LUNCH WITH NICHOLAS PEGNA OF BERRY BROTHER & RUDD - Moluccas Room, Marina Bay Sands (14/5/2012)
9 of is gathered for lunch to welcome Nicholas Pegna to Singapore. This was one of the most beautiful wine lunches I have had for some time. The setting certainly helped, with a nice private table overlooking Marina Bay, bright sunshine streaming in from outside. But it was the sterling company, great food and lovely wines that really made the occasion - very rarely do we have such a consistently good line-up for lunch. In fact, the wines were all so universally and consistently good that it was hard to choose a favourite. And who would have though, the Burgundies that we all brought actually went really well with a whole variety of slightly spicy Indonesian fusion dishes that were delicious prepared. Of course, it is also always nice to start with the bubbles, move to whites, then reds, and to end with a sweet. A lunch to remember.
BUBBLES
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NV Bollinger Champagne Rosé Brut - France, Champagne
This was very good indeed. It clearly had the benefit of some amount of bottle age (we were later told that it had some four years in the cellar), and the extra maturity really counted in the wine. It had a lovely nose, with the beginning of secondary notes peeking out in the form of earthy, yeasty, umami inflected scents along with a nice waft of white meat and stony minerality framing fresher aromas of white fruit and a little kiss of cherry flesh. An entrancing bouquet. The palate was still really fresh though. I would not quite describe it as zippy, but it was certainly bright, with a rather cool feel to its lovely melange of cherry and strawberry flavours, lemony nuances and a touch of bittersweet minerality, all very nicely integrated with age. The finish was very nice too - very classy, very Bolly, it showed great poise and balance as it glided into a creamy, but ever so well-defined mouthful of cherry and mineral notes playing against one another. An NV Rosé of great polish, this was also quite a brilliant pairing with a slightly spicy prawn, pomelo and lemongrass salad. Another reminder that even NVs benefit from time in the cellar. A great start to the meal. (92 pts.)
WHITES
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1990 Robert Ampeau & Fils Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru
I was very taken by this wine - I thought it showed even better than the last bottle I had a year or so ago. It had a very complex nose, full of earth and mushrooms, cream and spice, and ripe yellow fruited notes. Very compelling stuff - rich, powerful scents that were full-on Meursault. The palate was similarly full, rather ripe, certainly rich and still very generously fruited. It unfolded from the attack with flavours of sweet lemons, figs, and stone fruit, almost with a touch of apricot, all wrapped in a creamily textured mouthfeel. There was a nice honeyed note on the midpalate showing the wine’s age, but this was still wed to a good amount of bright, lively acidity, and there was just that little twist of Perrieres minerality and a touch of spice at the finish that added to the complexity of the wine. Delicious. We all thought the palate was a touch weaker than the nose, and the finish was perhaps starting to show signs of thinning out at its extremieties - so probably time to drink up if you have any left. It sure is a rewarding drink though. Very delicious. (93 pts.) -
2008 Louis Carillon Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Perrières - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
A superb 1er Cru. This has surprisingly come a really long way since I tasted it in barrel at the (now sadly split-up) Domaine, more than fulfilling the early promise it showed. In fact, I thought this bottle was beautifully expressive for such a young Carillon, with a nose that almost burst out of the glass with lovely curls of vanilla and cream, with ripe apple and white flower aromas all underscored by a layer of chalky mineral accents. The palate was still clearly young, maybe not quite as ebullient as the nose, but it too was lovely and oh so expressive, with a beautiful flow of lemon curd and apples and honey and marzipan - fleshy and delicious, but also blessed with the beautiful freshness, focus and definition that marks the best of Carillon’s bottlings, together with a sense of energy that drove the wine into wonderfully lively finish, where citrussy, sherberty brightness and chalky minerality melded together in a long, delicious tail. A smashing 1er Cru even in its youth - it would be hard to stop depleting this if I had any in my cellar. Even so, I think it will be even better in a short couple of years’ time. (93 pts.)
REDS
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2002 Château de La Tour Clos Vougeot Vieilles Vignes - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Vougeot Grand Cru
Excellent. This was a typical 2002, advanced in some ways as it hits its first decade, yet so very stubborn and unyielding in others. Still though, this was an exemplary Clos Vougeot. The nose was certainly rather developed, with wafts of hawthorne and bramble, a nice core of blackberries and black cherries, just that touch of earthiness and a little drift of violet flowers, with some herby nuances speaking of the use of stems in the wine-making. Very nice, complex stuff - attractive without being showy. With time, there was even a touch of haw flakes and balsamic in that bouquet that suggested more than the wine’s 10 years of age. However, the palate was very much more youthful, with lovely fresh flavours of black cherry and dark berries touched with a little edge of red fruit, red cherries I thought, barely perceptible in the distance. This had the lovely clarity and balance of the vintage, but it was still not completely developed, with a primary edge to the fruit. The fresh fruit was so youthful in fact, that it seemed almost a mismatch with the more mellow accents on the nose. However, there was both depth and purity, with a nice breadth of flavour across the midpalate as well, making for a delicious wine that was quite clearly a Grand Cru experience. It was still very structured though, with slightly chalky, powdery tannins lending a fine sense of tensile strength and firm presence to the wine, espeically as in came to the long, tight and rather more tannic finish. A solid wine, yummy even now, but it was truthfully nowhere near ready even after an hour or so in the decanter. It needs a lot more time yet. (93 pts.) -
1995 Faiveley Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Cazetiers - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru
This was yet another very fine wine, continuing the run of lovely Burgundies that we had so far. Strangely enough, for what was far and away the oldest red on the day, it seemed every bit as youthful as its peers on the same flight. After a 2 hour decant, it showed a lovely nose that was a nice synthesis of the darker fruits of the vintage, with black cherry and berry aromas, with the spicey, cinamon, clove and bramble scents that were so very Faiveley, with a heavy use of stems in the mix. The palate, like so many of these 1995s, was still really structured, with a very fine but really firm backbone and lovely balancing acidity forming a solid backdrop for clear, pure, and ever so slightly juicy flavours of dark cherries and black berries, touched with a citrus lift on the midpalate. It came across as a fine, serious wine, but it was also very delicious. I think a large part of it was down to how well the wine was integrated, with a lovely sense of completeness as it rounded its way into a finish touched with rather more secondary notes of earth and spice. Really nice stuff. I was surprised by this. At a pretty nice place now, but it should continue growing in the near term. (93 pts.) -
2006 Domaine de Montille Volnay 1er Cru Champans - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Volnay 1er Cru
A really yummy wine. Rather more in-your-face than you would expect from a de Montille from previous vintages, and certainly made in a more modern style than the other two red Burgundies on the same flight, but boy was it ever enjoyable. It was really expressive on the nose, with waves of raspberry ripple, ripe strawberries and floral sweetness making for a very inviting bouquet. The palate was really forward too, very pretty, with delicious, juicy flavours of strawberries, raspberries and a whole panoply of red fruits surrounded by a halo of floral perfume. However, for something as forward and fleshily voluptuous as this was, it was actually beautifully balanced and elegant, with a nice but of acidity lending the wine a nicely focused feel on the midpalate. The finish showed a good bit of structure as well, with still firm tannins nestled amongst nice drifts of spice and earth. I thought it had shades of new world Pinot on the nose, but that backpalate defeinitely pulled one back to Burgundy. I really liked this -even more so than when I had it a couple of years back. Like many 2006s, it does not show any sign of falling asleep at all, and I do think it will continue to improve year on year as it sheds its puppy fat and the strength and structure of the underlying terroir starts to peek out more. (92 pts.)
SWEET
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2006 Château Suduiraut - France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
A nice wine, with a very noticeable Suduiraut stamp on it, from its orange peel amd lemon rind accents on the nose, along with a bit of honey and apricots and slightly chalky scents, to a nice, fresh palate, with apricots, sweet lemons and even a touch of jackruit, shaded with a lick of minerality at the finish. I really liked the balance on this wine. There was a nice caramelly weight on the creamy attack and a nice touch of honeyed depth on the midpalate, yet without a single hint of sluggish heaviness. Unlke many youngish Sauternes, I could acually imagine myself drinking quite a few glasses of this. Good stuff. While I like my Sauternes with a good bit of age on them, this is actually quite approachable now, especially when paired with the right food. On the day, I thought it went particular well with a pandan pancake topped with jackfruit and a touch of sweet coconut sauce. (92 pts.)
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