Joyce's Birthday Dinner

Birthday dinner for Joyce, with Joyce and Martin, William, Chad, Lawrence, Alex and Fiona and Elsa and myself. The wine theme was "wines that Joyce likes". A bit nebulous, but as expected, we had some really nice bottles. Some looked better on paper than in real life though - unfortunately my Batard-Montrachet was the chief culprit there! Otherwise, a great night, with the Veuve Clicquot Rose stealing the show.

Very nice food as usual, for the record, the menu was:

Appetiser: Seafood Niçoise Style: Seafood Prawn Tartar, Hokkaido Scallop, Anchovies Vinaigrette
Soup: Cream of Wild Mushroom, Thyme Infused Milk Foam, White Truffle Oil
Game: Lapin Au Vin, Mustard, Classic Vegetables
Meat: Rougie Duck Breast, King Oyster Mushroom, Red Date Jus
Dessert: Mix Fruit Salad, Yuzu Sherbet

• NV Gatinois Champagne Grand Cru Brut Réserve 92 Points

  France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru

  Something about this bottle really made it stand out for me, especially when we served it with a white wine glass. This seemed to have quite a bit of age on it. Golden colour, super-fine bead, lovely caramelly nose with lots of browning red apples mixed in with umami flavours and a touch of earth. Palate was all spicy apple cider, with sparkly acidity watering the sides of the mouth. A little narrow on the attack, in opened up at the mid-palate with lots of round fruit and fine minerality. Nice weight and lovely balance here. Long, gorgeous finish too, very focused, with a lovely interplay of of slatey mineral and spice. I really enjoyed this. Great way to start the night.

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• 1985 Veuve Clicquot Champagne Brut Rosé Rare 95 Points

  France, Champagne

  This was simple outstanding on the night. Boy was it singing, and incredibly well too. Bubbles had all but died down, leaving a deep salmon pink wine lightly fizzing in the glass. Beautiful nose. Expressive and understated at the same time, it showed off rose and earth, sappy cherries, fresh vine stems and vine leaves and some sundried tomatoes when first poured. With time, it showed aged Champagne notes of orange peel, umami and soy, along with honeyed tones and a dusting of herbs. Lovely and complex. However, it was on the palate where it really shown. Perfect balance, superb testure. This was absolutely alive and full of verve still, almost young in its lively freshness, with the remnants of a fine bead still dancing around the mouth. Beautiful flavours just flowed on from the nose - I got rose water, cherries, smoky ash, dried herb and some yeast, moving into a round, complete finish with orange pips, ferrous mineral and more whiffs of cigarette smokiness. Long without having astounding lnegth, bit still lots of power still evident here. Really, really good by itself, the wine ascended to a whole other level when paired with grilled scallop dusted with anchovie vinaigrette. So perfect was the pairing, with the wine and food locked in an embrace of caviar like flavours and gorgeous sea-shell mineraility that I thought I would faint with pleasure at points. This went a long, long way to rehabilitating Veuve Clicquot in my books.

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• 1999 Domaine Jean Chartron Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières 93 Points

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

  An outstanding white wine. Yellow gold in colour. Tons of minerally slate just tumbled out of the glass, along with bursts of earth, gunpowder and smoke, before a buttery, toasty, nutty layer emerged. Deep, powerful, rich and explosive. Full of character too. The palate had a creamy texture and plenty of round richness. Lots of zippy, almost sharpish acidity, especially for a 1999. But this was certainly welcomed given the weight of the wine, so that it came across very well balanced, especially after it had some time to settle in the glass. Flavour-wise, more smoky gunflint notes along with an underlayer of still rather primary and very pure pear flavours. My only issue with the wine was that the energy that came through on the attack seemed to lapse a little on the mid-palate, but all was forgiven when the wine took off into a long, long finish with an absolute rush of mineral, smoke and nuttiness unfolding in rich layers. Gorgeous.

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• 2002 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Bâtard-Montrachet 92 Points

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

  A good wine, but ultimately disappointing for a Bâtard-Montrachet - one would really expect more, especially from a vintage as strong as 2002. I must say the wine had a beautiful nose. Some funky wet earth notes hit the nose first, but these faded with some coaxing into a very nice malange of deep buttery notes, mushrooms, macadamias, honey and gentle white flowers. The palate did not deliver though. Very nicely shaped, nice creamy texture, decent weight, quite a bit of power, nice focus, and with nice flavours of melons, spice and nuts. All a bit four-square though, coming across as very competent rather than Grand Cru great, and certainly lacking in the intensity across the mid-palate one would expect from the terroir. The finish had a really nice length in a slowly unfolding way, with buttery mushrooms laced with mineral smoke and nuts. Quite a faultless wine on all accounts, but just not very thrilling. Saving grace was that it was a wonderful pairing with mushroom soup.

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• 2001 Domaine du Clos de Tart Clos de Tart 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos de Tart Grand Cru

  Very good indeed, but I think this was not quite ready when we got to it. Quality really shown through, and it sure was a good drink, yet one got the sense that it was still in a rather awkward place. Still, I really enjoyed it. Nose started out with a strange, haunting wasabi note, along with high-toned perfumed flowers and fragrant peas and earth layered over clean cherry fruit, earthy spices and ferrous minerality. All this was weaved through by flecks of oak and some rubbery, crushed beetley scents. Reduction maybe? With time, sweet red fruit bubbled to the top - I got sweet cherry gummies and cranberries. By the end of the evening, the glass was almost exploding with red fruit. Lots of complexity here. The palate was rather less expressive though. Bittersweet minerals came out first, followed by sweet cherries and cranberries, a little orange peel, some dried flowers and, with time, plenty of minty notes. A really big Burg, obviously some extract and a little lower acid than I would have thought for a 2001. Still though, it was nicely balanced and structured, almost filligreed in the way the fruit, acid and fine tannins played off each other. Iron first in velvet glove and all that. Very nice finish too - long, with dried cherries, spice, a touch of raisins and more iron-ore minerality. A few more years will do this wine a world of good.

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• 2001 Bass Phillip Pinot Noir Premium Cuvee Rare 93 Points

  Australia, Victoria, Gippsland

  Oustanding new world Pinot - and very Burgundian in style. This one fooled us all. William and Joyce who poured it into a decanter at first thought it was new world from its oak and sweetness. But an hour later when we poured the wine, we all had guesses of Morey, Vosne and Nuits St George. The nose on the wine opened with Chinese incense paper, all rather smokey, with mint and menthol along with some tobacco leaf, along with red fruit laying underneath and plenty of ferrous mineral weaving its way through the wine. In this aspect, it was not altogether dissimilar from the 2001 Clos des Tart that we had alongside. The only possible tell-tale that it was not a Burgundy were whiffs of a rubbery, cockroachy scent that I get in quite a few antipodean Pinots. Same thing could be said of the palate. Round, rich, balanced and complex. Clearly some extract, but not overly done, with deep flavours of sweet plums, strawberries and stewed berry tea pierced through by more of that iron minerality. A weighty wine, heavy-set and masculine, yet well-structured and certainly never leaden-footed. Finish was nice and cool, with more menthol notes, some spice, some orange peel and more of that rubbery scent. A very good wine.

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• 1989 Château Rausan-Ségla 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  Another wine that was singing on the night. Telltale Margaux nose, with earthy tobacco leaf, cigar, sweet fruits in the form of cherries and dried strawberries, a high-toned metallic minerality and slightly sweet wilted flowers. Very pretty indeed. Palate was gogeously integrated as well, and I thought very 1989. Ripe, rich and giving, it had more red fruits, pure cassis tones, some haw flakes and more perfumy flowers - all this presented in a deep, but clean and very silky mouthfeel. There certainly was some gtip there, with the tannins coming in to dry the mouth at points, but all done with great poise and balance. Again, a lovely, seamless transition into the finish, with more earthy spices, some smoke and a final flowery linger. Yummy.

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• 2005 Schloss Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel 92 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Very young, very deeply layered and rather monolithic at this stage, but drinking very yummily even now. An exceptionally good pairing with yuzu sherbet and fruit cocktail too. Nose opened up with whiffs of earthy bean sprouts, pears and whiffs of D24 Durian. Surely a bit of sulphur action going on there. It all toned down after some time to show white fruit and some cream though. On the palate, rich, sweet fruit nicely balanced with well-rounded acidity. Very nice flavours - lemon, lime, green apples and slightly sweeter grenadine and a touch of wilted flowers. Finish had a nice enough length and showed more of that lovely balance that this wine displays. Too young to really call it, but it has the makings of a very good Auslese.

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