CHRISTMAS EVE DRINKS - Alex’s place (24/12/2011)
It has been quite a Christmas Eve with family affairs that will mark this as one year that we are unlikely to forget. It was a blessing to be able to close the evening hanging out with good friends in the company of a few bottles of interesting wines.
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NV Equipo Navazos Jerez-Xérès-Sherry La Bota de Fino “que va para Amontillado” Nº 24 - Spain, Andalucía, Jerez-Xérès-Sherry
Consistently brilliant. This started with a wonderful nose which showed deep whiffs of walnuts, a few woody hints, some earth and then sweet dried figs and pears, some rancio browned apple notes, and just lovely umami hints of dried mushrooms and white meat surrounded by a drift of perfumy flowers and a little suggestion of saline seabreeze. Lovely. The palate, as with the past few bottles, was even better. Beautiful stuff. So complex, yet so incredibly integrated and densely packed that it was almost impossible to pick apart. It attacked with fresh lemony notes that slowly unfolded across the mouth in layers of figs and pears, walnuts and acorns, earth and prickly spice, all wrapped up in a wonderfully fresh, perfectly balanced package. The finish went on for ages, coating the back-palate with earthy, nutty, ever so-slightly woody flavours. A beautiful sherry, showing both great intensity and supreme elegance. A great wine even by itself, it was superlative when paired with some top-notch jamon iberico bellota. If there is one sherry I could drink for the rest of my life, this would be it. (96 pts.) -
2010 William Downie Pinot Noir Gippsland No S02 - Australia, Victoria, Gippsland
Strange bottle this - tasted for all the world like a 2004 Burgundy replete with green meanies. The nose started out with a blast of green vine stems, eucalyptus and then some sappy red cherry aromas topped up by a sprinkle of earth. Over time in the decanter though, this grew into a really herby, ginseng-infused concoction. The palate was rather less green at first, showing a nice touch of rich, sappy, sweet cherry flavours touched by some spice, with plenty ginseng, boiled herb and woody stems playing away in the background. It had good depth, with lots of fleshy sweet fruit, yet was still nicely balanced and firmed up with fine acidity. Pretty good with quite a bit of complexity for something so young too. I was pretty impressed at this point. However, as the wine sat in the decanter, the fruit began to take a back seat, and all those herbal notes started coming more and more to the fore, until they all but overshadowed the wine. Hard to know what to make of this. There was certainly not for everyone with its extreme herbiness, but there was nice material in there. Would be interesting to try this in 5 years time to see where it goes. (89 pts.) -
1997 Camus Pere & Fils Latricières-Chambertin - France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru
Good stuff. Blind tasted, this was quite a surprise coming from an unfashionable maker in an unheralded vintage. It had an almost stinky nose at first, with salty preserved meat notes, funky earth and a touch of soy sauce littered with dried leaves and twigs and a bit of spice. Thankfully, with time, the more funky, meaty notes were met by some fruit tea scents and a layer of richly warm dried cherry and strawberry compote notes. Very aged, but not unattractive. I was wondering where the palate would be after that nose, but a bit of a tart edge aside, this was still very alive and showing really nicely, with a stream of fresh acidity running through fresh, red fruited flavours of sour cherries and dried cranberries. These were met on the midpalate by a nice sense of savoury meat and earthy, mushroomy nuances. There was no doubt this was a Gevrey with those flavours. There was also clearly Grand Cru depth and breadth here even given the relatively weak vintage, and with the meaty, slightly twiggy rusticity and the slightly metallic minerality underlying the fruit as the wine pulled into the back-palate, Latricieres was as good a guess as any as to which plot. I found this just a touch rustic and the spicy finish lacked some authority, but otherwise this was really quite nice indeed. (92 pts.) -
2007 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
This was probably the most modern-styled Vieux Télégraphe I have ever had - sort of VT on steroids. Still, there was no doubting the quality here - this was a highly impressive wine. Too young to fully enjoy even after three hours in an open bottle, but it is certainly one to keep and cellar. It had a rather ripe, sweet nose that started with a blast of glycerol, but otherwise there were nice, deep aromas of ripe dark cherries and plums, dried earth, sweet spices and a lovely twist of garrigue. Rather sweeter and riper than what I am used to with VT, but clearly Provencale in character and really attractive nonetheless. The palate was still super young and really primary. Again, it was far richer and riper than I normally associate with VT, but it was both very impressive and rather delicious, with a great depth of dark cherry and blackberry fruit laced with deep spice and garrigue notes on the midpalate. There was plenty of freshness here, with bright acidity running alongside the depth of black fruited flavours, and also a nice sense of structure lent to the wine by very fine tannins. The finish was both deep and long, showing in a rich, powerful pull of cassis, plums and blackberries undergirded with a good bit of minerally earth and wood spice. The lush, voluptuous fleshiness of the vintage here seems to be tampered slightly by Vieux Télégraphe’s typical sense of reserve and class, something that worked really well for the wine. Even then, it is a wine that may well take forever to come around. While this had a lot going for it, it was still clearly in its infancy - it would be very interesting to try this in a decade or so though. (92 pts.)
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