London, UK
Tasted Friday, October 6, 2006 by JeffGMorris with 761 views
In attendance were me and Dena, Nigel and Sophie Williams, Russell Faulkner, Linden Wilkie, Phil Wilkins, Nicos N., Scott Manlin and Noel.
Meeting many of these people for the first time was a true pleasure. The food was first rate and the wines even better. 22 bottles and not one was corked, or even controversial in terms of being an off bottle.
The Champagne followed by the 2 Rangen Rieslings and then the 3 magical flights of Chave that made up the first half of the evening's wines were really the highlight for me. The sheer number of bottles combined with the very high bar that was already set and my general dislike of Cote Rotie, Cornas, etc. left me hoping for a return to Chave and a lack of precision on the notes for the later wines.
Thanks to all the Londerers for making this such a memorable weekend for me and Dena and to Scott for offering up our first sample of the indescribable '03 Chave.
Besides having a lot of fun at these types of events I always like to look at them as a learning experience. What did I learn? Well, not much, really just a reinforcement of a few things I already knew:
1. The London crowd treats their guests to great evenings.
2. Rangen Riesling is one of the world's best wines, particularly when left to age and gain complexity. The '89 seemed to have almost everyone enthralled.
3. Preconceived notions as well as the residual sugar stats continue to be a poor measure of ZH wines. I love to see these notions rendered useless as people try the wines and see low residual sugar wines taste sweet from the richness and ripeness while other wines taste much less sweet than their stats or monikers would imply.
4. Vilmart remains my favorite Champagne producer and the oak does integrate with time.
5. There is no other Syrah based wine like those from J.L. Chave. The combination of complexity, balance and richness these wines achieve is second to none.
6. I really don't like many examples of Northern Rhone wines other than those from Chave.
1992 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Coeur de Cuvée 94 Points
France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Always a treat from magnum. Thanks Russell! Burnished gold in color with very tiny unobtrusive bubbles. Medium to full bodied with aromas and flavors of lemon, apple, biscuit and a little toast. Very nicely integrated showing little of it's supposedly heavy oak treatment. Lots of acidity on the very long finish really clears everything off the palate. Drinking really well as did a magnum last year. Very glad to have some of this still in the cellar. 50+13+13+9+9 = 94
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