6/23/23, 4:24 AM - I like the Gosset a lot....but I love Pol Roger NV.
6/10/23, 3:00 AM - Hi there,I bought a case from Sotherby's seventeen years ago and have drank 5 so far. It is a sublime wine but is so young even with a 6-8 hour decant. It will likely outlive me despite me having 40-ish years to go :)Cheers,Mike
10/3/22, 9:07 PM - Hi 'Glass',actually this Catena Zapata is predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon-based, not Malbec. Maybe this is not the wine you drank.On another subject, I fell in love with the Lot Valley, Cahors and the 'black wine' in my very early adult years. So I'm with you on that!
9/20/22, 9:03 AM - I think that the 1996 Bordeaux vintage just requires a heap of patience and the top wines are just not open yet. Check out recent tasting notes on Ch. Talbot, which is a league or two down from the top tier (and a wine I love) and that is only starting to show its true colours now.
8/30/22, 5:30 AM - Hi Julian, the problem is that Unico of this age (which is very young in Unico terms) needs an 8-12 decant in advance of serving. I recently opened my first of a case of 1989 and, all things considered including that length of long decant, it was only just starting to show its true beauty. Cheers, Mike (from Hong Kong)
8/30/22, 6:48 AM - Thanks, I've been at it a while! I visit Malaysia fairly often and have a house in Thailand, so I know the difficulty of sourcing good bottle of expensive stuff that can prove reliable to drink. It always helps to havea wealthy friend who brings the stuff in directly from France/Spain/Ital/US :)
8/25/22, 10:26 PM - Dude, comparing it to Unico is a high bar!
8/2/22, 7:40 AM - Hi RAD, thanks for reminding me I'd forgotten to post my note from 7/24/2022 :) Cheers, Mike
8/2/22, 7:33 AM - Hey WDK, having drank this on 9 occasions since buying a couple of cases on release I can tell you that I'm definitely in your camp :) I'd also recommend the 2008 for drinking next at a similar level of pleasure. Cheers, Mike
7/28/22, 9:55 PM - Hi Dr Dan, I have to compliment you on your note....I felt I was there!I love 'obdurate' as a descriptor....I sometimes use 'sullen' or 'a bear that has just awoken from hibernation' but I'll use 'obdurate' more often in the future.Thanks!Mike
7/5/22, 3:04 AM - Paul - as a big Grange fan, I loved this and all your Tasting Story notes. Personally, I would never drink a Grange younger than 1986 at this time but I can imagine it is difficult when the opportunity presents itself! In general, I agree with your Grange vs HOG comments....I tend to categorise the older comparable vintages as 'masculine' (Grange) and 'feminine (HOG). Over time, my appreciation has grown towards the 'feminine'...but both are a real treat if you get the chance to enjoy the '80s or '70s vintages. Cheers, Mike from Hong Kong
6/8/22, 12:22 AM - Jord - great note. However, if you have not drank it, personally I'd reserve a perfect Champagne score for Dom Perignon Oenoteque 1971 (which is still being released, I think). As is all things, taste is a very personal thing, but I can speak from also having 3 cases of Crystal 2008, so my bets are hedged :)
5/28/22, 6:59 AM - Hi Pintag, having visited Amisfield many times since it first opened I think all their wines are screw cap, no? I have screw cap Central Otago Pinot Noirs going back to c.2001 and they are all still going strong if they are from top wineries so my advice is to hold onto a few of these for the long term.
5/28/22, 8:34 AM - Earlier this week we opened a Peter Lehman Barossa Valley Riesling Reserve 2001 and it was still as unevolved as any recent vintage comparable German or Austrian equivalent....which would now be showing considerable secondary ageing. I just posted a note. Whatever....Amisfield produce great Pinots!
4/23/22, 10:42 AM - 😂😂😂
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
3/30/22, 6:07 AM - Owning 100s of bottles of Ch. Musar, I can only acknowledge 'the cork problem' and conclude that it is the reason the actual wine in the bottle remains so affordable, and lovely.
3/30/22, 3:14 AM - You could be right about storage because someone brought this to the dinner and I have no idea how it had been stored. That said, there was nothing 'wrong' with it....just that it didn't live up to the apparent hype. It hadn't been decanted, and maybe a long decant would have changed things. All that said, I suspect this remains a 'garagiste' wine that is not to my personal taste....but chaqun a son gout!
3/29/22, 8:11 AM - Having drank a lot more then 100+ Musars over the years, I can only add two comments (1) give them an 8-hour decant, however unintuitive this may seem (2) Serge Hochar told me a long time ago "Musar tastes old when it is young, and young when it is old".
3/22/22, 6:57 AM - I love your note. Kudos!
3/20/22, 9:23 AM - As you may know, this is one of those infamous Aussie Shiraz' that Robert Parker gave 99 pts on a memorable visit.
3/20/22, 9:11 AM - If you read my 7/11/2020 tasting note you'll see what it ought to have been like - I am a massive Ch. Musar collector and drinker, for what it's worth. Most likely a dodgy bottle.
3/15/22, 7:15 AM - I too am a great fan of the 1996 Oenoteque....and your note captures it succinctly. But have you ever drank the 1971 Oenoteque? Personally, I would reserve 100 pts for that.....but, hey, who's counting :)
3/9/22, 7:53 PM - Hi Auld, it almost certainly is the original cork....Ch. Musar is not normally bottle for 5-7 years after the vintage, hence why the cork looks much newer.
3/10/22, 2:08 AM - Interesting….. could be, I guess. Anyway, key thing is that you enjoyed the wine 😷
3/7/22, 10:57 PM - I would advise 4.5 hours.
2/3/22, 10:09 PM - Having done the Margaret River trip several times, I can assertively recommend Pierro as the best Chardonnay (especially if you can get your hands on a bottle of the VR/Vintage Reserve). However, both LEAS and Vasse Felix are right up there too.https://www.cellartracker.com/list.asp?Table=Notes&Wine=Pierro+Chardonnay+VR#selected%3DW2884163_1_K44de5db341023bf5cca5246d6871a4eb
1/23/22, 3:07 AM - @BellvuePhil - thanks for the compliment!
12/19/21, 6:52 PM - Not sure if you are aware but this is the entry level wine from Selosse, which gives it extra conversation piece status :) It is commonly the NV champagne in Michelin*** restaurants at least here in Asia.
12/11/21, 11:37 AM - Totally agree with Paul852's comment.
8/9/21, 6:48 AM - I have drank a lot of this wine - I am a big fan - and I have always found that it needs a minimum decant of 3 hours to really show its best. Enjoy!
8/10/21, 3:12 AM - 18-19C is somewhat warm for long-term storage......I store my wines at 13-14C. Personally, I wouldn't recommend putting fine red wines in ice.....much better is to put a bottle in your ordinary fridge for an hour or so before decanting but not longer.
7/9/21, 4:09 AM - I recommend that you put it away and forget it for 10 years. I drank an underwhelming bottle of 1994 '904' recently.....these are just 'old school' wines which need more patience than our current generation has time for.
6/22/21, 10:17 AM - Hi Harley, thanks for the compliment. ‘Char Siu’ is a Chinese traditional method of preparing and cooking pork, as you may know. Obviously it normally involves local Chinese pork. This restaurant has simply raised it a level by substituting Spanish Iberico pork as the base material.
4/6/21, 12:29 AM - Hi Simon, I had 2 cases, which I enjoyed a lot but concluded a year or two ago that it had reached the 'past prime' state you have described so well....they are now all gone.
4/1/21, 4:00 PM - Hi Lord, I think 3 hours is about right. In my view, people generally don't decant their wines long enough and so only experience 60-70% of their potential,
3/31/21, 12:57 AM - Hi Jeremy, I have been a massive fan of this wine for many years and friends at the winery tell me they think this is the best one they have ever produced. I get delivery in a couple of weeks so I much appreciated your encouraging note :).
3/18/21, 7:41 AM - Robert, I have never had luck with this vintage in Lynch Bages (6 poor or at least unmemorable bottles)....I think they must have got the winemaking wrong in a tricky year because the 2003 Pontet Canet is a thing of beauty.
3/11/21, 8:12 AM - If you are lucky enough to have the 2000 or the 2004 and 2005, I would encourage you to drink those and keep the 2002 in the back of the cellar. Personally, I think the 2002 will reach the heights of the 19996 if you can keep your hands off it.
3/11/21, 3:17 AM - Graeme - not sure many of us have this wine :)
2/5/21, 4:18 AM - I drank around 50 2001s en primeur at a big release tasting in Hong Kong and concluded that the more 'traditional' Bordeaux makers, such as Leoville Barton, will have a long life even if they will always be more 'lean' in comparison to 2000. But in my book 'lean' Bordeaux is 'classic' Bordeaux and a lot have years ahead of them to sustain a plateau or even improve somewhat, especially in St Julien (Gruaud Larose needs another 5+ years) and St. Estephe (the Cos D'Estournel 2001 is still a baby but absolutely gorgeous). Even the relatively modest Moulin St. Georges 2001 from St. Emilion needs another 3-5 years, I think.
2/5/21, 8:05 AM - At a minimum, the cost of 2001 Bordeaux is low enough to to be able to afford to drink them through their future maturity journey. As an aside, I would also point out that 2001 was a stellar year for Sauternes and even 2nd or 3rd tier producers made great wines that have long lives ahead of them.
3/9/21, 5:45 AM - Totally agree.....
2/8/21, 6:35 AM - To my taste, this could easily be mistaken for the 'Winston Churchill' cuvee in this vintage - rich, masculine and easy drinking.
1/18/21, 12:05 AM - Hi Pavel, one issue is that Ch. Musar is not a great restaurant wine because it requires a 6-8 hour prior decant (....including the whites). The characteristics you note on the nose and the palate tend to blow off with a long decant. The 1999 is still something of a young adolescent in Ch. Musar terms. That said, Ch. Musar is the opposite of 'pasteurised' so it is not to everyone's taste.
12/26/20, 8:44 AM - Hi Charlie,Are you drinking less these days or just posting less?Seasons Greetings!Mike Goldstone, Hong Kong (we have met but can't remember that connection lineage)
12/26/20, 12:47 PM - Thanks for filling in my memory blank. We have a great group of sommeliers etc. who get together once per month to share great and 'interesting' bottles and will welcome you to the next one.
8/30/17, 11:04 PM - Guys, sorry to hear that.... I bought a few bottles recently and they are a bit hit and miss.
12/26/20, 8:21 AM - I opened a bottle today over Roast Leg of Lamb and it was one of the best wines I have drank in 2020....silence-creating, which is my highest accolade I can give to a wine. Merry Christmas!
12/25/20, 8:36 AM - Merry Christmas! I always enjoy your notes. I suspect that the '95 may challenge the '85 over the coming 10 years.
12/25/20, 8:32 AM - I'm surprised because their winemaking standards are right up there with the best. Did you buy it 2nd or 3rd hand? Whatever, Merry Christmas!
9/23/16, 6:28 AM - I just bought a bottle of this from Sabrina at CRU...... pleased that it gets the Sharon and Roland endorsement.
12/25/20, 6:02 AM - Merry Christmas to both of you. I am opening this for Boxing Day lunch at home tomorrow. Wish me luck :)
12/21/20, 7:00 AM - That is a super note - informative and emotive! Merry Christmas!
12/1/20, 6:51 AM - As a Grange collector, that's a super note on a vintage I love. Chapeau!
12/3/20, 7:00 PM - Hi Sirpat, my absolute favourite Grange for current drinking is the 1971 which is still a baby (rather like the 1959 Ch. Latour, which another all-time favourite wine of mine). On the Grange '71 I wrote on one note "Everyone should experience this wine before they die"....or something like that.Other Grange vintages that are drinking really well now are 1980 ('81 is much too young), 1983, 1989 (atypically,needs drinking up),1991, 1993 (really fabulous and just entered its open drinking window) and maybe 1997 (with a 6-8 hour decant but will only get better in the next decade).If you haven't tried it, Henschke Hill of Grace from the '80s is in the same league...or some would say, higher. i sit on the fence on that one.Lastly - in a similar vein and you probably know it already, I am a huge fan of Ch. Musar and have almost every vintage going back to 1959. Anything from 1999 backwards is gorgeous if you give it a 6-hour decant (even the 1980s wines need it). It's also a lot more affordable than Grange or HoG.
11/12/20, 7:19 PM - Hi Ivan, super note and I totally agree about pairing this wine with fine Cantonese cuisine. The same is true, I find, for Dom Perignon and Krug (in particular).
11/9/20, 10:14 AM - Mate, in sympathy, looking forwards to some cracking 'lockdown' notes from Liverpool (my soccer team since childhood, as an aside).
11/3/20, 12:30 AM - Hi Derek, I'm surprised you think this is not for further cellaring...... I think it has 10-20 years ahead of it to improve, based on the 6-hour decant it needed when I last opened a bottle in 2017. It came in the top 3 of 20-25 Aussie wines a friend and I researched about 10 years ago to try and identify 'the next Grange'....younger winemakers who have accessed 100 year old vines, simply put. Whatever, I enjoy your notes and what you are drinking.
11/3/20, 1:21 AM - Fair enough.....but if you ever have a chance to drink a Grange 1971 or a Hill of Grace 1985 I will ask you to challenge your paradigm :)The acidity issue is an interesting one, because Australian wines are notoriously short of natural acidity and so it has been generally allowed to add 'foreign' acidity in the winemaking process. In my experience, wines in the 1990s now show a 'sour' acidity because the 'foreign' element never really integrated and then pokes up intrusively once the fruit and oak fades.......but I am being very nerdy and there is no need to reply to this part of my comment :)
11/3/20, 1:50 AM - Mate, if you ever have the opportunity to drink a bottle of Hill of Grace from the 1980s then do everything to experience it. HoG is more feminine than Grange but the '85s and '86s I have drank stand up to anything I have ever drank....including perfect bottles of Ch. Latour '59, for example.
9/26/20, 3:42 AM - Hi Derek,You may not have been in control of serving this wine but it really needs a minimum 4-hour decant at this stage of its life, in my experience. Then it sings!Mike
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