Team Pete Dinner

As sometimes happens in our blind, BYO dinners, the wines fell into a nice symmetry - 3 whites Burgs, a couple of Gevreys and 2 very nice Rieslings.

• 1998 Louis Jadot Corton-Charlemagne Domaine des Héritiers Louis Jadot 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru

  A very good wine, just lacking a bit of oomph to make it a truly great one. This had a lovely lifted nose, with whiffs of vanilla and almonds, white peach and apple, button mushrooms and cracked spices. With time in the glass, a sweet floral perfume and honeyed tones started coming out as well. A complex, attractive nose. It was really pretty on the palate too. This was ripe and fruity, and there was a creamy, almost oily depth on the attack, but it still felt really alive and sprightly in spite of its fleshiness, with bright, prickly acidity running through high-toned flavours of sweet stone fruit laced with roasted nuts and toasty spice. It loss a bit of weight and authority on the midpalate I thought, before a nice streak of almond skin and stony minerality and a blush of spice stretching through the fruit into a long, palate-staining finish. There was just a touch of distracting bitterness right at the end, but otherwise, this was very nice indeed. Still youthful and a little tight, I think it will be even better in 4-5 years. Beyond that, it will probably keep going for ages. Very good, if just lacking a touch of substance on the midpalate to make it a really great Corton-Charlie.

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• 1990 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Caillerets 93 Points

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

  Ramonet Caillerets 1990. The oldest of the three Burgundies, this was lovely. It had the most complex nose of the lot, with drifts of earthy funk swirling around a core of buttery, creamy aromas, then sweet stone fruit and yeasty bread accents touched by little honey and spice. Just lovely. Great palate too. There was a lovely roundness to the wine, along with deliciously matured flavours of honeyed pears and kumquats, peach and nectarine, and a wonderfully bright lemony twist running beneath, all of this wrapped around a lovely buttery core. This was very good indeed and drinking quite at peak. It certainly held its own against good bottles of Corton-Charlemagne and Chablis Les Clos

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• 2005 Domaine William Fèvre Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis Grand Cru

  After a few premoxed Fevre bottles, this was thankfully completely clean. It was really tight when first popped, all acid and lemon zest. Even though it opened up quite nicely with time, I must say it always felt just a bit too young. Still, this was very good indeed. With some air, the nose showed slightly ripe aromas of peach and pineapple lined with classic saline notes of chalk, seashell and stony mineral. Nice. The palate was pure Chablis. It was wonderfully saline and stony, with lots of sinewy minerality running through deep, powerful, yet always taut and tightly focused flavours of white fruit sprinkled with lemon zest. Pure Les Clos class I wrote. Great finish too, wonderfully integrated and effortlessly powerful, it filled the backpalate with a mouthful of lovely chalky minerality. Great stuff. Beautiful even now, but it still clearly has its best years way ahead of it. Premox risk aside, I woud keep this for another 8-10 years easily. 93+

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• 1974 Francesco Rinaldi e Figli Barolo 93 Points

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Really enjoyable, but this still needs some time in the bottle. Opened 24 hours before serving, it kicked off with a classic Barolo nose of ashy smoke, dried herbs and flowers wed to shades of sweet dried berries and cherries with a little toss of earth at the sides. It was very youthful on the palate, which still had a spine of fine-boned tannins and sprightly acidity running through good flavours dark berries and dried plums seasoned with peppery spice and orange peels on the midpalate. The cute little finish ended with a nice curl of smoke mingling with little drifts of dried berries and flowers. Nice, and great with a beef dish on the night, but this still has years ahead of it. It needs a decade at least.

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• 1990 Dupont-Tisserandot Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux St. Jacques 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru

  We had a less than impressive tasting at Dupont-Tisserandot a few years back, with a lot of the wines coming out over-extracted and messy in the barrels. This was a real surprise though – a really solid, enjoyable Gevrey 1er Cru. It had a beautiful nose, with lush earthy, meaty, sous bois aromas swirling around a core dark cherries and berries, dried flowers and fragrant spice. Beautiful. I really liked it on the palate too. It had a nice balance and a decent structure, with melting acidity and fine, slightly powdery tannins laced through soft, sweet flavours of red cherries and raspberries. I found the wine just a touch soft, so that it seemed a little flabby at the edges of the finish, drifting away with a little twist of herb and sweet red fruit. Otherwise, it was really nice. Yummy, and drinking beautifully now. NB: I actually have had a bottle of this before, and I expressed the same surprise at the pleasing qualities it had. Totally forgot about it though. Time to reconsider the house perhaps.

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• 1998 Frederic Esmonin Griotte-Chambertin 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru

  Excellent. We had another beautiful nose here, spilling out of the glass with sweet aromas of rose petals and red cherries and raspberries, with a twist of orange sherbet, and then menthol and mineral and some spice - a wonderful Gevrey bouquet. Absolutely beautiful. Really nice on the palate as well, with a wonderful blush of red cherries and raspberries kissed by spice, bramble and herb. Nice finish too, with lingering flavours of red-fruited strawberries mingled with orange peel and menthol notes. Maybe just a touch short and woody at the end - very 1998 in that aspect - but that aside, this was a really nice wine.

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• 2007 Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Riesling Spätlese 93 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Egon Muller is almost always near the top of its class, and this was another lovely example. I was not quite as blown away this time as I was with the wine shortly after release - this felt just a bit fatter and less defined. It was still a beautiful wine though. It had an alluring, but unusual ripe nose, very symptomatic of a 2007 Spatlese, with sweet notes of nectar and honey, sweet peaches and nectarines, and then a little drift of petrol and rubber and a dash of spicy aromas. Very pretty. The palate was again unusually ripe and sweet for a Spatlese, with honey and nectar and peachy fruit showing in a fleshy, oily, almost Aulese-rich mouthfeel. Thankfully, there was also great backbone of Saar freshness and minerality that kept the wine finely focused and defined all the way into its long, honeyed finish. Very good indeed, if rather untypical. While I do not think this will be as long-lived as the greatest Egon Muller wines, it certainly needs a lot of time yet on the evidence of this bottle. With all its sweet depth and great minerally structure, it should be lovely in say 10 to 15 years.

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• 2003 Künstler Hochheimer Hölle Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel 94 Points

  Germany, Rheingau

  Absolutely lovely – this wine has been consistently delicious over recent years. It had a wonderful nose, with a lovely floral, jasmine-tinged perfume framing sweet honeyed scents and aromatic stone fruited notes. The palate was just about at a perfect place, having a beautiful melting balance to its lovely flavours of kumquats, peaches and nectarines. There was a lovely amount of dry extract still evident as the wine pulled away into a long, seamless finish of sour plum, kumquats and orange peel. Absolutely delicious.

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