New Year's Eve 2009 Drinks

We hopped by Edmund's after watchnight service for a quick drink of his birthday wine, before heading over to Elaine's for her new year's eve party. Alex popped the last wine there.

• 1975 Château L'Evangile 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  Edmund's b'day wine. Time to drink up! Absolutely beautiful when first poured, but it lasted barely 15 minutes in the glass before nosediving. Beautiful nose though, bursting with charm. Flowers, fruits - cherries and berries - and first class cigars all integrated with some earth, a little layer of funk, and wet leaf. Really nice natural sweetness to it, balanced off with savoury undertones - nothing obvious, but all subtle, classy and gorgeous. Palate was very gentle and silky, just about starting to let slip. The structure had softened, to the point where it was almost coming loose at the seams, but the flavours were still lovely, with hints of slightly drying fruit, a bit of dry earth, graphitey mineral and a lovely spiciness, moving into a finish with more cigar notes, some smoke, some chocolate bits and a long, long linger of spiciness. Again, all very subtle, but very impressive. It sure slipped fast though - after just a short time, it became nothing but smoky spice, acid and some snappy, cedary tannins on the finish with just the merest hint of fruit. 93 points from me for the fleeting moment where it bloomed like the rarest of flowers, but 88 for when it wilted away, leaving only memories of its faded beauty.

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• 2005 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Clos de la Roche 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru

  Terrible infanticide - but who am I to complain when John so generously poured some of this. Super, super tight nose. Nothing much at first accept some indistinct fruit and smoke - made me think of Tempranillo. WIth time, it opened up to show little bits of iron mineral, sweet cherries, spice, smokey herbs, earth and chalk with just that bit of varnish. Red fruit became a little more obvious with time, but it remained pretty much a study in inscrutable depth for most of the evening. On the palate, clean 2005 acid gave the wine a tremendous freshness and great balance to its juicy dark cherry and cranberry character. Quite a bit of extract here, but pretty good concentration and purity of expression. Good focus too, giving the wine a nice delineation. Towards the finish, orangey citrus notes, a good dose of spice, a touch of meat, more smoke and some very Rosseau toasty cocoa notes. Pretty impressive length here, and quite a bit of hiddern complexity. 92-93 for now. Would not broached this if I had a bottle until at least a 8-10 years down the road.

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• 2004 Two Hands The Bull and The Bear 88 Points

  Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley

  Rather over shadowed by the preceding two wines. Still, this was pretty decent. Sweet nose, with plenty of cherries and berries, along with funky earth and meat notes. Made me think new world Grenache with all that sweetness. I actually liked the palate more than the nose. Plenty of spice, plump cherries and blueberries, all nicely balanced with clean acidity giving the wine a very lifted, high-toned feel. Again, made me think Grenache. Finish was decent, with more cherries, some orange peel and more of that spiciness ending with a whiff of rubber and a glide of velvety tannins.

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