We have opened a number of maturely interesting wines in the last few days.
In spite of its yellow/gold colour, Savennières “Becherelle” 1998 – Nicolas Joly – showed no oxidization but had lost most of its primary fruit, apart from subdued hints of baked apple and quince, to the profit of darker burnished notes with some beeswax, honey and minerals. There was little of the fresh brightness which distinguished Foreau’s Vouvray from the same difficult year and it was less close to my heart; very interesting and original flavour profile, though, albeit imperfect; 15.5/20+.
(The back label, after a brief treatise on biodynamic agriculture and non-intervention in the cellar with “no artificial yeasts and their arbitrary tastes”, recommends service temperature of no less than 14/15°C and opening 24 hours in advance or decanting; I did the latter.)
I can find out nothing about this domaine and cannot recall where I acquired the lone bottle but Aloxe-Corton 1er cru Les Valozières 1998 “En Truffière” was excellent; lovely pure but complex Pinot aromas and fruit showing a lot of cherry and a little kirsch, a velvety touch, medium body, good acidity, depth and length and great elegance; 17/20.
(I feel frustrated by being unable to trace the producer of such a fine Burgundy. The best I have found is speculation on a French chat site that Jean-Marc Boillot, whose Languedoc estate is called Truffière, or Vincent Girardin may be involved; either name would explain the quality.)
When Germaine came home with some Thai dishes, I thought that this was a good opportunity to test the advice that Riesling with RS is an excellent pairing for these. I did not want to risk my most subtle and elegant on this experiment so I took out Oberhäuser Leistenberg Riesling Kabinett 1999 – 11- Weingut Hermann Dönnhoff, which I remembered as full, even blowsy, with less than usual acidity and minerals; the first sniff and taste before food confirmed this memory; however, some of the Thai preparations around chicken did seem to slim down and bring out multiple facets of the wine, petrol and spice with one dish, appealing acidity and minerals with another; there was only one vegetable dish with very hot spice which scalped the aromas and flavours momentarily. So on the whole this was confirmation of the advice and we will repeat the pairing so as to make inroads into our stocks of a wine type which I love but find maddening difficult to match with food. With this pairing 16/20; with most European food hardly 15/20.
St-Nicolas-de-Bourgeuil Vieilles Vignes 2002 – Joël Taluau – was typical of good Loire Cabernet franc with quite dense youthful colour, attractive aromas of red fruit and vegetables and medium body with good balance and structure; there was still a touch of greenness towards the finish which may disappear in a year or two; satisfying but missing a touch of magic right now; 15.5/20.
Roger Michel is one of the best wine pickers whom I know and is a regular presenter at Rob’s Saturday tastings. Last week he produced two wines which excited me from hitherto unknown estates. Mâcon-Villages Quintaine 2006 – Pierette et Marc Guillemot Michel – was something very special from this lowly appellation; rich and round with gently delicious acidity, complex aromatic notes including acacia honey and minerals and a caressing mouth-feel, which lead one customer to complain of its being too sweet in spite of a near absence of RS; it is certainly a wine which calls for a richly sauced fish or chicken dish and Roger Michel says that it needs decanting due to its “élevage” in tank. I look forward to confirming this wine’s quality with appropriate food; first impression 17/20.
The other discovery was Saint-Joseph 2006 (red) – Domaine Vincent Paris – which already sings with deliciously piquant fruit dominated by sour cherry together with minerals and a dab of mustard; 16/20 to be confirmed with food.