Blog posts of '2015' 'May'

1970 Château Clinet

Still quite dark in color, but as expected for its age typical brownish red. A very concentrated nose of jammy fruit (red and dark), lightly spiced and with a touch of forest floor reaches first. Following this is an animalistic odor, like unwrapping that 2 pound grain fed pie...

1970 Chateau Pavie Macquin

Semi translucent brick red, perfectly in sync with its lifespan. Very light and delicate odor here, just faintly indistinctive fruit left (red cherry?) but lots of forest to replace it : mushroom, earth and dry leaves are clearly present here accompanied by tobacco, tar...

1964 Barbaresco, Mario Minuto & Figli

This wine has a somewhat bizarre color : cloudy and very light and brownish orange, it looks like a murky but light rosé wine, not appealing or inviting at all. There is a powerful nose of marzipan and something chemical (molten plastic) at first, fully keepi...

1976 Richebourg, Gros Frère et Sœur

Quite translucent cherry red with an edge of sunworn terracotta rooftiles. It’s incredibly how much fruit there still is despite its age but it’s impossible to ignore the cherry extravaganza here : there’s ripe and sweet red cherries, cherry blossom, cherr...

1978 Batard Montrachet by Bernard de St Honge.

Perhaps not the greatest producer nor the best of the Montrachet  parcels, but as it turned out, still surprisingly well made. The cork of this wine had already descended a couple cm down into the neck of was barely hanging on to the sides by its fin...

1976 Château Cheval Blanc

Coming from one of the mediocre years from the decade that was unkind to straight up disastrous in Bordeaux in general, I didn’t get my hopes up too much from this wine, even if it was a first growth.The color clearly reflected it’s age : very brownish with just the slig...

1989 Pommery Cuvee Louise Magnum

There is no better way to start the new year than with a big bottle of bubbles so for the first tasting of the new year we popped a Magnum of 1989 Pommery Cuvée Louise.Nice deep golden in color and very viscous for a sparkling wine, nice depth and clarity as well.

1995 Corton Charlemagne - Domaine Jacob Robert et Raymond

The last wine today was a Corton Charlemagne from 1995 by Domaine Jacob, Robert et Raymond. It had the slightly darker color of old gold or straw, very viscous as well, clinging to the glass as if attracted by magnetic force. Excellent bou...

1975 Inglenook Petit Syrah

For this we tried an Inglenook Petite Sirah during lunch, from 1975, the vintage when Francis Coppola first came to the estate.The wine is dense looking, still dark cherry in color, seems much younger than it actually is, so far so good.Aroma’s leap from the glass, even...

2009 Ca di Pian - Barbera d'Asti - La Spinetta

This producer is perhaps more famous for his excellent Barbaresco, but at a fifth of the price you can have a more than decent Barbera. This bright cherry red wine opens up with a bouquet of red and dark fruits, some oriental spices (a hint of cinnam...