Notes from a wine lunch that featured a surprising number of white wines!
1998 Gaston Chiquet Brut – young Champagne with some good toasty notes, bright and juicy in the mouth with good lingering flavour.
Grahams Emperor Tawny Port – a new one on me, apparently a batch of tawnies from the 1961-1979 time frame, bottled in 1979. Browning, slightly sweet and smooth. Pleasant. I’ve never seen this wine before. For the ceremony of baptising the Port tonels, see The Sala do Baptismo | Graham's Port
2010 Cowan Cellars Isa Sauvignon Blanc (Lake County) – medium colour, somewhat cloudy wine, with sweet citrus and peach in the nose, and decent opening flavour but I thought it tailed off and finished abruptly. Developed some interesting spice in the nose after airing.
2010 Mendel Semillon – lemon and vanilla nose very Burgundian with not much hint of the grape, but in the mouth it showed a lot of grapefruit. Decent length.
1999 Lopez Heredia Bosconia Rioja Bianco – some petrol and a lot of cheese in this nose, and oak, lots of acidity in the mouth and a mouth feel that seemed to thicken the longer you held the wine. Interesting but not an outstanding example of an aged white Rioja.
2004 Marchesi Alfieri San Germano Pinot Noir – warm plumy nose with a briary element, tons of acidity, fairly dark, and totally unlike any pinot noir you’ve ever tasted……
1994 Ch. La Louviere – bit of funk and herbs in the nose, and a green tinge, and later on a nuttiness that was rather pleasant. Fair bit of soft tannin, and at the end a slightly astringent bitterness that I rather enjoyed. Drink now.
1994 Ch. de Beaucastel CNduP – nice mature Rhone nose, the edges getting paler. Very tasty medium bodied wine with soft tannins and good length. On plateau now and no big rush.
2002 Stark-Conde Cabernet (Stellenbosch – dark wine with ripe cocoa nose and cocoa also on palate. Good length. Killer value.
2001 Velenosi Ludi – this blend of cab, merlot and montepulciano from Marche was dark, showing lots of ripe fruit. It was very new world in style, and the only Italian tip off was the slightly high terminal acidity. drinking very well now.
1998 Kenwood Jack London Zinfandel – this had pretty good furit intensity on the nose and was a bit warm and seemed to finish off dry. Not a stellar year for California but a serviceable wine.
1970 Taylor’s Port – how to end the lunch on a very high note! Warm fruity nose with ripe spice, colour now lightening but elegant sweet wine that had excellent length and will continue to develop., although beautiful now.