Dim Sum Club does Suckling Pig at Park Palace

Small group this time round as we convened to do a long-awaited suckling pig at Park Palace - just Chad, Choon Yee, Peter, Sharon and I. Only 5 people to a pig done three ways was a bit much, but boy the food was good. Great wines too, with the two reds especially standing out when paired with the food.

• 2006 J.M. Boillot Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Champs Canet 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru

  This was nice, but it does not seem to have developed all that much over the years since I first tried it upon release. The nose still showed a good bit of oaky vanilla floating around aromatic fruity notes of ripe red apples and more tropical tones of green guava, grapefruit and even a touch of gooseberry greenness, all this wed to a touch of sweet honeycomb and floral nectar, and also plenty of chalk, slate and gunflint aromas. Very expressive and quite nicely complex, even if it was a little in-your-face. The palate started off just where the nose ended, with a plump fleshiness to its ripe apple and melon fruit flavours on the attack. However, this was nicely cut through from the midpalate onwards with streaks of citrus acid that brought along with it some grapefruit and lime notes, and then with a solid mineral and spice counterpoint that pulled the wine into a rich, creamy-textured finish that had a nice floral linger trailing on behind. This was a big, ripe wine, but also at once a very balanced, rather well-focused one. Good stuff. It needs time to integrate and softened-up somewhat though. Here is one to try again in 2015-2016 onwards.

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• 1961 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Riserva 93 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Really good stuff. This started out a bit slow, but just grew and grew in the glass over lunch. As it opened up, it gave us a really pretty nose of damp earth and flowers, dark berries and dried cherries, wreathed in bits of spice, and herb and smoke. Very nice. The palate was very bright and fresh, marked by lovely high acidity, with fine tannins having softened into a velvety robe. This was not a fat wine by any stretch of the imagination, but there was a nice lushness to the fruit to go along with a lovely purity of expression, with sweet yet transparent notes of cherries and dark berries on a bed of earthy, meaty tones. It then wound its way into a nice little finish replete with little motes of bittersweet herbs and spice and a dusting of perfume dried flowers. It was super complex, yet in an effortless, charmingly engaging way. This lacked some of the sheer quality of either the 1947 or the 1958 that I had recently, but it was still a lovely wine that has its best years ahead of it.

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• 1998 Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial

  Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja

  I actually really liked this. It was far too young even after 2 hours in decanter, but there was a lot to enjoy about the wine - especially when paired with a nice suckling pig. The nose was rather disconcertingly sweet at first, with the ripest of raspberry aromas and some candied cherries along with a pat of earth, a hint of meat, and then some floaty accents of violet flowers, menthol and a twist of medicinal herbs. A bit too sweet smelling for my liking, but very attractive in its own way. Thankfully, the palate offered quite a bit more. It was still clearly quite a sweet young thing in the mouth, with lots of dark berries and black cherries unfolding from the attack onwards. However, this was met by a nice savoury tone on the midpalate, with dried earth and herb and orange peel making their way out amongst the back fruited tones; there was a nice touch of matured complexity here, even though the fruit still had a primary edge to it. What I liked most about the wine though was its noble structure of fine tannins and wonderfully integrated acidity, all of which lent a lovely sense of grip, poise and balance on the palate, somehow pulling all the sweet and savoury parts together into a harmonious whole. Lovely finish too, trailing away with a final kiss of orange peel amidst draws of earth and minerality. Very impressive stuff and no harm drinking now if you have several bottles - but I think this one really needs a decade or two more before it really struts its stuff.

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