4th Anniversary Wines

Our dear friends Kee and Zhi came over for a yummy supper, with aged cheese from France and the best tinned tapas from Spain to celebrate our anniversary with in a simple, but really enjoyably quiet evening. Two wines on the night, both lovely.

• 2003 Künstler Hochheimer Hölle Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel 93 Points

  Germany, Rheingau

  Beautiful as always, especially with a nicely aged block of Mimolette cheese. The nose here was probably more honeyed than the other bottles I have had, with a really nice glow of golden syrupy aromas along with sweet, peachy stone fruit and acacia flower scents. The palate showed lovely balance once again, with a citrussy attack gliding into a honeyed midpalate, where lemon drops fruit mingled with sweeter flavours of apricots and pineapples. The flowery accent on the nose emerged again on the finish, along with a nice moreish smack of treacle and malted honey. Not quite as ethereal as one or two of the best bottles we had - this seemed a little flatter on the back-end - but still a wonderful Riesling.

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• 2004 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 93 Points

  France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

  Excellent. From a 375ml, this was just a bit on the young side, but it was clearly coming close to a good drinking window. It took about an hour or so in the glass to open up, but when it did, it showed a lovely bouquet of dark cherries and blackberries, meat and stony earth, and then nice, floaty accents of white pepper, lavender and garrigue. A very pretty Provencale nose. Beautiful palate too, with soft melting tannins and acidity lapping against a plush, almost soft core of dark cherries and berries. It lacked just a bit of oomph and structure on the backpalate to make a really great wine, but boy this was delicious. It finished quite charmingly too, with a nice touch of fleshy cherry and a kiss of savoury meat seasoned with a bit of spice and mineral. Very nice indeed. I am quite sad that this was our last half bottle.

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