Best bottle - X-Mas Edition

I must admit: I am getting used to that stuff. Great!

• 1995 Dom Pérignon Champagne Rosé P2 96 Points

  France, Champagne

  Glass: Zalto Burgundy
  I thought, that the Krug was on top of the food chain, but I was so wrong! Fantastic salmon color. The nose was spectacular right after pouring: Extremely complex and intense, great mixture of clean red fruit, mineral notes, lactic notes, autolytic notes. All perfectly woven into one single, deep stream of scent. Only downside: The beautiful perfume vanishes astonishingly quickly after a few minutes.
  On the palate an amazing mouthfeel: Pressure without end, tension, perfect acidity, fantastic red fruit and mineral notes. Very elegant, very long. A really awesome Champagne and the best I have ever drunk so far. 96-97+

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• NV Krug Champagne Brut Grande Cuvée 94 Points

  France, Champagne

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  Grand Cuvee of about 30-40 years of age. Another step up in the chain. Wonderful, intense, fully developed and complex nose. Very deep and compact.
  On the palate I couldn’t believe, that this Champagne should be 30+ years old: Fresh, fantastic high acidity, perfectly integrated. Very fine but strong mousseux. Great tension, echoes over and over again on the palate. Wonderful combination of autolytic flavors and fruit. Great elegance and blance, long finish. Really great! 94-95

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• NV Jacques Selosse Champagne Grand Cru Lieux-dits Extra Brut Ay La Côte Faron 93 Points

  France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  A clear step up from the Palmes dÒr. Medium+ intense, very deep and complex nose, multi layered and complex. Hard to identify single aromas, but not much classical oxidative/autolytic notes, floral notes, mineral notes. Really nice.
  On the palate lots of tension and pressure, great depth, medium+ acidity, perfectly integrated. Fine mousseux, multi layered, complex and a medium+ length. That’s how even I like Champagne. Still very young. 93++

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• 2008 Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne Brut Cuvée Palmes d'Or 90 Points

  France, Champagne

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  From Magnum. Medium intense, fully developed nose with a nice blend of mature notes, brioche, nuts, anise, yeast and some floral notes.
  On the palate with perfect pressure on the front of the palate, but unfortunately that vanishes when it reaches the mid palate. Fine mousseux, good acidity. Very good Champagne at its peak. 90-91

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That is how I like Bordeaux: Elegant, silky, yet powerful.

• 1982 Château Margaux 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  Bottle fill level: upper shoulder. Not decanted. Clear, deep garnet color with tawny edges. Clean, medium intense, fully developed and complex nose. Very multi layered and constantly changing. Cedar wood, red fruit, fine pipe tobacco, underwood, pencil lead, some brett, smoked meat.
  Dry, medium+ and perfectly integrated acidity and finest tannin. Medium body and alcohol (I would guess around 12,5%). Very elegant, almost cool taste but with a lot of tension and pressure. Complex and ever changing medium+ intense aromas with lots of red berries, sour cherry, cassis, fine oak, green pepper, herbs, leather.
  All aromas linger on in the long, velvet finish. The combination of the acidity combined with the cool elegance and silky texture makes this wine juicy, mouthwatering and very pleasurable to drink. I doubt, that this bottle would improve much with more time, but it will certainly stay at this level for several more years if stored properly. A bit better than my first bottle 95+

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• 1990 Château Latour Grand Vin 96 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  Not decanted, from perfect bottle. Clean, medium intense nose that need time to open up. Unfortunately we did not decant it, so it could not show its full potential and I could only estimate its true greatness: Very elegant, fine tobacco, pencil shavings, cassis, spices, cedar wood and almost not brett/animal notes.
  On the palate an amazing experience: The often cited “Boxer with velvet gloves” matches perfectly: Elegance meets pressure and tension! High, perfectly fine and silky tannin, lots of dark and red fruit, combined with wonderful spices, pencil shavings and mineral notes. Masculine, without being raw. Very long, lingering finish. Still young. 96-97.

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My realization: DO NOT open a LaLa before it reaches ist 25th Birthday!

• 1995 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque 95 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  From perfect bottle, not decanted. Clean, medium intense and still youthful nose. A bit more tight/closed than the La Mouline, not so much primary fruit, but lots of tobacco, fine oak, pepper. Fine and elegant.
  Dry, silky and velvet mouthfeel. Medium+ acidity, high, very fine and elegant tannin. Powerful, yet elegant, great tension, very fine red and dark fruit, oak perfectly integrated. Awesome texture. Long finish. This wine is still a baby, that doesn’t want to go out and play. Give it another 15+years and I guess you will be highly rewarded! 95-96++

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• 1995 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Mouline 94 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  From perfect bottle, not decanted. Clean, medium+ intense and still youthful nose with lots of primary fruit, vanilla, butter. Over time, the vanilla and butter aroma vanishes and some spicy notes occur. Fine and elegant.
  Dry, silky and velvet mouthfeel. Medium+ acidity, medium+, very fine and elegant tannin. Great and perfectly balanced combination of dark fruit, spices (cinnamon, cloves), perfectly integrated oak that gives this wine a very good structure and emerging tertiary aromas. Awesome texture. Long finish. Although a great wine, it was not as spectacular as expected and I firmly believe, that it still lacks 10+ years of additional maturity. Once the still existing primary fruits blends completely in, this wine will be truly great. Give it another 10years! 94-95++

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• 1995 Opus One 93 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  From perfect bottle, not decanted.
  Clean, medium+ intense, developing nose. If tasted blind I would guess a classic BDX: Austere and rough, animal notes, hay, dill, ripe green pepper. Complex and really beautiful.
  Dry. 13,5% abv. Lots of pressure, echoing on the palate. Medium+ acidity, medium+ ripe and perfectly integrated tannin. A bit wild and raw, but in a very positive sense. Flavors of green pepper, Cassis, soil, wood. Constantly changing in the glass. Long finish. Potential of at least 10+ years of further development. 93-94

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• 1996 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Premiere Napa Valley SunSpot Vineyard 92 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Stags Leap District

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  Decanted. Never heard of this wine before. A strict selection of the best berries from a single parcel (Sunspot). This is one of the different parcels that Shafer sources its famous Hillside select. Only 1 barrel produced, sold at auction if I get it right.
  As the name Sunspot promises, this wine comes clearly from a very warm area: Deep, ruby, purple color. Needs a lot of air and time to open up, lots of primary fruit, herbs, spruce needles. Still very young.
  Dry, lots of extract sweetness. 14,1% abv, that makes this wine occasionally a bit hot. High, very silky tannin, medium acidity. Lots of primary red and dark fruit, herbs, resin. Warm taste. I guess it is still way to young and needs a lot of time to blend in all its fruit and melt down some baby fat. Really hard to rate. Amazing experience, but at the moment only around 92+

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• 2004 Penfolds Grange 94 Points

  Australia, South Australia

  Glass: Zalto Bordeaux
  From perfect bottle, not decanted.
  Deep, purple inky color. Clean, medium intense, youthful nose that hasn’t developed the incredibly intense perfume yet that I adore so much in a Grange. Lots of primary fruit, spices, tobacco, smoke, speck. Not broad at all, you can feel the potential, but it is still locked in.
  Dry, 14,5% abv, perfectly balanced by the high, ripe acidity. High amount of silky tannin, that gives this wine a perfect backbone. Not jammy, broad or fat at all. Great length and you can feel the hidden complexity. But it screams with every drop: Please, let me sleep at least for another decade!
  At the moment around 94, but certainly in 10+ years around 97++

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Only the best Riesling can beat a great Sauternes

• 1947 Château Caillou Crème de Tête 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  Glass: Zalto Universal
  Good fill level, not decanted.
  Clear, salmon-amber color. Needs lots of air to open up and offers the wonderful perfume that only a truly great Sauternes can produce: Notes of honey, herbs, spices, all woven into one complex blend.
  The sweetness has perfectly blended in over the last half century and is balanced perfectly by the high acidity. Very mulit-layered and extremely complex. Toffee, coffee, honey, spices, figs and much more. Astonishingly everything is at its right place, all components of acidity, flavors and alcohol are perfectly integrated. A truly great experience, but I couldn’t drink more than a glass, because of its quite high amount of alcohol. 95-96

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• 1993 Von Schubert Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Riesling Auslese Nr. 83 96 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Glass: Zalto Universal
  Not much more to add to my previous note. Compared with the truly great Crème de Tete I would always prefer this style: Light as a feather, complex, multi-layered, looong, and: I could easily drink the whole bottle in a few hours :) 96-97

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Great wines, great evening. Food was good, but the Restaurant will still not be my favorite place to be: loud, uncomfortable and a highly questionable PQR.