Gewurztraminer is one of those grape varieties one either loves or loathes. This is a damned good example that is up for drinking now.

Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Altenbourg "Cuvee Laurence" 2002, Domaine Weinbach
This has a lovely nose of banana fruit and rich spiciness. There is some real earthy complexity here, which raises this wine above the normal Gewurztraminer simplicity. Even though the fruit is very ripe this is no booze-tastic horror; it is perfectly balanced. I love its mineral charm. On the palate the fruit reminds me very much of those foam banana sweets, a wine for those in touch with their youthful-side. The palate is surprisingly, and pleasingly, dry. OK, there is plenty of fruit and a hint of alcohol warmth, but these don't detract from what is a very pleasing palate. This is not a bottle of Zind-Humbrecht tart-fuel as so many people expect from Alsace Gewurzt. There is a real degree of complexity and style here. I admit I don't drink Gewurzt that often, it rarely provides as much pleasure as this,  but I am enjoying this wine greatly. I have simple needs, I am easily satisfied with the best, and this wine is satisfying me no end. I'd drink it within the next few years. The Weinbach ladies are lovely people (bien loché, if I am honest) and they make top bunny wines. Well worth looking out for any of their Grand Cru offerings.

We tried this at the London Wine Trade Fair last week and our case was delivered this morning. It is bursting with youthful charm.

Riesling Spatlese Rudesheimer Berg Roseneck "Old Vines" 2007, Leitz
This has a completely lovely nose of grapefruit and creamy minerality. There are hints of cucumber and mint there as well, which smell a lot more attractive than they sound. The nose is very complex and pleasing, with that wonderful 'puppy fat' character that young German Riesling often displays. The palate has lots of delicious citrus fruit and perfectly balanced acidity which makes this burst with youthful exuberance. The sweetness is very harmonious with the fruit and acid; this is a proper Spatlese not a de-classified Auslese as many of these wines tend to be from really top vintages. It is very long, with real old vines concentration of flavours and wonderful, wonderful complexity. OK, the Prum Spatlese from a few days ago may be a slightly more refined, elegant drink, but this is a superb example of Rheingau Riesling at a deeply reasonable price. It is not short on style or class, indeed it is quite delicious. Marks and Spencer tell us this wine should be drank within the next two years, and I think that is probably correct. Leitz wines are lovely when young but I have not had an older example that I think provides as much pleasure.

Madeira Boal Reserva 1968, D'Oliveiras: Excellent Madeira that is quite a lovely drink now. Read the note here. £58 from Waitrose Wine Direct.

Hermitage 2005, Domaine du Colombier: Affordable Hermitage and it is good, too. You just have to age it for it to show its best. £38.70 from Tanners.

Riesling Smaragd "Achleiten" 2005, Weingut Prager: One of the best dry Rieslings I've had in, oh, a period of time. The note is here. £28.50 from Waitrose Wine Direct.

Riesling Spatlese Rudensheimer Berg Roseneck "Old Vines" 2007, Leitz: I tried this at wine London Wine Trade Fair; it was an excellent, characterful, delicious wine. Well worth the money. £16.20 from Marks and Spencer.

Riesling Spatlese Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg 1999: A lovely wine from the Ruwer, bursting with life and, let us be honest, acidity. This a a great, refreshing drink that would be perfect to drink over the summer. £12.50 from the Wine Society.

Insomnia is plaguing both the partner and myself. He suggested the following guest article.

I love Cote-Rotie and Clusel-Roch make properly beautiful wines. Considering this comes from a really ripe vintage it is completely harmonious and deeply charming. It may be a tad over its claimed 12% alcohol, but such is the classy fruit and refined minerality that you will not be harassed by any awfulness.

Cote-Rotie "Classique" 2005, Domaine Clusel-Roch
Quite dark in colour. The nose has plenty of fruit which, whilst largely dark and ripe, is very elegant and refined. There is some great earthy complexity on that palate. Some people have said they find 2005 Rhone wines to be too tough and hard work, but there is no hint of that on this wine. The palate does have some big tannins, but they are ripe and give this wine great structure and personality. The length and complexity of the finish are quite delicious. If this wine is so good I can only imagine how the Grand Places (Clusel-Roch's prestige cuvée) would be. It does need a few more years to be showing at its best, but I feel it'll be well worth the wait.

OK, I know one should really age these things, but when they are young, bursting with fruit and that lovely young 'puppy fat' charm it is hard to refuse. 2006 was yet another great vintage in Germany and shouting Manfred Prum is a freaking genius.

Riesling Spatlese Wehlener Sonnenuhr 2006, Joh Jos Prum
This smells beguilingly beautiful. Lovely citrus fruit, great slaty minerality and nowhere near as much sulphur as I would have expected. The aromas are subtle and refined with great complexity that is terribly pleasing. Now if the nose is beautiful then the palate is nec ultra plus. The fruit is ripe and flavoursome, it has truly great acidity which sits in perfect harmony with the fruit and sweetness, and the minerality charms the socks off you.  This is an ultimately beautiful palate which is utterly harmonious and balanced. The sweetness, acidity and minerality make my mouth water with each sip I take, but such are the concentration of flavours  even my drooling does not dilute the experience. The finish is superb: long, elegant and tasty. There is so much to love about this wine and, even though there doesn't seem to be that much sulphur, I feel this will be providing obscene amounts of pleasure for a couple of decades. If you want to try it at this charming level of youthful style pop a bottle within the six to eight months; this will close up for its middle-aged period reasonably soon. Shouting Manfred has delivered the goods once again. With its obvious class and with such a long and pleasing future ahead of it twenty-one fun tokens* is a real bargain.

*That is £21, for those unaware of the usage of the term 'fun tokens'.

I love Madeira; all of those weird, rancid and off flavours that combine to make a lovely, complete booze experience are a joy. This is a particularly tits bottle.

Madeira Boal Reserva 1968, d'Oliveiras
Quite dark orange, with the weird green rim you only seem to find on Madeira. The nose bursts with brazil and hazelnut tones, with a wonderful toffee apple fruit. This is throbbing with life and it clearly signed an agreement saying it would strive only to provide a lot of pleasure. If I have been unclear allow me to re-iterate: this smells freaking ace. The palate also bursts with life, it has good baked fruit and truly marvellous (and, if I may go on about this, slightly painful) acidity. As with all good bottles of Madeira, how this tastes may not thrill the unenlightened. But I am well aware that both my readers of this site are not only enlightened but in fact serene. This will tickle your imagination, thrill your nose and tantalise your tongue. Madeira is a sadly neglected drink these days, and has been so for too long. When I used to invite good looking students to my room to mark their essays, issue them with papers and generally be a supportive kind of tutor they always seemed scandalised when I offered them a glass of Madeira. Bad thing when social conditioning makes one reject good things simply because Dame Fashion says you must avoid without giving any convincing reason. Surely it is better to be right than fashionable? Madeira was one of the first wines I purchased with my own cash, but even at that tender age I knew about the objective nature of reality and how I was in touch with it. This is excellent.

This is clearly a glass of class.

Riesling Smaragd "Achleiten" 2005, Weingut Prager
A very pure nose of lemon fruit and stony minerality; this smells subtle and beautiful. The fruit is perfectly ripe and just lovely. Serious complexity here. Oddly for an Austrian wine this doesn't smell of white pepper; I'd be hard pressed to tell this was Austrian if I was presented it blind. The complexity of the concentrated aromas make you well aware you are about to have a taste of something with serious class. There is density and an incredible depth of flavour to the palate, but it is kept bursting with fizzing life by its great acidity and brilliant minerality. It is very long. I suppose this will age very well, but if I had another bottle I'd pop it within the next six months; it is just gorgeous now. Both intellectually rewarding and full of an almost lewd amount of visceral pleasure.

Gone are the days when one could get a good Engel Grand Cru in Selfridge's for £34 a bottle. Luckily, we stocked up.

Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru 1999, Rene Engel
A lovely nose of dense, exotic, expressive fruit that really charms my tired nose. This smells superb. There is plenty of fruit, plenty of minerality and this is framed by the most subtle of oak treatments one could wish for. Serious complexity here. The palate is smooth and silky, with real Grand Cru definition of flavour and complexity. The fruit is utterly lovely. This is seriously stylish but, if I am honest, this is too young to be drinking this wine. There is clearly bucket loads more complexity to come from this wine over the next 10-15 years (if your cellar is up to the challenge). I've had plenty of evidence that Rene Engel wines are completely lovely, and this just adds weight to that case. It is a shame I never got to meet him I love his wines so; when I faxed to make an appointment I got a reply saying he had died brutally on his yacht in Tahiti. Seems a bit of a drastic step to avoid presenting one's wines to an enthusiastic audience...

This is a really good NV fizz, like the Cuvee 728 I feel this will age over a period of time.

Champagne Cuvee 732, Jacquesson
A really lovely bready, biscuitty nose. It has both fresh fruit and maturity. There is some real complexity showing here. The palate has a beguiling array of flavours: fruit, mushrooms, fresh bread, minerality; this is all just lovely. It is very long and has a really nice mousse. This is a top bunny bottle of NV fizz, and it doesn't cost that much either.

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.

Drank at Lord's whilst watching the cricket. This is a non-vintage, zero-dosage Champagne.

Champagne Pure, Pol Roger
Nice fruit on the nose, reasonably biscuitty. This smells like standard Pol Roger, and that is no bad thing. The palate is really rather acidic and direct, it bloody well hurt my poor stomach. Nice fruit, though, and a good, fine mousse. Reasonably long persistence of flavours on the palate, too, but the acidity dose dominate and this is just a bit too linear. For all of its style, I'd like a touch more weight and fat to the palate. Don't get me wrong, this is a nice NV fizz, but I prefer the standard Pol.

I've been told my RSS feeds contain too much. This has led me to fiddle with my blog software and discover that I can just put summary descriptions in which then link back to the main article. From now on my RSS-feeds will contain less. If you have no idea what an RSS-feed is then don't worry about it. I'll test it with my last post.

This is another good bottle in a string of good bottles since the Pinot Noir By Farr; you have no idea how such events cheer me up. If I am honest, I am pretty unwell at the moment. I am about to change medication and this might be difficult for a while. And yet, a few good bottles in select company has provided me with an awfully large amount of jolly points; the wine has added to the experience of people obviously liking me over the past few days and, even though this can sometimes be difficult to deal with, it is really rather nice. Now, a serious sweet wine:

Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos "Betsek" 1999, Royal Tokaji Wine Company
Darker than golden syrup. A lovely nose of botrytic, candied apricots, with a pleasingly earthy character. This is a classy sweet wine. The palate is obviously silky and smooth, and even though it displays classic Tokaji oxidative tones it is still really fruity. As far as it is possible for these sort of wines to display vineyard character, this does. It is very long and bursting with complex fruit/mold/oxidative flavours, which delight and titillate for a pleasing length of time. There is a highly attractive character to this wine. It'll last forever, but why bother? It is great fun now, and you can think about it too, which is never a bad thing.

That Shiraz By Farr was really good, as was the de Courcel. The Leflaive BBM was a transcendent experience. People open these things for me and I open them for them. Maybe I am not so bad. Maybe people are not wrong to like me. Even in the midst of psychosis there are oases of complete loveliness. I hope I can remain out of the bin and continue this hit-rate of great bottles over the next few weeks.

Quite different to the marvellous 2003.

Pommard Premier Cru les Rugiens 2005, Domaine de Courcel
Quite pale in colour. A marvelous nose of fresh strawberry and cherry fruit, with a good mineral tang to it. It smells very refined and very Cote de Beaune. The pure fruit is framed beautifully by the subtlest of oak aromas. This is a great, detailed nose to delight and intrigue. The palate is reasonably tannic, but has masses of pure fruit, lovely acidity and a really most pleasing oak treatment. The finish is long and complex, This wine has all one could ask for from a bottle of Pommard Premier Cru, lovely fruit, nice structure and freaking nip loads of style. Will age for fifteen to twenty years and only get more beautiful. Perhaps put it away for five to seven years unless you drink it within the nest six months as these things, whilst forever being beautiful, can often go through an awkward, middle-aged period. But don't let this put you off, go out and buy some, man, this is obscenely good. Yves Confuron may be a miserable sod, but by arse the geezer makes tits++ wine; sometimes in a 'tits out for the boys'-sense as in 2003, sometimes in a direct and linear sense as in 2004 and when he makes them like this, hedonistic, sexy and yet elegant and beautiful, you've got to snap up all you can find. Five bottles left.

We are told there is a dash of Viognier in this. It is seriously good.

Shiraz By Farr 2003, Gary Farr
The nose of this is completely compelling: rich, dark fruit and earth. It has an array of spicy, complex and subtle aromas, this is one of the most beguiling noses of a Syrah wine I have had since last night. This may be a 14% wine but it is not at all overblown or heavy, the fruit is quite lovely. The palate has a sophisticated tannic structure with completely lovely fruit, rich earthy complexity, quite brilliant acidity and a stylish, hedonistic finish which leaves you wondering why on Earth anyone would bother ageing this for much longer as it provides so much pleasure now. This is seriously good, I really don't think I've had a better bottle of Australian Shiraz than this, and I don't think you will either. Forget all of those Grange, Old Block and Hill of Grace horrors and have a bottle which provides even more visceral pleasure and a damned-sight more intellectual pleasure.

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 tried this chez Haag with my great chum Gernot Schleiss when we visited in 1998. I knew they were pretty freaking triple-A then, and now I get to enjoy them when they are showing off with a bit of age. Hooray!

Riesling Auslese Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr Fuder 6 1997, Fritz Haag
A proper nose of mature Riesling: citrus fruit and petrol. It has a truly inspiring minerality to it, really slaty. The thing you have to love about 1997 German wine, though, is the fruit, and this has it in spades. This is seriously complex on the nose and has bags of style. The palate has plenty of sweetness and a lot of fruit, but great acidity and real vivacity. It bursts with energy and life which is great for an eleven year old wine. It is very long, and really oozes class and complexity. This is a really ubermensch-level wine. Fruit, minerality, life, what more could one ask for? Probably time to drink now and over the next five years, though.

I recommended this at the end of last month; I was right.

Pinot Noir by Farr 2004, Gary Farr
A lovely nose of bright red fruit and, if you can believe it from an Australian wine, it is really earthy. You can tell he largely ferments with whole clusters, too; you can smell the stems. There is some real complexity about the nose of this wine, which is really good as it cost nineteen quid. The best compliment I can give this wine is that it smells a bit like Domaine Dujac from a ripe, charming vintage. But even though it is ripe this is no bruiser, it is a perfectly balanced 13.5% and there is not a hint of jamminess to the fruit. The palate has plenty of fresh red fruit, good acidity and a slightly prickly tannic structure. This tastes a bit like Burgundy that it going through its awkward, middle-aged stage. But it is quite delicious and easy to enjoy, reasonably complex too. I think this wine will last until it is ten and, dare I say it, improve along the way. This is a top bottle for the price and I would be very interested in trying the By Farr prestige cuvee Pinot Noir known as Sangreal. Pleasingly that is not that much more expensive than this; Gary Farr makes damned-good wines and you have to be gladdened that he doesn't charge the Earth for them.

Just to note, the partner says this is very New World. He is wrong. There is plenty of fruit, sure, but there is more than that. There is earthiness, stemminess and a notable degree of complexity. This is a bottle of proper Pinot and I should not be surprised it comes from Australia because I am well aware that Gary Farr is a talented, experienced winemaker who doesn't arse around letting his grapes stew in the heat then bleach any remaining character out of them in the winery.

Christophe Roumier makes damned good wines. This is not pleasing me very much, though, perhaps it is still too young?

Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru les Cras 1996, Domaine G. Roumier
A bit brick in colour. Some nice fruit on the nose, but it smells a bit direct and, dare I suggest it, there is a hint of greenness about this wine. Also a hint of HP Sauce which I find deeply unattractive (great as it is on bacon sandwiches). This smells reasonably complex, harmonious and balanced, but just not very nice. The palate is just a bit flat and one-dimensional too, it is just not so interesting. OK, the brightness of the fruit and the undoubted complexity of this wine lift it above 'sub-interest', but nowhere near far enough for my liking.

After the 'Egly-Ouriet being nice' shocker it is good to get back to some reliably crap producers. The 'sub-interest' status of Santa Duc wines is forever assured. Of course, Robert Parker gave it 93 points (whatever the hell that means) and said it will age until 2018.

Gigondas "Prestige des Hautes Garrigues" 1998, Domaine Santa Duc
The nose smells of raw booze, strawberry jam and horrible, horrible rancid dirtiness. This is unbalanced and simply repulsive. The palate has a hot, booze-tastic burn and sweetness to it, soupy tannins (if they can even be called tannins) and a nasty flavour of rotting jam. Is it possible anyone could enjoy this monstrous horror? It has aged really badly and (let us be honest) was bloody dire when it was released, so please, let us drink something else and use this for burning grease stains off the garage floor.

We went out shopping today and with only moderate arm-twisting the partner purchased a truly, truly beautiful thing. It is a Sarah-Jane Selwood bowl and looks like this (click for enlargements):

We now own nine pieces by her and this is one of the most beautiful. I love it. It is really suggestive. If you want to pick up a piece by her I suggest you go to Contemporary Applied Arts.

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...