The last wine written up is my idea of a fine wine. It is balanced, interesting and beautiful. I admit some good wines may lack one of these factors, but if something is really going to do rude things to my sense of smell and taste it has to hit these spots. This is a lovely wine, it spoke of the place it was made and spoke in a thrilling and exciting manner. I was compelled; I still am compelled with what remains in my glass. I don't feel tired or generally shagged-out when drinking a wine like this, even though it is quite big and ripe, but I want to dive in for another taste and witness the interest of the cepage, thrills of the site and the skill of the winemaker. So, this tickles my fancy in a 'tits out for the boys that is lovely'-way and it is intellectually stimulating as well. What more could a growing boy ask for?

Jean Boxler hits the spot once again with a brilliant wine. The mystic code refers to the plot of the Sommerberg Grand Cru that this wine is made from.

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg L31E 2002, Domaine Albert Boxler
The nose is incredibly stony but has a lot of ripe fruit; grapefruit and pineapple. The mineral character is carried through on the palate, which is very concentrated and dense yet balanced by a fine acidity. Although this is full-bodied and weighty, it is completely dry. The ripe fruit stands out on the finish, which is long with fine acidity and minerality. This is a deeply lovely wine from a Riesling master that will age exceptionally well. Quite stunning in its complexity and style. I love it.

The 'general drinking' category of notes will not be quite so detailed as when I try but a single wine. It is hard to write notes at a dinner party so general impressions alone survive in my mind.

Joh. Jos. Prum Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Spatlese 1994
Quite dry, with nice balance between fruit and acidity. Very good length, still really mineral and certainly a racy, exciting wine. I enjoyed it very much.

Gratien vintage brut 1996
Very chocolaty and doughy with a slight oxidative character. Really quite woody as well. Reminded me very much of Bollinger '96 which is no bad thing. I thought this would age really rather well, but some of our number were sure it was up for drinking.

Meursault Tillets 2001, Roulot
A beautiful, compact, elegant white Burgundy. Plenty of fruit and a bit floral. The palate was very well balanced with plenty of concentration. It was certainly long. This was a fine wine.

Riesling Grand Cru Rangen 1995, Zind-Humbrecht
This was surprisingly mature, a tad oxidised too, but it was still a nice wine. Very concentrated and powerful. As it was quite mature it seemed to have lost the sweetness these wines often have.

Morey St. Denis 2001, Domaine Dujac
A lovely wine. Great fruit, impeccable balance and real silky-style. A top-flight village wine. Dujac really landed on their feet in 2001.

There was a 2003 super-Tuscan red wine at this point that I failed to write down the name of and I am not going to try and embarrass myself by remembering how to spell it. It was very hot and quite severe. That is 2003 for you.

Pinot Gris Selection des Grains Nobles Hinterberg de Katzenthal 2001, Meyer-Fonné
A sweetie to finish off with. Nice Pinot Gris fruit and really quite a lot of botrytis. It was pretty sweet.

Nuits is slightly earthier, more meaty and generally butch than wines from my favourite Burgundy villages. However, a good example will still have elegance and balance, and this is a terribly good example.

Nuits St Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains 2002, Robert Chevillon
A heroic nose, exploding with ripe fruit, earth and spicy-richness. There is plenty of good, ripe Pinot fruit there and it is also noticeably Nuits in its slightly rustic character. The palate also has a bit of toughness, with some high acidity, but the incredibly ripe fruit balances this out perfectly. It is long, harmonious and full of grace. I have not had a heroic Burgundy that was quite so beautiful since I last had the 2001 Pommard Clos des Epeneaux from Comte Armand. This may be incredibly ripe and intense, but balance is the feeling one is left with as the very long finish subsides. The elements all work together very well, and it is in no way over-powering. A serious, but lovely, wine.

In its first flush of youth this is lovely. It probably will close down for several years, but I imagine it will re-emerge as a great wine of style and class.

Much better than the last bottle of white Burgundy I had to fight my way through.

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru La Garenne 2002, Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet
The nose is very full, concentrated with a lot of floral character. There is something almost herbal about the nose. The palate is rich and concentrated, again really floral. Nice and ripe but in no way hot; restrained, if anything. The finish is really long, with plenty of acidity and minerality. This is a fine, balanced and concentrated bottle of interesting white Burgundy. Quite lovely, really.

... but someone usually hands me a glass of something good once I've got my breath back. Oh yes, oh yes, it is another offering from Morey St Denis, not my favourite producer there (which is Domaine Dujac), but as I have suggested in the past, a damned good producer.

Morey St. Denis Premier Cru Les Loups 1999, Domaine des Lambrays
Ah... Lovely, pretty fruit. Quite ripe, but it does not hold back in the 'lovely' department. It is a bit closed at the moment, so I shall not be opening my mag of 1999 Clos des Lambrays for some time. The tightness gives it a degree of restraint that this did not have when I last tried it, then it was during its opulent, expressive and hedonistic young stage. But the degree of loveliness here is not to be underestimated. No over-ripe HP Sauce character at all, this is pure, lovely, ripe Pinot from a Burgundy village that makes beautiful wine. This once again demonstrates the wonderfulness of elegant Burgundy, and I really love it. Shame it is only a half bottle.

This is not going to be a tasting note, it is going to be a rant. Partly because I feel so personally offended by this wine, but largely because I have been obliged to drink half a bottle of the booze-tastic horror.

Macon Villages Cuvée Tradition E. J. Thévenet Domaine de la Bongran, Jean Thévenet
By arse, what am I doing drinking this lighter-fluid? It is 14% at the very least, in the name of all that is evil! Now, I am all for wines of heroism, but I like them to have some form of balance. The only balance this has is a large amount of alcohol to balance out the large amount of alcohol. Honestly! Where is the elegance? Where is the refinement? It is just a big glass of booze. I know Australians who'd be floored by this monster. I like my wines to have harmony, to speak of something more interesting than a mere glass of tart-fuel. This cannot speak because its speech is too slurred. I see no pleasure in drinking what is effectively a large glass of raw booze. There may be some acidity there, but it hardly competes with the whacked-out, crazy, booze-tastic monster that is this alcohol-fuelled frenzy of a wine. I am whammed even slagging it off. But, far, far worse than that, I am bored by having to drink it. No thanks.

The worst thing is, I've bought bottles of this before and hated them just as much. I am such a fool buying another bottle of bloody awful, completely atypical Macon. Cuvée 'Tradition'? Tradition my arse.

I welcome comments on this entry as I know everyone in the entire world has consumed this wine. This must be why the world is in such a state; everyone is pissed.

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.