Mega-Pointer Dinner

We decided to do a little blind BYO at the usual dinner hang-out on Saturday. Alex felt a little left-out from the Colgin dinner that we had last week, with its super-high-scoring wines. So, while none of us are exactly not big fan of wine scores and point-laden wines, he decided that the theme should be mega-pointer wines i.e. wines that had scored 95 and above from one of the major American or Australian critics, 18.5 and above for the Europeans, or 5 stars on decanter. We ended up with a pretty interesting line-up. All good wines, very good in fact. However, apart from the fabulous 1990 Trimbach CFE, the rest did not quite live-up to their super-star billing.

• 2008 La Chablisienne Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  Decanter 5 star. This was really nice again. A bit too tight, but impressive for what it is. It started out with a slightly muted, but still clearly Chablis nose, with gentle drifts of chalk and saline mineral playing alongside neutral white fruited notes and a pretty lilt of white flowers and spice. A bit reticent I thought. The palate was also tight, but it was a pleasure to drink, with lots of grip and structure behind its deliciously juicy white fruited notes underscored by some tremendous stony minerality on the attack. The finish stretched away in a surprisingly show of length, spreading across the mid and backpalate in fleshy appley notes with a wash of spice and flowers that was so very Fourchaume. A lot of depth and power for a 1er Cru - this really overdelivered. A tad better than the last bottle perhaps, but this needs plenty of time yet.

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• 2008 Lake's Folly Chardonnay 93 Points

  Australia, New South Wales, Hunter Valley

  This was really excellent. It took awhile to get going the last time round, so this bottle was popped several hours before dinner and then decanted for half-an-hour before serving. It was beautiful when we got to it. There was a lovely nose on this one, almost Burgundian, with beautiful drifts of Japanese pear and Fuji apples, a squeeze of lemony aromas, some cream and lots of lovely floral notes riding alongside little chalky mineral accent. Very nicely complex, and all the overt oak from its youth has completed integrated with the rest of the bouquet. The palate was even better though. This had lovely creamy weight and density to it, with bright Japanese pear and ripe lemon flavours lined with beautiful acidity, which lent the wine a wonderful sense of focus and impeccable balance even with its weight. Delicious all the way from the attack until it tailed away into a long, mouthfilling finish where little bits of stony mineral and spice mingled with the fruit. Lovely stuff - very delicious. While drinking well now, I can see it continue to improve over the next couple of years. Not much reason to wait when it is drinking so nicely with a bit of air though. JH95

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• 1990 Trimbach Riesling Cuvée Frédéric Emile 96 Points

  France, Alsace

  Wow. This was ridiculously good - one of the best dry Rieslings I have had for a some time. Opened 4 hours before serving, it showed an almost understated nose that slowly unfurled with little drifts of beeswax and honey, a lovely waft of perfumey chamomile, orange blossoms maybe, and a touch of meadow flowers, and then a core of peach, apricot and red apple fruit aromas, all drizzled with some aged-Riesling kerosene notes. With time, a little stream of stoney minerality started coming out alongside the fruit and flowers. Really complex and entrancing, yet somehow always subtle, understated and very intriguing. The palate was flat-out amazing too. I cannot quite began to explain this - it was again understated, yet clearly a dropdead gorgeous wine at the same time, showing a mindblowing amount of complexity as it gently unfolded across the mouth in deep, rich layers of green apples and pears, kissed by sunnier dried apricots and nectarines, all ringed at the edges by that little touch of that kerosene again. Here and there, the fruit was wreathed with a lovely dried flower nuance and a rather inexplicable note of fresh, bright strawberries on the midpalate. With time, some sweet lemons started floating, alongside a nice bit of spice sprinkled across the length of the wine. So much going on. This was rich, melting, juicy - clearly a child of its vintage - yet it was so well integrated and perfectly balanced that there was almost a lightness, a zen-ness, to it in spite of its weight and complexity. The wine had an incredible finish too, pulling away into a bone dry, super stony, minerally tail that was chased by floaty, flowery chamomile accents. Incredibly long, perfectly dry, yet wonderfully delicious. This was nuts. I would suggest giving it some air and not to serve it too chilled, because that muted the wine slightly when it was first poured. Other than that, this was a truly complete wine at quite a brilliant place now. Fantastic stuff. WS96 when first released. Unusually, this deserved every bit of that.

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• 2003 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape 92 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  This was a strange Beaucastel - a very un-Beaucastel Beaucastel if you know what I mean. On first guess, most of the table thought Amarone, and even though I guessed CdP on second try, my guess was one of the more modern producers. If anything, this tasted more like a Tablas Creek (Beaucastel's venture in Paso Robles, California) than your typical middle-aged Château de Beaucastel. The nose was atypical rich an showy, with a serious waft of dried roses alongside thick aromas of raisins and blackberries touched with a little touch of lavender and garrigue and some damp earth. Very attractive, but quite a bit sweeter smelling than usual. Same thing on the palate, with its plump, fleshy flavours of blackberries, plums and prunes along with a slightly dried fruit, raisiny bit and a twist of licorice at the finish. Lots of black-fruited depth here, and the tannins were a bit rough, less refined than usual. Yet for all that, this was still very well-balanced and blessed with a certain classiness to it big frame. Not the best Beaucastel, or the most typical, but it was still a nice wine in its own right. Still on the youngish side with all that fruit and tannin, I would give it another 4-5 years more before trying again. WA95 on release.

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• 2004 Charles Cimicky Shiraz Reserve 93 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  I was very impressed by this. It was probably the most ready to drink of the three rather equally-matched Aussie Shirazes that we had on the night and, by virtue of that, my favourite by a shade. It had a beautiful nose, with lovely layers of violets, black cherry aromas, blueberries and cassis, touched with a hint of eucalyptus and sweet spices, dark chocolate and dried earth. Gorgeous. The palate was delicious, with pinpricks of sweet spice swirling around a core of dark fruit - black cherries, plums and cassis again - and a velvety depth of dark chocolate flavours behind. A sizeable wine, as one would expect, but this was not the muscular hulk that the other two were, showing rather more restrained depth. The balance was wonderful too, keeping the wine effortless and clean in spite of its weight. It closed with a beautiful finish - long, fresh and impeccably balanced, with a delicious tail of plums and cassis and savoury earth notes drifting away. Delicious and quite ready to drink after a few hours in the decanter. RP93-95 on release.

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• 1998 Fox Creek Shiraz Reserve 93 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale

  This was an objectively an excellently crafted wine that will give aficionados of a particular style of wine great pleasure, but I think most of us around the table having started on a diet of these bir, rich, muscular Aussie Shirazes have moved some way away in recent years. Still though, this was a nice wine. It had a lovely nose that could only have come from Australia, with deep layers of sweet plums, blueberries and blackcherries, dark chocolate and wood spice, eucalyptus and smoke. The palate was rich, thick, almost viscous, with huge depth to its black fruited flavours of plums and blackberries laced with citrus acidity and fine, slightly powdery tannins stretching into a long, eucalyptus-spiked finish. Beneath all that fruit, there was an intriguingly salty, savoury undercurrant almost like salted caramel, dried earth, roasted meats and black chocolates rolled into a smoky whole under the riper fruit tones in a beautiful long finish. Very delicious. We decanted this for half an hour before serving and I got a feeling that this was barely enough - all these little complexities were just starting to show. This was the oldest of the reds represented by some distance and the highest scoring wine on the table (It was a massive RP98 points on release), yet I somehow felt that we caught it way too young. It was well-structured and beautifully balanced though, and should age for a long, long time yet. Indeed, it was far better when we had the leftovers on day two, with the big fruit calming down a bit, and the lovely balance on the wine showing more. At the moment though, it is still rather a big bruiser of a wine, not without its own sense of elegance amidst the weight, but not quite my style any more. It sure would be interesting to try it a decade down the road though.

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• 2009 Jasper Hill Shiraz Georgia's Paddock 93 Points

  Australia, Victoria, Central Victoria, Heathcote

  This was very, very young, but after sitting in an opened bottle for half a day, it actually showed quite nicely. It had a rich, thick nose, full of deep plum, blackberry and cassis aromas patted down with some earth and eucalyptus notes. It shared some similarities to the Fox Creek Reserve drank alongside, but was rather tighter, more primary, maybe more indistinct given its youth. The palate had the rich, viscous weight that Jasper Hills often show, but it was very well-balanced by gobs of juicy acidity that suffused its ripe, deeply fruited flavours of black plums and prunes, blackberries and cassis and some dark cherry chocolates. There was a bit of savoury earth in there somewhere, but such was the primacy of the fruit that it remained rather buried. All in all, this had tremendous weight and complexity, great velvety depth and superb length, all presented in a rather suave, velvety packaged. Super-young, but very solid, with a lot going on. Like the other two Shirazes on show, this was also very nicely balanced. James Suckling 100 points. I am certainly not a perfect score on this one, nowhere near, but this was impressive stuff which should age very well indeed.

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