National Day Dinner

Elsa and I could not make the dinner, but our friends very generously kept portion of the wines were left over for us to try. Nice line-up it was too!

• 1999 Laurent-Perrier Champagne Brut Millésimé 91 Points

  France, Champagne

  Very decent Champagne without ever bring stunning. Drinking beautifully on the night though. Nose had classic lines of dry biscuit, white pear-like fruit and some toast. Not the most complex palate in the world, but it sure had a wonderfully fine, lacy bead and a refined, classy texture, with a touch of body in its white fruit and lime underpinned by a nice focus and plenty of mineral moving into a long intense finish.

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• NV Devaux Champagne Ultra D Extra Brut Cuvée 90 Points

  France, Champagne

  This is Devaux's top of the range NV. Rather nice too, but I thought it was shaded by the cheaper Laurent Perrier 1999. Majority Pinot Noir with this wine. Lovely nose, with interlaced mineral, chalk and lemon. A touch of heat on the palate, but otherwise very nice too, with more mineral flavours along with ripe lemon, lime and yeast moving into a well-lengthed finish with a nice seam of mineral interplayed with yeasty notes. Seemed very young - some time in the bottle would do this some good.

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• 2007 Olivier Leflaive Chablis Les Deux Rives 87 Points

  France, Burgundy, Chablis

  Decent, but light-weight. Nice enough nose. Plenty of flowers - chamomile, chrysanthemum and perfumy musk - mixed in with sweet honeysuckle, chalk and white fruit notes. A little disjointed on the palate, with some parts seemingly heavy bodied and others a little light, with iodine / metallic flavours flecking the tongue. Otherwise, pretty decent, with lemon and lime flavours wed to Chablisienne mineral, especially when moving into the dry finish.

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• 2004 Mischief and Mayhem Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Referts 93 Points

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

  This had been opened for about 3 hours by the time I got to it, and boy was it ever singing! Beautiful nose with great aromatics of fresh flowers, nuts, vanilla pods, peachy fruit and a nice minerality. Absolutely Puligny, and almost haunting in its loveliness. I really liked the palate as well. Lots of buttery nuts, some pears and melon, underpinned by a nice clean lime and mineral backbone. It weakened a little towards the mid-palate, but really took off into a long, powerful finish with clingy mineral and clean pear flavours augmented by more of the flower tones that I picked up from the nose. Lovely.

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• 2005 Mischief and Mayhem Meursault 1er Cru Les Poruzots 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru

  Very nice. Amazing nose, with lots of smoke tumbling out of the glass, flecks of meat and then lots of red apple and chalk. Plenty of depth and interest here. The palate was not quite as expressive and beguiling, but rather more "Meursault" like, with lots of creamy weight in its white fruits. The wine had a nice melting grip on the mouth, with nice balance, lively acidity and touches of spice and cola moving in a round finish of medium length. A nice wine, just a little touch of alcohol at the very end, but it did not distract from the overall quality of the wine.

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• 2000 Domaine Marquis d'Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Champans 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

  This was showing remarkably well. While the last bottle I had was not half bad, this was a real Cinderlla turn-around, going from a pretty little wine into a full blown excellent one. I tought this particular bottle was drinking at its absolute peak. High-toned, perfumed nose, with sweet cherries at the fore, wed to peppery meat and a hint of stewy tripe. The palate was clean and classy, yet had plenty of depth in its red fruit, dark cherry, slightest hints of meat and pepper flavours. Elsa got some flowers, but I did not catch any except for the slightest hint at the mid-palate. Finish was impressively long. with spice notes, particularly white pepper. Nice balance when we drank it, and a pretty good sense of structure for a 2000, but I do not think there is quite enough to drive the wine for more than another 3-4 years. I would drink it now, given the pleasure that this bottle brought. Storage variation from the last bottle perhaps?

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• 2004 Albert Ponnelle Volnay 1er Cru Pitures 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru

  Surprisingly good. Sticky wilted flowers on the nose, earth, a touch of meat that faded with some time, raspberries and cranberries and a little touch of gunpowder hanging about somewhere. Nicely clean palate, with nice red fruit notes of red dates and cranberries sprinkled with flowers and peppery spice. Not the most complex, but this had a lovely sense of purity in its flavours and lovely typicity. There was a nice little grip from very fine tannins as well as some length on the finish. The 2004 vintage only showed up right at the very end, with some orange peel, dried mushroom and a touch of woody herbs and spice. All in all, a very nice wine.

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• 2000 Mongeard-Mugneret Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Les Orveaux 89 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru

  Not a bad wine, but it sure got me confused - I thought Volnay at first, and then Chambolle, and even new world pinot. Nose was ever so sweet and flowery, with a sticky wilted flower lilt accompanied with a touch of earth a hints of sweet red fruit - quite a bit of depth there, but really impossible to pick out as a VR. Much the same on the palate, dark cherries, sweet raspberries. Rather simpler on than the nose, but just as sweet, something that was accentuate by the lowish acidity that reflected the vintage. Certainly not a sickly, confected sweetness that one gets with poorly made pinot for sure though - this was more a friendly, fruit-forward sweetness. The balance was decent, as was the finish, which closed out with gummy red fruit. A very pleasant wine, but a little too air-headed and lacking in substance to make it a great wine.

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• 2002 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Fuées 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

  Still rather tight and very young, but clearly an excellent wine with a long and illustrious life ahead of it. Even though I got to the bottle at least an hour or more after it was opened, the nose was still rather shy, showing high-toned inflections of mineral, a touch of dried flowers, some dried wood and a sprinkle of earth. Clearly plenty of depth and complexity there though. That same depth was also evident on the palate, which had plenty of concentration and stuffing. Lots of weight on the flavours profile of dark cherries and flowers, but with a lovely 2002 balance. Tons of beguiling minerality as well, moving into a long, clean finish with whiffs of smoke. Excellent - my favourite Burg of the night (92-93)

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• 1990 Camille Giroud Echezeaux 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru

  Lovely wine, drinking very nicely. Nose showed some aged notes of prunes and dried figs, but with some nice cherry notes floating long. Very typical Vosne nose, full of wood and indian spices, like cardammon and cloves. It was on the palate where the wine shown though. Still grippy in its tannins, along with plenty of youth in its acid structure. It needed that too, as the wine had plenty of dense thickness, speaking of the ripeness of the vintage, along with clear extract. Lovely layered fruit in all that though, with clean. pure cherries ad a layered undertone with meaty accents on the midpalate. I thought the finish was drying out a little at first, but with time in the glass, it rounded off and took off into a clingy length with orange, orange peel, leaf and mineral layered in the mouth. Very nice indeed.

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• 1990 Château Lagrange (St. Julien) 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  By far the best bottle of Lagrange I have ever had. Lovely, refined nose of grass, earth, tobacco and simple but pure cherry fruit flavours. All rather cool and high-toned. Very classy, as was the palate. Alive, with lots of fresh acid, and showing a lovely focus and definition with firm but super-fine tannins. This had clean flavours of fresh cherry wed to high-toned tobacco and smoke notes moving into a long finish full of menthol, smoke and cigar box notes. Clean and clear enough to be a right bank, supple and tobacco-ey enough to be a Graves, but showing a lovely St Julien flavour profile. A beautiful wine.

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• NV Garofoli Dorata Vino Dolce Marche IGT 88 Points

  Italy, Marche, Marche IGT

  A strange wine this, but rather fun and pretty yummy. Moscato grapes are dried in the vineyard and afterward in cold rooms before fermentation andmaturation in wood for about six months. The result is a golden yellow wine with a nose bustring with little flowers - almost as if a bottle of lavender hand-soap or some potpourri had exploded in the glass. The palate was really rather sweet, underscored by lowish acidity. Again, plenty of flowers and brown sugar flavours moving into a chamomile laden finish.

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