- 2002 Voirin-Jumel Champagne Millésimé - France, Champagne (10/4/2008)
A sweet scent of apple or pear jam, but also nice minerality and white fruit. Elegant mousse, but a rather full bodied and heavy Champagne without quite the steely, refreshing zip I hope to see in Chardonnay-heavy Champagnes. Yet despite my criticisms, it did go down very easily. It is a good Champagne, just not what I was expecting. - 2007 Crushpad Töövi Saralee's Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley (10/4/2008)
14% abv; stainless steel, no oak; c.½ & ½ Marsanne & Roussanne with just a dash of Viognier. At first very reductive, but it opened up to be a really wonderful white Rhône blend with nutty and pear-like fruit and very strong minerality. Full bodied but very light on its feet with abnormally high acidity for a Rhône white blend (but this was only a good thing as I too often find them flabby). It is a bit tannic also so I wondered if it might have been pressed with stems - apparently not, but it does have great structure to counter the fruit. Asko's best wine so far, IMO! Great stuff! - 1982 Chateau Musar - Lebanon, Bekaa Valley (10/4/2008)
This bottle was very different from the magnum I had last December. This was a dark and brooding wine, not delicate at all, with an animal quality to the peachy fruit. With air it became tame and lost some of the unique Musariness and became more like an aged CdP. Vibrant, sweet fruit, refreshing acidity and quite tannic but sadly also the alcohol shows a little on the finish. A nice wine, but not one of the great Musars and strange in how it lost its Musariness after a few hours! - 1980 Acacia Pinot Noir St. Clair Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Carneros (10/4/2008)
This was a treasure that Wade kindly brought from the States. 12,6% abv. Deep colour, looks very young. The scent started out with some funk but the bottle stink blew off quickly and the wine was quite fantastic. The scent was full of ripe strawberry and wet clay - a ripe but pure Pinosity, fully mature but so vibrant that it seemed nowhere close to being at the end of its life. Quite full bodied for such an old wine, intense, fairly high acidity which countered the sweet fruit, still some tannins. Refreshing aftertaste. This bottle was a very charming wine. - 1988 Camille Giroud Beaune 1er Cru Bressandes - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Beaune 1er Cru (10/4/2008)
13% abv; 75€. Quite a dark colour for a 20yo Burgundy. The nose has a lovely animal character to it - it is a rustic and rugged style of Burgundy - but it also has a pure Pinosity with vegetal and earthy, aged aromas. Still rather tannic and rugged, rustic fruit. Very upright still and though lovely now, we all thought it might still improve with time. Great stuff. - 2004 Domaine des Baumard Quarts de Chaume - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Quarts de Chaume (10/4/2008)
13% abv; 44,90€. A lovely drop: scents of quince, peas and hay. Full bodied and sweet but with enough bright acidity to make it extremely moreish. Excellent.
