Kelvin's 30th aka La Turque vs The World

Kelvin hit the big 3-0, and we gathered at Chef Kang's (of Canton Wok fame) new restaurant for dinner. Theme was "seriously nice wines", and most of them were blinded as always. Unusually though, we found a Guigal La Turque for a decent price, and decided to throw it into the mix to round up the night. Strangely, as has been often the case, a symmetry appeared, with three bottles of Aussie Shiraz popping up to give the sole old world Syrah challange The results - well, wines aside, a wonderful night of celebration.

There was one more wine - 1978 Montrose - which was unfortunately dropped right outside the restaurant. Nevertheless, we all had a blast.

• 1996 Duval-Leroy Champagne Grand Cru Femme de Champagne 93 Points

  France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru

  Best bottle out of four previous 500mls so far. This was a smashing Champagne, and a wonderful way to start dinner. It had a lovely, lovely nose with scents of ripe lemons and kaffir limes just tumbling over each other as they wafted out of the glass, alongside sweet red apple aromas, white flowers and a touch of toast. This had clearly developed quite a bit since the last bottle. The really yummy palate was a lot more opened as well. With a super fine bead, warm toasty brioche notes, more apples and lemons and a floral top note weaving in and out, it was pure seduction. The acidity was just that bit better intgerated as well, so that the super long finish was very refreshingly fresh yet not tart or aggressively bright. It slid across the back palate with a nicely integrated a classy stream of well-integrated minerality. With soup, it showed a touch of spiciness here and there. This has opened up and balanced out quite a bit since the last time round. Still years to go, but really nice now - this was a superb Champagne finally beginning to live up to the accolades heaped upon it by a raft of critics over the years.

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• 2006 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 95 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  Last bottle, and it was fitting that this was the best so far. Not quite a classic Chablis - the fruit was a bit too sweet and ripe so that guesses were further south in the Cote d'Or - but absolutely wonderful stuff nonetheless. It had a subtle nose, with white flowers, some sweet oak notes, yellow fruit, sweet lemons, tangerines, pineapples almost, some cream and a really nice mineral scents underneath. Subtle, but very complex, and it kept unfolding with time until some very Chablisienne schist and shell scents started emerging. The palate was nothing short of stunning. This was possibly the most irresistibly drinkable, perfectly balanced white Burg I have ever had. None of us could stop ourselves from slurping sip after sip of the wine even though the course it was meant to be paired with had not yet arrived - it was just the amazing clarity on the fruit and intricately woven acidity on the mid-palate. Yet again though, like on the nose, it was so effortlessly precise and balanced that it was almost subtle. Make no mistake though, this had tons of complexity. Weightier than other vintages I have had, with fleshy white fruit with yellow tones showing lots of depth and concentration, yet the whole lot was undergirded by a stream of tingly minerality and dry structure. The finish was fresh, long and persistent, and yet almost gentle in the manner it slid away with a touch of white chocolate and cream, almond nut and white flowers slowly unfolding in the mouth. When the food finally arrived, the wine proved to be a good, if not quite perfect, pairing with deep fried fish with soy sauce. The acidity cut through the fish quite nicely, while the white meat pulled a but bit of spiciness from the wine. Very classy wine, yet it was also crazy delicious. Superb stuff.

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• 2006 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel 95 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Simply awesome. This was preceded by two fantastic whites and a raft of very good reds, yet while not quite overshadowing them, it was quite unanimously the wine of the night for the table. A big WOW on the nose. A bit of petrol framed incredibly attractive notes of apricots, nectarines, sweet pear, lychee and flowers. I could sniff this all day, yet the palate was even better. Absolutely incredible stuff, it as choked fill of creamy, mouth-filling, palate-staining flavours. There were layers of honey, aprioct, tangerine candy, sweet pears, like biting into a wonderful stone fruit dipped in manuka honey. It was super rich, but somehow in pitch perfect balance. There was some minerality in there, but the fruit was so gloriously yummy that it was hard to find. The finish had bits of vanilla bean and white chocolate nestling amidst layers of perfumed fruits and flowers and even a touch of spearmint as the wine tailed off in a wonderfully display of flavours that just clings on to the mouth refusing to let go. Ultra complex stuff, yet so very balanced with super well-integrated acidity. The wine was already so good on its own, but it was lifted even further by an absolutely perfect pairing with fried prawns coated with salted egg-yolk and pumpkin. One could well imagine being in heaven with this pair, with the savoury and sweet flavours flowing from the food to the wine and back and the wine cleansing the palate afresh with each sip. Incredible.

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• 2002 Château Palmer Alter Ego de Palmer 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  I was very surprised at this - a second wine from an off year, yet it was really quite nice. It had an absolutely gorgeous nose for one thing. Damp earth, mushrooms, plums, dark cherries, cassis, and lots of cigar and leather - very plush, quite Merlot-ish, and very lovely. The palate was not or thin or weedy, but lacked a bit of power, especially at the rather abrupt finish. Nonetheless, it is was very yummy and very opened for business, with a lovely fresh balance and classic flavours of cassis, dark cherries and savoury earth wed to a nice flowery lilt. There was just a bit of bittersweet herbiness at the end, but overall very well packaged and a real, real pleasure to drink. I could drink this all day and night!

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• 1998 Clarendon Hills Shiraz Brookman 93 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, Clarendon

  Very good indeed. Not quite as impressive as the last bottle we had maybe, but there was no doubting that this was a top-notch Shiraz. The most "old-school" of the three new world renditions we had, it showed an attractive nose of herbs, garrigue, pepper, sweet spices and a good amount of blueberries and plums patted down with some wet earth. The palate took on that half-way house tone, somewhat straddling old and new worlds, with savoury flavours of meat and leather, earth and spice, but also plenty of rich plummy fruit girded by some firmish tannins. Finish showed lots of pepper and some dried prunes. If there was any doubt that this was Australian by this point, the prune notes started being wreathed with some cigar smoke and eucalyptus notes. A very nice wine. Powerful, balanced, yummy. A great pairing with honey coated venison as well. I thought this was just that bit better than the 1998 Rockford Basket Press at first, but while this started fading after a little while in the glass, the other wine just grew stronger and stronger. Nevertheless, this was solid stuff in its own right.

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• 1998 Rockford Shiraz Basket Press 93 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  Just about my favourite of the three new world Shirazes I think. This was certainly the most complex of the three. It had a lovely nose that showed a deft layer of oak, and then rich plums, a dash of eucalyptus, dark chocolate and touches of spice. Super expressive and very attractive. The palate showed loads of sweet black plums, with a slightly dried fruit / raisiny edge hinting at the wine's age. Still very fruit driven though. On the mid-palate, some very Aussie eucalypt and anise notes appeared, before the wine slid away into a finish of licorice, oak and cool sweet fruit. It was modern, ripe, but very well balanced. At first, I thought it was very yummy, but somehow lacking in the old world nous and panache of the 1998 Clarendon Hills Brookman. However, with time and appropriate food, this very quickly overtook the later wine. It just stretched out into a super-long, super-fresh, well-balanced and integrated mouthfull of flavour that went on and on and on. An almost neverending finish it seemed. Towards my last few sips, the nose had filled up with peppery spice and bacon notes, while more sweet spices and flowers came in on the palate to mingle with fruit. Not my usual style, but this sure is an impressive wine. Big, yet complex; rich, yet amazingly fresh and well balanced, this has a long life ahead of it yet. I would love to revisit this in 5 years. At the moment, this was a really solid showing.

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• 1997 Clarendon Hills Astralis 93 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, Clarendon

  Good stuff, but this needs time. It was the most hyper-modern of the three Aussie Shirazes, and also the most backward and primary. When poured after a couple of hours in the decanter, it showed a deep, resounding nose, with depths of dark plums, a bit of meat, glycerol, varnished wood and menthol scents. Very in your face, yet somehow it seemed inviting rather than OTT. Same thing could be said about the palate. Rich, big, thick, with lots and lots of dark fruit spiked with menthol and eucalyptus. Tons and tons of concentration here, but there the wine thankfull hady enough structure and balance to carry it well. Finish was really long and palate staining, showing grapey flavours, bit of prune, with a touch of menthol at the edges and finally and layers of coffee and chocolate oak. Still very young and primary, but I think this has enough in its tank to show well down the road. At the moment, very impressive, but perhaps not as drinkable as the 1998 Brookman from the same stable nor as the 1998 Rockford Basket Press.

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• 1997 E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie La Turque 94 Points

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

  This was not served blind, so I may have been a bit biased, but I thought it was the best Syrah among the four on the night. It was a world away from the three Australian heavy-hitters though. While those were all to some degree shows of fruit, power and balance, this could almost be confused for a Burg in its silky, almost ethereal elegance. For one thing, it had an incredible nose. Super-perfumed, there were just layers of violet flowers, blueberries, earth, garrique and almost a hint of of mineral wafting out of the glass. All very high-toned, pretty and quite beguiling. The palate was where the real surprise was though. It was almost a shock to the system after the three preceding wines, with their thickset antipodean stylings. This was super, super fresh and very high-toned. Almost Gamay-like in its freshness I thought, with a citrussy acidity in there somewhat reminiscent of grapefruit and orange tangerine, and quite beautifully high-toned flavours of cranberry and sour cherry fruit arrayed on a finely-chiselled structure. This was poised, elegant, graceful, almost feminine. Quite the first time I have tasted something like that in a Guigal Syrah. One might think that a wine like this that traded on finesse rather than power, an almost delicately perfumed wine in fact, would be lost coming after the bigger flavours of the earlier wines, but somehow there was enough concentration and depth here to carry you away and make you forget about the other wines for a awhile, yet it was so fresh and slinky that you hardly noticed either the depth or the complexity on it. This veritably transported me to a different world altogether, and I thought it was all the better for that. A super-long, silky finish glided across the palate - a suiting end to a beautiful wine. Drinking very well now, although I can only see it improving over the next 4-5 years' at least.

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• 1981 Château Climens 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Barsac

  Very fittingly, we ended with a wine from K's birthyear. This was a very enjoyable Climens. Not quite knocking on the door of greatness, but very yummy and quite at peak I would think. Orange-amber in colour. Its nose showed layers of honey, caramel and molasses, some dried fig, apricot and yellows plums, and a hint of coconut to round it all off. In a word - lovely. The palate was no blockbuster, but what it lacked in power and opulence, it made up for with perfect, perfect balance. Right from the attack, we got fresh acidity framing rich flavours of brown sugar, dried apricots and figs, moving past a honeyed mid-palate and into a long gripping finish that was at once super fresh and yummy, yet quietly complex, with little notes of mineral, seashell and spice mingling amidst the botrytised notes. Very enjoyable, and a great pairing with the classic modern Cantonese-dish desert of pomelo in mango creme.

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