Alain Hudelot-Noellat Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru “Les Suchot” 1993
July 11th, 2009 | Category: France, Pinot Noir, Vosne-Romanee, Red Burgundy
Resplendent with a mature rusty red translucence but from there the wine delivers a much more youthful persona, opening with a heavenly nose of seamlessly integrated satsuma plum, black cherry, pinot sap, cardamon, brown truffle, damp earth and subtle background savoury oak. Similarly endowed in the mouth with gorgeous fruit overlying complex secondary characters and a wonderful lively structure of mouth-watering acidity and ripe tannins that provide excellent grip and focus on the medium-bodied palate. Hudelot-Noellat have crafted an elegant and age-worthy pinot noir with their 1993 Suchot - a wine brimming with compelling flavour, appealing complexity and fine length, that drinks extremely well now but will continue to offer much pleasure for quite some years to come. 93 points. 13.5% A/V. Sealed with a very long, good quality cork.
Chateau Talbot 1986
July 08th, 2009 | Category: Bordeaux, France, St. Julien
Just a lowly fourth growth St-Julien tonight - the 1986 Talbot. Nothing short of outstanding here, unfolding and revealing considerably more brilliance as it was left to breathe in the Riedel Vinum Bordeaux over the course of the evening. A cornucopia of cigar box, dried tobacco leaf, exquisitely ripe and juicy dark plums, Provencal herbs, an authoritative lick of the finest savoury/cedary French oak, underpinned by deep set curranty fruit, a suave leafiness, a suggestion of mossy forest floor and a bevy of other impossibly complex bits and pieces (creosote, road tar, blood, iron, pencil lead and cardamon to name but a few) combine seamlessly to create an awe-inspiring bouquet. In the mouth the wine displays layer upon layer of similarly-etched generous, svelte and rounded flavours backed with a phenomenal barrage of ripe but superb counterbalancing tannin - without losing an inch of focus or an iota of the superb delineation thereafter. Still holding an impeccable line and amazing length, this elegant and slick medium-bodied red will continue to drink well for at least another decade. 12.5% A/V and sealed with a very long, high quality cork. 94 points and pushing hard towards my exceptional rating of 95 and above. Sensational effort from the Cordier’s here in 1986 but with a word of warning. This wine was a little diffuse and weak on the palate at first but improved dramatically over a five hour period to reach my final rating at around midnight this evening.