2000 was a great vintage for Chablis, ripe and round but with plenty of good acidity. Fèvre were purchased a few years before and made an incredible turn around from producing over-oaked acid-juice to lovely wines of balance and style. I was quite looking forward to popping this bottle.

Chablis Premier Cru Montée de Tonnerre 2000, William Fèvre
The nose of this shows a pleasing degree of development, it has some honeyed fat along with nuttiness and lemon fruit. The nose is very mineral. With the good lemon fruit one can almost smell the acidity, but it shows a degree of fat on the nose. The palate is linear and direct; good lemony fruit with a steely mineral/acid finish. There is some breadth, which becomes more apparent as the wine breathes. The palate does show a bit of maturity, this is drinking extremely well now. It leans toward fun, but when it comes down to it it is a wine themed on 'rigour'. One has to work for one's pleasure, but there is a lot of pleasure to be had. I don't mind thinking about something to enjoy it, and neither should you.

Based on this, I am sorely tempted to lay into my remaining 2000 Chablis with a grin on my face (and a bottle of Gaviscon on the table).

I've had a tube pulled out of my stomach today, that had been there for 24 hours. I need something manly and heroic to charge me with strength once again.

Collioure Clos du Moulin 2001, Domaine Mas Blanc
A rare wine from the South-West of France, the region that makes the whacked-out and crazy Banyuls sweet wines. This is the dry red wine from the region; in this case made from 90% Mourvedre and 10% Counoise. It is a herbal, meaty, richly fruity wine. It smells very much like the herb and fruit punches that will be appearing in Blighty when autumn comes around again. Yet it is not heavy or cloying. It is certainly powerful, but not over-powering in terms of alcohol, fruit or structure. The fragrance is very pleasing. It is nicely-tannic and really quite long. I think this will age for a another decade. This is a fine, and highly-affordable, wine.

Riesling Scharzhofberger Kabinett 1999 from Egon Muller

This is a serious wine. The nose is packed with ripe citrus fruit and a severe minerality that makes it burst with life. The palate is frighteningly acidic, but the wine is ripe and fruity enough for this to be a balanced and invigorating drink. The finish is pleasingly bright and mineral, and it is really long. I suspect this is riper than a normal Kabinett, given the year, sweetness and the weight of the wine, but the acidity and minerality keep it lively, fresh and bright. One on of the last sunny days of the year I could ask for little more. Well done Yoda (aka Egon Muller).

I was so disappointed by the Leeuwin Estate Shiraz I decided to open something I knew would be good.

Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru 2002, Domaine des Lambrays
I have a bit of a thing for Grand Cru Morey St. Denis wines, especially those of the perfumed and elegant style. Clos des Lambrays is more like Clos St Denis than Clos de Tart, Clos de la Roche or Bonnes Mares in that it is a wine of beautiful fragrance and style. The 2002 had a lovely Pinot-perfumed nose; a very strong, ripe Pinot character especially when compared to the 2001 which was intensely terroir-driven. There was a balanced amount of new oak that could be detected on the nose. The palate was quite big and fruity, but very well balanced by good acidity and a nice minerality on the finish. This was a very pleasing glass of stylish Pinot Noir. I prefer the 2001 as it is more refined and complex, probably with a better ageing profile as well, but I am pleased to have seven more bottles of this to drink over the next fifteen years or so. A top glass of Pinot Noir, and a very good glass of Burgundy.

A bottle of wine from a producer that has rarely compelled me. I like their Riesling and their Cabernet. They are most famous for their chardonnay, which I find has the same problems as this.

Leeuwin Estate Art Series Shiraz 2001
Quite a ripe, alcoholic, chocolaty nose. The palate is fiercely acidic, along with being quite heavy and ponderous. This is one of those wines that 'strives for balance', but ends up being out of balance and lacking any real niceness. The harsh acidity hides the essential ripeness of the wine and ends up making it taste rather thin. Poor show, Mr Leeuwin.

Moving house and being in hospital have kept me away from the internet for a while, but I return with a review of a wine with grand pretensions.

Laurent Perrier la Grande Siecle La Cuvée
I remember having an excellent bottle of this about five years ago; I recall the smoothness of the mousse and the mature softness of it. I picked up another bottle at a bargain price in France (half what it costs in the UK) and tried it again. This is a true multi-vintage wine, made from three good vintages in recent-ish years. I am told the current release is based on 1996, 1993 and 1990 but this could well be wrong. The wine had a mature nose and palate, with a rounded and polished mousse. It was quite silky. Sadly, it appeared to lack much in the way of complexity, and was very short. It had the oddly 'face-lifted' character of Bollinger RD: mature yet fresh and fizzy. I don't like this character. I was not terribly impressed.

I have another bottle that I shall try ageing for a few years, but as far as non-vintage prestige cuvées go I think Gratien Cuvée Paradis is much better. And Krug, obviously.

Glass one and two of the Dominus were a lot of fun; all of that fruit, tannin, acidity and alcohol, hilarious! Sadly, by the end of the bottle I was completely spent, knackered and generally shagged-out by all of that fruit, tannin, acidity and alcohol. My co-drinker was also exhausted and not entirely thrilled when the last glass was poured. I think it needed a lot of time in the cellar and some food with unbound proteins. 

Christian Moueix of Petrus fame also makes wine in California, including that which has just been popped:

2000 Dominus
This has incredibly concentrated cassis fruit on the nose, and what can only only be described as a bitch load of toasty new oak. The alcohol is high, but does not dominate. This is a large-scale wine, but oddly all the components balance quite well. The chewy tannins do dry the mouth, but there is a lot of fruit that is very ripe. It is a big, tannic beast, but underneath there beats the heart of an elegant Siamese cat. I am not much of a Cabernet fan, but this I find to be well balanced and cannot deny it is a fun-tastic wine. It'll age really well, but tonight this bottle will soothe my nerves as the evening passes. It definitely reaches the interesting and thought-provoking level of merit.

It was hilariously under-priced in a shop in New York City. If airlines and arms did not have weigh restrictions I'd have got more for the cellar.

As an aside, the usual 'ooohh fancy' New World Cabernet I buy to have a bit of fun now and again is Moss Wood from Western Australia. It is a wine I like very much and have purchased for years. The price of 2000 Moss Wood was pretty much what I paid for the Dominus. The Dominus is far more refined and complex, much sexier too. Although, I admit it is less themed on booze. I really like these wines, but neither of them gives a really convincing answer to the question "Cabernet Sauvignon, just what is the point?" as far as I am concerned.

There will be a slight bias toward Burgundy in this blog and there will be many rants about my burning passion for the best stuff. I fancy a good glass of de Courcel* at the moment, but as I don't have any here I will have to content myself with a quick demonstration of my love for Burgundy in the form of the distribution of wine from different regions in my collection:

One third Burgundy, and most of it red. We are told the first quality of wine is that it should be red....

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*Yves Confuron who makes de Courcel wines is a lovely chap, an incredibly gifted winemaker but, on occasion, just a bit of a curmudgeon.

Well, not that over-priced red-stuff. Anyone who buys red Bordeaux either has no taste or should lend me a tenner. The wine:

La Tour Blanche 1990 1er Cru Classe Sauternes:
Lawks, what a nose! I can smell the Sauvignon Blanc and one hell of a lot of botrytis. Certainly very rich, but loads of fresh acidity. Fruit is very apricotty. This is incredibly long. I am typing this with three friends, they suggest this wine is variously; reeking of mould (botrytis, that is), having a coconut aftertaste and apricot brandy character. It has good peaches and cream tones. I think this is great, and at £35 a bottle it was a bargain. Sauternes is not my favourite kind of sweet wine, but this just oozes loveliness.

That was one hell of a good wine at a damned keen price. Nice change to taste top class Sauternes when sober.

I swore that if I purchased any 2003 European white wines (after my disaster with buying German stuff) I should be mercilessly mocked. So, stick a dunce's cap on me and stand me in the corner because today's glass of wine with the cricket was:

Domaine Albert Boxler Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg L31D 2003
Jean Boxler is a charming and gifted young man. He can also do things with Riesling that would make your eyes water with pleasure. He vinifies each plot of the Grand Cru Sommerberg Riesling separately and produces a range of wines that are all recognisably Sommerberg, but all have an individual charm and character. The L31D is the cuvée from his oldest vines. Obviously 2003 was far too hot for serious white wines to be generally made, but M. Boxler did make damned good stuff. This is a bit hot and alcoholic (best drank out of the fridge) but the fruit, concentration, complexity and style make this one exciting, racy, booze-tastic drink. I really enjoyed it. There was acidity and mam-loads of minerality. This was a seriously glass of quite large-scale Riesling. Cheers, Jean.

Obviously, Riesling is best with cricket; Champagne or Fino Sherry will do at a pinch.

Finally, you can point at me in my corner and shout "Shame!" as I purchased two cases of 2003 wine from M. Boxler.

Every single wine book claims to de-mystify wine, be for 'the common man' or makes laughable claims about the incredible ubiquity and cheapness of fine wine. I have no interest in spouting such drivel. I am very much of the opinion that nice things are nicer than nasty things and as such I want to focus on the best wines, with only the occasional dig at filth. I am sure, dear reader, you are enlightened enough to realise that best does not equate with most expensive, I am not a snob interested in burning money. I am interested in drinking damned-good wines. So if you prefer your wine columnists to pander to your erroneous opinions that Jacob's Creek is a fine wine then I suggest you head with alacrity away from here.

... Is that people purchase shit wine and expect you to enjoy it. Last night I had the woeful experience of opening my aunt's christmas present to me: Staton Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 1994 from Washington State. By arse it was disgusting. Very much a style of wine that one found at the four-to-six pound price bracket in the UK during the early to mid-nineties; it was especially noticeable with wines from South-Africa, but also many wines from New Zealand. I had really hoped never to try such a thing again. Mostly it was made with unripe grapes, that had spectacular yields, and the the wine was chapitalised to buggery. Enough sugar had been added to allow it to get to 13.5% rather than its natural 11%-ish. Because of this it had the strange, green-yet-chocolaty nose than this kind of filth always had. Age had done it no favours and, to be honest, I'd only opened it to make gravy from it. I must stand up for my lovely aunt, though, as she rang me the day after christmas and said she had opened two bottles on christmas day and they were both undrinkable. She was right.

The first day of a new month, a new blog and a damned good bottle of Burgundy.

Sylvain Cathiard Nuits St Georges Premier Cru Murgers 1999:
Cathiard makes beautiful Vosne-Romanée wines for lovers of beautiful Burgundy. He is the best source of the Vosne Premier Cru Malconsorts, although sadly for your humble narrator once the wines hit Blighty they are mind-numbingly expensive. Hence I was rather pleased to pick up a few bottles of this for less than thirty pounds a bottle. A damned good Nuits it is too. It has Nuits power and is not short of acidity, but has lovely exotic, complex fruit that does remind one of Vosne wines very much. The fruit character was really pleasing, and it lingered on the finish for a very long time. Despite the reputation of Nuits for beefy and tannic wines this was terribly satisfying to drink now. It would have aged very well, but it was not in the least bit hard. After an hour in a decanter my partner and I finished this faster than a smoker gets to the smoking area after a trans-Atlantic flight. Lovely wine.

Burgundy is obviously one of the most pleasing red wines. Not only can it be analysed in intellectual terms, but also they are often (if one buys carefully) lovely, sexy, hedonistic wines that almost beg one to do something amorous after a couple of glasses. I do like Burgundy.