2019 Birthday wines

Tasted Saturday, November 2, 2019 by HowardNZ with 134 views

Flight 1 - Bell Hill with Barry (Noble Rot, Wellington) (1 Note)

  • 2013 Bell Hill Chardonnay 95 Points

    New Zealand, South Island, Canterbury

    Under screwcap. Pale gold. Popped and poured. Initial reduction on the bouquet, that later largely dissipated over the evening followed by notes of flint, poached pears, blanched almonds, wet limestone, buttered popcorn and yellow apples. Also a touch of bready autolysis. Complex and appealing. In the mouth, serious body, concentration and structure. Real mid palate volume and weight. At a nice spot in its development, with secondary elements just beginning to emerge. Flavours reflecting the bouquet. Chalky, mineral and citric with clotted cream, stonefruit and a little tropical fruit. Sufficient acidity. Well balanced and proportioned. Layered and detailed. At six years of age, showing beautifully. As good a NZ Chardonnay as I’ve had in recent years. Drink or hold.

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Flight 2 - Pyramid Valley with Mark (Glass, Wellington) (3 Notes)

  • 2016 Pyramid Valley Pinot Noir Earth Smoke 94 Points

    New Zealand, South Island, Canterbury, Waipara

    A bottle drunk with Mark. Under screwcap. Garnet but slighty clouded. A pungent, perfumed bouquet of dried herbs, spices, fresh and dried largely black fruit, tobacco, clay and minerals. Lovely meadow flower aromatics. In the mouth, lighter weight than the nose suggests. Still, excellent definition and focus. Blackberries, cherries, herbs and earth with some saline minerality. Good power and sufficient volume and weight. Savoury nuance. Excellent - typical - sparkling Pyramid Valley Home Vineyard acidity. A delicious North Canterbury pinot noir. Drinking well now, on its plateau for the next 10+ years, I'd think. A top quality cool climate pinot.

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  • 2017 Black Estate Pinot Noir Damsteep

    New Zealand, South Island, Canterbury, Waipara

    On our way out of Glass, Jonathan poured us small samples of two Black Estate current releases. Attractive nose of spices, white pepper, dark berries and liquorice. Herby and savoury mouth showing brushwood, funky earth and red and black fruit. "More concentrated on the back palate than the Home Pinot", said Mark. I agreed and preferred this more nuanced and detailed wine - from older pinot vines - over the Home wine. It needs 2-3+ years though.

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  • 2017 Black Estate Pinot Noir Home Vineyard

    New Zealand, South Island, Canterbury, Waipara

    A small sample. Compared with the Damsteep, a darker, richer, more fruit forward bouquet. Good bright, ripe, rich, generous fruit on palate. Some spices. Good acidity. More instantly appealing than the Damsteep. Also, more integrated and more of a piece than the Damsteep, at this early stage. But the less interesting wine, in my view.

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Flight 3 - Noble Rot, Wellington dinner (5 Notes)

  • 2002 Bollinger Champagne R.D. Extra Brut 94 Points

    France, Champagne

    Served double blind by me. Quite golden in colour with good mousse. Rich, ripe, big, oxidative Bollinger style and very good with that. Blind, Rauno picked it as a 1990s era Selosse. Toffee apple, grapefruit, apricot, marmalade on buttered toast on the bouquet. Also, a sense of warm apple pie with clotted cream. On the palate, rounded and opulent, but with decent definition and acidity. Lush, autolytic style, very Bollinger, packed with lots of very 2002 rich fruit. Still it's bone dry (dosage only 3 glrs, I understand). Brioche, honey, mandarin and baked apples, with a more earthy, mushroomy dimension. "A meaty wine with sherbet mouthfeel", noted Rauno. Also some red fruit - strawberries and raspberries - on palate. 60% pinot noir, 40% chardonnay. Ready to go now but I expect it will drink like this for many years, slowly evolving.

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  • 2006 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

    Rauno served the Leflaives as a pair double blind. The better of the two Chevaliers. I thought it was late 1990s, then guessed 2004. The bouquet showed development with caramel, smoky burnt toffee, grapefruit juice, spices and tinned peaches. On palate, there was also a developed quality, "marzipan sweetness", Rauno called it. With that development, I still thought it a lovely, quality white Burgundy. Rauno - who has drunk through several bottles of these era Leflaive Chevaliers - noted that this bottle "did not have the intensity of a typical Chevalier" yet was "as good as the '06 gets". I thought it was nicely evolved with a lovely spine of acidity running through it. It was quite persistent with a long, dry finish. Still, it was a little more oxidised and developed than it should have been for a 2006.

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  • 2007 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

    Rauno served the Leflaives as a pair double blind. Initally the lighter coloured of the two wines, it became slightly darker coloured over the evening. Showing signs of premox on both bouquet and palate. A nose of grapefruit, toffee apple, peaches and blanched almonds but with a dominant lactic, almost cheesy note. Drinking materially older than the '06, quite oxidised. It seemed to have some good underlying fruit and persistent acidity, and drank better with the food. Ultimately, however, a wine from such a great vintage, site and producer should have been drinking better than this.

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  • 1993 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin 98 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru

    Nick's wine - served double blind - was ruby, moving to garnet in colour. A beautiful bouquet, the sort of wine you don't feel the need to drink, just merely wishing to sit in a corner sniffing over the next hour or so. Layered and multi-dimensional. Florals, spices, warm earth, largely red berries and cherries, truffles, tobacco etc etc. On palate, a great Grand Cru, transcending Gevrey-Chambertin typicity. "The spice and acidity of a Vosne Grand Cru, or of a great Musigny", noted Rauno. Dense and palate coating. Very detailed and complex. Power with balance and incredible intensity. "Sitting on its optimal drinking plateau for a few years", as Nick said. Finishing the last part glass two days later, the bouquet had moved more secondary - more earth, tobacco and some old leather - as had the palate, The fruit was also more preserved than fresh red berries, with the autumn leaf and dry brushwood elements more prominent. My wine of the year.

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  • 1989 Gaja Barolo Sperss 97 Points

    Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

    Not far behind the Chambertin in quality, if at all. Darker colour. A poignant, superb Barolo bouquet of melted tar, dark spices, liquorice, black cherries and other dark fruit, dried porcini and high cacao chocolate with pungent dark red rose florals. In the mouth, "starting to show a little secondary", said Rauno. Complex, non-linear, savoury and umami flavours: creosote, blackberry and other mainly dark fruit, porcini, tartufi neri, black olive tapenade and hoisin sauce. The serious acid and tannin structures have now mellowed, smoothed and become harmonious. Huge density, fruit volume and power. "It's just at the start of it's long drinking plateau", noted Nick. Finishing the last part glass two days later, the wine was exactly the same. A Sperss is a wine that - in my opinion - needs a lot of time, typically, more than 20 years to be at its best. I've had most vintages from the 1990s and this is the best Sperss I have ever had.

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