What are we drinking this April Easter weekend

M

Mike Humphreys

Location
London
It possibly feels like the start of a new dawn and I’m very surprised there isn’t a thread yet. Thursday very much counts as the weekend in this context.

Early start with a 2016 Kershaw Deconstructed CY 96 Chardonnay
followed with a very good Chinese takeaway and 2004 Bollinger LGA Rose.

Lovely,

The CY96 is a more open, yellow version to the CY95 but is a very good wine with nice mineral core around some NW fruit.
The Bolly 2004 I’ve mentioned many times and is great again, seemingly a little sweeter than normal but that’s probably after eating all the Chinese food followed by a sweet treat finish.
 
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I'm cooking duck breasts with pineapple, chili and soy tonight. I fancy a Trimbach white: any suggestions on whether the 07 CFE, CSH, Gewurz VT or Pinot Gris Reserve Personelle will be drinking well with this?
 
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Starting in style, after a Grivot les Rouges 2008 which had the 2008 characteristics (acidity, lightness yet quite refined if lacking a bit of depth), tonight, we opened this Hudelot Noellat 2006 Vosne les Suchots which also had great acidity, but had more density, depth and balance. A real winner that will last a long time but is already great... we had this with boiled winter vegetables and home made terrine de foie gras which will feature for much of the Easter week end. An excellent Vosne!
 
I fear the new dawn may be shortlived, but I am anyway drinking a Smoky Martini currently, which is the fault of Craig Dennis who has just informed me of the existence of this variant. It is ridiculously good, in this case Plymouth with an admixture of Tomatin cask strength. I had planned to give the old foie gras a bit of a rest today after yesterday's fairly heavy lifting, but just the one won't hurt, I hope.
 
My first Domaine Gouye tonight. How do you pronounce it? Goi? Goo?
Anyway, the wine is lovely, 2015 St Joseph VV 24 mois. Classic, traditional feeling N Rhone syrah. Black pepper, parma violets, leather and smoke. Enough raspberry fruit to balance out the savoury elements. Long and balanced. Thanks to everyone here who recommended it.

Went nicely with some tasty treats from 40 Maltby St.
 
Started with 06 Sapience, now very ripe and rich and heading over the crest of the hill with lots of oxidative bruised apple notes. Very drinkable though.

A pair of Remy Latricieres followed, the 92 quite open and broad, surprisingly thick textured, nicely mature with autumnal and unfortunately corked flavours. The 93 as a replacement is a little darker, denser, and more focused on the nose. More line, focus, acidity and precision. Darker fruited, showing some maturity but still youthful.
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The Coravined remnant of a 96 pointer major wine award winner supermarket Amarone with a marvellous half of Porterhouse. The wine was awful.
Then a Zoom tasting of blends with local tasting group. A mixed quality to the wines, company excellent.
Over the weekend we have lined up an Aldi Assyrtiko & an Amoureuses.
 
I find that during this interminable lock-down, I am opening more bottles from the lower than higher rungs and this pre-Easter bottle was no exception.

Tenute Girolamo Negroamaro Monte tre Carlini Puglia IGP 2010 : The negroamaro variety is not one with which I have had much experience, but one which has formed a view, probably prejudiced, that this southern-Italian grape is the rustic country-bumpkin cousin of the more polished and suave primitivo. This is the first time I have seen it dressed-up, though, in a heavy broad-shouldered 864 gram bottle and designer- front label. The vintage is revealed on the back label, which also notes the lot number as L35213 11. Given the effort made in the presentation, I approached this with trepidation, expecting the quality of the contents to be far, far below that which the packaging should lead a neophyte to expect. The high-grade 50mm cork was a surprise, as was the crust. Not that a negroamaro is not capable of depositing sediment, but the fact it was there made me sit up. My eyes opened wider too, when I saw that the wine still had a good crimson hue to it's blackish colour. Unspecial dark cherry-like nose and short, grippy and slightly bitter mouth, but whatever discomfort each of us initially felt in the other's presence was soon replaced with a relaxed conversation about the main drawback - the packaging. This was a long-living, good, but simple wine which I would be happy to quaff when not thinking about what's in my glass. In spite of the ostentatious bottle, it had more soul than any primitivo I can remember.
 
Two excellent wines last night. The Grenouilles dredged up from Bromley M&S with thanks to Neil H is drinking perfectly now, as is the 2012. Really is GC quality.

This Beychevelle 2005 really is a class act. Already delicious this has an alluring porcini mushroom truffly entry. It has cool-fruited Cabernet (hints of menthol) with delicious plummy merlot, lending this wine a precocious attractiveness. Unusually for a 2005 classed growth this has been drinking very well for five years. The wine has scope to evolve and improve further as it develops more tertiary notes, but it is hard to resist now.

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jonathan points said:
Any good Angus?
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Good question! It’s a transition vintage (after the death of Jacques Reynaud) that elicits varying reviews. I have a few bottles but not tried one in a few years. Jacques Reynaud’s wines themselves were hugely variable ... at their best, as good as it gets. I suspect the wines are a little more homogenous now. But better???
 
A 1998 Leoville Barton last night to accompany steak on the BBQ. Probably the friendliest LB I've ever opened. A bit of a honk on the nose at first which moved on after a couple of hours in the decanter. Full bodied, quite sweet and long. Lovely. First Claret in a while and it has rekindled my enthusiasm. Preceded by a 2018 Tempier Bandol Rose which was predictably gorgeous.
 
(Much later today) Pierre Gimonnet et Fils Cuvée Gastronome 2008 and a Poderi Colla Barolo Bussia Dardi Le Rose 1998

The Gimmonet was extremely aromatic; noteworthy in this respect. On tasting, at first it came across as far too young, but I think this was a function of it being too cold at first. It soon opened up with a very toasty aspect (the most prominent example of this that I can recall), and then some hints of butterscotch. Mercifully dry: any more residual sugar would have been too much for my tastes. I think that this was the perfect point in its ageing.

A bit of a mixed and disappointing experience with the Colla. Opened in the morning and decanted about three hours before drinking, it had good aromatics but the palate seemed to be dominated by fruitcake, and the feeling of being over the hill. However, it then seemed progressively to tighten up (as did I) and to become more austere, tannic, but also more floral in its aromatics, and I began to enjoy it more. Finally, I started picking up what seemed to be faint hints of TCA, although I am not at all sure. I will try the dregs in the bottle later, although there is no discernible TCA on the cork or from the neck of the bottle.

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