Drinks at Taberna

My first visit to Ying Hsien's lovely new wine bar off Dunearn Road. Some of the usual suspects were there and we shared pours across the table. A really nice way to spend a Sunday evening for sure!

• 2006 Didier Dagueneau Pur Sang 94 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Pouilly-Fumé

  Really superb stuff. Very different from the Silex of the same vintage, but I think it is almost as good. Nose had deep notes of nuts, green grass, herbs, goosberries, toast and sweet yellow fruit. Very rich, very complex - hard to imagine this side by side with a new world SB. Palate was even better. Really succulent and rich, with powerful flavours of fleshy white fruit, gooseberries and a grapefruity citrus lift. Lots of zippy acidity actually, but the sweet weight on the wine needed it. Overall, it had a bit less cut and focus than the Silex, but this had great depth and breadth and an in-your-face strength and impressiveness that was quite breathtaking on an SB. It finished long, fresh and deep, with a touch more fresh white fruit and toasty nuts running alongside a serious chalky minerality. Still young, but boy, this was quite the powerhouse. So good that I preferred this ever so slightly to a very good Henri Boillot Pucelles we had alongside.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 2004 Jean Boillot & Fils Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru

  Excellent stuff. The whites certainly out-played the reds on the night.This was tightish on the nose at first, with some toast and clove notes at the fore, it opened up to show white fruit overlaid with fresh cream, chalky mineral and some flowers. As the wine warmed up slightly, the white fruit tones began to take on riper, yellow fruited notes. The palate was very typical of H. Boillot's style. Creamy, rich, weighty, yet laced with fine acidity and mineral, so that it was very nicely balanced. Nice spectrum of flavours across the palate too, starting out with sweet pears and melons, moving into chalky mineral on the mid-palate and into a fresh, open finish seasoned with exotic spice notes. Still quite a bit of oak lining the whole wine, but I think time will help to integrate it somewhat. A really nice, immensely enjoyable bottle.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1999 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir 88 Points

  New Zealand, North Island, Wairarapa, Martinborough

  Decent, but not great. Started off really, really rough actually - all tight and alcoholic. Nose had a woosh of glycerol followed by wood varnish and indistinct dark fruit. It needed about a couple of hours in the decanter before it toned down to show dark cherries, plums and earthhy herbs. The palate was much the same. Opening with a blast of spice and sweet alcohol, and then curling up into a tight package with old wood and coffee finish. It seemed like the fruit may have dropped off, leaving behind a shell of wood, acid and alcohol. A Pinot on steroids, and a rather grumpy one at that. Thankfully, this too opened up with time time. The alcohol toned down a bit, some sweetness came off, and some rich dark cherry fruit started emerging, along with a bit of peppery spice and a leafy finish.I must say that the balance was very decent. At one point, Peter, who came in much later than the rest of us, actually guessed it as a Burg when tasted blind, something that would have been nigh impossible to do on first pour. All inall a decent new world Pinot, but nothing much else.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1993 Domaine de Montille Volnay 1er Cru Les Mitans Flawed

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

  Unfortunately corked along with a couple of other flaws thrown in for good measure I think - smelt like a mixture of wet newspaper, rotting cardboard and a bit of fetid meat. Whoops.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1995 Domaine de Montille Volnay 1er Cru Les Mitans 89 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

  Still really tight and a bit disappointing overall. Not a bad wine by any means, just not that great either. Nose was pleasant enough, with sweet cherry gummy, scents, some meat, a twist of bramble and floaty impressions of soap-suds and flowers. The palate was nowhere near as pleasant unfortunately. After a series of really nice 1995s, this reminded me how mean the vintage can be, with a rather skinny ferrous attack, a skimpy layer of floaty red fruit on the mid-palate, and a bit of chalky mineral and some pretty flowers at back end. It had just a smidgen of heat at first, which thankfully faded with time to show a nice balance, but it never quite threw off the sense of tight-lipped dryness.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No

• 1999 Balgownie Estate Shiraz 92 Points

  Australia, Victoria, Central Victoria, Bendigo

  The 1998 was sold out unfortunately, so we turned to this bottle instead - but what a treat it was! This was the first vintage where some Viognier was added into the blend, and it made for a lovely wine which was at a very nice place when we got to it. The nose had really clear, pure blackcurrant scents - more than one person mentioned Ribena- along with earth, some beef blood, and exotic spice accents of thyme and cumin. Very attractive, but the palate was even better. Again, lots of fresh blackcurrant notes on the attack, great purity here, along with some thicker crushed blackberry flavours, some meaty, animale hints and a nice driving steely minerality that carried the wine into a long finish with full of super fresh acidity and gently wafting notes of flowers, thyme and sage. This was nowehere near your thick, viscous Barossa brutes. It was elegant, silky smooth and refreshingly delicious, with each sip calling out to another. Solid stuff - quite clearly the red wine of the night.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No