Kelvin's Bachelor's Party

Kelvin's big day was approaching, so the 6 of us (with Peter, Hsien Min, Chris, Chen Han and I) gathered to celebrate his last remaining days of bachelor-hood in style. The only stripping that was done was removing the aluminium foil from the blinded bottles! What a night it was though - the food was incredible (even though it was my 4th time there in 3 weeks!) and the wines were probably amongst the best I have had in one sitting this year. Some very special stuff on the night indeed - Claret heavy, but with a few nice side-shows.

Cheers to Kelvin!

• 2000 Dom Pérignon Champagne 93 Points

  France, Champagne

  Really good. This was a bottle with the Andy Warhol labelling, but I thought I would post it as a "normal" DP as there is really no difference in the stuff within the bottle. Decanted it for half an hour before serving, so the bubbles had gone down, but if the wine's showing was anything to go by, the decanting really helped. This was by far the best of the 4 bottles that I have had so far. Lovely nose - walnut scents, white meat, red apples, citrusy lemony notes, a bit of yeast and white flowers. Typically pleasing DP stuff, and I think even more open than the last time I tried it. You could say the same of the palate as well. Super refined mousse made for a really nice mouthfeel, and it was deliciously juicy with lovely fruit sweetness showing in flavours of fleshy red apples, white plums, a bit of cherries, little hints of ripe lemons and some minerality, all nicely integrated, with just that a little bite of wheat biscuit at the very end. Very friendly, as befitting both the wine and the vintage, but with no lack of depth. This has really improved since the first time I had it. Very nice.

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• 1990 Taittinger Champagne Brut Millésimé 92 Points

  France, Champagne

  Pretty good stuff. Opinions were split amongst the table as to whether the surprisingly drinkable 2000 DP or this was better. I liked the style here, but eventually found that the DP probably had better raw material - this had the benefit of an additional decade of age though, so it ran the DP close. A deep golden yellow colour certainly showed its age, and a few of us guessed it as a 1990 immediately due the the richness on both the nose and palate. Lots of secondary smells here, slightly oxidative in style - white meat, chicken essence, white plums, a little honey, some caramel and with time, pretty pronounced whiffs of roasted nuts. Palate had a weighty richness to it, with sweet, ripe yellow fruit flavours, kumquats and apricot nestling amidst fine mousse and some citrusy lime accents. Lovely, developed fruit sweetness on the mid-palate, but this still had some energy in it to keep it fresh. Indeed, while there was a patina of age, there is still some youth showing in its finely frothing mousse and gentle minerality that played around the back-palate. Just a hint of heat at the very end distracted me a little, but otherwise, a really nice Champagne. Real nice with both the roasted suckling pig and lobster with truffled egg whites.

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• 1998 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

  A good wine, but just a bit disappointing when unveiled as a Fontaine-Gagnard Criots given what I had previously experienced with this house. Going through a weird stage in its evolution maybe. This did take a really long time to come around, only really showing its mettle a good couple of hours after popping. At first, it tasted for all the world like an old Vouvray - HM, our resident Loire expert who brought the wine said that he might have guessed it as such if he was blinded. The nose just had tons of honeyed scents, some lanolin, beeswax and cotton wool. Classic Chenin stuff in other words. Only with plenty of time and coaxing did more typical Grand Cru Burg scents of white button mushrooms and chalk, along with a uncanny sweet corn accent start showing on the bouquet. The palate started out clean and minerally, with tons of honey on the mid-palate and some yellow fruit peppered with a touch of florals. Tight at first, but it opened up gradually. With time, the wine became more layered, with more of those clear sweet corn flavours, some bittersweet orange peel and cherry pits and a decent length finish with sweet vanillin and margarine flavours. There was a sense of firmness and structure undergirding the whole thing, but rather less of the typical Fontaine-Gagnard elegance to it, making me guessed it as a Batard rather than a Criots when told it was not a Loire. Still, a good wine overall for sure, and especially nice with the steamed fish.

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• 1997 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Musigny 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Musigny Grand Cru

  Clearly quality, an excellent wine, but this certainly showed some of the marks of the 1997 vintage. Nose was of the drop-dead gorgeous, to-die-for variety, but the palate was not quite up to that very high watermark. Popped and poured, and we left it to develop in our glasses after a few initial sips. Not decanting was probably the right thing to do with this one - it did get better as it sat in the glass, but started fading just a smidgen towards the end of the dinner. The nose on this one certainly grabbed your attention from the first pour though. Incredibly beautiful even on the first sniff, with flowers blooming out of the glass, orange tangerine, a punch of pure red cherries, some meatiness in the background, wood spice, some boiled herbs and winter melon and little wafting hints of mint and menthol. Absolutely incredible stuff. Almost ethereal in a way only a top-class Burg can be. Palate was a bit of an anti-climax at first unfortunately. Really clean and clear in true Mugnier style, with some obvious depth in its rich dark cherries and strawberries, and a nice plush, velvety feel. Not much else though, and the finish seemed to dip a little, with a smidgen of heat around the edges and some overtly metallic bits not helping things. In spite of the plushness, I was left with a feeling that it was all still a bit correct, not entirely loosened up, maybe even a bit primary. Thankfully, when we came back to it, the mid-palate really filled-up, showing some tomato and beef-stew notes, the bloody, rusty metal scents faded a bit in the background to show some wet stony minerality instead, and the finish had lengthened and stretched out with some brambly bitterness and Chinese medicine notes. It opened up quite beautifully I thought, but then the Chinese medicine note got stronger and stronger, and the wine just stopped improving after awhile. On guessing, I was not sure it was a Moose, The palate was just not quite where the nose was, and although it had that seamless iron fist in velvet glove thing I associate with all Musignies, it just did not have the intensity and layered complexity that I normally get with the vineyard. Overall, a lovely wine, but not quite the show-stopper that some of Freddy Mugnier's other vintages have been. Pretty nice pairing with the roast goose though.

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• 1978 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Started off really well, but it fell of the cliff pretty fast. I really liked the nose here. Tobacco leaf, roasted capsicum, deep cassis scents, some cedar, all glowing with lovely fruit sweetness. The palate showed plenty of breed and quality too. Clean, pure cassis flavours on the attack had a real sense of transperancy, and earthy gravelliness, soil and herb notes on the mid-palate all made for an interesting, complex wine. I was quite sure it was a left bank, but thought it might have been a Graves given its flavour profile and a nice soft plushness it had. When first poured, it was an incredible pairing with the roasted lamb shoulder - I just could not tell where lamb ended and the wine began, they were both singing in glorious harmony, with the wine's sweet cassis and some newly emerging haw flake notes complementing the lamb's savoury flavours to perfection. I really preferred this to the 1978 Margaux at this point. Unfortunately, it started fading rather alarmingly in the glass. In just over 15 minutes after the first pour, the pairing was not quite so perfect any more - the wine seemed to lose its ability to stand up to the meat, and where it was previously glowing with soft fruitiness, it now grew very metallic and quite herby as it faded away into a quiet finish. Just a bit past its prime I think - 5 years' earlier would have been nice. Nevertheless, for the few minutes where it shone, it was really delicious.

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• 1978 Château Margaux 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  Not the greatest Margaux, but a really nice wine nonetheless. Just a little tight and unyielding when first poured, made me think it was a Pauillac, but it did open up with time to show slinkily seductive Margaux tones. The nose here had deep whiffs of cigar, earth and tobacco along with some dried, slightly wilting flower scents - quite wonderful really. After some time, some slightly less seductive herbal notes, like mint, menthol and Angelican Root scents started emerging. Like the GPL that preceded it though, there was a tremendous sense of clean, clear transperancy on the palate, perhaps even more so, with lovely cherry and cassis flavours glowing with natural sweetness and wrapped around in fine, still slightly firm, but ever-so-velvety tannins. This certainly was a lot more complete than the GPL, demonstrating clear first growth quality in the way it just opened up in the glass to show superbly integrated layers of flavour. While the former wine faded with time, this one grew in the glass for at least a couple of hours. A long, detailed finish with whiffs of delicious cigar smoke, some milk chocolate and a seductive kiss of cruched violets just rounded the whole package off. This may not be the most powerful or complex of Margaux's, and I do get the feeling that it may have been just about past its peak. However, it still had plenty of presence and oodles of classy elegance.

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• 1990 Château Montrose 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe

  Tons of good stuff here, but it took a bit of effort trying to pick it up under a heavy cloak of funk that just refused to completely blow off even after a couple of hours. Still though, an excellent wine. Very funky on the nose, with some barnyardy, very animale whiffs - smelt a little like manure at points, with a good hit of band-aid to boot. With plenty of coaxing, all these stinky notes started fading into the background a little, to show rich cassis tones, deep earth notes, some wet leafy undergrowth and a whiff of jaffa orange chocolate. Hard to get past all the funk on the nose though, so I would recommend giving this a splashy decant before serving. The palate was entirely another story. Still clearly in its adolesecence, but oh so good. Tons of power and concentration, with a solid core of sweet berries and cassis just showing reservoirs of depth, but this was wed to lovely purity, impeccable balance and lovely, velvety smooth tannins. On the mid-palate, there was a nice pull of bacon meat and plenty of tobacco smoke, building up into a lovely cigar-like finish, with smoke and incense whirling around. As good a Montrose as I have ever tried, and with a long life ahead of it as well - I would love to try another bottle in 10 years' time.

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• 1982 Château Mouton Rothschild 97 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  This was a special, special wine, and quite clearly the wine of the night in the face of pretty stiff competition. It started out with a bang - an incredibly deep nose with mocha, roast meat, tobacco, earth and sous bois going on and on. I enjoyed simply taking in deeps whiffs of this. I thought the 1990 Montrose that came immdiately before had a mighty impressive palate on it, but this completely overshadowed the younger wine. While some of the other clarets on show this evening had a nice transparent purity to them, this really took the cake - ultra transperancy I would say, with such gorgeous purity in its dark cherries and cassis fruit that in spite of its incredible depth, the wine still gave the impression lightness and shade - think diving in waters where visibility goes into ridiculous depths. It was super complete too, with not a hair out of place, moving absolutely seamlessly from the expressive attack into a super, super long finish where the dark fruit and mint met with mocha and vanillin notes on a bed of the finest, silkiest tannins. Still young, this has a good decade to go before approaching anything near peak I think, yet even now, it is about as good as any claret I have ever had.

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• 1979 Argiano Brunello di Montalcino 91 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino

  Pretty good for a 31-year-old - might have been somewhat pass its prime though. Garnet in colour. Nose showed gamey notes of bloody meat, roast lamb, wet earth and some dark cherries, raisins and figs - the fruit certainly played second fiddle to the more meaty scents though. There was just a hint of rather a Aussie Shiraz-like crushed ants scent lingering around as well. Palate had more of yummy dark fruit - plums, raisins and sweet berries - on the attack, moving into balsamic notes and more savoury meat and a nice earthiness on the mid-palate. It flagged just a little towards the finish unfortunately, with the fruit and the tomato-ish acidity not quite holding together on the way down. Otherwise, pretty enjoyable.

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• 1983 Château Climens 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Barsac

  Wow - this was really young and primary for a 1983. Good, but still really rich and sweet. Even the glowing yellow gold colour seemed rather youngish. The nose showed tons of botrytis, with honey and burnt sugar at the fore, along with a little secondary earthiness. Smelt rich, and the palate certainly delivered. Treacle-like, it oozed through the mouth in honeyed flavours of over-ripe apricots, dried peach, lemon curd and brown sugar, finishing with slightly burnt creme brulee and vanilla essence. Undoubtedly good quality, with tons of depth and concentration and layers of complexity waiting to develop in the glass, but it was just a bit sweet for my taste - I would have preferred just a little more acidity to lift the weight of the wine. It is always nice to end the dinner with a sweet though, and this should be much better in another 8-10 years time!

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