TN: Another Mixed Bag: Domaine de la Pépière, Leroy, Roty etc

JERMING’S INTRO TO MATURE OLD WORLD WINES - Kingyo, Marina Square / Pine Close (7/1/2012)

Jerming was back in Singapore for a holiday, and I had promised him and Chern Wern the last time around that we would gather a group of people to introduce them to a range of mature old world wines. The usual suspects happily obliged, and we gathered at Kingyo for a fantastic Japanesedinner followed by a trip to my place for round two. The wines were blind as always. Whites and the Pomerol were served at the restaurant, while the others were done at home.
WHITES

  • 2007 Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Granite de Clisson - France, Loire Valley, Pays Nantais, Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine
    A really soild Muscadet. I learnt my lesson from the last bottle, which only showed well towards the last few glasses, and popped this a good half-hour before serving this time. It seemed to do the wine a lot of good. While still clearly young, it drank very nicely from the first pour, showing a very maritime influenced nose - with seaspray, seashells, oyster shards and flint aromas twirling around with a little hint of straw and some neutral white fruited notes. A bit tight, so as with the previous time, it was the palate that really impressed with its rich depth of white fruit couched in an almost oily textured package. There was ripeness and power here beyond what you would normally expect from a Muscadet, but this was matched stride for stride by a very bright lemony, limey crispness. The wine was then lined with an edge of metallic minerality towards the long finish, where some pink grapefruit and subtle hay notes peeked out from amidst the riper fruit. I liked this very much. It had lots of character, yet it somehow still retained a neutral core that made it so lovely to drink and ever so versatile, with the flavours shifting subtly in sympathy to each piece of sashimi we had. Lovely stuff, which should get even better over the next couple of years. (92 pts.)
  • 1978 Château Coutet - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Barsac
    This was special. A perfectly kept Sauternes, quite at peak and paired just perfectly with a dish of beef cheek braised in a sweetish Japanese sauce and topped-off with a sliver of foie gras. It had a wonderfully complex nose, with sweet fennel and clove spice sprinkled over lots of honey and burnt caramel aromas and a nice fresh lift of something tropical - pineapples, passion fruit maybe, almost a bit of lychee creme at the side. Really nice. The palate was at a beautiful place too, with lovely melting acidity draped over beautiful flavours of tangerines and green mangoes, almost a hint of lychee and passion fruit again, all drizzled with dollops of golden honey. Wonderfully integrated, this glided away into a creamy finish with a note of brioche chased by sweet notes of candied ginger, orange blossom and a touch bittersweet burnt sugar. Beautiful stuff. Wonderfully complex, balanced and long, yet so well-integrated that it was easy to miss just how much was going on as it went down the hatch. Wow. Good on its own, it hit even greater heights as the acidity in the wine cut through the foie-gras and it emerged on the other side of a cleansed palate with its lovely complex flavours singing alongside a creamy foie aftertaste. Easily the wine of the night. (94 pts.)
  • 1976 Maison Leroy Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
    There was a bit of a disjoint on this wine - it had a nose to die for, but a palate that seemed to have thinned out with age. Still a very nice drink overall though, starting with that amazing nose that led into the wine with wet earth, sous bois, tons of mushrooms and whiffs tree bark - almost composty notes - layered over a core of white fruited aromas and metally mineral. There was just a bit of reduction hovering around at first, but that blew off ather quickly to show more white fruited notes and a whiff of honeysuckle along the earthier notes. Amazing complexity. The palate was unfortunately a bit of a climb down. Clearly mature, it had thinned out slightly to show a bit of its metallic, minerally ribs sticking out from amidst elegant white fruited notes still laced with delicate acidity. While a bit austere on its own, it did get better with food, filling up on the mid-palate with bright notes of lemons and green apples chased by bits of spice and honeysuckle. A bit past its prime maybe, so it was still rather nice. (91 pts.)
  • 2008 Faiveley Puligny-Montrachet - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet
    A pity, there was a lot to like about this, save for the fact that it was lightly tainted by TCA, so that the nice honeyed aromas and sweet white fruit and flowers on the nose were haunted by a shadow of wet cardboard. You could barely tell on the palate though. Here, more sweet notes of ripe red apples and sweet lemons rode alongside vanilla oak and perfumy flowers on a bed of stony mineral. There was quite a bit of depth on this, beyond what you would normally expect from a village, and even though there was just a bit too much oak at the moment, you could still make out the classicaly pretty Puligny character on the wine. I liked this quite a bit. It may need some time to shed its puppy fat and overt oak but, TCA aside, it should make a really nice wine in a couple of years. NR (flawed)

REDS

  • 2005 Château La Pointe - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
    There is some quality here, but it is still way too young. Cepage was 75% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. With that much Merlot in there, you would expect it to have at least opened up slightly after several years in the bottle, but this was still super-tight. The nose barely showed anything at first beyond a layer of dusty earth and subtle meaty notes alognside some indeterminate dark fruit. Only very slowly and over time did it open up into notes of five spice and cloves sprinkled on some plums and dark cherries. Clearly a right-bank then, with quite a bit of Merlot. On the palate, this had a cloak of fine tannins and bright acidity thrown rather heavily over subtle, slightly buried dark cherries and black plums moving into a long draw of dried earth and mineral on the back-palate. My first instinct was Pomerol given its soft fruited background, but it was so tight and minerally still that I switched guesses to 2005 St Emilion instead. Rather difficult to enjoy at the moment, but this has the tremendous balance and structrue of the 2005 vintage along with its good fruit. It should easily grow over the next couple of decades, by which time I expect it to blossom into a pretty nice wine. (90 pts.)
  • 1981 Loredan Gasparini Venegazzú Della Casa Colli Trevigiani IGT - Italy, Veneto, Colli Trevigiani IGT
    This was several notches down from the last bottle we had a year or more back. Still very pleasing, but it seemed rather older, more tired. The nose was really mature, with savoury aromas of sour plums, preserved orange peel, hawthorn and dried wood at the fore and rather fading black cherry scents bringing up the rear. Intriguing. The palate was rather more lively than the nose would suggest. The attack was streaked with bright, mouth-puckering acidity running through dark cherries and clear cranberry notes, before those savoury notes on the bouquet emerged again on an earthy midpalate. Past that, the wine finished with black-tea infused back-end where a touch of tannins still lingered. Still pleasant, but just starting to thin out and get metallic at points. (88 pts.)
  • 1981 Château Rausan-Ségla - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
    This was a real surprise. I would have expected a 1981 Rausan-Ségla to be a bit of a wash-out, but this was actually delicious. Served blind, none of us were able to call the vintage of the maker. It was showing wonderfully for sure, starting with a beautiful nose that was very classic Margaux with its sweet tobacco notes, subtle cassis scents and whiffs of dried flowers and tea leaves. Very pretty. As would be expected from the vintage, the palate was no blockbuster. Rather, it was clean, clear and beautiful balanced, displaying a lovely transperancy in its cassis and dark berry flavours. This was neither the deepest nor the most compelling of clarets, but it was wonderfully charming from head to toe, finishing with a little lick of spice, tobacco and dried flowers. It certainly was not skinny or lean though - quite delicious stuff indeed. This bottle was quite at peak and gave us a lot of pleasure. (92 pts.)
  • 1995 Domaine Joseph Roty Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Fontenys - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru
    Such is Roty’s style that good though this bottle was, and it was pretty good indeed, it was still far too young even a 16 years of age. It had a huge nose of dark plums, black berries and meat riding over a core of sous bois and mushrooms. At once very Gevrey, yet rather oversized for a Burg of its age in its deep, rich aromas. In time, the nose did calm down a bit, and more red fruited scents emerged alongside a bit of mint and exotic spice in the background. If anything, the palate seemed even younger than the nose, so it showed a bit tight, a bit primary, a bit tannic even. Thankfully, the tannins were very fine and the big dark cherry fruit notes had a depth and purity to them that spoke of the wines quality. I loved the fresh acidity on this too, which gave the wine a core of great energy from the weigty attack through the midpalate, where dark fruited depth was met by some earth and meat nuances, and then on into the back-palate. The finish, like the rest of the wine, showed a lot of strength and a lovely powerful length. There were some chocolate and cocoa notes here and maybe a bit of wood spice as the wine rounded off. This needs time. It was quite a beast on the night, but it certainly has a lot going on. Good stuff. A pity we opened it to young. Given that it was my only bottle, it is one of those wines that I actually regret broaching before its time. If I had another bottle, I would wait a good 5 years before popping it. (92 pts.)
  • 2004 Domaine Pierre Usseglio & Fils Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de mon Aïeul - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
    I enjoyed this very much. Opened several hours before and decanted for another 45 minutes, it was a delicious way to round up the night. I loved the nose here - it was pure Grenache goodness, with splashes of rose water over a core of red meat aromas, a bit of garrigue and earth and sweet cherries and blackcurrants galore. Sweetly perfumed, yet not cloying or candied in the least bit. The palate was very nice too. Young, of course, but I liked the way the 2004 vintage showed up on this, lending the wine a delicious freshness and perhaps toning down the opulence that the Mon Aïeul sometimes shows in its youth. This was a lovely mouthful of vibrant red cherries and the purest blackcurrant notes racing alongside bright acidity that gave the wine a nice clarity in the midst of its lovely depth of naturally sweet fruit. Still a bit primary, still a bit simple, especially towards the silky finish, but there was an elegant effortlessness about it that made it so very drinkable. This wine really should be given the benefit of another 5-6 years at least in the cellar, but it certainly was yummy on the day given proper time to breathe. (93 pts.)

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