It's always a treat to taste Chave's white Hermitage. Pale straw. Very subdued and restrained nose. This is a young wine. Pretty white fruit, flowers and tid-bids of butterscotch and nuts on the palate. Lacks a bit of freshness and acidity in my view, but there is a decent minerality and the wine seem to be in good balance. Very smooth and silky palate feel. This will gain more complexity with time in the cellar. Has potential.

Asher and I recently bought a case each of this wine at a very good price so I was excited to taste this wine for the first time. I was slightly disappointed in this wine though. The fruit is a bit on the ripe side with a more exotic profile than usual for Fevre. A mark of the vintage? Lacks a bit of precision and cut. This is clearly a very young wine though and it may work itself out with more time in the cellar. The only Chablis of the night that I wasn't crazy about. Asher thought it showed some ripe, somewhat tropic notes, which is consistent with the vintage, but underlying that found very good acidity and tension. Like a Chablis on cocaine.

Now we're talking! The 2004 was served next to the 2005. The 2004 seemed a lot more evolved than the 2005. Stinky, cheesy - said Michel. The aromas/flavors one find in mature Chablis. I found the wine wonderfully focused and aromatic with lemon, a stony minerality and sea salt. Excellent cut and sense of place here. Beautiful wine that got better and better over the evening.

An incredibly young wine that took hours to open up and provide just a hint of what it will be like in years from now. Subdued and restrained nose. Still one can sense the squeezed lemon juice and the crushed rocks underneath. Opened up gradually with air to reveal sea shells, lemon and more minerals. I think this will be a fantastic wine in 5 to 10 years. It certainly has the stuffing to turn into something special.

I brought this bottle, so my impressions could be biased. Michel noted how this wine appeared much younger than the 2004 Dauvissat. Asher noted the beautiful clarity in this wine and how he got tons of grapefruit on the palate. I got lemon juice and a very flinty/chalky minerality and sea salt from La Carmaque. Also, some green fruit and as the night went on, notes of honey/nuts on the back palate. Excellent poise and cut. Still young, there is plenty of years of life left here.

Fernando brought this wine. Unique wine. Deep golden with a brownish hue. Honey, acacia flowers, almonds and exotic fruit aromas. Sweet, honeyed texture, quite rich - but not over the top. I get a slight whiff of petrol. Excellent sweet wine. Michel notes that this would be a good wine with cheeses.

Then on to a flight of three Cote Roties from 1999. I must admit that the Levet blew me away and stood out as one of the most memorable wines of the evening. Deep dark red color. Wild nose of violets, lavender, black prickly fruit, grilled meat and smoke. Wonderfully spicy on the palate with a rustic character, a wine which is very true to its origin. Great stuffing/concentration of fruit, fills out the entire palate and ends with a long finish. Asher: very good brightness and purity. Yaacov found it more polished than the Ogier which Brad and I disagreed with. Brad: It's like the Ogier without the oak. A truly outstanding Cote Rotie that I would happily buy a case of if could find it.

To me this was slightly more polished than the 1999 Levet, just a tad more extracted and sweet but nevertheless a fantastic wine. Deep, dark red color. Captivating nose of dark ripe fruit, bacon fat, lavender and smoke. Very smooth on the palate, good grip. I also jotted 'tapenade' down. As with the Levet, this got better and better in the glass and really broadened out. Very good wine, just a notch behind the Levet if one wants to compare - but no need for that really.

A lot of people were complaining about VA in this wine, but I did not get that at all. I did find the wine heavily extracted and very modern in style. I noted 'kirsch liquor' on my pad which is something I don't mind finding in Chateauneuf du Pape once in a while, but not a treat I am looking for in Cote Rotie. If I tasted this blind, I would have a very hard time placing it. This was the weakest bottle of the flight.

I brought this bottle. Classic, mature Norhern Rhone Syrah on the nose and palate; very smokey with tobacco leaf, dried black fruit, spices and sous-bois/mushrooms. The body is a bit on the thin/lean side and the wine is very acidic. I agree with Brad that it could use a bit more stuffing. Interesting to taste, but not a remarkable wine.

I brought this bottle. Michel recommended to decant which turned out to be a good decision. An absolutely beautiful showing and one of the wines of the night for me. Very fragrant nose of sweet dried fruit, dried flowers, spices, bacon fat, smoke and much more which I can't find words for. Seem perfectly mature on the palate with tannins resolved and a silky, smooth palate feel. Has much more stuffing than the 1991 Cote Rotie. Just a gorgeous example of mature Syrah.

Then on to a flight of four 1999s from Piedmont. At first there was some debate about this bottle. Some found the oak obtrusive in this wine, others did not. Mark politely mentioned that he did not care for this wine. At first, I wasn't able to detect too much new oak here, but as the wine sat it in the glass it gained more and more of that smell and taste of chocolate and vanilla - spoof in short. Compared to the two other wines, this one was so obviously manitpulated that it was difficult to care about it. Even Asher agreed that this wine was surprisingly spoofy. Not a favorite.

Man, this wine is just so young right now. It took several hours before it came out from its shell and still this was opened 5-10 years too early. Very restrained and subdued but without a doubt a wine of elegance and refinement with marks of violets, roses, pretty red fruit, tar and a whiff of licorice. The tannins are biting at this stage and need much more time to resolve. A sprinkle of pepper in the background as well. I love the subtlety of this wine, so understated. A great wine in the making. (15 views)

Brad, who has much more experience with Piedmont wines than me, said he thought this wine could have been heat damaged as he found it unusual for it to show beef broth at this early stage. To me it was obvious that we're dealing with an infant here. The color was slightly lighter than the color of the Giacosa. Also, I get a distinct mark of cherry fruit in combination with spices and tar. Again, I adore the subtlety and refinement here - this is not a show horse. Good tannic structure, further time needed to resolve. I bet this one has a great future ahead of it.

Together with the Giacosa Barbaresco, this was my favorite of the wines from Piedmont. Another incredibly young wine yet a bit more expressive than the Giacosa and the Conterno. Asher says fireworks in the glass. To me this has a bit more of a rustic character with earthy/sous-bois notes in between the floral, red fruit flavors and spices and tar. Opens up nicely in the glass. Great wine in the making. (16 views)

And then back to Chablis for dessert! Here we have an old school grower and it shows in the wine. A more serious, substantial wine compared to the wines from Raveneau and Dauvissat for example. Michel noted that he got the stinky, cheesy notes here as well and Michael said he was very impressed. I find more honeyed/nutty notes here and more tangerine/orange than lemon/lime. Yet there is tremendous underlying minerality. Asher noted that this a very clean wine - which I'm not sure I agree to. He meant it in a good way. Excellent wine and a good contrast to the earlier Chablis flights.

Fernando thought we needed more red wine, so he pulled this bottle from his bag. This was a quite pleasant wine actually, Michel noted it was correct, but it was obviously quite a difficult act to follow three bottles of 1999 Cote Rotie and a flight of high end wines from Piedmont. I think this bottle would show great on a stand alone basis.