Saturday Night with Ray, Lionel and Rachel

A wonderful evening with good friends, great food and unexepected wines. We brought a bottle each, all turned out to be pretty nice stuff, but Alex H happened to be at the next table, and we ended up sharing some wines with his party. Three wines ended up being 6!

• 1999 Gosset Champagne Brut Grand Millésime 93 Points

  France, Champagne

  An excellent Champagne. I guessed it as a 1999, but felt it was just a little prematurely aged after some time - still though, that probably added more interest to the wine. Golden yellow in colour, fine bubbles, lovely nose, with kumquats, ripe sweet lemons and earth all showing plenty of character. Palate was rich, a little toasty and biscuity on the attack with spice touches, plenty ripe limes and lemons, orange tangerine and some yellow fruit, all underlined with a savoury white meat character. Quite big I thought, rather fruit-forward, but well-poised, with lots of charatcer and a seam of high acid keeping it from being clunky. Finished really long and minerally. Excellent yummy champers.

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• 2007 Domaine Patrick Miolane Saint-Aubin 1er Cru Les Perrières Blanc 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Saint-Aubin 1er Cru

  Rather stern at first, but it opened up nicely over the night. Surprisingly so for a 2007. I really liked this. Nose was quite Chablis-like, with a toss of earth, tons of flinty, steely mineral, some white fruit, and just a hint of cream. The fruit component showed a bit more on the bouquet with time in the glass, but that lovely minerality remained at the forefront throughout. On the palate, lovely freshness, lots of struicture and grip, with flavours of ripe lemons, more white fruit, and again, lots of flinty, steely mineral, finishing in longish and grippy back-end, with a whole mouthful of mineral mixed in with sweet lemons and just that little bit of vanilla. Lots of cur and precision on this, balanced with a nice freshness and good weight. Beautiful with both oysters au naturel and escargots in butter and herbs.

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• 2003 Tua Rita Perlato del Bosco Toscana IGT 91 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT

  Really nice. 65% Sangiovese, 30% Cab, 5% Syrah. I was really surprised at this - I was certainly not expecting something of this quality from Tua Rita's entry-level offering, and for a 2003. We paired it with some cold cuts, which went wonderfully with the wine. Nose was complex and attractive, spanning the divide between old and new worlds, with scents of dried earth, some meat, sweetish dark cherries and plums, some mineral, a sprig of herbs some pepper and plenty ofsmoky, cigarette-like whiffs. Very nice. After that, the palate was surprisingly clean, with plenty of fresh acidity and some super-fine tannins giving it a nice shape and a great sense of balance. Flavour-wise, not too complex, with dark cherries, Italian herb and a bit of dried earth, but all seamlessly delicious from start to the very fresh and open finish, where more dark cherry and earth flavours close the wine off. Very well-made indeed - I enjoyed this very much.

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• 2006 Château Martinens 87 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  Not great. The weakest wine of the night. Nose was really strange. Not brett I think, but lots of dog fur, wet wood, some mud, and a little varnish, eww. There were Bordeaux notes of cassis and earth floating underneath that, but all rather subdued. Palate was quite a bit better. It had a round fleshiness in its cassis flavours, good freshness, some spice, pepper and herbs and, into the finish, rather ripe, cassis with quite a bit of glycerol swirling around. I guessed it as a new world Cab Blend actually. Pretty decent pairing Lamb in blue-cheese sauce, but not a good wine by itself.

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• 2001 Reignac 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieur

  Even better than the last bottle I had - this was really good. Blinded, I guessed it as a 2001 Pichon-Baron! Lovely nose. Meat and leather, mixed with cassis, black tea and a nice ring of tobacco. Absolutely delicious palate. Very clean, pure cassis expressions, ripe dark cherries, finishing with a whiff of cigar smoke - all wreathed in fine tannins and juicy freshness. Superb balance throughout, lots of silky elegance, not the most complex wine at the moment, even less so than the last bottle, but this was delicious and drinking fabulously. Should improve over the next half-decade easily. Yum!

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• 1998 Bouchard Père et Fils Chambertin 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru

  A very fitting way to end the night - with a really good Burgundy. It started out a little hot, disjointed and messy. But with a little chilling and an hour in the decanter, it really opened up quite beautifully. Unmistakably Gevrey I thought. Deep cherries on the nose, along with pure red fruit, earth and meat scents on the top-notes, with a little underlayer of Burg funk, spice and steely steely mineral. Lovely. Palate was rich, but had plenty of elegance, with pure red cherres and strawberries on the attack, moving into a show of layered depth and strength on mid-palate. Very complex, with lots of stuff - spice, meat, earth - all bubbling beneath the surface. Finish was mid-length, a bit disappointing I thought, but richly textured, with a spicy linger, a touch of orange peel and a whiff of smoke. Not much 1998 hardness going on here , but this was very young still. I would give it easily another 5 years before broaching. Still though, very nice on the night. Excellent with pork-cheek penne in truffle sauce.

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