Community Tasting Note

• Goldstone Likes this wine: 95 points

  December 25, 2021 - Christmas Day Family Lunch at Home (Our House, Hong Kong): On opening - Really impressively high quality cork, untouched by the wine except for the underside. Reddish-purple colour. Translucent. Slight sediment. Immediate nose of blueberries and tomato vine, anthracite, cold bitchumen and green peppercorn. Palate is very bitter 95% cocoa black chocolate, cold black tea, very bitter dried black Chinese medicine ingredients, gall bladder.
  
  Xmas lunch - After overnight double decant....jeez, this is a stunner… stops you in your tracks. Tons of mellow fruit and a lot of complexity. Everyone loved this. 95
  
  It remains in Runny's and my top place from some 20 wines we investigated as contenders for "The Next Grange?" 13-14 years ago. Hold.

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3 Comments

• Paul852 commented:

  4/1/22, 10:31 PM - I've been reading through your recently uploaded notes with more than a hint of envy since the vast majority of what you drink is way outside my budget or simply no longer available. But I find that this, one of your highest-rated wines, is not only available but is within my special occasion budget at HK$640. I shall get a couple in on your recommendation, and be sure to give them a very long decant.

• Goldstone commented:

  4/2/22, 12:58 AM - Hi Paul, thanks for your kind words. Actually, you are seeing a somewhat skewed stratum of my normal drinking. I stopped drinking at all for 5 months up to Christmas/CNY and then just focused on nicer bottles from my inventory. I’m working on a similar pattern of 6 weeks off/one week on going forwards, so I’m afraid that my notes yet to be posted will be skewed to high-end wines. This is a bit unusual because I have always prided myself in discovering and appreciating really ‘high quality price ratio’ wines. OK, so to address your question: in Hong Kong, Watson’s regularly sell Gosset Champagne Grande Reserve NV at big discounts (I bought a case last week at HK$275 per bottle), Park N’ Shop regularly sell Babich NZ Sauvignon Blanc on discount at around HK$90 per bottle, Watson’s sell Quartz Reef Method Traditionelle NV for around HK$350 which is a NZ sparkler but made by a lady who is 3rd generation Champagne family, Ch. Musar has been a perennial passion of mine ever since I was a penniless student and vintages even as far back as 1999 (which is brilliant) are still available in Hong Kong from FICOFI for around HK$300-ish. One of the best wines I have drank regularly over the past 10 years is Nicolas Catena ‘Zapata’ a Bourdeaux blend from Argentina that should be available in HK for around HK$350 (I have served that in blind dinners where snobby wine friends rated if higher than Ch. Latour). Anyway, I hope that gives you some QPR suggestions. As always, Mike

• Paul852 commented:

  4/2/22, 4:51 AM - Mike,
  Thanks very much for the additional recommendations - I shall certainly give them a try. For champagne I must say that I have been enjoying several grower champagnes (by, for example, Robert Barbichon, Tristan Hyest< ...) sold here by Xtrawine in the $275-350 range in their very regular promotions. And of course Musar is a significant part of my (small) collection, including still a few bottles of the '99.
  Best wishes for your future wine enjoyment under your new regime; I look forward to reading about them here.
  Paul

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