Dim Sum Club eats at Golden Peony

Lunch has become rather more manageable since we stopped bringing one bottle each! 7 of us this time, and the balance between the variety of the wines and the superb dim sum served out at Golden Peony was just spot on. One bubbly, a white, a red and a sweet, a serendipitous selection of blind wines, and all really good and very interesting stuff too. Paired with the pitch perfect execution of what I would consider the best dim sum in Singapore, this lunch was a fantastic midweel treat.

• NV De Sousa et Fils Champagne Tradition Brut 92 Points

  France, Champagne

  50% Chard, 40% Pinot, and 10% PM, this was disgorged in June 2007 and had a nice bit of bottle age on it. It showed really well on the day, quite a bit better than the last bottle I had actually. It opened with a big nose, with deep whiffs of sugarcane, figs, apples and a lick of cream with just a touch of white meat and yeast at the edges. Pretty nice. The palate also had a rich depth to it, with lovely deep apple notes, white meat, and a nice dose of stony, chalky mineral. Rather developed already, but it still had a nice citrusy energy that carried it into a long finish. This was a very serious bubbly - for all its fruit, it was impeccably balanced, well proportioned and solidly structured. A lovely wine, and absolutely brilliant with fried dim sum.

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• 2008 Domaine Châtelain Pouilly-Fumé Les Chailloux 91 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Upper Loire, Pouilly-Fumé

  A nice Pouilly-Fume. This had an incredibly pretty nose. It was really expressive, but a world away from new world versions. This was bursting with floral perfume, tropical jackfruit, pineapple and golden kiwi scents and a nice bit of stoney mineral. Lovely stuff. Very solid on palate too. It had really rich, almost Chard-like weight, but also had nice focus and definition underlining its rich fruited flavours. Here, I got a mix of stone fruit, like peach and apricots, with riper tropical notes of pineapple and kiwi moving into a stoney mineral finish that showed great persistence and a nice sense of balance. Good stuff, probably at the right place for drinking as well.

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• 1982 Bernard Hudelot Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits Les Genevrières 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits

  A real surprise, and a very nice treat over lunch. This had a lovely old Burg nose, full of lush aromas of toasty earth, mushroomy undergrowth, bits of herb and bramble and a soupcon of stewed meat - lovely stuff. The palate, most surprisingly, was still going pretty strong, with a layer sour cherries, strawberries and haw flakes riding amidst a nice minerally bed all the way into a lingering finish where red fruit flavours mingled with gentle spice. Good stuff. This is just beginning to thin out I thought, but there was still plenty in the tank to provide pleasure, and the wine was certainly very pleasant indeed. Time to drink up!

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• 2002 Henri Ehrhart Gewurztraminer Sélection de Grains Nobles Cuvée Henri 93 Points

  France, Alsace

  Lovely stuff - absolutely delicious and my wine of the day amidst a quartet of very solid competitors. This had a beautiful nose on it, a wafting bouquet of musky white flowers, lychee tea, and sweet spices all floating prettily out of the glass. With a bit of time, some lower-toned aromas of loamy earth started emerging. Really nice. The palate was a nice tribute to its vintage. Beautifully balanced, with delicious flavours of malt, honey, and melting notes of dried apricots, figs and spiced pears floated along on a bed of really nice acidity. For a Gewurztraminer SGN, this had a really nice sense of freshness and focus that kept it from being even a little cloying A long, detailed finish with lovely sweet spice and bittersweet minerality rounded the wine off just nicely. Delicious stuff, at a very nice place to drink now.

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