Some good and some truly shocking wines.

La Bota de Manzanilla, Equipo Navazos
Really powerfully nutty on the nose. It has a good minerality to it as well. The palate is light and refined with good acidity to balance its depth of flavour.

Champagne La Grande Dame 1996, Verve Cliquot
Quite fruity and biscuitty on the nose. Smells quite lively and fresh. Very nice mousse with a good lemony fruit. Reasonably complex. A surprisingly good bottle of La Grande Dame that suggests it has more fireworks in reserve for the future.

Riesling Spatlese Monzinger Fruhlingsplatzchen 2006, Emrich-Schonleber
A nice nose of Bergamont with a creamy minerality. The palate is light with reasonable acidity and some fruit; not too much there in the way of minerality or complexity. A perfectly good drink, but there is better German Riesling out there.

Grand Vin De Altenberg 1999, Domaine Marcel Deiss
A horrible, horrible melange of incompatible aromas that leave you in a state of abject horror. The flavours on the palate repel and insult me; vastly unbalanced, unharmonious, offensive crap. I feel he made this wine just to offend enlightened people. I'm personally offended.

Riesling Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim 1999, Domaine Marcel Deiss
This isn't that much better. I suppose it has clearer fruit and a more distinct minerality, but not much of a personality. The palate is heavy and ponderous; it slogs rather than dances. Piss boring.

Pinot Noir "Kiser En Haut" 2006, Copain
Quite ripe, spicy and chocolaty on the nose. Bit one dimensional. The palate has lots of fruit but not much else. Nice but a bit dull.

Chablis Grand Cru les Clos 2006, J-P et B Droin
A soft, expressive nose of minerals, citrus fruit and nuts. Smells like it has some depth. The palate is reasonably complex, but the flavours are not  particularly concentrated. Reasonable.

Chateauneuf du Papes 1994, Chateau de Beaucastel
A very animal, meaty nose. Lots of rich earthiness and a medicinal tang, complex style here. The palate is silky and sensual with lots of mature fruit. Complexity++. Damned good.

Clos de la Roche 1988, Domaine Dujac
Soft and scented with lovely fruit and a nice earthiness. This is very good indeed and up for drinking.

Saint Aubin Premier Cru Champlots 2006, Pierre-Yves Colin
The nose has nice fruit with a hint of oak. Palate is light and fruity with reasonable length. Nice enough.

Nuits Saint Georges Premier Cru Clos des Forets Saint Georges 1993, Domaine l'Arlot
Lovely blackcurrant fruit on the nose, really earth too. Smells up for fun. Palate has good structure and nice length. Quite tasty, really.

Riesling Grand Cru Pfersigberg Vieille Vigne 2001, Domaine Bruno Sorg
A pretty nose of baked apple and creamy minerality. There are real flashes of style about the nose. The palate is refined and elegant, with a fruity/mineral richness that is really pleasing. Pretty damned good.

Riesling Cuvee Frederic Emile 1997, F. E. Trimbach
A rich nose of citrus fruit and petrol. There is some classy mineral action here too. The palate gives a remarkable sense of fat and density even though this is as delicate as a rose petal. Real class and complexity. Top stuff.

Chateauneuf du Papes 1995, Chateau de Beaucastel
A profound nose of spicy, rich fruit. Very dense and expressive. There is a good perfume to it. The palate has plenty of fruit and is rich and warm. Not unbalanced, though, very tasty, in fact.

I'm back from my sojourn in Burgundy, Alsace and Champagne. As I indicated in my last post I will not be putting all the notes up instantly, rather two entries per day until I've caught up. Here is the general drinking from Sunday night.

Volnay Clos de la Bousse d'Or 1995, Domaine Pousse d'Or
Really perfumed and scented with soft old fruit and a floral/Jasmine aroma. The palate is just beautiful. Loads of fruit with real elegance and refinement. Delicious. In the full flow of providing pleasure.

Vouvray Cuvee Constance 1995, Huet
Rotting wool, carrots and apricots on the nose. Very complex with a real earthy tang. The palate is painfully intense with incredible acidity, rich earthiness and lots of apricot fruit. Real Vouvray silkiness which is quite lovely. A tour de force from Domaine Huet.

I went to the London Wine Trade Fair today, I dressed in my most 'wine trade' uniform:

Naturally, dressed like that I got to try a lot of good stuff.

I was very impressed with the Henriques and Henriques Madeiras. There were some great German 2007s, including brilliant efforts from Max Ferd Richter and Leitz. Bollinger is always nice (1999 is so much better than 1997, almost a proper vintage, one might say). Taylor's and Fonseca make great Port. It was a fun day out.

We were invited over to the new house of a couple of friends of ours; it was a lovely house and they are lovely people. Some good wines, too.

Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2001, Domaine Leflaive
Decanted an hour and a half before we drank it, this had a really expressive nose of nuts, minerality, lovely fruit and real power and density. It smelled delicious, really complex and stylish. The palate had weight and density, but was kept lively and light by great acidity and fine minerality. Again, really complex on the palate. This was an incredibly classy wine that was drinking well now. Excellent stuff.

Chassagne-Montrachet 2004, Domaine Ramonet
This was very young on the nose, banana esters very prominent. There was some good Chassagne flat-Champagne character, though and it did smell of Ramonet wine. The palate was reasonably light and elegant, with good fruit and a reasonable finish. Quite a nice bottle of wine, but would have been better in a couple of years time.

Volnay Premier Cru Clos de Chateau des Ducs 2000, Lafarge
I don't think I've ever smelled a wine that had as much freshly-cut grass character on the nose, it was very stemmy and green. Palate was reasonably balanced and fruity, though, with some length. Not a great Lafarge bottle but you cannot deny it had personality.

Cote-Rotie 1998, Bernard Burgaud
A lovely, rich, complex nose of dark fruit, earth and pepper. Real complexity here. This is obviously a proper vintage and a damned-good bottle of Cote-Rotie. The palate had some noble tannins, but great fruit and spice. A really complex, very long finish. Damned good Cote-Rotie, to be enjoyed with great pleasure now and over the next ten years, if you've got a good cellar.

Cornas "Granit 30" 2001, Vincent Paris
Nice ripe fruit and spicy pepper on the nose, smells reasonably typical for Cornas, with a degree of style. Palate had a good tannic structure with nicely integrated fruit. Up for drinking whilst reasonably young and vibrant, I fancy.

Riesling Auslese Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr Fuder 6 1997, Fritz Haag
I had this a couple of days ago, it was similar. A damned good bottle of wine, to be sure, but up for drinking.

James also tried to pop a bottle of Michel Colin-Deleger Chassagne Premier Cru 2000, Vergers if memory serves (and it often does when it comes to wine). Like the last bottle of 2000 Colin-Deleger we tried it was oxidised and undrinkable.

I hosted a wine tasting last night, people didn't get as many right as I had hoped. Mind you, tasting Champagne is always really foxy, especially when, like these wines, they had a bit of cellar age on them. I had aged all three for three and a half years since I purchased them. The Cornas were both damned good.

Champagne Grand Siecle, Larent-Perrier
A lovely, polished complex nose, smells a bit of fishy Pinot and tinny, but mainly rich, complex, stylish aromas. This is a lot better than when it was fresh from the shelf. The palate was very complex and smooth, with a fine mousse and a good, long finish. This was quite delicious, well worth the £35 it cost.

Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Brut, Billecart-Salmon
Quite anonymous on the nose. There is not much there apart from a bit of egg and toast. Age has made this less expressive; weird. The palate was very direct and linear, with a good creamy minerality and lots of nice fruit on the finish. However, it was a touch direct. I found it a bit hard work on the old stomach for not much reward.

Champagne Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru, Egly-Ouriet
Oh this is so difficult. Really hard. You see, the thing is every Egly-Ouriet wine I've had I've hated so I have sort of decided I hate Egly-Ouriet, yet this wine was truly excellent. It had a dense nose of red fruit and rich soiliness. Yet it still seemed very light and refined on the nose. Lovely complex flavours here. The palate had real weight, plenty of fruit, but great acidity and vivacity. The finish had a touch of meat about it, but the acidity and minerality were also present making this a lively, exciting wine. I am sure a bit of age helped it. This was quite delicious. Shame the wine is so expensive these days. Still, the only Egly-Ouriet wine I can recommend (up until now).

Cornas 1998, Clape
A lovely, herbal, meaty nose which strangely has a hint of arseholes about it. There is a hint of greenness, but loads and loads of lovely ripe fruit. A good grind of pepper is in there. It is extremely complex and not lacking any style. The palate has a huge tannic structure, interlaced with herbal pepperiness and masses of dark fruit. Very complex, but a tad angular. Great length, with real complexity on the finish. Quite delicious.

Cornas "Domaine de Rochepertuis" 1998, Jean Lionnet
Wow, what a nose! Silky, sexy ripe fruit, earth, pepper and bags of class. This smells polished and hedonistic. Real class here, and yet it is very Cornas. The palate has a lot of tannin, but it is very ripe and integrates with the bags of lovely, lovely fruit very well. Many flavours seemlessly play across your palate as you taste this. Not as angular as the Clape, but I suppose some pedants may not find this Cornasy enough. Excellent, up for drinking now over the next seven years.

It had been playing on my mind as to which Cornas would be better. Votes at the tasting were two each leaving me with the deciding vote. I have to say I lean toward the Lionnet. It just has a bit more class and style. Don't get me wrong I loved the Clape and thought it worth every penny, but the Lionnet is just a bit sexier. Half the price, too, not that these things matter so much on Elitist Review...

Well, we'll be eating steak tartare, and drinking all that is listed below.

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Clavoillon 2001, Domaine Leflaive
This smells really toasty, with round, buxom lemony fruit there. It is really creamy and mineral. Smells, perfectly balanced between youth and maturity. The palate is really fat and full-bodied, but has great fruit and lovely acidity. The balance is simply superb. It is incredibly complex, really long and screaming with style. This is tests-good white Burgundy, really excellent.

Riesling Auslese Bernkasteler Doctor 1996, Dr. Thanisch (Erben-Thanisch) Auction Wine
Dead, bereft of life it rests in peace. If I hadn't pulled its cork it would be pushing up the daisies.

Riesling "Polish Hill" 2006, Grosset
Well, I like it.

Vosne-Romanee Premier Cru les Malconsorts 2005, Hudelot-Noellat
A lovely nose of spicy fruit and earthiness, it is multi-dimensonal and terribly interesting. The fruit is really tasty and there is real exotic class. The palate is very silky and svelte with layers of intense fruit which is really lovely. There is soily richness and real depth of character. This is a really excellent bottle of very young Burgundy, but hey, sometimes very young Burgundy is a lovely thing.

Chateau Montrose 1999
Fuck me, it is fucking claret. I fucking hate fucking claret. It smells of dirty cedarwood, like some tired out old fart. The palate is hard and dry, with a lot of nasty, astringent tannins. This is positively vile. I hate it.

Hermitage 1997, Domaine Jean-Louis Chave
A truly amazing nose of dark fruit, undergrowth, earth, pepper and probably many other things if I wanted to write a note like Robert Parker. This smells divine, complex and classy, refined and completely lovely. Quite forward and ready to be tackled. The palate has a very silky, very refined tannic structure, interlaced with lovely, lovely fruit. Ir is perfectly balanced and all the flavours are really harmonious. This is really delicious, completely fantastic, wow

A couple of friends came around last night to drink some wine and watch the rugby. I was really amazed we managed to over-come the evil French. Not that it was a terribly convincing performance...

2003 by Bollinger
A very ripe, fruity nose with plenty of density and Bollinger cold cocoa. The nose does smell really rather ripe and more than a little heroic. The palate had great depth of flavour, weight, plenty of fruit and real style. This was a big, corpulent Champagne, but not lacking class. It was suggested this would be a good Champagne to have with food.

Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg "Cuvee St. Catherine" 2004, Domaine Weinbach
A lovely, charming nose of ripe citrus fruit, baked apples, minerality and, let us be honest, quite high alcohol levels. Even though it was reasonably boozy it seemed quite complex and stylish. The palate had good fruit, reasonable acid, plenty of minerality and a nice, long finish. It was terribly young, but bursting with life and energy.

Richebourg Grand Cru 1972, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
The nose had plenty of soft, mature fruit, earth and a slightly savoury character which was vaguely reminiscent of celery salt. Incredibly complex, stylish and simply oozing class from every pore. The palate had soft tannins, a good earthy character and plenty of fruit. It also displayed the celery salt savoury character, but this was quite pleasing in this wine. It was very long and very complex. A really lovely bottle of properly mature Burgundy, top bunny!

Pommard Premier Cru les Rugiens 2003, Domaine de Courcel
A huge nose of luxuriant, sun-ripened fruit and earth with the merest seasoning of oak. There is booze there, too. A fighting wine, to be sure, but not lacking in class or style. The palate is a monster, with loads of fruit, big tannins and a very long, if slightly warm, finish, but it is really sexy, svelte and smooth. Great earthy complexity is also present. This is a bottle of undoubtedly heroic, but really classy Burgundy.

Cornas 1999, Noel Verset
Lovely fruit on the nose, a hint of stemminess too. This smells really complex and refined. I was served it blind and I thought it was Chave Hermitage. The palate was very silky and refined, with good tannins and nice, ripe fruit. Very long, with only hints of rusticity. This was a proper bottle of Cornas, alright.

Cornas 1999, Clape
Ripe and bold on the nose, with nice, refined fruit. Very classy, very complex. The palate had good tannins, worthy of Cornas but very ripe and silky. Plenty of fruit there, too. Very long, with a great earthy complexity on the finish. This was a really great bottle of Cornas, which I preferred to the Verset, but everyone else preferred that. Top kit, worthy of many more years in the cellar, even though it provided a lot of pleasure now.

I hosted a small wine tasting for the neighbours last night. My aim was to demonstrate how easy blind tasting is, and I was pleased that everybody got everything right. OK, I provided a little prompting, but not everyone has my epic experience of wine.

Chavignol "Les Culs de Beaujeu" 2004, Francois Cotat
Very mineral on the nose, with a hint of dirtiness; does he ferment in old barrels? Fresh grassiness, too. The palate was very light with good minerality and high acidity which hurt my poor, knackered stomach a bit, ouch! It was reasonably long and the minerality provided a pleasing degree of complexity. I think this would age reasonably well and make an interesting middle-aged wine. Sauvignon Blanc for ageing, who'd have thought it?

Riesling "Clos Hauserer" 2004, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht
This was also very mineral on the nose, and displayed some characters of slightly oxidative wine-making. Good baked-apple and some citrus fruit. Sweet with alcohol, but not up to the normally excessive standards of Z-H. The palate was rich with ripe fruit, had some alcohol warmth on the finish and was reasonably long. Not amazingly complex, though. It was pretty dry, but there was obviously a bit of sugar knocking about in it. A reasonable wine, but nothing spectacular.

Pinot Noir "Stermer Vineyard" 2003, Lemelson
A hot, heady nose of alcohol and ripe fruit, which was moving slightly into jamminess. There was plenty of oak present, but in a wine of this scale it didn't seem unbalanced. The palate had moderate tannin, some acidity and plenty of fruit, a veritable fruit-bomb, indeed. The general impression I got of it was of a big, smooth mouthful of fruit and alcohol. It was quite nice, but not for ageing.

Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2002, Domaine Chandon de Briailles
Very pale colour. A nose bursting with fresh strawberry fruit and minerality. It smelled lovely, but the palate was missing this loveliness. It had fruit and one hell of a lot of minerality, but lacked charm. The minerality was quite like white Corton and, whilst I like minerality, it dominated the palate and made it quite hard; the high acidity levels didn't help with the overall impression of toughness. Maybe this would age into something nicer, but I suspect it would always be a linear and direct wine, strong on acidity and minerality but lacking a bit of fat and charm that it would really need to give it the dimension to make it a great wine. It was also quite short, which is not a good sign for a supposedly fine wine.

If I may digress momentarily into a general rant about red Corton: I feel they are always marked by strong minerality, acid and often tough tannins. They may have complexity, but I want more than that from Burgundy, I want to be charmed. Even the venerable bottles of great vintages I have tried are generally a bit angular, spiky and lacking essential niceness. Intellectual pleasures are all very well and good, but Pinot is a lovely grape and making wines stripped of that loveliness seems to miss the point. If I want hard red wines (and I usually don't) I'll drink Claret, but making Pinot into a mineral, rapier-like weapon of austerity seems just plain bonkers to me. I love Burgundy, but I might not be buying that much Corton in the future.

It is so nice to have a drink after being locked up for a week that I will have several. Nice to see a friend and the partner, too.

Condrieu 1992, Guigal
Mid-yellow colour, not too bad for its age. It doesn't smell that oxidised, either. It smells quite strongly of melon, but also vaguely meaty, which is a touch odd. It is quite mineral, too, which is nice, and there is a touch of obvious oak, which is surprising for a wine of this age; it must have been hellishly oaky when it was young. The palate has lots of weight, some minerality, and quite a lot of oak, but it tastes fucking horrible. The oak is completely nasty and it seems very blowsy and flabby. Guigal's wines are always too freaking oaky and rarely have good balance. OK, a 1992 Condrieu is not a fair thing to judge his wines by, but I've had enough to know that the man is an unspeakable swine who does horrible things to lovely grapes. This one, for the record, is utterly vile.

Riesling Auslese Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr 2000, Fritz Haag
Greeny-yellow colour. Lovely slatey nose, very mineral. Great fruit, too, citrus and some peach. This smells quite ripe and is hilariously complex. What a lovely nose, to summarise. The palate has incredible harmony, taut linearity with good sweetness and incredible minerality. This is really beautiful, very long, oozing with style and bursting with class. Really a damned-good bottle of wine.

Saint-Aubin Premier Cru Sous la Roche Dumay 2004, Jean-Marc Boillot
Fuck me this has an oaky nose, I wasn't quite expecting that. Smells a bit hot, but there is minerality and baby vomit there too; this is real white Burgundy. The palate is hellishly oaky, too. Lawks, this isn't really in balance, the acidity is a quite harsh and the oak is really quite frightening. Some minerality, but really not that complex. I have been impressed by Jean-Marc Boillot's minor wines in the past, but I am not sure that I really like this.

Cahors Cuvee Reservee de l'Aieul 1995, Chateau Eugenie
Bloody hell, what is this nose? It smells of horse-shit, coriander and vomit. Liquorice, too, and a freshly-used lawn-mower. It may be really expressive on the nose, but it smells shamefully bad. After the horrific excitement of the nose the palate is almost dull. There is a metallic character to it, and a lot of acidity, but no fruit, nothing nice, almost nothing nasty too. I've been presented this blind as a 'comedy wine', I don't see anything funny about it.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Pruliers 1993, Gouges
A beguiling nose of meatiness, soft red fruit and earth. This is seriously complex. I love its rich, soil character, and the fruit, too, and also the complexity. Yum. The palate is really tannic, but bursting with totally lovely flavours. This may be masculine, but it is a real charmer; a charismatic body-builder. Very long, real style, great length. This is freaking triple-A. I've been told this is a 'food wine', but that is a concept I detest.

Cote Rotie 1997, Bernard Burgaud
Another wine presented blind. A very fragrant, giving, easy nose of dark fruit and spice. Northern Rhone Syrah, probably Cote Rotie, I'd guess. Nice style to the nose. The palate doesn't quite have the fruit that is showing on the nose, but it has a great texture. The tannins are noble, but quite ripe and silky. It has a really good earthy character. This is really lovely. Burgaud? Really tits wine, from a proper vintage. 1998. Ah, I was so close.

Last night we had only a few options to choose from at Chez Dominique, thanks to their insane pricing policy. We started with a hilariously fine wine which had perhaps the smallest mark-up on the wine list.

Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2005, Domaine Ramonet
By arse, what a nose! Vanilla, lemon, minerality, baby vomit and subtle oak all whirling together in a thrilling roller-coaster ride of hedonistic excitement. This had incredible complexity, real style and it oozed class from every pore. Quite marvellous. And then, of course, one gets to taste it. The dramatic tension in this wine was amazing. Taut linearity was balanced with weight and density to create a thrilling experience. It boggled the mind with its complexity and racy character. It may have been 14% and obviously a big wine, but it danced lightly across the palate like an anorexic ballerina. An anorexic ballerina with an attitude carrying a fully automatic shotgun. High quality action here, quite the best bottle of white Burgundy I have had for a while. Even though it was terribly young it sang a song of loveliness, charm and wanton extravagance I feel my humble writing skills are not up to re-telling. Tits++ and freaking quadruple-A.

Crozes-Hermitage "La Guiraude" 2003, Alain Graillot
Very dark. A rich, ripe nose of dark fruit that was clearly blessed with one hell of a lot of sun. Yet, despite this almost Portiness it still smelled of Crozes; there was cheap cologne and a degree of greenness present. It smelled really quite complex for Crozes this ripe, and was quite attractive. The palate had plenty of ripe fruit and a good tannic structure. I don't know if he added it or not, but considering its ripeness the acidity was just perfect. The finish was nice and long with dark fruit flavours persisting. I may not like European 2003s, but this impressed. I think it would make very interesting old bones.

A few good things yesterday. I am afraid I got rather drunk so notes will be brief. The Clos St. Hune was most disappointing.

Grande Annee 1996, Bollinger
Perfectly balanced on the edge of maturity and freshness. Really good fruit and acidity with a fine mousse. This was excellent and in top condition. Even though this had mature tones I am in no rush to drink my last bottle. Aged Grande Annee is so much better than Bollinger RD.

Riesling Smaragd Achleiten 2004, Prager
Excellent ripe Riesling nose with lots of minerality. It didn't have the white pepper character that most Austrian wines seem to have. The palate was very complex with great fruit and minerality. Very long, too. This was a really good bottle of wine.

Riesling Clos Saint Hune 1997, Trimbach
Oddly mature, petrolly nose, I was surprised this smelled so forward. The palate was bloody awful, weird fruit, poorly integrated acidity and surprisingly little length. It was very concentrated, but didn't taste nice at all. Most disappointing. I have no idea what went wrong with this bottle.

Pinot Noir Mills Vineyard 1996, Calera
Really up for drinking, this had a beautiful nose of ripe, smooth fruit and earthy tones. The palate was really silky and smooth, with great fruit and a really complex finish. Really good harmony and great style. An excellent bottle of Californian Pinot Noir, I bloody loved it.

Volnay Premier Cru Clos de Chateau des Ducs 2000, Lafarge
An utterly beguiling nose of pure fruit and minerality. This smelled simply superb. The palate was similarly beautiful, light and refined but not lacking any concentration. The acidity was perfectly balanced and it was showing really well. This was a top bottle of Volnay that I deeply loved.

Vosne-Romanee Premier Cru les Brulees 2001, Domaine Rene Engel
Ah, an old favourite. Wonderful Vosne fruit and real complexity. Very stylish with great persistence of flavour and great harmony. Top premier cru Vosne.

We paid a visit to Oxford yesterday where we ate a truly marvelous chicken. Was nice to see the family. We drank well, too.

Morey-Saint-Denis Premier Cru les Ruchots 2004, Domaine Arlaud
Lovely rich, ripe fruit on the nose. Real complexity here, and very stylish. The palate was silky and smooth with great persistence of flavour. The acidity was perfectly balanced. This was a really stylish wine, and I greatly enjoyed it. Arlaud is one of the bargains of Burgundy, and damned good too.

Morey-Saint-Denis 2004, Domaine Dujac
Bright, ripe fruit on the nose. Very Morey, very stylish too. The palate was palate was perfectly ripe, with good acidity. This was very enjoyable, and drinking far better than Jeremy Seysses (the winemaker) said it would be when he rang as we opened it. Quite delicious, top villages wine.

Chablis Grand Cru les Clos 2005, Domaine Fevre
An incredibly nutty nose, smelt of hazelnuts with fresh lemon zest on them. It was very mineral too. The palate had real density, but was kept light and refined by great balancing acidity. This was a truly fine bottle of Chablis.

Meursault Premier Cru Boucheres 2000, Domaine Roulot
An utterly beautiful nose of stone, flowers and ripe lemon fruit. This was incredibly complex and really stylish. The palate was the epitome of balance and refinement, with lots of fruit, great minerality, lovely acidity and real complexity. It was incredibly long. Another wonderful bottle from Roulot, the man is a genius.

A few good things from last night.

Bourgogne Blanc 2004, Domaine Roulot
This smells of proper white Burgundy; there is the lemon fruit, minerality and just a hint of vomit. It smells fresh and lively. The palate has some good acidity, and a reasonable amount of fruit. It has some reasonable length, and a degree of complexity. For a Bourgogne Blanc this is really pretty good.

Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 2004, Domaine Dujac
I last reviewed the 2004 Dujac wines along with the 2005s from cask back in July of last year; this wine seems similar to how I remembered it. It is complex and earthy on the nose, with a lot of ripe cherry fruit. I feel I have to comment that the level of oak seems rather high on the nose at the moment. There are some profound tannins on the palate, but their structure is pleasing and it is very complex and long. The acidity seems surprisingly high, but this could just be at the stage we are drinking it; it is rather young. Delicious, ripe, dense fruit is here. Great finish and very long with real style and class. This is a seriously fine wine for long-term ageing.

Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru aux Combottes 1997, Domaine Dujac
Soft fruit on the nose, this seems fully mature. Very earthy and rich with plenty of complex aromas. This smells like type, mature, Cote de Nuits wine. The palate is very soft and charming, with some good balancing acidity and a reasonable tannic structure. I was given this wine blind and I thought it was Dujac from a more rigorous vintage than 1997, this shows the quality of wine they make even in these less than brilliant years. There is some reasonable length, and no shortage of complexity here. This is completely lovely, and perfectly up for drinking now. There is still some life in the very best of the 1997s, clearly. At Dujac I tried a 1997 Clos St. Denis and it was similarly delicious.

Vin de Paille 1996, J. L. Grippat
This is Hermitage made from straw-dried grapes that had to be declassified to Vin de Table for some arcane reason. I was presented it blind and I am pleased to say I nailed it. The aromas of glue and acetone were a dead give away, and not as unpleasant as they sound. It is really gluey, with a strange apple/elderflower fruit to it. The palate is quite sweet, and again has glue tones, but there is more fruit on the palate and it despite all of the weird aromas it seemed quite delicious. Acidity was fine if not spectacular. It is not for ageing any longer, although it'll hang around forever, this is an unusual sweet wine but well worth trying as it has real personality and it is actually very nice.

Live tasting notes from Fortnum and Mason's wine bar. I have internet access down here so here goes on the wines we are drinking.

Pinot Gris Vieille Vigne 2005, Domaine Bruno Sorg
A lovely, ripe, spicy nose of white fruit and minerality. It smells very ripe and very concentrated. This is a ripe and stylish wine, full of character unlike the bland Italian version of this grape variety. The palate is very dry, but has good ripeness to give it width and structure. It is quite long, and reasonably complex. Not the flashiest Pinot Gris in the world, but this is a very good drink for random drinking purposes and greatly enjoyable.

Bandol 2003, Chateau de Pibarnon
The nose is very ripe, with plenty of alcohol but by no means as over-ripe as the Tempier the other day. This has lovely Bandol grilled meat and leather characters, type but ripe! The palate is incredibly tannic, but so ripe and full it is almost voluptuous. It has good acidity too, and is really complex. This is the best wine I've had in the proverbial period of time: Complex, long and stylish. Quiet delicious too and up for enjoying. That being said I'll keep the two bottles I purchased for at least a decade.

The drugs that have improved my mood and made me perky enough to enjoy wine again have also made me violently sick. I am afraid these tasting notes comes from sips taken in between waves of nausea rolling over me.

Riesling Scharzhofberger Pergentsknopp 2005, Van Volxem
This has a very ripe nose. So ripe, indeed that is smells slightly of varnish, and this is not attractive. The palate seems confused about how dry it wants to be, and there are more hints of varnish and acetone on the palate. It is quite long, I'll give you that, but just not very nice.

Riesling Grand Cru Brand 2001, Domaine Albert Boxler
A very rich, earthy nose to this. The fruit from sun-ripened grapes also shines through. This has a very pleasing nose. The palate is quite dry, but full of fruit and bursting with life. It seems, slightly surprisingly, up for drinking now. Great acidity and a lovely mineral tang grace the finish. This is not perhaps one of (the great) Jean Boxler's most spell-binding wines, but it provides exceedingly high quality drinking.

Pommard Premier Cru les Rugiens 2003, Domaine de Courcel
A rich, powerful nose of ripe fruit and earth brushed with a seasoning of oak. This has a big and serious nose: very complex, very stylish. The initial impression on the palate is of a big wine. Despite the size of the nose and palate this is really silky, svelt and sexy. It has great refinement for an obvious monster of a wine. The tannic structure is superb, and is perfectly balanced by the epic quantities of fruit present. Excellent Pommard and a truly great 2003.

Hermitage 1997, J-L Chave
A soft nose of grilled meat and mature fruit, spicy, rich and warm. It certainly smells very complex and quite typical. The palate seems reasonably soft, with very good fruit and a nice long finish. I didn't get to try as much of this as I would have liked, as I was feeling so sick, but it seemed excellent.

I hate to say it, but wine is still not really combating my unhappiness. It is certainly nice to drink, but it doesn't transport me to another place as once it did. I need to get my medication sorted out.

Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 1995, Pol Roger
A dense nose, dominated by Pinot. It has a really nice digestive biscuit character to it. Serious complexity here and it is only just starting to open up. This is a damned good wine.

Riesling Ried Loibenberg Smaragd 2002, Emmerich Knoll
Very light nose, hints of petrol and botrytis, maybe a touch of white pepper. It smells quite mature. Very light palate with huge acidity, clearly no malolactic fermentation here. There is a reasonable amount of fruit there. This is a perfectly pleasant drink, just lacks a bit of the wow-factor.

Gevrey-Chambertin "Mes Favorites" 2001, Domaine Alain Burguet
Lovely nose of good fruit and earthy complexity. It smells pretty ripe and fruity. There is some reasonable acid on the palate, but I think this is balanced by the density of fruit in the wine. It is quite long and reasonably complex. A very good village wine.

Hermitage "La Chapelle" 1995, Jaboulet
A polished, rounded nose of complex fruit, earth and voluptuous complexity. It smells big, ripe and very good. The palate is quite the mouthful with lots of fruit, great structure and a really long finish. This is a super wine which is in top condition to drink now. I'll last forever, though.

Hermitage 1995, J-L Chave
Ah, what a wonderful nose! Scented, perfumed and complex. There is a lot of fruit there, but it is soft and nicely mature. The palate is also soft and really has a lot of charm. It is extraordinarily long with great complexity. Really stylish too. This is aalso drinking very well now, but again will keep for a lot longer. This was generally preferred over the other Hermitage, and I agree this is truly great wine, but that was too.

Chateau Gillette Creme de Tete 1983
Chateau Gillette is a really weird wine, and it shows. The nose has hints of glue and acetone as well as botrytic fruit. It doesn't smell entirely nice, if I am honest. The palate is similarly weird, but it does have complexity and really good length. This is clearly a very special wine that needs to be judged according to different criteria than other Sauternes, but I am not sure I am much of a fan.

Meusault les Tillets 2001, Roulot
Very good minerality on the nose, nice fruit, too. It has a very elegant, refined palate that is characterised by lemon fruit, acidity and minerality all in perfect harmony. This is quite a delicious wine.

Vintage Champagne 1996, Pol Roger
Bready. yeasty nose that shows hints of maturity. The palate is a lot more mature and less austere than last time I had it. It has a degree of astringency, which is quite nice. Whilst this has matured somewhat there is really no rush to drink this.

Cote-Rotie Cote Brune 1991, Gentaz-Dervieux
The nose has the elegance of a good, mature Cote-Rotie: there is nice fruit and earthiness. The palate has elegance too, but also the masculinity of Cote Brune. This is very complex and long, quite delicious, too. A real treat to drink.

Montebello 1996, Ridge
Very blackcurranty nose, full of fruit and bursting with life. It doesn't smell at all over-blown or too alcoholic. The palate has some pretty serious tannins and acidity, but I think there is enough fruit there to balance this. It is very long and there is some serious complexity there. Still youthful and no rush to drink. This is as good as US Cabernet gets. I still don't like Cabernet, though.

A brilliant farmhouse eating establishment in the hills of the Hautes Cotes.

Monthelie 2004, Comte Lafon
Nice lemon fruit, some minerality. It is light and simple on the palate but perfectly drinkable. Nice enough.

Morgon 2006, Lapierre
Light strawberry fruit nose. Clarity of fruit on the nose and palate. Nice and refreshing. This is real type Beaujolais that is not trying to be anything else. Good.

Pommard Premier Cru Clos des Epeneaux 1990, Comte Armand
Beautiful nose of red fruit and complex earthiness. Very stylish. The nose is quite delicious. The palate, on the other had, is too extracted and the alcohol is too high. It is good, but it could have been so much more.

Volnay-Santenots-du-Millieu 1990, Comte Lafon
There is a hint of cheese to the nose, but it basically shows pure red fruit of elegance and refinement, despite its obvious ripeness. The palate is extracted, but really silky and smooth. Very long, very complex, very stylish. Truly excellent.

Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru 2001, Domaine des Lambrays
Everyone knows I love this wine; it is the cat's arse.

Sancerre "Les Romains" 2005, Domaine Vacheron
Not very Sauvignon-y. Very mineral. A reasonable amount of green grassiness. Very mineral palate. Very long and complex, Quite stylish, too. This is top Sancerre.

I am out of the bin so, as promised, here are my brief notes from the aborted trip to France. On our first day we had:

Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru Morgeot 2001, Moreau et fils
Quite direct, some nice weight, though, but not terribly complex. It had been opened for a day.

Puligny-Montrachet 2000, Domaine Leflaive
Nice creamy nose, quite mineral. Palate has fresh acidity but the creamy texture of Leflaive. A very nice village Puligny.

Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru Champs-Gains 2001, Moreau et fils
Very direct, linear palate, acidity quite high and not much fat. It is ok, but hardly thrilling.

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Folatieres 2000, Paul Pernot
A very nutty, lemony nose, with a complex interplay of fruit, flowers and minerality. The palate has a lot to offer. It has weight, breadth, but with really good acidity. It is quite youthful. Fine and stylish, top bunny.

Hermitage 1996, J-L Chave
Lovely perfumed nose, quite Burgundian fruit to it. It is really earthy and complex. Very stylish nose: lovely. The palate is very voluptuous, round and giving. Quite delicious and fruity. This is really complex. Very long. Excellent wine, super top bunny.

Crozes-Hermitage 1996, Alain Graillot
Very peppery, spicy, plummy nose. Smells (and looks) quite young. Hints of cheap cologne. Plate is quite smooth with reasonable length and complexity. It is really very good.

Riesling Erdener Pralat Auslese Goldkapsel 1997, Dr Loosen
Very botrytic. Very forward on the nose. Quite heavy. Lacks a bit of zip, focus and purity. It is just a bit dull, really.

Lovely chap, Peter, he brought two lovely wines and we have three more. It was interesting to watch some of these wines develop over the course of the evening; there were some great improvements to be observed.

Riesling Auslese Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr 2000, Weingut Fritz Haag
This was quite mature and petrolly on the nose. There was some good limey fruit and it smells really inviting. On the palate it was perhaps less sweet than Auslesen from riper vintages, but there was a great acid-fruit balance. The minerality was very pleasing. It had a good finish, but I did worry that it seemed quite so mature at only seven years old.

Hermitage Blanc 1994, J. L. Grippat
White Hermitage from the now retired Jean-Louis Grippat, I felt pleased to be trying a wine so rare. Initially this just smelled and tasted of glue, which seemed a bit odd. As this developed in the glass it became more floral with a distinct apple-core character to the fruit. It was incredibly mineral and really seriously complex. There was real power to the palate, but it remained easy to drink and very enjoyable. The length was most impressive. Quite ready to drink. This was a seriously kick-arse bottle of white Hermitage, I'm not sure I've had a better old white Hermitage than this. Very tasty, extremely enjoyable yet really rather serious.

Pommard Premier Cru Rugiens 2001, de Montille
I opened the next two wines because they had been described by some as ageing prematurely. They showed a degree of this character when first poured, but after a while in the glass really improved greatly. When fully open, the nose of this wine was quite beautiful; strawberry and redcurrant fruit with charming hints of soil. This smelled really rather Cote de Beaune-y. Initially the palate seemed a tad tough, and strangely lacking a touch of concentration, by by arse how this improved with air. It became terribly silky, elegant and highly refined. For a minor vintage this was a wine of complete beauty and I greatly enjoyed it.

Volnay-Santenots-Du-Milieu 2001, Domaine des Comtes Lafon
Lafon's reds can be a bit butch, and this was my initial impression of this wine. Tannins were a bit tough and it seemed a tiny bit international. Once again, when it had breathed for a while it became far softer with the tannic structure more in harmony with the ripe, dark fruit. It had good length and was not short on concentration. Again, for a difficult vintage this was a very pleasing wine. Up for drinking now, just let it breathe.

Côte-Rôtie 1997, Bernard Burgaud
I had this recently. I found this bottle to be a tiny bit dirtier than that one, but it still had an elegant palate with a great, fine tannic structure. Very good Côte-Rôtie.

The last couple of days general drinking are reported below:

Riesling Serriger Schloss Saarstein Spätlese 2005, Schloss Saarstein
Much like the last couple of bottles, and very unlike the first couple, this was delicious. It has really blossomed into a peachy lovely. Great drinking on a sunny spring day.

Crozes-Hermitage 1999, Alain Graillot en magnum
Whilst this had some decent fruit, there wasn't that much else there. It really lacked dimension and was terribly dull. I've had a mag of this before and it was delicious, so I don't know what is going on with this.

Grande Millésime 1996, Gosset
This was a tightly-wound ball of intensity, flavour and class. Really ripe but with huge amounts of acid. Fabulous length and complexity. I really thought this was terribly good (although I prefer Bille NF 96) but it needs a lot more time in the cellar.

Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume "Vignoble de Vaulorent" 2005, Domaine William Fevre
As I said when I had a bottle of this at the end of January, this is clearly the best Chablis I have ever had. So complex and stylish, so refined and elegant, so drinkable. Truly excellent wine.

Bonnezeaux 1997, Château de Fesles
An excellent sweet wine that provided me with as much pleasure as the bottle I had at christmas.

Meursault 2004, Henri Boillot
A well-made, perfectly drinkable wine which is very Meursault in character.

I haven't had access to my computer over the last couple of days, so here are brief notes about some of the tits wines I've had.

Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru les Ruchottes 2000, Domaine Ramonet
This had a wonderful, expressive nose of minerality, nuts and ripe lemon fruit. There was a good Chassagne flat Champagne aroma to it. It was really complex and stylish on the nose, with obvious concentration and class. The palate had some good weight and concentration, but was really elegant and refined. Quite beautiful, in fact. The finish was quite superb. A really great bottle of Chassagne.

Meursault les Tillets 2001, Domaine Roulot
Strangely, this seemed slightly more oaky on the nose than last time I had it. Still, very floral and mineral. Very nice fruit. Real complexity here too, and good style. Nice mineral complexity on the palate and it had real length. Lovely, but the Ramonet was better.

Cornas Domaine de Rochepertuis 1998, Domaine Jean Lionnet
A lovely nose of mushrooms and really ripe blackberries. Nice and earthy, but not rustic or dirty. Again, this was really quite complex. The palate was smooth with good, ripe tannins and plenty of fruit. Real length to the finish and a great persistence of complex, earthy flavours. Delicious. Shame Jean Lionnet retired after the 2005 vintage, make sure you buy any of this wine you see knocking around, it has always been one of the incredible bargains of the wine world. Much as I love Clape, Verset and others, I really think this is my favourite Cornas.

Chablis Premier Cru Vallions 2005, Domaine Fevre
This had a delicious nose that was so fruity it had a hint of Muscat about it. Its nutty, honey, stoney aromas showed it to be very good Chablis, though. Perhaps the palate lacked a touch of concentration, but it was a really refreshing, enjoyable drink. 2005 is very obviously a hit is Chablis.

Côte-Rôtie 1997, Domaine Bernard Burgaud
A lovely earthy nose with plenty of dark ripe fruit. Although it smelled completely ripe it seemed very restrained and balanced. The palate had real elegance and refinement, with finely-grained tannins and a very long finish. Perhaps the acidity was a tad high, but it didn't really detract from what was a lovely bottle of Côte-Rôtie. The Lionnet was better.

We have a few wines planned for tonight, the first of which has been a pleasing surprise.

Riesling Spätlese Serringer Schloss Saarstein 2005, Schloss Saarstein
Unlike previous bottles of this that I have opened, this smells quite clean and has a more pronounced mineral character. It has good peachy fruit. It is obviously pretty ripe. There is a bit of spritz on the palate, along with really nice fruit, good minerality and a nice backbone of acidity. It has a degree of complexity and reasonable length. Not great by any means, but quite a nice drink.

Riesling Polish Hill 2004, Grosset
This has shut down a tad since I last had it a year ago; it has lost a bit of the lively lime character. It is still quite mineral, and it has a lot of style. Just seems awkward and middle-aged (I am middle-aged and I am awkward). I still think this has a good future in front of it and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Just age it for a bit before you drink it.

Gigondas Prestige des Hautes Garrigues 1998, Domaine Santa Duc
Robert Parker gave this 93 points and said it'd age until 2018. He is very well paid and drinks a lot of wine, of course. This honks of an extremely booze-tastic, Port-like drink; some kind of crazy fortified Mourvedre. There is really rather a lot of jammy fruit on the nose as well. It seems far from balanced. It also seems a touch mature. Ageing this has done the palate no favours, the jammy fruit is not powerful enough to balance the frankly worrying level of alcohol. No balance, rather dirty and far too muscular. If this wine knew where your stolen bottle of Musigny 2005 was and was alone in a room, blind-folded, with its hands tied behind its back and you went in with a cricket bat, you'd be the one walking out in a daze. Can that ever be nice?

Here is the note for the Pommard Clos des Epeneaux 2001 I mentioned yesterday, it is a great wine. Also we had a bottle of Champagne. It is a Grand Cru Blanc des Blancs, largely from the 2002 vintage, that has been fermented in oak barrels; very Burgundian.

Champagne Blanc de Blancs Cuvée Du Centenaire, Alfred Gratien
Lawks, this smells just like white Burgundy. Lemon fruit, oak and a creamy minerality. It is very complex and stylish on the nose. Mmm... lovely. The palate has a really fine mousse and lovely lemon fruit. The oak is perfectly integrated. There is a great mineral tang to it. I think this would age really well. This a terribly serious non-vintage Champagne, and quite delicious too. Top bunny!

Pommard Premier Cru Clos des Epeneaux 2001, Comte Armand
A brilliant, pure nose of cherries and strawberry fruit. The purity of fruit is quite Côte de Beaune-y, but its fleshy density is quite like Nuits St. Georges. There is a hint of stalkiness to the nose which I've never noticed before on this wine. The palate is utterly beautiful with lovely fruit and real refinement. Great concentration. The acidity is really fine, and there is a really subtle seasoning of new oak. Really much too young, but still extremely enjoyable. Crikey, this is a completely brilliant Pommard, I love it.

Two lovely friends around for dinner last night. This is what we ate, and the list below is what we drank.

Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François 1996, Billecart-Salmon
Lots of fruit on the nose, ripe apples. There are hints of yeastiness and cold cocoa, it smells quite complex but rather tight at the moment. There is plenty of fruit on the palate, but it is really rather acidic. There is real complexity on the palate, but it just seems a bit tight and closed at the moment. Really stylish and intellectual, but as this ages it will become terribly charming.

Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Clos St. Jacques 2002, Bruno Clair
There is plenty of ripe, red fruit on the nose, fresh and charming. A vague hint of dustiness is also present, old wood perhaps? The palate has plenty of fruit with plenty of subtle flavours and is really quite complex, but just like on the nose there is a vague hint of dirtiness which spoils it a tiny bit for me. It was by no means bad, but it could have been better.

Côte-Rôtie Côte Brune 1991, Gentaz Dervieux
A rare treat to try Gentaz Dervieux these days, sadly it soured by there being a hint of corkiness to the wine. It isn't completely impossible to taste, but is not really that nice to drink. There is obviously still plenty of fruit left, and it seems to have real complexity and elegance. Difficult to know whether the dry palate is due to age or the corkiness, corkiness is my guess and based on this I'd say it is clearly not to old, but doesn't need keeping any longer. A real shame it is corked

Châteauneuf-du-Papes 1994, Vieux Télégraphe en magnum
This is obviously quite ripe on the nose but not so ripe it is soupy. The fruit has a certain degree of maturity, although it is still full of life. It smells quite a lot of blackcurrants, but with some plumminess too. The palate is round, rich and ripe, a mouth-filling wine of charm and softness. This is really quite good and certainly up for drinking now.

Last night we celebrated the birthday of one of our neighbours; such lovely people.

Vintage Champagne 1998, Pol Roger
The nose has a lot of fruit, redcurrants and raspberries. There is also a good rich, doughy character. It smells reasonably complex. The palate is quite linear, with powerful acidity and lemon fruit. Oddly, the nose smells more of red Burgundy whilst the palate is more white Burgundy. It is not terribly long, though. A perfectly good vintage Champagne, but after the wild excitement of the 1996s it does seem just a bit pedestrian.

Sauvignon Blanc 2006, Cloudy Bay
I've always hated Cloudy Bay, so it'll be difficult to keep an open mind. Here goes: A powerful nose of fresh crushed blackcurrants, there is some over-ripe gooseberry fruit there as well. An almost dairy-like aroma is there too. The nose may be expressive, but it is hardly complex and doesn't really show anything original. The palate has good acidity and lots of fruit, but it seems like there is a bit of residual sugar on the finish which is not terribly flattering. Happily, I don't hate it. I am not a big fan, but I'll be happy to try future bottles once a year to see if there is any development of the style.

Pommard Premier Cru Les Rugiens 2004, Domaine de Courcel
A bright nose of fresh fruit, strawberries, with a strong mineral tang. It is quite pretty, but perhaps lacks a bit of concentration. On the palate there are some quite severe tannins, some of which display a hint of greenness. These are distinctly on the edge of being too drying. Good fruit, though, and despite the tannins it seems reasonably elegant. There is not as much complexity as I might have hoped for. I feel this is going through an awkward stage and I should keep my remaining bottle for several years to give it time to open again. Not bad, but hardly the best de Courcel I've had.

Shiraz 2002, Cape Mentelle
A rich nose of slightly jammy dark fruits. It smells quite peppery, too, with hints of leather. The palate is very big and ripe, but there are some good ripe tannins there which stop it from becoming too stewed. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Cape Mentelle Shiraz and, even though this is not a complex or refined drink, it does not disappoint.

Yesterday's dinner party started at half six and went on until four in the morning, cripes! No wonder I felt a tad the worse for wear this morning.

Champagne Grande Reserve, Gosset
Quite mature and mushroomy on the nose. The palate has good density, nice acidity and very good length. A year in our warm flat had hastened its development, but it was a perfectly tasty bottle of NV fizz.

Riesling Spätlese Serriger Schloss Saarstein 2005, Schloss Saarstein
Far too dull, as has been reported before.

Sancerre "Les Romains" 2004, Domaine Vacheron
The nose is incredibly mineral with surprisingly little Sauvignon Blanc character (good). The nose is really complex with a very good concentration of aromas. The palate is also not terribly Sauvignon Blanc-y, but there is good acidity, a huge stoniness and plenty of concentration. Quite a surprising Sancerre, but it was certainly extremely good.

Meursault Premier Cru les Perrières 2002, Domaine Vincent Dancer
One of our dinner guests said, "This smells and tastes of wood." It is certainly distractingly oaky. It is also really fat: a big, slightly ungainly mouthful. Far too much like sucking lard-covered plank, really. There is plenty of fruit there, but not really the elegance and refinement one would hope for from this vineyard. After the fireworks of the Dancer Chassagne Premier Cru we had a few weeks back this is a bit of a disappointment.

Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 2002, Domaine Arlaud
Now this has a wonderful, perfumed nose of complex ripe fruit and earth. It smells supremely elegant and refined. The palate has real elegance too, this is quite delicious. I love the fruit, the minerality and the beautiful long finish. A glorious life ahead of it. Top bunny!

Cornas Domaine St. Pierre 1995, Jaboulet
Mmmm... lovely mature fruit on the nose, cherries and plums. It is very earthy and complex and smells completely mature, but in no way past it. The palate has real refinement for a Cornas, not rough in the slightest. The fruit is very charming and is perfectly framed by a tannic structure that lacks any hint of aggression. This is a lovely, but atypical, Cornas; time to start enjoying.

Bonnezeaux "Grains Nobles" 1997, Domaine du Petit Val
Really rather botrytic nose, candied orange peel and apricots. The texture is very silky, there is good acidity to match the sweetness. I thought this was an excellent example. Time to drink.

Petite Sirah Essence 2001, Ridge
This had the nose of very ripe blackberries preserved in spirits; very sweet and fruity. The palate was really quite sweet (claimed 10% residual sugar on the label). Very fruity, bramble fruit. This was a lot more like a fruit liqueur rather than a wine. I think this needs to be finished up within four or five years.

Châteauneuf-du-Papes 1998, Château Vieux-Telegraphe
This stank of arseholes. There is a bit of plummy, Porty fruit, but it is really just filthy. The palate is similarly dirty and unattractive. I was glad I'd only poured a very small tasting sample for myself.

I had a guest yesterday afternoon. Traffic delayed his arrival until it was time to start cooking so he ended up staying for dinner.

Riesling Spätlese Serriger Schloss Saarstein 2005, Schloss Saarstein
This still had fermentation aromas on the nose, along with a bit of citrus fruit and that was pretty much it. On the palate there was some good acidity and reasonable richness, but it was staggeringly dull. No complexity, no vineyard character, nothing to grab you. It was wallpaper wine, it merged un-noticed into the background without providing any thrills at all. How disappointing.

Riesling Grand Cru Brand 2001, Domaine Albert Boxler
Corked! Bugger, bugger, bugger!

Riesling Auslese Eitelsbacher Karthäuserhofberg 1999, Karthäuserhof
The nose was reasonably mature, with obvious petrol hints but still plenty of citrus fruit. It was quite a lot more mineral than the Schloss Saarstein, a reasonable degree of complexity here. The palate had ripeness and density, but it had the elegance and delicacy of a good German Riesling. Very good minerality on the finish which was reasonably long. Quite a good bottle.

Collioure le Séris 2003, Domaine de la Rectorie
The nose was very heroic, booze-tastic blackberry liqueur and c