TN Midweek wines for the start of September

I really enjoyed a '96 Calon (that bested a '96 Lafite alongside), but it seems like from recent notes that I got the last vestiges of a good bottle, of an otherwise fading wine.
we are down to our last three bottles and the last few have been super. Perhaps we got lucky but I’ve really enjoyed it. As for the 95s they seem very 95, a bit thin and uninteresting.
 
Oh the horrors of being a wine nerd. After works drinks in the office yesterday - presented with a warm bottle of generic Primitivo because "I know you like red wine" and then being asked what I thought of it in front of all my work colleagues.

My face did not match the words coming out of my mouth.

"I dont think he likes it?" was the feedback from the group
Similar experiences with a bottle some friends of my wife brought round a while ago - 'Cabalie' from Laithwaites I think. 'This is our favourite wine - what do you think?'

['Oh cr@p']
'Impressive wine making - they've done a great job of keeping it stable given the residual sugar and the fact it's not fortified...'.
 
Impromptu Pinot Night

Three of us met on Monday night for a look at a few non-Burgundy Pinot Noirs:

Pinot Noir Rose '21, Stanlake Park (UK)

Puy de Dome, Cave St-Verny '23 (France, TWS)
Ignacio Recabarren Casablanca '22 (Chile, TWS)
Exhibition Sonoma Coast '22 (USA, TWS)
Hoddles Creek '18 (Australia)

English Rose. Onion-skin blush, redcurrant fruit, needing hotter weather and an outdoor location.
France. From the Auvergne - can you get decent Pinot for a tenner? Gave a decent account of itself. Young, bit rhubarby, recognisably Pinot, in need of food.
Chile. Smartly packaged, typically Chilean PN profile. Pleasant to drink for sure but lacks structure and comes across on the sweet side.
USA. The 14% alcohol had us worried, but this showed well with attractive spice-box notes.
Australia. A few years on the rest, and nicely developed as a result. Clean fruit. This showed Christmas spices when young, but they were absent last night. Drinking well, but perhaps missing some tertiary interest. Wanted to love this more than I did. Blending with a dash of the USA wine was insightful.

A "palate cleanser" in the form of a glass of Supermalt

Finished with a half of Coutet '07. WOTN, disappeared very quickly. Ginger marmalade. A session Barsac?
 
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de Courcel Pommard Les Rugiens 2005

Would you believe it. A Pommard that wears its heart on its sleeve and is keen to please. More de Courcel and more 2005 than classic Rugiens perhaps but none the worse for that. Come hither aromas of ripe cherries, supple leather and incipient decay. So tactile on the palate with layers of perfectly pitched Burgundian goodness. A wine like this gives Burgundy a good name. And it‘s a Pommard to boot.
 
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That must be the first every Courcel Rugien that has been close to drinking. Ever. Everyone I have ever had has just said "no bugger off"
Courcel has certainly made wines in the past that never got there, like the once vaunted 1990s and impossible 1993s. I really like the wines a great deal but have come to believe that with ultra-recalcitrant Burgundies one has to be able to take real pleasure in them when they are in bugger off mode to have a chance of liking them later on, and that requires a certain cussedness as well as nowadays a considerable insensitivity to price. I don't think I've drunk anything from after 2010, though, so as usual I am hopelessly superannuated.
This 05 sounds wonderful.
 
I realise the wines of de Courcel are very much a minority sport. And I have to admit that I have about 150 bottles of de Courcel Pommard in my cellar. I clearly need help. Am I turning in to a more up to date Tom Blach I ask myself? There are worse fates.
I thought I was a hopeless optimist at eighteen. Mind you I do have a stash of Confuron-Coteditot of slightly more serious proportions, although together they might look like a couple of molehills next to your de Courcel mountain.

As for the Blach question, is this a coup attempt where you become the new leader of “The Awkward Squad”?
 
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de Courcel Pommard Les Rugiens 2005

Would you believe it. A Pommard that wears its heart on its sleeve and is keen to please. More de Courcel and more 2005 than classic Rugiens perhaps but none the worse for that. Come hither aromas of ripe cherries, supple leather and incipient decay. So tactile on the palate with layers of perfectly pitched Burgundian goodness. A wine like this gives Burgundy a good name. And it‘s a Pommard to boot.
Impressed you have the set of producer, village, vineyard and vintage all in the difficult camp and it works, gives me hope for a few of those in my cellar
 
I realise the wines of de Courcel are very much a minority sport. And I have to admit that I have about 150 bottles of de Courcel Pommard in my cellar. I clearly need help. Am I turning in to a more up to date Tom Blach I ask myself? There are worse fates.
Lucky you! I've only ever tasted them EP and have often wondered how they might taste with age. Maybe one day...
 
375ml. PnP. First night in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I confessed to drinking this out of coffee mug. This was not Holiday Inn Express but they didn’t provide any wine glasses either. Subtle nose but clean. Still fairly tannic on the first pour. Excellent concentration and depth, easily in the First Growth level. Finished with tobacco and oak lingering on. A lot of bottle variations for this vintage of LLC, this bottle was very young and clearly still in upswing. Anyway, Conterno Sensory is so overrated. :p

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  • 1998 Château Ferrière - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux (05/09/2024)
    Mid to full ruby. A pretty nose, floral against a backdrop of blackcurrant fruit. Mellow and resolved on the palate, good blackcurrant fruit, tannins resolved and nicely balanced by the acidity that provides reasonable energy. Very decent, and solidly three stars in line with my previous bottle fourteen years ago except it's now fully resolved and ready. *** (88 pts.)
Posted from CellarTracker
 
A very solid Co-op effort, not a bad £17.50 spent. I don't even particularly want to describe how it tastes, it's just pretty good.

I recall a thread recently on here where people were saying they rarely drink claret as they struggle to find obvious food pairings etc. I find this very surprising - for me Bordeaux reds are some of the easiest, most quintessential wines. Maybe I mis-recall that thread.

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We just opened one of these and very nice it is too. The 2018 ripeness suits this level of Bordeaux well. A Merlot/ Cabernet Franc blend, lots of plummy fruit including a bit of damson to give some depth. Lush and concentrated but not a great deal of tannic structure. This is made to be drunk now. 89-90.
 
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