Dinner with the Monthly Group

Allen and Shin's turn to host. We had a lovely dinner with great company and some delicious Yu Sheng. Wines were BYO as usual, with the Chablis Vaudesir really standing out.

• NV Louis Roederer Champagne Brut Premier 88 Points

  France, Champagne

  Decent, and surprisingly crowd-pleasing in spite of its high-acid style. The wine showed a gentle bead and a rather attractive nose, with fresh, high-toned green apples, yeast, some caramelly sweetness, and a little earthiness. Sweet lemons on the palate, buttressed with lots of acidity, almost verring on tartness, but thankfully fading into a rather delicious juiciness past the midpalate. Lots of fruit here - apples, pears, more lemons. Simple, but with a nice lip-smacking quality that made it a good aperitif. Medium length finish was rather dry with shades of heat at the edges. Not the best NV sparkler in the world, but certainly not the worst either. A very decent wine.

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• 2000 Dom Pérignon Champagne 92 Points

  France, Champagne

  Putting my DP bias aside, this was actually really nice. Better than the last time I tried it six months ago at any rate. Lovely nose. Yeast, earth, white fruits, dusky strawberry tones - far deeper, and far more expressive than the Roederer Brut NV that preceded it. Mousee was fine, almost indistinct. Palate had plenty of biscuit and caramel notes, overlaid with a dry, structured spine and juicy acidity, and laced through with mineral and lots of juicy strawberry fruit and flowery top notes. A very expressive wine in true DP fashion. The dry minerally finish had decent length and closed the wine off rather nicely. Lacks complexity, as I noted with the last bottle, but this was well-balanced and delicious. Not a sophisticated lady, this was more like your playboy playmate gone legit. Still though, quite a pleasure to drink.

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• 2004 Olivier Leflaive Chablis Grand Cru Vaudésir 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  Still young, but this was indisputably the wine of the night. But quite some distance too. I wonder who Leflaive bought his grapes from - but this was clearly Chablis in character, and clearly Grand Cru in quality. Nose was a bit muted when cold, but unfurled as the wine warmed up in the glass to show cream, mineral, yellow fruit, lovely whiffs of Chinese almonds, flowers, and a familiar trickle of oyster-shell minerality. The mineral was more pronounced on the palate, with that saline oyster-shell notes running through juicy white fruit, pears and almonds. The wine was at once rich and mouthfillng, yet also showing plenty of cut, structure and focus. It finish with sneaky length as well, Dryness seemed to dominate past the midpalate, with the wine just prickling the mouth a bit too much to notice more subtle nuances, but subtly, flowers and fruits start coming edging back into the back-apalte with a show of clean, balanced length. A very nice wine indeed, and one that should get even better with time.

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• 2005 Bruno Desaunay-Bissey Gevrey-Chambertin 88 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin

  Not a bad wine, but not an entirely great one either. Rather disappointing for an 2005. Nose showed some strawberry sweets, with bits of cherry candy stuck in for good measure, along with flower and spice notes. Not overwhelmingly sweet, not even very new world, but rather sweeter than I am used to for a Bourgogne. Nice Gevrey characteristics of earth and meat mixed into the malange help to temper the nose, and it did get more complex with more bassy earth notes emerging with time. The palate was rather worrying though. Pleasant enough sweet cherries, maraschino and the slightest touch of meat and plenty of ferrous, rusty mineral in its flavour profile. Very 2005 in terms of structure as well - high acid, and fine, firm tannins. Finish was just a little tart, with some lingering spicy notes. Nice enough to quaff, and I thought it got better in the glass as time when by. However, I thought the wine was just a little thin on the ground, more akin to a Bourgogne than a Village wine in weight. When paired with suckling pig, which should have gone pretty well on paper with a 2005 Gevrey, the wine seemed completely washed out. It should certainly improve with some time in bottle, but it is not a wine I would go out hunting for.

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