New Year's Eve 2010 Drinks

A few of us gathered for dinner the night before, and decided to do a follow-on session on New Year's Eve afternoon. What a cracking way to end the year though, with some very solid wines being poured. Quite coincidently, we almost had a mini-Rhone tasting.The host's two generous bottles, one white and one red, were quite clearly the wines of the day for me, although I did miss a 2000 Rosseau CSJ which seems to have shown very well. Cheers to a good 2010, and here's to a better 2011 ahead.

• 2007 Nik Weis / St. Urbans-Hof Saarfeilser Riesling Spätlese feinherb 90 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  A refreshing and well-made feinherb to start the day. Nose showed very Saar notes, with green apple, limes and pear scents, with a little touch of green herbs and just that hint of honey. Palate was nicely off-dry and really nicely balanced for a 2007, with fresh zippy acidity and a nice steely forming the backdrop for some mid-weight flavours of spicy pear fruit, green apples, and a slightly fizzy finish with plenty of length. Again, I thought it was very true to its terroir. Nice.

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• 1996 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese 93 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  I thought this was lovely. Clearly a child of its vintage, so it was not rich or powerful, but it had all the hallmarks of Prum's understated elegance wed to fresh 1996 zippiness. This is not to say it was lean or mean though. It certainly had a lovely, very expressive nose, with honey, vanillin and gentle florals nestling amongst nectarine, white peach and baked apple scents with tiny droplets of petroleum floating alongisde. The palate was delicious. Mid-weight, as mentioned earlier, with a lot more baked apple tones, some honeyed nectarines, limes and lemons all easily carried by a round, juicy acidity and very nicely integrated together. Finish was not the longest, but it had a delicious, open generosity, with a lovely line of Mosel minerality drifting away into the distance. Yums. Not immediately spectacular, this went down so easily and agreeably that you had to concentrate to notice a sneaky blink-and-you-will-miss-it complexity. In a wonderful place for drinking now - I enjoyed this even more than the last bottle.

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• 2007 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc Cuvée Roussanne Vieilles Vignes 95 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  A brilliant wine. I had quite forgotten that I tasted the same vintage before - this was quite noticeably a notch up from the last already very good bottle, so much so that I thought it was a different vintage altogether. The nose here showed hauntingly perfumed Roussane scents of beeswax, almond creme, yellow plums, wafting florals with honeysuckle at the fore, and lots of exotic spice drifting around. Bewitching. The palate was rather young and tight still, but had the same impressive depth I noted on the last bottle, maybe even more so, with ostensible white and yellow plum flavours and some beeswax layered over deep, complex undercurrents all tightly coiled underneath with a palate-coating intensity and concentration. For all that astounding depth though , the wine still showed a beautiful balance for what is essentially a low acid grape. In fact, this had a nice light touch for all its weight (if a Rousanne could be called light!), and was positively dancing across the mouth compared with the richer, heavier tastes I remembered from the last bottle. The finish was long and melting, with bitter almonds spreading across the mouth along with slowly unfolding spice notes that filled the back palate entirely. With time, some lovely pure honeyed fruits and mineral emerged alongside, all moving together in a harmonious whole. Quite knock-out stuff.

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• 1999 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul 93 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  I really liked this - I think the lightness of the vintage suited the wine very well, so this turned out to be a nice fresh, slightly lighter-stepping Mon Aieul. 95% Grenache and 5% Cinsault, it started out with a deep leathery nose with lots of meaty funk, to go along a healthy dose of ripe cassis fruit scents and a layer of earthy sous bois notes. With time, the funk goes down slightly, and the wine showed primarily savoury meat, wet earth and sweet dark fruit scents spiked with a little touch of tobacco. Pretty decent introduction to the wine I thought, but I preferred the palate somewhat. Rather modern maybe, but it was quite clearly CdP. Again, lots of meaty animale notes on the attack, but this ceded the stage quickly to nice pure sappy red cherry flavours seasoned with incense, garrigue and peppery spice, all laced through with really fresh, juicy acidity and supported by fine, almost silky tannins. It had a nice fresh finish too, with black tea notes alongside a hint of dried grapes and dark plums. Not the richest vintage, but I really liked the freshness and liveliness on this. Probably at a good place to drink with a little decanting too.

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• 1995 M. Chapoutier Châteauneuf-du-Pape Barbe Rac 92 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Still good, but a little grumpy compared with the last bottle we had - the half and hour being too short a time in the decanter maybe. In any case, this was nevertheless a solid CdP in a very traditional style - a world away from the modern stylings of the Usseglio Mon Aieul we had alongside. The nose was a classic CdP bouquet of peppery spice, roasted meat, dark fruit and garrigue. The palate was a bit tight, but had nice a clean, clear feel lent to it by its acidity, with flavours of sweet, juicy red cherries, some darker cassis notes, dried earth and nice meatiness seasoned with a bit of lavender and garrigue and quite a healthy dose of black pepper towards the back-end. My only issue was that the finish had a layering of rather stiff tannins which were just a bit on the woody, chewy side, so that the wine seemed a little austere at the close. I think 4-5 years would do it some good, help it to loosen up a bit more. Otherwise, it was a nice traditional CdP that I enjoyed having in my glass.

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• 2000 Giaconda Shiraz Warner Vineyard 94 Points

  Australia, Victoria, North East, Beechworth

  A glorious wine. As good an Aussie Shiraz as I have had all year, and about as close to a top-end Cote Rotie as any new world interpretation I have yet encountered. Popped, poured into a decanter, then into a glass and ooh, what a lovely, lovely nose. French vanilla, meat, dark fruit, blueberries, cassis, incense and eucalypt all tumbling out of the glass. Not a knockout, blow your sense Barossa nose - this was elegant, almost pretty in its aspect, and so very alluring. The palate had a lot to live up to after that, but boy did it deliver. Clean as a whistle, with wonderfully transparent cassis and blueberry fruit. It had power aplenty, yet the balance was so spectacular that it was almost weightless as it floated across the mouth on a river of fresh acid into a long, haunting finish with floating violet scents and some very Rhone-like garrigue flavours. This was at once profound and delicious. A super, super wine.

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