Drinking beautifully now. Golden bronze. Aromatic nose of flowers, lychee, apricots. Some nice sweetness on the palate with good acidity to balance out. Silky and slightly oily textured with commendable depth and freshness. At plateau now.
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Dinner at Mike and Cathy's place (Wellington, New Zealand): Colour deep gold. A gorgeous, expressive, perfumed bouquet, that takes me straight to old Alsatian pinot gris. Complex, multi-layered aromas of spice, glycerol, honey, blanched almonds, honeysuckle, pineapple, at times fresh, then savoury. Revisiting it after ninety minutes in the glass, the nose is now more Turkish delight and ginger. In the mouth, there is a lovely texture, all unctuous and viscous. It needs some air to open and is clearly evolved and a little oxidised, but it is still very pure and shows good acidity. Carries its (14%) alcohol well. There is serious fruit weight, depth and power with layers of complex flavours: spice, honey, pineapple, passionfruit, marmalade, toffee, with mushroomy, savoury elements. Very long, finishes dry and notes of honey and spice. Right in its prime now but should have at least another 10 years in its window. Thanks to Mike and Cathy for this - they saw it on a restaurant list in Singapore and brought it home!
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Baby Shower (Park Palace, Grand Park Hotel): A wonderful wine, and just a beautiful pairing with deep-fried Soon Hock fish in superior soy sauce. While not quite as complex and developed as the last bottle I had a year back, this was still a show-stopper. It had such a wonderful nose, showing wafts of malt honey and orange blossoms, sweet aromas of dried mangoes and apricots, mandarin oranges, then dried flowers and spice and mineral. Wow. The palate was less showy, but perhaps even more impressive. It had a profound depth, with rich flavours of red apples and mangoes and mandarin oranges - a whole mouthfilling spectrum of fleshy fruit - drizzled with honey and wreathed with orange blossoms on the creamily-textured midpalate. Yet for all that, this was so beautifully balanced and wonderfully integrated that it came across effortlessly elegant, with a crystal clarity that shone through its delicious depth. Quite remarkable really - if you blinked, you could easily missed how deeply-wound and wonderfully complex this wine was. It had a lovely finish too - long, insistent, with toasty bit of spice and mineral winding their way through a linger of honeyed fruits. A great wine, and it is only starting to drink well now - give it a few more years, and it should develop even more complexity and nuance. I loved this.
Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain Vertical (Absinthe, Bukit Pasoh): Wow. This was a very special wine. As good as the other Pinot Gris on the night were, this was probably my favourite of the lot. It had a beautiful nose, rather deeper and more developed than the 1995 that preceded it, with strikingly Vouvray-like notes of lanolin and pure red apple aromas arrayed amongst more familiar scents of honey and orange blossoms, sweet flowers and chalky mineral, and then nice, savoury notes of earth and meat and stewed mushrooms. Really complex, lovely stuff - and the palate was even better. It was just incredibly balanced, with a mindblowing purity and clarity to its citrussy grapefruit and lime zest zooming through fleshier flavours of lemon curd and orange. This was streaked with a gentle, yet insistent stream of stony mineral on the midpalate and an intriguingly saline, salted-nut nuance that floated around the whole package. What a complete wine - powerful, supple, complex, yet almost subtle in spite of its expressive flavours, and always punctuated with that amazing balance and definition. This was pitch perfect from its wonderful attack all the way into a long, powerful finish lined with more of those wet stoney mineral notes. A wonderful wine, drinking at peak. What a treat this was.
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Matts Sommelier celebration and Mums xmas present weekend; 2/17/2012-2/19/2012 (London, UK): This develops after opening, I would recommend at least 30mins of air as it took a little time to get into its stride. Yellow straw coloured, strong legs. Quite a subtle nose with yellow apples and a touch of caramel toffee develops. It's fairly viscous in the mouth. More burnt sugar toffee on the palate, baked apples, baked cream, apricot, a bit of ginger spice and a citrus acidity thats still alive and keeps it quite crisp. A good long and quite dry finish. Not a powerful wine, but elegant and clean, would be great with some lightly spiced east asian dishes.
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Dinner at Blu Seafood, Durham, NC. Dark yellow in color, this was the finest showing yet that I've had for this wine. Full bodied with notes of lemon but dominated by a sense of pure and powerful liqueur de Rangen. Very heady stuff as is typical for Rangen wines that really show the powerful nature of the vineyard. Shows the upfront fruit typical of 1990. Extremely long on the finish. Probably not for everyone but to me a terrific showing and a captivating wine. 50+13+13+9+9 = 94
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Dinner at Charles Morgan's flat (Kensington, London, UK): Light gold in the glass, this medium + bodied wine showed smoke, minerals and peat, followed by a medium length finish. While really good it was missing the extra something that has made previous bottles really stand out. Travel shock? Slightly off bottle? Not sure. 50+12+12+8+8 = 90
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Dinner at Jackie & Mike's house. Medium yellow in color with a medium bodied personality that blossomed over a period of 3 hours. Rangen-typical minerals, flint, peat and earth along with yellow fruits in a very refined and elegant package. Great balance to this wine that drinks younger that it's 14 years would suggest. 50+13+13+8+8 = 92.
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2/25/2019 - MAOC wrote:
Faulty - some sort of slight refermentation issue.
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4/18/2015 - Dbrane wrote: 90 Points
Drinking beautifully now. Golden bronze. Aromatic nose of flowers, lychee, apricots. Some nice sweetness on the palate with good acidity to balance out. Silky and slightly oily textured with commendable depth and freshness. At plateau now.
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5/19/2014 - HowardNZ wrote: 94 Points
Dinner at Mike and Cathy's place (Wellington, New Zealand): Colour deep gold. A gorgeous, expressive, perfumed bouquet, that takes me straight to old Alsatian pinot gris. Complex, multi-layered aromas of spice, glycerol, honey, blanched almonds, honeysuckle, pineapple, at times fresh, then savoury. Revisiting it after ninety minutes in the glass, the nose is now more Turkish delight and ginger. In the mouth, there is a lovely texture, all unctuous and viscous. It needs some air to open and is clearly evolved and a little oxidised, but it is still very pure and shows good acidity. Carries its (14%) alcohol well. There is serious fruit weight, depth and power with layers of complex flavours: spice, honey, pineapple, passionfruit, marmalade, toffee, with mushroomy, savoury elements. Very long, finishes dry and notes of honey and spice. Right in its prime now but should have at least another 10 years in its window. Thanks to Mike and Cathy for this - they saw it on a restaurant list in Singapore and brought it home!
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7/27/2013 - Paul S wrote: 94 Points
Baby Shower (Park Palace, Grand Park Hotel): A wonderful wine, and just a beautiful pairing with deep-fried Soon Hock fish in superior soy sauce. While not quite as complex and developed as the last bottle I had a year back, this was still a show-stopper. It had such a wonderful nose, showing wafts of malt honey and orange blossoms, sweet aromas of dried mangoes and apricots, mandarin oranges, then dried flowers and spice and mineral. Wow. The palate was less showy, but perhaps even more impressive. It had a profound depth, with rich flavours of red apples and mangoes and mandarin oranges - a whole mouthfilling spectrum of fleshy fruit - drizzled with honey and wreathed with orange blossoms on the creamily-textured midpalate. Yet for all that, this was so beautifully balanced and wonderfully integrated that it came across effortlessly elegant, with a crystal clarity that shone through its delicious depth. Quite remarkable really - if you blinked, you could easily missed how deeply-wound and wonderfully complex this wine was. It had a lovely finish too - long, insistent, with toasty bit of spice and mineral winding their way through a linger of honeyed fruits. A great wine, and it is only starting to drink well now - give it a few more years, and it should develop even more complexity and nuance. I loved this.
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6/9/2012 - Paul S wrote: 95 Points
Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain Vertical (Absinthe, Bukit Pasoh): Wow. This was a very special wine. As good as the other Pinot Gris on the night were, this was probably my favourite of the lot. It had a beautiful nose, rather deeper and more developed than the 1995 that preceded it, with strikingly Vouvray-like notes of lanolin and pure red apple aromas arrayed amongst more familiar scents of honey and orange blossoms, sweet flowers and chalky mineral, and then nice, savoury notes of earth and meat and stewed mushrooms. Really complex, lovely stuff - and the palate was even better. It was just incredibly balanced, with a mindblowing purity and clarity to its citrussy grapefruit and lime zest zooming through fleshier flavours of lemon curd and orange. This was streaked with a gentle, yet insistent stream of stony mineral on the midpalate and an intriguingly saline, salted-nut nuance that floated around the whole package. What a complete wine - powerful, supple, complex, yet almost subtle in spite of its expressive flavours, and always punctuated with that amazing balance and definition. This was pitch perfect from its wonderful attack all the way into a long, powerful finish lined with more of those wet stoney mineral notes. A wonderful wine, drinking at peak. What a treat this was.
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2/17/2012 - kingkanu wrote: 92 Points
Matts Sommelier celebration and Mums xmas present weekend; 2/17/2012-2/19/2012 (London, UK): This develops after opening, I would recommend at least 30mins of air as it took a little time to get into its stride. Yellow straw coloured, strong legs. Quite a subtle nose with yellow apples and a touch of caramel toffee develops. It's fairly viscous in the mouth. More burnt sugar toffee on the palate, baked apples, baked cream, apricot, a bit of ginger spice and a citrus acidity thats still alive and keeps it quite crisp. A good long and quite dry finish. Not a powerful wine, but elegant and clean, would be great with some lightly spiced east asian dishes.
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11/6/2010 - markellen.foodies@gmail.com wrote: 94 Points
@ Mr Chows. David's treat. Golden hued lychee hazelnut with balancing acodity. WOTN.
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5/14/2009 - JeffGMorris wrote: 94 Points
Dinner at Blu Seafood, Durham, NC. Dark yellow in color, this was the finest showing yet that I've had for this wine. Full bodied with notes of lemon but dominated by a sense of pure and powerful liqueur de Rangen. Very heady stuff as is typical for Rangen wines that really show the powerful nature of the vineyard. Shows the upfront fruit typical of 1990. Extremely long on the finish. Probably not for everyone but to me a terrific showing and a captivating wine. 50+13+13+9+9 = 94
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10/7/2006 - JeffGMorris wrote: 90 Points
Dinner at Charles Morgan's flat (Kensington, London, UK): Light gold in the glass, this medium + bodied wine showed smoke, minerals and peat, followed by a medium length finish. While really good it was missing the extra something that has made previous bottles really stand out. Travel shock? Slightly off bottle? Not sure. 50+12+12+8+8 = 90
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6/4/2005 - JeffGMorris wrote:
Opened by Dena while I was in Europe on business.
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11/24/2004 - JeffGMorris wrote: 92 Points
Dinner at Jackie & Mike's house. Medium yellow in color with a medium bodied personality that blossomed over a period of 3 hours. Rangen-typical minerals, flint, peat and earth along with yellow fruits in a very refined and elegant package. Great balance to this wine that drinks younger that it's 14 years would suggest. 50+13+13+8+8 = 92.
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