ll be superb in 10-20 years. It’s been interesting to drink relatively young wines, I’ve tended to be a 15-20 year case opener, definite change in approachability.
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Enjoying a Portuguese little number from the Sunday Times this evening whilst reading my son’s Ph D on Techniques and Technologies for Earth twin discoveries. Not a clue what its about, but the wine is helping!
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Who brought what … or did you find a good offie?
We jointly picked up a case of wines to take with us, the Riedel Sommelier glasses and the decanter were Kell’s.
We took the 9 clarets shown, a Donnhoff Grosse Gewach 2016, a Clos Mirielle rosé and a Grand Année rosé as it was due to be hot. We did drink the Donnhoff, the two pink ones came back.
Cht Raymond Lafon 2010. Just a half bottle with the cheese. I’ve not tried this for a couple of years. Luscious, honey on the nose,slight acidity but still full and smooth in the mouth with quite long finish.
Glad I’ve got a few left perhaps for a summer pudding?
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It’s the hot weather that year.
I’m also a 15-20 year case opener.
It’s very hot here in Provence so a glass of local organic rosé is a just the ticket .
Have enjoyed a few good bottles over the last few weeks but alas returning soon to UK for legal reasons with enforced self isolation.
Still Uniti Star arriving next week so lots of ripping to do .
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I just got back from a week in London, judging at the (expertly) socially distanced Decanter World Wine Awards 2020. Postponed from a week in April (at Excel) to (the whole of) August in Canary Wharf. And I got home on Saturday, ahead of any reciprocal quarantine stuff France may impose on arrivals from the UK. Phew (although it does preclude me returning next week for the Trophy judging which was the plan).
I am the panel chair for Provence, as well as a couple of days of judging Port and Madeira (which I Just cannot give up).
Many exciting wines. And more medals than last year. Producers were free to withdraw and get refunded, and it seems only the lesser chose to take up that option (hardly surprising for producers of a summery wine like Rosé), So a greater %age of reds and whites. Which was fantastic.
I’m looking forward to finding out what they all were!
Meanwhile, home I opened a bottle of Lebanese wine - one of the best - in I guess some sort of vote of solidarity after the terrible events. Much gets spoken here of Musar (and rightly so) but there are so many other worthy producers, and this is a special wine indeed. In a modern and more crowd-friendly style. Rich and big, but soft and voluptuous at the same time.
Ixsir « El » 2014 Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
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