Dinner with Friends

We organised a relaxed dinner with two of our closest sets of friends and a chance for me to control the full choice of the six wines to see how things are progressing. I remembered that Mark and Tracey like their wines 'meaty, beefy, big and bouncy' so I factored that in but with a Napa Chardonnay to challenge them (successfully).

Selected instead of our normal Champagnes......I wanted to show how subtle Napa Chardonnay can be as an aperitif in the right hands.

• 2010 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 91 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Drank as an aperitif instead of Champagne. I cannot improve on my previous descriptions that this is just a gorgeous, light-toned but serious Napa Chardonnay in a very Puligny Montrachet flinty and lemony style. It served its purpose perfectly. We drank it ahead of a Kistler Vine Hill Chardonnay 2006, which was lovely but more of a food wine.

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Beautiful fleshy scallops that counterpointed the richness of the wine.

• 2006 Kistler Chardonnay Vine Hill Vineyard 92 Points

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley

  Decanted an hour before serving at cellar room temperature. Fresh-looking medium-gold colour that has darkened a shade since I last opened a bottle two years ago. This packed a beautifully harmonious and fully integrated similar nose and palate of weighty damp hay, sweet summer evening honeysuckle and light acacia honey all in a lemony citric acidic frame. The oak is there and adds a pleasant bass organ note but is now superbly integrated and not over-powerful. This is the best showing of this wine that I have experienced and it matched perfectly with a lightly seared scallops appetiser. My heart was somewhat stolen back by this wine after a period where I have been wooed by the ligher charms of Ch Montelena Chardonnay......this is a medium-weight Bienvenues Batard Montrachet compared to a young Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru.

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A dish I designed to highlight the wine....... i couldn't have asked for a better match.

• 1998 Luciano Sandrone Barolo Le Vigne 93 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Decanted for 3-4 hours before serving. Plush velvet-red colour just lightening slightly at the edges. Gosh......this has a lovely plush nose of rose petals, fresh-bruised lavender and hot sultry summer garden nights....smoky, perfumed, sultry (yes, that word again). Palate is gorgeous acidic freshness and incredibly powdered tannins. Resonant and long inside the head on the finale and on the palate. Perfect.....absolutely at its full expression but should stay here for another few years. Was superb with the simple mushroom risotto we deliberately chose in advance to pair with it. Beautiful..... 93-94.

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Serious, simple beef......serious simple wines that contrasted and complimented each other perfectly.........'California Bordeaux' meets " Bordeaux Californian'.

• 2005 Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red 96 Points

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Decanted 4 hours in advance. Incredibly black-red inpenetrable colour. Nose is a gorgeous wave of pencil lead, black liquorice and high tones of black new leather boots....very Bordeaux First Growth. Palate is absolutely WOW! Totally seductive and takes you completely down Alice's rabbit hole. More precise descriptors seem superfluous. Unctuous, so rich, so total.....absolutely brilliant. Enormous length and thunderous resonance that just powers over you in rolling waves. Firm tannins....still decades ahead of it......but so so so good now. Gosh.

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• 2003 Château Pontet-Canet 95 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Decanted for 4+ hours before serving. An incredibly rich and seductive purple-red colour....still very youthful. Nose is just WOW!.....perfect pencil lead and black fruit precision......I have to say precision again.....lots of high notes......wonderful. Palate is very accessible fresh acidic attack and a great balance balance of black/red fruit followed by a thunderous resonance inside the head which is totally captivating and lasts forever. Serious stuff and with tons of room for further improvement. The best showing of this wine since I bought it en primeur. There is no over-ripeness here despite the uncommonly hot vintage..........it has to be the wine of the vintage.

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The truffled Parmigiano was superb....... a perfect wine cheese.

• 2006 Glaetzer Shiraz Amon-Ra Barossa Valley 96 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  Decanted for 7 hours before serving to accompany four rich Italian cheeses. Colour is totally inpenetrable black-red. Nose defies specificity....rather like when drinking a First Growth from a great vintage......just a fugue of sensations like Miles Davis playing a trumpet on the theme of 'purple'. The palate has an immediate acid-fruit balance followed by an incredible tsunami wave of total capitulation. No subtlety but amazing harmony......An Awesome Wave. Runny and I uncovered this in our 'The Next Grange' hunt 6 or 7 years ago. Wow, wow..... I was blown away by this tonight. 96+

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A superb night.....great company that matched the harmony of the wine selection and super service from the staff at Crown.