National Day Lunch at Ken's

National Day rolled along, and Ken and Cynthia hosted us for a wonderful home-cooked lunch which stretched well into the early evening. The wine theme was "decadent wines". All blind as usual, I could not quite tell how some of the wines fit the theme. But who cares - we had some really interesting, delicious stuff. Great conversation, leisurely eating and drinking and, of course, Ken's wonderful food all made for a great way to spend a mid-week public holiday. For the record, what I can remember of the food is as follows:

Cantonese Roast Pork with slices of cold cut carted back from Burgundy
Grilled chicken satay and grilled sea-prawns and sotong
Stuffed reverse tau-pok with balsamic reduction and home-made mayo and ikura
Poached-egg with Jamon Iberico and Japanese mushrooms
Glutinous rice cooked Japanese style with trout belly
Crayfish on angel-hair pasta with red and yellow pepper puree
Roast beef with spanish green pepper
Cheng t'ng

• 2004 Veuve Fourny & Fils Champagne Premier Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs Millésime 90 Points

  France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru

  My first 2004 Champagne, and this was pretty decent, if rather too young to approach. The bouquet was a real savoury nose-full, with salty scents reminiscent of cold cuts and cheese along with lots of umami notes with figs and browning apple scents. Quirky, but really nice. On first sip, the palate, was really fresh and detailed, with super-fine, effervescent mousse framing lemon and lime notes, a savoury umami underlayer and a nice, rather earthy finish lingering away with a touch of oak at the edges. There was tons of acidity zipping through the entire wine, okay with food, expecially with grilled prawns, but it was a bit intimidating when had alone. I liked this, but it needs a lot of time yet.

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• 2001 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  Good stuff, but rather surprisingly young - this needs some time in the bottle yet. Nice nose here, with walnutty oak notes laced with chalky mineral and gunpowder scents, a bit of cream and some musky pear aromas. There was quite a bit of weight on the palate, with an oily textured mouthful of clean lime and lemon notes, a touch of green apple and a little layer of buttery cream and white chocolate. Lots of depth and breadth here, with the rich attack melding into a midpalate showing lots weighty presence and a very long and beautifully defined finish where the lovely minerality picked up on the nose emerged once more, this time seasoned with a sprinkle of spice. Very enjoyable, but the wine clearly needs some integration yet. While it was really nice, it was also quite shockingly young and undeveloped. Premox aside, it could easily go on for another 5 years before hitting peak, when it should be a beautiful wine. A very solid effort for the vintage. 92+

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• 2005 Kistler Chardonnay Vine Hill Vineyard 92 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley

  Very good. Its yellow gold colour was quite a contrast with the older, but much paler shades of the 2001 BdM Corton Charlemagne on the same flight, and the nose was quite strikingly different as well - this had a good dose of buttery, creamy oak scents mingled with tropical aromas of dried mangoes, pineapples and a strange little whiff of what could be best described as an insecticide-like note. For all that, it was actually really attractive. There was plenty of ripe fruit on the palate as well, but I found it really well-defined and balanced for a wine with such weight and ripeness, with rich flavours of mangoes, pineapples and ripe red apples all very nicely integrated and balanced by a good amount of citrusy freshness. This all made for a very yummy mouthful of wine. To round it all off, the finish had a good heft and weight with another bit of buttery cream at the exit. Nice stuff. Drinking well now. I would be interested to see whether it will improve though - I really cannot see how much more room it has to grow.

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• 1995 Domaine Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru

  This was a bit of a roller-coaster ride, starting out very nicely, then dipping alarmingly quickly in the glass. It had a beautiful nose when first poured, classic Burgundy, bursting with red fruited scents of strawberries, raspberries and red currants, all just wafting out of the glass along with bits of floral perfume, a little touch of vine stems and a streak of metallic mineral soaked into a little layer of earthy aromas. There was just a little touch of iodine betrayed the wine's age. Otherwise, this was just lovely and really fresh until the 20 minute mark, when the fruit and flowers started to fade behind the harder, more metal and earth notes. The palate was really nice at the start too. A lovely rich attack showed a mouthfull of red berries and cherries, before a stream of fresh acidity flowed through into the midpalate, where there was a nice layer of earth, spice and mineral riding on a little bed of stemmy tannins. Not from a powerful vintage, but there was still plenty of energy rippling through the wine. A really nice drop. Unfortunately, this too retreated really fast and went under a hard shell of mineral, earth and stem notes. This has some quality to it, but it does need quite a bit more time in the bottle before it comes out to play. You would expect more from a Ponsot CdlR, but this wine has time on its side - I can only hope that it develops to meet the Domaine's usually sky-high standards.

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• 1973 Renato Ratti Nebbiolo Seco 90 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Langhe DOC

  An intriguing wine. Woah on the nose - really strong, savoury aromas of chicken essence, bovril, mushroom jus and balsamic vinegar, all drizzled liberally over a layer of red dates and preserved plums - this smelt really old. After that, the palate was really surprisingly alive, with a good amount of acidity running through clear sour plum flavours - think Umeshu (Japanese plum liquer) - along with luo han guo, dried persimmoms, quince paste, and dried figs dissipating into a slightly earthy, herby finish sprinkled with dried flowers. This could have been a concoction that was brewed in some Chinese herbal medicine shop. I liked it though, really interesting wine, and pretty good to drink too. A real oddity, I would drink it up quickly if I had any on my cellar.

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• 1989 Dante Rivetti Barbaresco Bricco de Neueis Riserva 93 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barbaresco

  Lovely stuff - this was a solid wine just edging into its drinking window. It had a lovely nose, clearly Piedmontese, with flecks of metal and balsamic showing it age, a ream of smoky mineral, some dark berries and cherries and a nice whiff of earth and truffles. The palate still had a lovely freshness and liveliness to it, with almost citrus acidity running through round, full flavours of dark cherries and berries laced with some tar, earth and dried flowers. Not the most complex in the world at the moment - one got the feel that there was lots more to come yet - but it was immensely enjoyable to drink even so, with all the parts of the wine nicely integrated into a deliciously succulent whole. Past the mid-palate, there was just the tiniest lick of the finest tannins carrying the wine into a lovely finish. A really nice wine, probably my favourite of the day, and it certainly helped that it was a brilliant pairing with Ken's tea-smoked chicken. Yum. On the cusp of maturity, this should do really well in another 3-4 years.

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• 1990 Scarpa Barolo Tettimorra 91 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Most unsually, this was our third Nebbiolo on the trot, and a very pleasant one at that. It was still very young though, rather tighter than the 1989 Baberesco that preceded it. I loved the nose here - umami-laden with soy sauce, dried scallops and dried oysters, along with a liberal dose of balsamic, and then dark plums and blackberries, some dark chocolate - very expressive, and really nice. It did come across rather more developed than its vintage though. The palate too had a nice matured sweetness to it, with notes of dried fig and plum, a touch of prune and blackberry, but all this was still rather more reserved than on the nose, definitely hinting that there was much more in the tank yet. There is plenty of structure for aging too - the wine was laced with a surprising amount of freshness and a fine, firm layer of tannins. The finish showed just a final kiss of dark chocolate and a bit of smoke. Really nice, but still very young - this needs another 5 years at least before it really starts unfurling. It should be a pretty nice wine when it peaks. 91+

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• 1995 Groth Cabernet Sauvignon 90 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville

  A nice little Cali cab, drinking at about peak now I would say. While the table was divided on whether the Kistler Chard was a new world or not, there was no mistaking this from the nose alone - Mint, menthol, eucalyptus and tobacco leaf scents floated amongst high-toned cassis notes aromas spiked with a green peppery top-note. Clearly new world, clearly Cab, but we were wondering whether it was Aussie or Californian. The palate was just as confusing - rich, sweet, with ripe cassis and dark cherries (Napa) overlaid with more of that mint-leaf and menthol nuances (more Aussie here). The finish had a warm, earthy ring to it that ended the wine off very satisfyingly. This was perhaps a bit simpler than the other wines on the table this afternoon, but it was very enjoyable nonetheless. It was still youthful enough to go on for several years yet, but I liked where we found it. Of all the wines we had, it was very fitting that this was paired with the beef and green peppers - just about perfect on that count.

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• 2002 Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 92 Points

  South Africa, Coastal Region, Cape Peninsula, Constantia

  One of the not-so-strong bottles, but still a really nice treat to end the meal with. As always, this had a lovely nose, all melting flower petals, chamomile, mangoes, lychees and pineapples swilring around the glass. A veritable tropical fruit basket littered with flower petals one could say. It was certainly sweet, but had a beautiful balance on the palate. Again, there was a touch of burnt rubbery notes on the attack that I did not like much, but this was underscored by a nice honeyed mouthfull dripping with more tropical flavours of pineapple, lychees, rambutans, all kept dancing and alive by a wonderfully bright stream of acidity that carried the wine into a nice, neat finish. A lovely end to a wonderful lunch.

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