"Eagle's Nest" Dinner

This is the only month of the year when you can fully appreciate the 46th floor outside dining platform for 6 that looks out over both the South China Sea to Macau and the lights of ths city in Hong Kong........ mostly it's too oppressively hot or unpleasantly windy.

So our first Eagle's Nest dinner for two years....... but we were quick to make up for it. Great food and company, as always.

My first experience of the 2002 Winston Churchill.......always one of my favourite champagnes.

• 2002 Pol Roger Champagne Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 92 Points

  France, Champagne

  Lightly lemon gold colour. Exuberant and persistent bead, even in a wine glass. Nose of super-fresh ciabatta bread with lots of white flour on it, fresh crushed lemons, citrus leaves.....a lot of ozone emarges with time in the glass. Palate is very Epsom Salts on the attack, saline, sea breeze, oyster shell minerality, muscular in mouthfeel, classic Winston Churchill masculinity, lots of Hovis bread on a dry finish. Slightly heady. Good length. Superb even at this precocious age. The ozone character is what stands out for me compared to other recent vintages such as the 1999 and the 2000.

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This was a great combination because the Thai chili and the coriander were dialed back a lot yet the Morgeot had the 'weight' to complement it.

• 2001 Marquis de Laguiche (Joseph Drouhin) Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot 95 Points

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

  "Collection Privee de la Famille Drouhin, Sortie de cave en Juin 2014"...... so a newly-released bottle from the chateau. Light yellowy gold colour - very bright and jewelled. WOW! .... nose is summer evening honeysuckle, bruised lemon balm leaves, a hint of rubber that quickly blows away. With more time in the glass and slightly warmer you get let into fresh honeycomb, almond, hints of Patchouli oil and a hundred variations on a fugue of lemons. Palate is slightly oily in mouthfeel, fresh medium-acidity cut; a wonderful rounded and totally seamless harmony...like a perfectly rounded Japanese Zen garden pebble. Interestingly, a super lemon zest cut of greater acidity emerges with more time in the glass. On the finish there is a huge rush of heady resonance but so wispishly weightless. Enormous length. Absolutely stunning......so complex yet so rounded and complete.

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Damn, this is a nice wine...... the magnum format clearly asserted itself because it took a while to come out of its shell. It is best with either a light white truffle dish or very slightly spiced simple grilled chicken.

• 2000 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru

  (From magnum). Dusky transparent faded red velvet colour. Reticent but very refined nose of damp dirt and raspberries. Palate is initially quite sharp and young - but packed with power: raspberries, quite tart strawberries, still quite tannic. Sous bois comes out as it opens up in the glass. But even from the opening, this has a huge mind-expanding resonance inside the head that begins even from the first smell.... and it develops a superb length with a wonderful rolling reverberance that is all about that elusive combination of lightness and power. Not quite as impressive as the 1996 but still superb.

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We tried so hard to like the Voerzio, which is a producer and a wine that we all eally love........but this really gave us no love back. But in every cloud is a silver lining, especially when I pleaded the case for opening another red rather than going on to a Sauternes.

• 1997 Roberto Voerzio Barolo Cerequio

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Bright transparent ruby jewel colour. Overwhelming nose and palate of bananas on opening (no decant). Then.....rose water perfume and rose petals emerge on the nose.....and black tarmac....and violets. WOW! The palate struggled to keep up...... slightly cherry cola-oish once the bananas had blown off. But the bananas reasserted themselves on both nose and palate....... a duff bottle. But that allowed us to open something else that turned out to be my favourite wine of the night.

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• 1990 Château Cos d'Estournel 94 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe

  Splash decanted to replace an off bottle of R. Voerzio Barolo that was meant to be our cheese wine. Slightly faded damask colour, near-transparent. Nose is classic St. Estephe rustic hay barn and cow shit, Swiss cheese and blackcurrant cheesecake. Palate is absolutely gorgeous...... confit blackcurrant, nice balance of tannin and acidic grip, a touch of lemongrass, spicy in the classic Cos mode. Incredibly fresh and vibrant for a 24 year old wine. Extremely delinated and linearly pure......like a 1st Growth.....absolutely gorgeous. Resonant and some length....but this is where it was slightly lacking. Could improve some more over the next 5 years.

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What a great way to unwind on a Friday night.......... especially to renew my love affair with Cos D'Estournel.