Public Holiday Lunch at Kel's

Public holidays on Mondays are great, and there are few better ways to spend them than in the company of good friends over a long, lazy lunch. Wines were blind and BYO as usual and, not for the first time, the whites batted the reds off the park.

• 2006 Louis Lequin Bâtard-Montrachet 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

  I always thought this was Lequin's best cuvee, and this 375ml bottle showed just why. It was a good Batard and certainly better than most anything else Lequin produces, better even than the last bottle I had earlier in the year. There was a very nice nose here - ripe lemons, fleshy red apples, some creamy, toasty inflections, a bit of earth, tiny pinpricks of peppery spice - young, a bit modern, but complex and attractive. The palate was rich and ripe, almost yellow fruited in its aspect, with pineapples and dried mangoes on the attack layered alongside a good depth of apple and pear fruit at the core of the wine. It was nicely balanced. Not exactly zippy, but with a nice amount of acidity keeping the wine on its toes in spite of its obvious size and power. There was also a lovely breadth of expression, with the midpalate filling up with butter, cream, earth, mineral and spice notes that spread out alongside the fruit. There was just a bit of heat at the long, creamy, slightly nutty, almond oil finish, but that apart, this was very impressive - it may not have been the most elegant of wines, but it had all the power you would expect from a Batard yet no shortage of class. Excellent.

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• 2005 Domaine Luneau-Papin Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine sur lie "L" d'Or 92 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine sur lie

  Really good. I learnt my lesson from the last bottle and opened this about half and hour before serving to allow it to breathe and, most crucially, ensured that it was properly chilled and not served at room temperature as the last bottle was. This time round, this showed well right off the bat. It had a beautiful nose, with gentle but persistent scents of seashells and stony mineral, a wash of lime and lemon and a suggestion of green apples. Lovely. The palate was at once clean, clear and bright, yet possessing a nice depth of lemon and green apple fruit lined with a delectable note of chalk and seashells - almost like walking along a gravelly beach on a windy, summer's day. Lovely finish too, with a creaminess nodding to the wine's time on lees. As would be expected, a ridiculously good pairing with grilled fish. A really nice Muscadet - time to get more.

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• 2008 Famille Vincent Pouilly-Fuissé Château de Fuissé Vieilles Vignes 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Mâconnais, Pouilly-Fuissé

  Wow, this was a very impressive Macon. It was attractive and generous from head to toe, starting with a very expressive nose laden with lots of honeyed aromas - nectar, beeswax, Manuka honeycomb, wafts of white flowers - daisy petals almost - just before a nice layer of chalky mineral set in. So flowered and beeswaxy indeed that I thought it was a white Rhone. The nose was very attractive, but I thought it was the palate that was especially impressive. This was beautifully delicious, with lovely acidity raced through sumptuous flavours of nectarines, pineapples, green apples - an warm, gregarious expanse of bright, fresh fruit. This was a large wine, with quite a bit of alcohol, very Macon in that way, but still balanced very nicely. Past that, there were lots of honeyed, flowery notes moving into a long, almond-cream filled finish seasoned with bits of spice and more daisy petals. An extremely enjoyable wine, almost straddling Burgundy and Rhone in its summery warmth.

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• 1998 Domaine Taupenot-Merme Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru La Combe d'Orveau 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

  Pretty good, but after a whole series of surprising round and mellow 1998 red Burgs, this was a bit of a shock to the system, showing all the little idiosyncracies that so tarnished the vintage's image when it was first released. I am not saying it was a bad wine though - this was actually a good drink. The nose was very interesting, with lots of almost Vosne-like wood spice, earth, a core of dark cherry and berry scents, some fresh cut flowers that drew one back to Chambolle, and a slightly disturbing ring of rubber and metallic notes. Not exactly a beautiful Chambolle nose, but pretty attractive nonetheless. The palate was very fresh and lively, again showing lots of spice and another ring of metallic mineral and bloody notes on the attack. That subsided somewhat by the midpalate, which was marked with some dark cherries before the wine slid into a long finish where the woody, spicy notes reasserted themselves again. A good quality wine, one I enjoyed quite a bit, but I thought there was just a tad too much of stereotypically 1998 hard woodiness at the finish. It was rather inelegant for a Chambolle too. All this aside though, a pretty nice, very interesting wine. I had quite forgotten having had this a year or so ago, but looking back, this bottle seems to have been a bit weaker than what I remembered. At the end of its peak drinking maybe - E remarked that the wine faded a bit even in the half hour or so we nursed it in our glasses.

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• 2006 Podere le Boncie (Giovanna Morganti) Chianti Classico Le Trame 91 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Chianti, Chianti Classico DOCG

  Yet another bottle that I completely forgot having before. While I absolutely loved the previous bottle, I thought this was good, even very good, without quite being great. This came across as a big, rather modern Chianti. Blinded, we all thought it was something from the New World. Strange, given how the last bottle, also blinded, showed very much as a more traditionally-styled package. The nose showed ripe dark berries and cherries, earth, spice, some bloody notes, a good touch of mineral and some glycerol wafting around. A pretty nice nose I must say. The palate was marked by the high acidity that one would expect from a 100% Sangiovese, showing in juicy gobs of dark cherries and berries. Rich, ripe but nicely packed in with some earthy, metally notes and long finish with a nice ring of spice. For all its size though, there was good purity that rang true throughout the wine. While the last bottle was very much singing in the flush of youth, this seemed in a rather grumpy, primary stage in spite of a lengthy decant. Pretty good stuff indeed, especially for those who have a predilection for bigger, more extraced Tuscans, but this needs a lot of time yet.

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• 2007 Koltz Shiraz The Pagan 87 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, McLaren Vale

  Woah. This was really a throwback to the mid noughties when huge, jammy, Parker-inspired Aussie Shirazes were still in vogue. Glycerol fumes just wafted out of the glass alongside huge aromas of sweet, over-ripe plums and blackberries, a bit of stalky vine stems and a layer of milk chocolates. Almost too big and overpowering with all those huge aromas. The palate was similarly oversized. There was some juicy acidity, but this was swallowed up by gobs of sweet, rich plums, prunes and blackberries. It sure was powerful, but there was just a bit too much of everything at the moment, from the in your face attack, to the lush, plush, velvety midpalate and the rich, milk-chocolatey finish. It should get better with lots of time in the bottle, but I am not going to wait around to find out when there are so many more subtle and interesting Shirazes from Australia. Drinkable perhaps, but just not to my taste.

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