Yesterday, friends hosted a delightful Sri Lankan curry lunch at their house in KL. Although there was no set theme to the wines, as you might expect, we ended up drinking all whites.
Krug 1985 was first up. An original release and drinking at its apogee. A mid gold colour, lively spritz and a wonderful nose of baked apples and honey. The palate was quite sweet at first but it became more tertiary and sous bois like with air.
CDP Blanc ‘Magis’ 2009 Rotem and Mounir Saouma (aka Lucien LeMoine of Burgundy fame). I brought this. My friend had wanted to try a Beaucastel Roussanne VV bit I didn’t have one to hand so opted for this over Rayas ‘09. The wine shows the vintage character but keeps it nicely restrained with good acidity and surprising minerality. My sense is this will soon shut down, seemingly oxidise, only to re-emerge in 10 years or so. At the moment though it was a perfect foil for sour prawn curry with appam. I have been impressed by all the Saouma CDPs I’ve tried, both from bottle and barrel.
Next up was a pair potential premox candidates. A 2004 Sauzet Puligny Combettes was remarkably youthful in appearance and on the nose however on the palate it was austere and tight. Whether it will ultimately blossom into anything more exciting is questionable as it seems to lack enough stuffing. A Maison Leroy 1994 Chassagne Morgeots was fully mature, very truffley and showed a hint of coffee on the back end. While it was probably 5-10 years past it’s best, it did partner the spicy food very well, something I’ve experienced before with over the hill White Burgundies
Eating chilli crabs and drinking from pristine Zaltos is not a great combination if you have to do the washing up, however no one was able to keep their hands off the 2011 Coche Meursault Rougeots. Our host had decanted this around 6 hours earlier, but it still needed a shake and vigourous swirling before it began to open up. A classic nose of struck match, flint and lemon. The palate was a bit screechy at first but with air it integrated nicely and began to show orchard fruits, white flowers and rocks. This is a lithe wine however unlike the Sauzet, I have much more confidence that the fruit and acidity will resolve as it matures.
We were still thirsty so moved to the New World with a 2012 Giaconda Chardonnay. While this was a full throttle fully-oaked wine, it’s fruit and acidity kept everything in check. I drank a ‘96 last year which was a brilliant example of fully mature Chardonnay so have no doubt this will continue to evolve for 20+ years.
The sometimes fiery food was a perfect partner for the wines with the spice amplifying rather than masking the nuances of each wine.
A nice way to spend an afternoon !