Dinner with Aldo Vacca

Tasted Monday, July 28, 2014 by HowardNZ with 449 views

Introduction

After the Produttori del Barbaresco tasting, a group of us, with Aldo Vacca and John Caro, went across town to the excellent Hippopotamus Restaurant in the Museum Hotel for a BYO dinner. As usual, the Hippopotamus's French themed cuisine did not disappoint.

I thought that Aldo probably tasted a lot of Northern Italian wines and suggested the theme of "wines you think Aldo might be interested to try". This produced an eclectic collection of wines, mostly served blind ...

Flight 1 (11 Notes)

  • NV Jacques Selosse V.O. Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut

    France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru

    Rauno's bottle was disgorged in 2008. A beautiful, sweet nose of citrus, green apples, honey and vanilla cream with some toast. Light bead. On palate, vinous, a great wine, I thought, more than a Champagne. A beautiful, oxidative style but light on its feet. Dense with a concentrated mid palate. Quite a complex flavour profile, with an incredibly long, honeyed finish.

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  • 1990 Taittinger Champagne Artist Collection Corneille Flawed

    France, Champagne

    Sadly, corked. Seemed to have very good underlying material.

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  • 2007 Domaine Billaud-Simon Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos

    France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

    A bouquet of sea breeze and oyster shell, with minerality and a clear saline character, has this as definitely Chablis. Also aromas of yellow orchard fruit and citrus. On palate, this was clearly a quality Chablis, better than the very good 2007 William Fèvre Bougros we had on Friday night. Grand Cru fruit density and gravitas. It had flavours of pears and lemons, with sea shells, chalk and again that strong saline quality. Also, we detected a bit of a green edge to the palate (but not a fault). Highly recommended. Drinking well now or could be held for some years.

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  • 2004 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc

    France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

    An intriguing nose I could not place of greengage, cheeses and other lactic aromas and some minerals. The bouquet was a little reduced and suggested some evolution. On the palate this was clearly a serious wine, waxy, viscous, powerful and rich with excellent body and mid palate fruit weight. The flavours profile was very complex, including greengages, lemon custard, clotted cream, minerals and honey, again showing some development. Real length, it broadened considerably on the back palate. I don't have much experience with this type of wine but understand it has years of development to come. (Thanks very much Andrew S, an intriguing wine).

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  • 2011 Domaine Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin Vieille Vigne

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin

    Blind, I had this very good Villages wine as a recent Fourrier 1er, which is appropriate because this wine does approach 1er quality. It had the classic Fourrier nose of pure, fine red berries, particularly high toned red cherries, with a little chalk. Delicious and silky on palate, pure, vibrant and vivid, with red berry flavours and some chalky minerality on the back. Some at the dinner had this wine as their top red wine of the dinner, ahead of a 1er and a Grand Cru. All class.

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  • 2001 Comte Armand Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Pommard 1er Cru

    On bouquet, clearly a Burgundy with some age (although I would have guessed younger than 2001, more like 2007). Aromas of raspberry and strawberry with a little dark cherry, some fresh and some dried, umami, earth and underbrush. On palate the relatively smooth texture meant I had this wine as a Volnay, not a Pommard. The tannins were pretty much integrated. The flavours were in the red berry spectrum, again a combination of fresh and dried, with some soy and soil, showing a touch of sous bois seconday development. The acids were prominent, but I liked the wine's acid balance and thought the Comte Armand a classic, elegant Burgundy reaching maturity. No hurry to drink, ideally I'd give it 2-3 years more. However, I preferred the 1996 of this wine we had the other week.

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  • 2007 Faiveley Corton-Clos des Cortons Faiveley

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton Grand Cru

    This was my contribution and I do not have much to add to my or Mike's recent TNs for this wine. For me, this wine is one of the stars of the vintage. The bouquet is red and black fruit, with some of that distinctive Gevrey animale, cooked game meat with dry soil, spices and underbrush. The flavour profile is similar to the nose, red fruit dominant, with plenty of earth and that feral element (as a positive descriptor). Very complex and detailed. Clearly Grand Cru dry extract and structure. The wine possesses suave, relatively well integrated tannins. Very accessible now but with a long life ahead of it, I think. My wine of the dinner. Aldo liked this wine very much, he said.

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  • 2011 Jean-François Ganevat Côtes du Jura Plein Sud

    France, Jura, Côtes du Jura

    I didn't really get this wine. Sptritzy and carbonic in the mouth with light raspberry, sweetened cranberry and grapey flavours. Very lightweight and seeming acidic, to be fair, it did not really match the beef dish I had at the time.

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  • 2005 Craggy Range Syrah Le Sol Gimblett Gravels Vineyard

    New Zealand, North Island, Hawke's Bay, Gimblett Gravels

    This wine was a better match for the beef. Under screwcap (but carefully disguised by Mark). Very deep impenetrable purple/red colour. A bouquet of mainly dark berries - blackberries, dark cherries and dark plums - cherry, cola and a little tar. The lavender and black pepper aromas, on nose alone, took Thierry and me straight to Syrah from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawkes Bay. On palate, a primary tasting, silky smooth, polished and very modern wine without a hair out of place. The flavours were in the blackberry, cherry cola, soy direction, but lacking a little complexity or dimension. The tannins were sweet, ultra fine grained and well integrated. The wine was similar to the 2006 and 2009 Le Sols I have had recently. The age was a surprise as any secondary development seems far off. Showing that the Old and the New Worlds can live side by side, Aldo remarked that he very much enjoyed this wine.

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  • 2011 Greystone / Grey's Peak Riesling Basket Star

    New Zealand, South Island, Canterbury, Waipara

    Light gold colour. This dessert wine seemed clearly New World but otherwise did not make any strong impressions on me. Both the bouquet and the palate showed pineapple, ripe passionfruit, citrus, honey and a little spice. It was not viscous and did not have a lot of fruit weight. Low alcohol. For me, it was overshadowed by the excellent Château Rieussec.

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  • 1999 Château Rieussec

    France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

    Deep gold in colour. A lovely bouquet of butterscotch, honey, apricots, peaches and clotted cream, vanilla bean and a little jet fuel. Rich but reasonably fresh. On palate, viscous and unctuous, rich and powerful with real fruit weight and structure. Well balanced, seemingly with lower acid. Lovely honeyed sweetness, complex and long flavour profile including butterscotch, vanilla, crème brûlée, glazed oranges, raisins and floor varnish (Andrew H's descriptor). On palate it seemed younger than 1999, with some freshness. An excellent Rieussec.

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