Dinner at Giant Garoupa

Our regular haunt re-opened after a couple of weeks for renovation, and the gang gathered for a meal. E and I could not join them for a long dinner, but we occupied another table for an early mother's day celebration with my parents. When the rest filed in, the wines started to flow, and we were happy recipients of their largesse. All blind as always, with a nice mix or traditional and less traditional terroirs.

• 2008 Domaine Amiot Guy et Fils Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru

  Impressive, but way too young to drink - this came across as a wine with lots of great raw material, with a surprisingly ripe and powerful feel for a 2008, but one that clearly needed time to knit together in the bottle. It nosed almost like a new-world Chardonnay, with ripe notes of sweet apples and pears, along with a little hint of hay and some rather more Chassagne-like honey and honeysuckle notes. A rather nice bouquet actually. The palate was creamily textured, with buttery flavours on the attack followed by sweet apples and pears on the midpalate, almost shading into a bit of fig and tropical fruit layered with more of the honeyed tones picked up on the nose. It was a very full midpalate, with lots of depth and power, but this was wed to a nice background of stony minerality and juicy acidity - both of which hinted at Chassagne and the possibility that it was from the 2008 vintage. Still though, the ripeness and sweet fruit made me guess 2006 instead. The finish, while showing some length, did not quite have the full on power and scale of the attack and midpalate, lingering away as it did in a rather shallower waft of spice, mineral and more honey notes. Nice though. A rather big, powerful wine, yet it was very balanced with no lack of precision, elegance or complexity. This is clearly built for the longer-term, and should come around very nicely in 8-10 years.

  Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2008 Il Borro Lamelle Toscana IGT 91 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT

  I enjoyed this quite a lot more than the last time I tried it. Drank alongside a good 2008 Chassagne 1er Cru, this came across as a lot more open and ready to drink, if not quite blessed with the same depth and complexity of its French cousin. The bottle may not have been entirely clean, smelling as it did of cheese, epoisses almost, on the first pour, and slowly opening into earthy, funky aromas wrapped around a core of white fruited notes and a waft of white flowers on the bouquet. The palate was very approchable though. It had a very dry, minerally attack, with quite a stern backbone giving fine shape to nuanced flavours of pears and white fruit laced with stony mineral, more funky earth accents and gentle spicy notes. I found this very finely balanced indeed, with well-integrated acidity leading the wine into a lively finish with plenty of bright acidity that made the wine a good foil for seafood. While neither the most complex nor compelling, this was nevertheless quite a delicious drink. A solid effort.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 1992 Yarra Ridge Pinot Noir Reserve 92 Points

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Yarra Valley

  A real surprise. This was a rarity - a 20 year old Aussie pinot that was still drinking really well. In fact, the table was quite split on whether this was a Burgundy or a new world wine when blinded. The nose certainly gave pause for thought, with its heavy background of leather, earth and herbs floating along aromas of dried red dates and wolfberries. Past that, there was a waft of flowers and just a hint of smokiness at the edges. A very interesting melange there that could well have belonged on a Pommard. The palate was more clearly new world though. It had a very woody attack, almost to the point of having Chinese herb flavours. Again, this could well have been a Burgundy from a cooler year on that note, except that the woody, herbal inflections floated around a still juicy core of sweet red cherries that had a distinctly un-Burgundy like ripeness to it. The wine was obviously aged in spite of the sweet fruit though, with a very tertiary finish of oolong tea and dried herbs alongside preserved sour plum flavours. It was a very nice mix, with lots of complexity and character along with a nice kiss of fruit that just fell on the right-side of tertiary. A few more years or a little poorer storage and I suspect that the bottle would be too herbal and woody to enjoy. Thankfully, we seemed to have caught this at just the right time. Delicious stuff.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

• 2003 Riecine La Gioia Toscana IGT 90 Points

  Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT

  Nice, if a little too young to fully enjoy or properly assess. It had a lovely Tuscan nose, with plenty of leather, meat and loamy earth surrounding riper notes of dark plums. With some time in the glass, typical notes of Italian herbs and spices started emerging, alongside a rather toasty smokiness that seems to mark many examples from 2003. Still tight I thought, but this was a bouquet that showed lots of character. If anything, the palate was tighter still, being marked at the fore by slightly woody and still rather firm tannins. A bit rustic given the heat of the vintage maybe. However, I liked the underlying character of the wine, with its nicely juicy flavours of dark cherries and plums leading into a spicy finish. Acidity was not as bright as you would expect from a Sangiovese, again perhaps because of the hot vintage, but there was still a nice punch of pure fruit here. It had a good finish too, with some length to it, as the fresher black fruit notes ceded some way to a slightly more dried-fruit character. Given the structure and shape on this, it is definitely a wine that should accompany a nice, meaty meal, rather than one to be enjoyed on its own. I am not sure this will be the longest lasting ICT given the hot vintage character on it, but judging the way a bottle of the similarly warm 1997 vintage that we tried last year has developed, this still has some way to go before hitting its peak drinking window.

  Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue