Their Place, Hong Kong
Tasted Saturday, May 26, 2012 by Goldstone with 267 views
An impromptu get-together on a quiet Saturday night that was a very chilled, as always.
This was a great combination.....we drank an initial glass of the wine as an aperitif then finished the bottle over the Scallops dish....which really brought out the richness of the wine.
We decided that the Ch. Haut Brion 1996 might not work well with this.....so we hastily opened a new bottle of white wine that we thought might fit with the fish. It worked......!
This was the obvious highlight of the evening....... where I brought a slow-decanted classic Cali Bordeaux blend to joust against Greg's promised 1996 Haut Brion. The result was always going to be in the character of the defeat rather than in the result itself.......actually, it ended up being closer-scored than I had expected. Anyway, great fun to drink two such super wines alongside each other.
Thanks guys!
2003 Kistler Chardonnay Vine Hill Vineyard 92 Points
USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
Bright and shiny medium yellow gold colour. Nose is heavy oak-laden power, oven-roasted whole lemons, balsam oil. If the nose is rather more oaky than you'd expect for a Vine Hill, the palate is absolutely gorgeous: unctuous, oily, hazelnutty and citrussy, with an attractively and unusual grassy and low-acidity, fresh-peeled hazelnuts back end. It leads to an interesting counterpoint of a heady, resonant and very reverberant back end with lots of minerals and crushed rock on the after-palate. With extended time and as it warmed up towards cool room temperature it became increasingly lemon-oiled and nutty on the palate with a gorgeous smoky element emerging on the nose. Really lovely but somewhat heavier in style than you normally associate with the Vine Hill plot. As mentioned in my previous note, I think it is time to drink these up and move on to the 2004/2005s.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue