Dinner with Herald & Teni

We hadn't caught up with Herald & Teni for a long time....so it was a great opportunity to try out a recent discovery ...the Kumeu River.... on a discerning palate and some wines that I was keen to revisit some years after I had last tried them.

• NV Gosset Champagne Brut Grande Réserve 89 Points

  France, Champagne

  Served in medium-sized white Burgundy glasses. Semi-rich gold colour with a nice brightness. Nose is classic toasty brioche with a creamy element and a nice lifted higher piano note. Palate is high, sharp and refreshing acidity with toasted almonds, green tapenade, a great biscuitty tone and a creaminess on the back end. Long on the palate. Very dependable...and great QPR.

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The wine showed itself much better with the food than when first sipped beforehand......it was even better with the white chocolate and fresh pear desert.

• 2007 Kumeu River Chardonnay Hunting Hill 90 Points

  New Zealand, North Island, Auckland, Kumeu

  Bright light butter gold colour. Nose is smoke, charred oak but not obtrusively so, crushed oven-roasted lemons, minerals, sea-shells. Palate is still taut but has a great incense-tinged acidity balanced by distinct but not over-the-top malolactic fermentation....this is really well-balanced and really well made. Heady alcoholic finish with a bit too much acidity on the back end but very enjoyable. Better with food.

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Both wines really worked well with the simple steak.........

• 2001 Gibbston Valley Pinot Noir Reserve 91 Points

  New Zealand, South Island, Otago, Central Otago

  Opened but not decanted 4 hours before serving alongside a J. Drouhin Gevrey Chambertin 1995. Deep black-red opaque colour with a touch of transparency at the meniscus. Nose is reticent but rich wild woodland strawberries with hints of fresh-roasted coffee bean....a lovely richness. Palate is rich, opulent, dense black cherry fruit, kirsch…..still quite primary….. slight alcoholic heat. Young and heavy, even with big French cheeses after we had originally drank it with the pan-fried Angus tenderloin. Stronger element of coffee grounds with extended time in the glass. Wish I had decanted it.... Anyway, this has a very long life ahead of it and will only get better…
  
  Aha!...... the half of the bottle kept overnight blossomed into a rich and ripe nose of black/red cherry, coffee beans and 90%-cocoa chocolate. Palate has developed a more open and harmonious melange of acidic bite, tannic heft but softer than Day 1, mocha coffee, white chocolate, white mushrooms, lovely black/red cherries and strawberries. Very fresh and vibrant……absolutely delicious and now on par with the '95 Gevrey Chambertin.

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• 1995 Joseph Drouhin Gevrey-Chambertin 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin

  Opened but not decanted 4 hours before serving. Damask-red core light at the edges. Nose is understated strawberries buried in sous-bois, damp forest floor, still some appealing red cherry fruit and some alcoholic heft. Palate is led by a great acidic cut....really great.....then dry woodland strawberries, , tannic Chinese medicine and a distinct chalky dryness on the finish. Lots of resonance inside the head on the finish......this is really, really good. Classy....and amazing for a Villages wine. Despite my April 2010 note, this is not necessarily yet at its peak. It contrasted perfectly with the 2001 Gibbston Pinot Noir Reserve served in parallel. It won on the night but I think the Gibbston might beat it at the same age. 92+.

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The Mas De Daumas needed the earthiness and nuttiness of the cheeses, especially the St. Nectaire, to rise above "one dimensional" on the palate.............but actually but the two Pinot Noirs outshone even more during this course.

• 1996 Mas de Daumas Gassac 88 Points

  France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Pays d'Hérault

  Decanted 6 hours before serving. Deep rich cherry-red colour....slightly dusty opacity. Nose is ripe autumnal plums, totally integrated oak and tannin but rather rustic and not very complex. Palate is slightly sharp cherry and plum red/black fruit followed by very pleasing Chinese dried plums, tannic and powdery Chinese medicine, and with more fruit emerging over time and increasingly powdery and fully resolved tannins. Over even more time between decanter and in the glass it ends up fully mature and with a very pleasant nice rich plummy character... but all rather one-dimensional. This has aged much faster than I expected when I drank it with Aime Guibert, the proprieter, in March 2009. I will bring forward the rest of the case.

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This desert was astoundingly good....and I don't like deserts!.......the white chocolate helped make the Kumeu River Chardonnay show an extra dimension...but the tart deserved a 2001 Sauternes.

Great fun......and thanks, Herald, for the two lovely wines you brought but that I kept to myself for subsequent introspective enjoyment.