Dinner at Mozaic

Lovely meal at Mozaic, where chef Chris Salans cooked up some lovely nouvelle French food with a little twist using local, Balinese ingredients. We went for the "premium" wine pairing, which was supposed to come with top wines, but I was not all that impressed by the selection apart from an off-vintage Prum and a very good Wynn's Michael. Pairings were also decent rather than brilliant.

• NV Taittinger Champagne Brut Réserve / La Française 90 Points

  France, Champagne

  From magnum, this was a lot better than I remembered it being. It had a nice, expressive nose, with limes and lemons, seashells in briney water, all lovely minerally scents all around. The palate was a bit simple, but it had a nice fresh, lively feel, with an effervescent bead lining rather linear citrus flavours of limes and lemon zest flecked by a hint of spice and nice line of mineral at the finish. A nice, elegant, if rather stern NV when drank by by itself, but good nevertheless. It was a great pairing with oysters though.

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• 2009 Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay Sonoma County 88 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County

  Not quite my style, but I must say that this was a decent enough new world Chard and very good QPR for its sticker price. There was oak aplenty on both nose and palate. Here, we got lots of creamy buttery aromas and whiffs of roasted popcorn layered over ripe aromas of melons and stone fruit on the bouquet - a sweet nose for sure, but thankfully not confected. The palate was very ripe too, with sweet lemons at the fore, ripe melons and some white peach tones on the midpalate, moving into almost tropical, pineapple and passion fruit notes at the sides. Again, there were sweet, buttery oak hints at the finish. It was just a bit too oaky and worked at points for me, but this was well balanced otherwise with a nascent touch of minerality and fresh acid towards a surprisingly longish finish. Decent enough, but not one I would look forward to drinking again.

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• 2003 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese 90 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Not quite up to the level of Prum's normally high standards for a Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese, but really very decent in the context of the vintage. It had a lovely Mosel nose, with drops of petrol, smoky flint and white peach, some vanilla bean and a touch of earthy mushroomy scents at the sides. A lovely waft of sweet white flowers emerged with time as well. Nice stuff. The palate was noticeably atypical though - rather sweeter than normal, it showed ripe white peach flavours and an almost Pflaz-like ream of stone fruit burnished with a hint of 2003 toast. While it neither had the highest acidity nor the cleanest cut, it did retain some typically Prum elegance and the lovely vanilla and white fruit base of the Sonnenuhr vineyard beneath the sweeter fruit. The finish was not the longest, but it did glide away nicely in a creamy, white fruited tail. All in all, not the greatest wine, but actually pretty nice at this stage. I really am not sure how well it will age from here on though.

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• 2008 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Shiraz Michael 93 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Limestone Coast, Coonawarra

  This was very good indeed, especially for something so young. I really liked the nose here. It started out a bit reserved, a bit reticent, but it had such a nice profile, with subtle scents of dark plums, cassis and black cherries, a whiff of mineral, some smoked meat, a touch of ash, slowly opening up into a waft of violets and little touches of mint and eucalyptus. Really nice, complex stuff even in its youth. The palate was lovely too. Again, subtle black fruited flavours formed the bedrock of the wine, with ripe but very controlled flavours of black cherries and dark berries mingling with little motes of smokey ash, earth and meat, all lined with flinty minerality and flecks of spice. There was still quite a bit of oak in there as the wine strode away into its long finish. Very finely structured and beautifully balanced, this was just a lovely pairing with a nice veal dish. I was surprised by this. It was still young, still showing primary fruit and a touch more new oak than I would like, but it was already drinking quite nicely, and the quality of the wine was there for show. Lovely.

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• 2007 J. Moreau & Fils Vouvray Demi-Sec 87 Points

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray

  Quaffable stuff, but not great. It had a nice enough nose, with a gentle drift of lanolin blowing around cirtussy scents of lemons and green apples, and then a bit of earth and an unusual whiff of green peppercorn. Quite pleasant. Unfortunately, the palate was not quite as strong as the nose. It was dominated with simple flavours of green mangoes on the attack and more citrussy and green apples and lemons on the midpalate, with just a touch of chalky mineral and lanolin on the finish. Pleasant enough profile, quite typical for a youngish Vouvray, but this was sadly did not quite come together all that well somehow - it was a bit disjointed, a bit roughly extracted maybe; and while there was some acidity, it was not quite enough to lift the wine. All in all, a rather pedestrian wine. An okay drink, but just not very good.

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• 2003 Domaine Michel Fonne Pinot Gris Vendanges Tardives 89 Points

  France, Alsace

  Not bad. It had a very rich nose, almost liquered in its heady scents of stewed apricots, orange liquer and orange blossoms swathed in little curls of smoke. Pretty pleasant. The palate was equally sweet and rich, with ripe flavours of apricots, sweet lemons and orange blossoms lined with lots of honey and treacle. Quite yummy on the attack and midpalate, but weaker towards the finish, where the wine's relatively lack of acidity meant a slightly muddled and un-energetic backpalate, which petered away with a little hint of spice. A bit unfortunate. This was decent enough though.

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