#3777 of 3811. Disgorged November 2013. A lot better than I remember this being. This bottle showed lots of bracing acidity, but the fruit profile was much fuller, showing some ripe green apples. Very nice chalky texture on the back end -- I simply loved the minerality here. I feel that this time, it wasn't just a pile of acid, but rather, this had filled out its frame a lot better. I suppose I ought to let the rest of mine sleep.

I really don't know what to make of this wine. If served blind in a black glass, I'd have trouble picking the colour of it, much less the grape that went into it. There's a bit of tart cherry on the nose and palate, but despite the colour, there's a surprising amount of stuffing in this wine. At the same time, the palate is quite light, and it does feel like a rose in character. Finishes with a touch of spice. Weird stuff.

Holy, strawberry juice! This is a crazy bottle of really bubbly, happy, joyful wine. Served blind, it might be a ringer for Dirty and Rowdy. Very, very stylized, to be sure, but quite tasty all the same. There's a light touch of spice that seems to be thrown in as well, and it gives this all the more lift. Sure, it's not a profound wine, and it doesn't aim to be, but it's pretty tasty all the same.

This is a very interesting expression of pinot noir. This tilts almost towards the rose side of things and shows lots and lots of crisp red fruit. It doesn't have anywhere close to the palate density as, say, a Burgundy, but it makes up for it in a sort of juicy red-fruited minerality. Unlike some other German pinots, there is thankfully no discernible oak here (if any was used at all -- I've no idea). On the back end, however, I did find an element of unripeness that I didn't particularly like -- perhaps almost a touch of green? While I enjoyed drinking this, it's definitely not the style of pinot that I know and love.

The work of a consummate master. This is brilliant riesling. There is no question about it. Made in a very heavy and thick style, with barely enough residual sugar to prevent this from toppling into an ungainly mess, this shows a huge pile of sweet yellow fruit and a crisp vein of acidity that pierces through all the fat. It has always amazed me how these old Müller-Catoirs get so big and yet keep their balance. This bottle is no exception.

Sometimes, there are just those bottles that happen to fire on all cylinders when you pop them open and this was one of them. What an absolutely insane bottle of Corton. A nose full of ripe red fruit and earth, balanced with a slight touch of spice. The palate is silk. All the elements fully resolved, with an inordinate amount of sweet red fruit. A vein of acidity, not showing any of its age, courses through this. Phil put it well, when he said that this was an old wine without tasting like old wine. This was that one bottle of Burgundy in twenty that reminds me why I chase after it.

#74 of 900. I'm not sure what the story is behind this wine, or how or why it even exists. It comes in an obnoxious SQN-like bottle, the sort that Olivier Bernstein would use. But enough of that... this is a very compelling example of pinot noir. There's no sign of overripeness here, but instead, it seems like all of the energy of this wine is channelled into a very dense velvety texture. Besides all the black fruit here, I picked up a slight hint of tea. A very dense wine, but without heaviness.

On most nights, this would have been an amazing bottle to open, but this had the misfortune of having been served after an amazing example of the 1990 Jadot Pougets. Despite that, this still stood its own. Despite the ripe vintage, this showed quite closely to my mental image of the Clair house style -- bright red fruit and acid-driven. There's a touch of earth and rust on the palate as well.

A very lovely example of a Northern Rhone syrah. The nose shows a lot of red fruit, but a big dose of dried herbs as well. A touch of smoke, but the olives and charcuterie seem to be missing. The palate is chock full of fresh acid and shows quite a bit of extract. This bottle is much more concentrated in flavour than the 1999 I had a few months back. The fruit is not sweet on the palate, and acidity is the story of the day. Great now, but I'm not sure how much longer I would want to hold onto these.

Good ol' Lunch Bags. One of the best Bordeaux houses, and as dependable as ever for a great bottle of claret. This is a very large-scaled Bordeaux, with lots of ripe fruit. This bottle seems to veer a touch more into red than black territory, which, I admit, seems a bit odd. The graphite and pencil shaving flavours are just starting to develop here -- this bottle was obviously in great shape, and was showing a bit of youthful exuberance.

I'm not sure what this is, and as good as the 1995 Lynch Bages was, I preferred this bottle by a bit. Clearly red-fruited and light, with a wispy cranberry perfume that was simply marvelous. The palate doesn't quite fit the ripe mold of 2000, but that's not to say the fruit wasn't ripe. There's almost something Burgundian about the lightness of this wine. It's light and airy, and just dances across the palate with its crisp acids. I managed to track a bottle of this down after dinner (thanks, Phil, for the tip), and can't be more excited to revisit this very distinct Bordeaux.

"It doesn't smell like farts," said Keith. Well, that's a good start. I haven't had much Pégaü, but I'm told that this was a comparatively clean bottle. Nonetheless, there's definitely a whiff of brett on the nose, along with some sweet purple fruit. As with the 2009 Laurence (another bottle of Rich's), this is a wine to taste while holding your nose. It's actually quite good once you get past that. There's some kirschy ripe fruit on the palate, and a touch of heat, but all that notwithstanding, this is actually quite nice.

From half-bottle. So much Rainier cherry here. The nose shows a bit of fresh green herbs to go alongside that lovely cherry note. The palate is not too sweet, and in fact, as far as my memory goes, this seems to be one of the drier examples of the Auslese (not that this is anywhere close to dry, or even feinherb). Despite all the extract and weight on the palate, this wine never feels heavy. It's elegant and light, and dances over the palate. The acidity here is a bit lighter too, but this is still a very well-balanced wine. And to think these wines don't age...