Good Friday Dinner with Hakka Food

This was a very impromptu, but very much enjoyed dinner courtesy of Mr and Mrs Alex H, where we got to sample some of Fiona's mum's excellent Hakka cooking. BYO and blind as usual, good company and good wine made for a great casual evening.

• NV Zoémie de Sousa Champagne Brut Merveille 91 Points

  France, Champagne

  From a 375ml this time. Nice, but this was very advanced and needed to be drank up. It had a very mature nose, with lots of honeyed, caramel notes, red apples and fig aromas, and a touch of earthy mineral. Very nice actually. The palate was also nicely developed, with round, fleshy apple flavours couched in a mellow mousse. However, while clearly mature, there was still a good bit of snappy energy, with bright, fresh acidity running through more citrus, lime notes on the midpalate, and then into a long finish with some minerality woven through honeyed fig tones. There is not much more room for this to go I think, but it was very enjoyable on the night.

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• 2008 Domaine Christian Moreau Père et Fils Chablis 1er Cru Vaillon 90 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  From a 375ml - still pretty good, but this bottle seemed to be slightly poorer than those I had last year. It was a bit reductive at first, with rubbery notes that took awhile to blow off before revealing a nice Chablis nose of ripe lemons and apples underlined by minerally seashell scents. The palate seemed a bit more developed and expressive than previous bottles, with a fleshier, riper tone to its white fruit flavours laced with lemony notes. There was still a solid undelayer of mineral and nicely supple acidity. However, the bottle lacked some of the cut and tension that I liked in previous bottles. Still though, this was pretty good and played a good foil to most of the food on the table. I hope future bottles are even better though - I will try to remember giving them a bit more time to breathe before serving.

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• 2009 Xavier Monnot Maranges 1er Cru Clos de la Fussière 88 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Maranges 1er Cru

  A passable wine - well-constructed and pleasing in some ways, but rather rustic and unpolished in others. The nose had a sweet wash of raspberries and cherries and a lifted floral component - somewhat confected but for a twist of green herbs at the sides. Not quite what I am looking for in a Burgundy. The palate was rather better. Decent without being great, it was a bit on the thinnish side for a 2009 1er Cru, but it did have a nice bright freshness and silky tannins that formed a nice frame for easy going flavours of cherry and raspberry. Like the nose though, there was a little bitter, green edge to its firm, slightly harsh finish. That aside, this was pretty passable. An okay wine for sipping over a casual meal, but not one that I would seek out to buy.

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• 2006 J.M. Boillot Volnay 1er Cru Carelle Sous la Chapelle 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

  A very pleasing wine that spoke of its terroir eloquently. This was by some distance my favourite amongst the trio of Pinots that we had. I loved the nose here - full of violet flowers, sweet strawberries and blueberry aromas - all very perfumed, with a touch of Burgundy earthiness riding underneath. The palate obviously hailed from a pretty warm year, showing a nice sweet ripness to its strawberry and blueberry flavours lined with bits of earth, mienral and spice. Yet for all that, this was also very fresh, clean and clear, and blessed with lovely balance and fine silky tannins that provided a good sense of grip moving into a decently-lengthed finish. An elegant wine, perhaps built for early to mid-term drinking, but very enjoyable indeed.

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• 2011 Ten Minutes by Tractor Pinot Noir 10X 88 Points

  Australia, Victoria, Port Phillip, Mornington Peninsula

  Another merely passable rather than interesting wine - this was about as clearly a new world Pinot as I have had for ages. The nose showed lots of sweet cherries and berries and flowers, all carrying a slightly candied ring to them. Very round and fleshy on the mid-weighted palate, here too it was dominated by sweet fruit, think cherry candy and pineapple sweet, with a touch of funky earth and some floral notes trailing into the distance. This was a world away from the couple of Burgs we had, even with the fact that the 2009 Maranges 1er Cru had modern, new world accents to it. The saving grace here though was that the wine was nicely structured and well balanced in spite of all its fruit, which made for a very drinkable, if rather boring package.

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• 2005 Palari Faro 90 Points

  Italy, Sicily, Faro

  I rather liked this Sicilian wine. Highly feted by Gambero Rosso, it is made from a blend of unusual local varities (from the more widely known Nerello to stranger stuff like Nocera, Acitana, Tignolino and others). It had a rather Pinot-like nose, with clear, high-toned scents of dark cherries and berries wed to slightly perfumed notes of herb and dried flowers and a toss of dried earth. Pretty nice, and somehow noticeably Italian in character even when served blind. The palate was a slight shift in tone though. A lot more structured than the nose would suggested, this had a solid core of iron-infused earth and mineral grippy, slightly powdery tannins running through its sweet notes of cherries amd berries. Still rather primary and not quite as interesting as the nose at this point I thought, but this is a wine with the bones to age, with lots of bright juicy acidity lending it a great sense of balance to go along with the fine structure. Good finish too, with a nice grip and heft wed to lovely clarity of fruit and a nice dose of spice. I enjoyed this on the night, but it does seem to need another decade or so to really show its mettle.

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• 1985 Château Puy-Blanquet 89 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  This was quite a surprise. It was close to the end of its life for sure and, indeed, I would not have expected a St. Émilion from a minor château to be showing so well at this age. However, served blind, it was actually quite yummy. The nose was classic Bordeaux, with tobacco, soil and meat floating around a core of dark plums and cherry aromas. The palate was just on the cusp of losing its shape, but was still just on the right side of drinking nicely, withdecent acidity keeping its pleasant, albeit rather simple flavours of cassis and plums rather fresh and lively. It finished quite well too, with the last vestiges of slightly powdery tannins and a spinkle of spice accompanying a little layer of dark cherries and earth as the wine slid away. Very decent.

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