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Last minute Easter offline featuring the wines of 1999
Rotisserie Jules, South Kensington, London
Tasted April 9, 2009 by king-bing with 665 views
Introduction
Actually, apart from the bretting Pegau I brought these were all lovely wines. The Cote Roties were so different. Thanks to David W for the excellent (non-99) Champagne. Thanks to Neil H for getting this event going - most enjoyable.
Flight 1 (1 note)
White - Sparkling
1990 Veuve Clicquot Champagne Brut Vintage
[blind]A more gentle fizziness (much preferred). Biscuity & bready nose. Smap damp hay too. Softish palate with some zippy acidity. Persistent flavours. Rich-ish but not heavy. Very tasty - my kind of Champagne. Mature for sure, but how much? Not that dark in colour. 1990?
Flight 2 (1 note)
White
1999 Louis Jadot Bourgogne Blanc Clos de Loyse Château des Jacques
Pale gold colour. Nice 'n' shimmery though. Nose like a Diptyque candle - sort of waxy vaniila but very clean. Some talcum / white flowers on the palate. Lacks weight or length for a great wine but delicious tonight and very much alive.
Flight 3 (3 notes)
Red
1999 Sylvain Cathiard Chambolle-Musigny Les Clos De L'orme
Looks younger than the blind burg. Muted but clean raspberry notse. Delicate. Classy, but needs much more time. Liked around the table but I struggled to get much out of it.
Red
1999 Maison Champy Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets
[blind] Eathier and much more sous-bois on the nose. Grainier too. Not the class of the Cathiard bu still lovely fruit and a drier finish. For me, this was drinking the best of the three right now.
Red
1999 Paul Pernot et ses Fils Beaune 1er Cru Teurons
Nice and Pinot-ey, but I preferred the other two today. Still good though.
Flight 4 (2 notes)
Red
1999 Château Rauzan-Ségla
Smells expensive and classy. Deep, rich, young and sleek (like me, only I'm not rich). Velvety palate. Classic dry finish. Perhaps not the depth on the palate that the nose implied, it seems a touch hollow. Co,ming back to it later, there is more red fruit. Later again the nose is very tobacco dominated. I like this.
Red
1999 Château Pontet-Canet
[blind] Earthier nose than the Rauzan. Pretty crunchy tannins still. Rather a tannic finish too. Quite austere, even. Not sure where this will go. Others enjoyed more than me. Earthiness made me guess St Estephe and Lafon Rochet.
Flight 5 (3 notes)
Red
1999 Patrick Jasmin Côte-Rôtie
Very red-fruited nose. Raspberry. Nice medium bodied, but perhaps a little 'so what'? Seems a little lacking in character. Perhaps in an in-between phase.
Red
1999 Domaine Barge Côte-Rôtie Cuvée du Plessy
Dirty mahogany nose. Slightly medicinal quality too. Lovely palate though with fine powdery quality. Tannins in the finish seems increasingly evident in the glass. Later a very black olive dominated palate. Interesting and quite fun, if not a great wine.
Red
1999 Les Vins de Vienne Côte-Rôtie Les Essartailles
Again very diffrerent. Very modern, sleek and a little oaky. Not at all heavy on the palate though - nice acidity too. Tastes like money. Gets better with air - oak fading. Retains it's lovely lightness on the palate. Modern but very tasty.
Flight 6 (2 notes)
Red
1999 Château de Beaucastel Châteauneuf-du-Pape
A super clean bottle. Clean, essence of grenache nose. There's a touch of cigarette smoke and a little alcohol at the back. Then baked earth, garrigue, then leather. Always deliciously fresh. Lip smacking tart cherry finish later on. Yum and my WOTN.
Red
1999 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée
flawed
Oh dear. My bottle and rather brett dominated. There's a nice supple palate in there somewhere and eventually some olive notes. Bugger.
Closing
Thanks to all who brought, and apologies that mine was shot.