What wine are you drinking today ?
Posted by: TOBYJUG on 19 June 2016
Was most disgruntled to find that one of the best threads has CLOSED, so if no one minds I'll start it again.
£8.00 from Marks and Sparks. Very good Rose.
Forrest estate Marlborough Riesling 2007. This is a recent release of library stock. Only 8.5 % alcohol. Golden yellow colour, beeswax, lime and brioche and kerosene on nose. Light bodied with delicate honey and lime notes with a chalky finishing note. Delicious, Santa approves!
Monica Campania Rossi 2015.
An Italian wine from the Nardone Nardone (so good they named it twice) estate in the Irpinia region of Campania in Southern Italy. The estate and wine are new to me, a local merchant had just received some from the distributor who told them it was as good as Tignanello, that was all they knew, they even had to guess at a price. I picked up one out of curiosity, opened at 2.30, decanted at 4.30, first sniff/sip at 6.30. The estate’s website tells me it’s 85% Merlot, 15% Aglianico.
Lovely nose, slightly earthy notes, deep sweet cassis scents, some floral scents (violet/rose). Powerful palate, dominated by beautiful sweet fruits, blackcurrant very much to the fore, but sourer cherry is also prevalent, well framed in very slightly grainy coffee-flavoured soft tannins, some acidity, bit of lick our ice, nice nutmeg/pepper spice. Wonderful perfume lingers in the mouth, cassis and rose. As a reference point, think Right Bank Bordeaux with slightly sweeter fruit. It’s a very nice mouthful, with a few hours of air lovely now, I think we’ll see secondary flavours arrive in about 5 years, it’s got the tannin structure to last a long time, I worry that the acidity might not be enough for more than about 10 years, the acidity is there and may just be masked a bit by the very powerful and classy sweet fruit, but I’m not sure. Good for 10 years and maybe more. Is it as good as Tignanello? Probably not for my palate definite power, lovely fruits, but for a young wine I’d prefer just a bit more of a steely structure, nice discovery though, I’ll probably pick up a couple more to add to my random Italian collection.
To my amusement I mistyped “framed” above and the tablet autocorrected to “Fraim Ed”.
Pol Roger, extra cuvée de réserve, 2004
Whoever gave me this deserves to be translated into a minor deity...
Eoink posted:
1996 Chambolle Musigny Les Chatelots Domaine Ghislaine Bhartod.
The last of 3 I bought from Layton’s (probably) just after release, so pretty much at en primeur price of around £20-25 a bottle, the others drunk a few years ago. Decanted for a couple of hours, lovely nose of dark red fruits with earth and mushrooms. On the palate you’re hit with the aggressive 1996 Burgundy acidity, I love acidic wines, so that’s fine for me, YMMV. The fruit flavours are lovely, red currant, strawberry, cherry, earthy and mushroom flavours, white pepper, cinnamon, lovely perfume of spicy red fruits, stays in the mouth for ages. It’s powerful and concentrated, very pure fruits with the secondary mature flavours, not the power of the very finest premier crus, but a very lovely wine if you like acidity in your wine.
Just food for thouht
I'm looking at that decanter. Why use it? The wine to air ratio is about the same as if you just left it in the bottle after pouring out an ounce. Probably better off pouring into wine glass and letting it decant in that
OK, now preparing lunch and have moved on to some Muga Reserva 2002. That's more like it! Should grease the cook's cogs very nicely...
Post Xmas walk up Kinder, now supping San Pellegrino and Perrier Jouet NV: fizziness exemplified 
to accompnay smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.
GregU posted:Eoink posted:
1996 Chambolle Musigny Les Chatelots Domaine Ghislaine Bhartod.
The last of 3 I bought from Layton’s (probably) just after release, so pretty much at en primeur price of around £20-25 a bottle, the others drunk a few years ago. Decanted for a couple of hours, lovely nose of dark red fruits with earth and mushrooms. On the palate you’re hit with the aggressive 1996 Burgundy acidity, I love acidic wines, so that’s fine for me, YMMV. The fruit flavours are lovely, red currant, strawberry, cherry, earthy and mushroom flavours, white pepper, cinnamon, lovely perfume of spicy red fruits, stays in the mouth for ages. It’s powerful and concentrated, very pure fruits with the secondary mature flavours, not the power of the very finest premier crus, but a very lovely wine if you like acidity in your wine.
Just food for thouht
I'm looking at that decanter. Why use it? The wine to air ratio is about the same as if you just left it in the bottle after pouring out an ounce. Probably better off pouring into wine glass and letting it decant in that
I have some lovely decanters and a snazzy wine aerator, but, frankly, a good aerating pour does the trick. Temperature is more important methinks.
Our Christmas day wines were these:
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 1998
Delicious, mature but still fresh. Hazelnuts and lemon cream.
Lynch Bages 1995 ( a magnum!). Well, there were four of us.
Optimum age. Still full of rich berry fruit, but with dried leathery coffee age complexity. Exceptional.
Donnafugata Ben Ryé 2013
Rapidly becoming my favourite dessert wine, this is like liquid orange marmalade, but with a blossom-like freshness that stops it being in any way sticky. Went well with Christmas pudding, and then cheese later.
Cheers!
My birthday today so lunch was at Chapel Down Vineyard at Small Hythe. Chapel Down's regular Chardonnay is a real favourite, so was the natural choice for an excellent lunch.
Richard Dane posted:My birthday today so lunch was at Chapel Down Vineyard at Small Hythe. Chapel Down's regular Chardonnay is a real favourite, so was the natural choice for an excellent lunch.
Happy Birthday Richard - looks like it started very well !
james n posted:Richard Dane posted:My birthday today so lunch was at Chapel Down Vineyard at Small Hythe. Chapel Down's regular Chardonnay is a real favourite, so was the natural choice for an excellent lunch.
Happy Birthday Richard - looks like it started very well !
Richard best wishes for your birthday, a wine to add to my list of 2019 tasters
Richard Dane posted:My birthday today so lunch was at Chapel Down Vineyard at Small Hythe. Chapel Down's regular Chardonnay is a real favourite, so was the natural choice for an excellent lunch.
Many happy returns. 21 again?
Richard Dane posted:My birthday today so lunch was at Chapel Down Vineyard at Small Hythe. Chapel Down's regular Chardonnay is a real favourite, so was the natural choice for an excellent lunch.
Happy Birthday Richard. Good choice, Chapel Down only 30min up the road from me.
Quail’s Gate Stewart Family Reserve Pinot Noir 2015
A Pinot from British Columbia, basically bought out of interest, never had a Canadian Pinot Noir before that I remember. Decanted at half 3, glass poured at 4, started drinking just before 5. Lovely nose, sweet dark red fruits and earthy notes. Palate was a surprise, deep warm vintage fruit flavours, plums, dark cherries, aromatic spices, not what I expected from the region. Classy soft tannins and acid, it’s a well balanced wine. After 3 hours, still nice fruits and balance, but too warm-vintage fruit for me, just a bit too rich. I am fairly sure most people would like it more than I do, I love the slightly more austere style of wine, this is very well made and very good, but just a bit too over-ripe for me. Looking at their website this was an unusually warm vintage, I will look out for the 2016 reserve to see what it’s like.