A great dinner with friends yesterday at Benelux top restaurant Hof van Cleve . The food , as always , was brilliant . We were very spoiled by the wines too .
The 2007 Corton Charlemagne from JF Coche Dury was mineral , spicy , with salt and apples on the nose . This wine is young but ready and delicious . The 2005 , 2008 and 2010 CC’s are even more concentrated but this one is pure and elegant . No need to wait any longer . Super .
The 2002 Montrachet from DRC was slightly premoxed . Yellow , and butter and caramel on the nose . Got worse after a while .Full bodied . While you would probably not be allowed to return it when you would have ordered this in a restaurant , we thought it was pretty bad and did dismiss it . This wine was bought by me on release and had been in my cellar all those years . Caveat ! And btw , I had another premoxed 2005 Montrachet from DRC not so long ago .
The 2005 Meursault Goutte d’Or from d’Auvenay is fantastic . Dry extract , nuts , super concentration , a wow wine . If you have never tasted a d’Auvenay , you don’t understand what one can achieve with chardonnay . Well , there is chardonnay and there is Lalou Bize Leroy . These are the best dry white wines in the world . It is unfortunate that her prices are now ridiculously expensive , I am fortunate that I still own a lot from the days that they were not .
Then to the reds and we started well with a Richebourg 1985 from the great Henri Jayer . The wine initially suffered from some dust on the nose ( it was not decanted ) but this disappeared quickly. Sweet red fruit , elegance and power combined . Imo , Jayer’s true magic reveals itself in of-vintages like 1980 for example . This wine is a powerhouse , it will evolve effortlessly for another 30 years or so . A privilege to drink this master piece .
Then came the 1945 La Mission Haut Brion . What a wine . Still fresh , with tobacco on the nose , amazingly deep and complex . A sure 100 pointer ( Neal Martin scored this 100 points too , which is rare but I can see why ) . This must have come from a great cool cellar . The complexity is fantastic . Well aged Bordeaux is the real deal .
The 1937 Calon Segur was pure , elegant but with a slightly hollow mid palate taste . It suffered from coming after the 45 Mission , of course .
Then a very pure young wine . Slightly lactic on the nose . Since Jacques brought the wine , I correctly guessed Le Pin . The 2006 it was . A master piece merlot , very elegant , creamy and deep .
I was really looking for the last 2 wines . The 1945 de Fargues and 1945 Yquem . I had both wines before and thought both were some of the best Sauternes ever made . The de Fargues 45 is very special . Only 3 barrels were made from relatively young vines . Some caramel on the nose , nice light brown color , very long , maybe not as good as the previous de Fargues 45 I had . But on it’s own , a very elegant wine . But the Yquem 45 was in another league . It still maintained it’s intensity , purity , sweetness combined with beautiful acidity . Another 100 pointer wine . As good as it gets . I cannot forget the taste .
![[worship.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/9/99a8907a1d5b3c023582052741dc72dc9823c044.gif "worship"){kind=small}