This month’s blind tasting lunch notes.
2005 Bret Bros. Pouilly Fuisse Climat La Roche – sulphur and lemon in the nose, mineral and a hint of apple.
2006 Jean St. Honore Meursault - don’t know this producer, but liked the wine. Bit more colour, a light straw, and less mineral and more fruit, fuller in the mouth and tasty.
1999 Hendry Pinot Noir, Hendry Vineyard (Napa) – nice pure fruit based nose, with maybe a very slight hint of animal, a pretty garnet colour, shading to brick at the edges, good depth and smooth in the mouth. Very pleasant New World Pinot.
2000 Montes Alpha Syrah – floundered about a little on this one as it didn’t really show much syrah character. Good colour, a slight hint of mint in the nose, and some vanilla/oak, and on palate, medium bodied with medium length. The nose picked up a bit of blueberry with time. In good shape, which means I won’t be in any hurry with my Folly, their premium syrah.
2004 Ch. de la Colline Carmine – something I picked up from what I judged to be one of the best Bergerac producers a couple of years ago. Still some purple at the edges, fairly ripe fruit nose with currants, soft tannins, good length. Lots of stuffing here and will continue to mature. Ironic that these wines sell for maybe 10-15 E when a petit chateau a little further west, offering inferior wine, sells for more.
1998 Vieux Donjon – medium colour, soft tannin, fairly smooth on palate, red fruit, a bit warm. OK, but no better. This bottle seemed prematurely ageing compared to the ones from my cellar, and I made a mental note to haul one out soon to confirm that impression.
2004 Clos des Papes – fairly dark, ripe nose, a bright wine that seems mostly Grenache (this turned out to be correct) with good length and medium tannins. Some nice berry fruit here and it should continue to improve for awhile yet.
Porto Rocha 3 Century Tawny – a blended tawny from this Portuguese owned house, with wines from 1899, 1900, 1945 and 2000 (doubtless to freshen it up a bit). The wine was basically brown in colour, with a sweet figgy nose and fairly sweet in the mouth although the balance was quite good. Interesting wine, quite good. Too bad they didn’t realize that the third century didn’t begin until the year 2001, so this is only Two Century Port……