#13-77. This was the weakest of the triplet. This had a nice touch of everything on the nose, and it started out promising enough. But the palate seemed more thin and acidic than the others and in fact, drying out quite a bit as well. There's a bit of orange peel, as well as lots of indications that this used to be a very, very fruity wine, with tons of botrytis. This finishes slightly bitter as well.

#30-77. This was my second favourite of the three 1976 Abtsberg Auslesen that I opened. The nose on this showed much more honey and green herbs, and the palate is fairly rich, with some tart pineapple flavours, coupled with a bit of orange peel and caramel. The botrytis is quite present here, and the fat, sweet fruit feels much fresher than on the #13. But where as the #13 is in a slightly past its prime situation, this bottle is just right, though I'm not too optimistic on any more upside.

#22-77. This was my favourite of the triplet (although it makes sense since this is actually the single fuder wine). In any case, it didn't open out that way -- it seemed a little ornery to begin with, though the nose showed some very pretty orange and honeyed scents. The palate was the fullest and fleshiest of the three, and the most balanced as well. Lovely sweet stone fruit and minerality here. This showed a fair bit of botrytis as well. Two days later, I revisted the leftovers, and it turns out that this bottle was in fact corked. None of us picked up on it the first night.

Yes, say what you will on the 2009 vintage, but this bottle was absolutely rocking tonight. This was firm and unyielding, in that awesome classic stony white Burgundy way. The nose showed quite a bit of reduction, as well as a touch of yellow fruit that wasn't too ripe. The palate was flinty and mineral, with plenty of acid. There's almost a bit of Coche fatness on this wine, but really, it's more muscle weight than anything. The ripeness here is very well balanced by the acidity -- neither is over the top. Outstanding.

#43-77, 9.5% abv. This wasn't great on opening, but it actually started to expand and get better later in the evening. The nose shows a lot of honey and just a light hint of mint. Seems like there's plenty of botrytis here (big surprise, just look at the vintage). The palate wasn't impressive to start, but it actually did fill in with air as well. Sweet and honeyed, though to be honest, this seems to have lost some of its vibrancy. Drink up.

#41-77, 9.5% abv. Sadly, this bottle seemed really dried out. There was mostly a husk of acid left, and while air seemed to make this get better, it never really perked up.

Depending on how you count decades, 2004 is one of the top two Northern Rhone vintages of the decade, and this outstanding syrah is a good case in point as to why. The amount of aromatics that kept expanding as the evening were incredible. And they're all the classic things you'd expect: sweet black fruit, a touch of pepper, grilled meat, and green olive. The palate is luscious and thick with its black fruit, but at the same time counterbalanced by both salinity and acidity.

This was initially a bit reticent, and didn't show much besides some interesting waxiness to start, but with air, this actually broadened out significantly. There was lovely minerality and a real surprising freshness to the fruit here, although there were certainly some nutty and oxidative notes here (but I must point out this wine is not suffering from any oxidation problems at all!). By the end of the evening I was able to pick up some Sauternes-like fruit character on the palate. Fantastic.

#12-12, 7.5% abv. A lighter Spätlese in terms of concentration and extract, but certainly not if measured by sugar levels. This seems quite sweet and pretty much an Auslese-lite, but by and large, this is still a very impressive wine. There is some acidic backbone here, though 1. this isn't from the Mosel and 2. this is a 2011. Yes, despite its relative softness, this is still a brilliant wine, showing tons of fleshy sweet white fruit. Outstanding, and the quality of winemaking here is much improved over the 2005.

#13-06, 8% abv. Surprisingly, I found this even softer than the already-soft 2011, although that's not to say this wasn't good. It is. The fruit here shows a bit more towards the yellow spectrum, and there are some nascent secondary characteristics developing here. I would have liked more acidic cut on this.

#11-89, 8% abv. A fairly thick and dense riesling, with immense aromatics. There's a lot of the classic petrol on the nose, but also some ripe stone fruit. This comes across as quite rustic as well, in that it doesn't have quite the same crystalline purity as more modern rieslings have. Funky, as the WS is oft to be, dense, and botrytised on the palate. Fairly sweet still, there's plenty of life left on this.

#06-98, 7.5% abv. This is, simply put, another in a long line of fantastic wines from the Zilliken estate. Absolutely scintillating and electric, with its potent white-hot acidity, but counterbalanced so perfectly with so much dense white fruit and honeyed sweetness. A touch of smoke and minerality get thrown in to add to the complexity.

This was the best bottle yet of my six. Just the right amount of dirty. There's that classic Rioja funk with its barnyard and sweat and meat. But that's all coupled with really dense and ripe black fruit. The palate shows much of the same, with a very nice acidity-driven lightness over all that dense material. Absolutely brilliant.

Served blind, and immediately identified as Northern Rhone syrah, within the last five years. Yes, it's that obvious and classical. The only question for me was from where? I eventually settled on St. Joe, mostly since this didn't seem it had quite enough density for the hill or the roasted slope. Oops. In any case, this was as classical as it comes. Light and floral, with good white pepper spice on the nose. The olives and meat are a bit more hidden, but that's likely a function of age. This does come across as quite light, so it remains to be seen if this will pick up some weight with time.

Gold capsule. Very light, this has a leanness to it that is very appealing to me and much to my taste. It's still very fresh, with some very nice tart red fruits. The olives are a bit faint, but the smoke and the meat are here fairly prominently. There's lots of acidity here as well. The tannins are still grainy, and there is still a little bit to go before this gets into full gear, but this is a solid Hermitage already.

There seems to be something not quite right with this bottle, though I could discern no clearly identifiable flaw. The nose smelled fairly convincing, with some forward red fruit and a touch of barnyardy funk. But the palate was mostly thin and underwhelming -- not much of interest at all here. Just a pile of acid with underripe character. I wasn't the only one baffled by this.

I'm going to take the opportunity to say that I just love Hune. And this bottle was another in a line of them that confirms it for me. The nose on this showed a slight bit of citrus, but mostly riper, white fruit character. The palate is quite expansive, but the acidic and mineral cut here holds that back. Yellow fruit shows up on the midpalate, but the finish is taken over by some lemony acidity.

Disgorged May 2015, 4 g/L dosage. At first, I was wondering if there was a lot of meunier on that due to the funk, but then the wet cardboard showed up. All the more sad that this was corked, since I thought when I tasted it that this had a lot of good stuff.

A stupendous bottle of one of Jadot's best wines. This has just a slight bit of barnyard and Burgundian mushroom funk on the nose, but that is followed by lots of red fruits. The palate shows very nice balance between the minerally fresh earth and the red fruit. This is a very tightly-knit package -- the tannins are still pretty coarse, which I found a bit surprising, but given the density of the raw materials here, I'm in no rush to open the rest of my bottles.

Lot May 2012, disgorged August 2015. Tons of citrus. This is lean, minerally, and with tons of refreshing cut. Heaps of acidity that is enamel-stripping. The finish here is really nice, with a chalky texture mixed with tart fruit. However, on the midpalate, there's some sweet orchard fruit that adds a lot of interest. The best bottle of this I've had so far.

Corked.

Served blind, and immediately identified as Northern Rhone. Whoops. How's that for some egg on your face? Not particularly meaty or feral or saline, but this had a very lovely white pepper aroma on the nose. The palate was a touch light on the acid, but still in very good balance with the sweet fruit and earth. Very crisp and clean, I was thinking along the lines of the Graillot Crozes.