Showing posts tagged oldschoolbeauty
1975 Château Cos d’Estournel was quite an experience; still very solid, with big chunky dark fruit on the palate; firm full tannins, softening and harmonising with age, but still very prominent; the nose was a strange mix of age with youth: full fruit, muddled with earthy maturity, and a distinct note of volatility creeping in - not enough to be a problem, but certainly enough to give a lift and a twist of age. Classic solid old Bordeaux. View high resolution

1975 Château Cos d’Estournel was quite an experience; still very solid, with big chunky dark fruit on the palate; firm full tannins, softening and harmonising with age, but still very prominent; the nose was a strange mix of age with youth: full fruit, muddled with earthy maturity, and a distinct note of volatility creeping in - not enough to be a problem, but certainly enough to give a lift and a twist of age. Classic solid old Bordeaux.



Château Fonbadet 1966: a true gem; unexpected but beautiful; an old bottle from a little-known Pauillac estate turned out to be absolutely delicious; yummy harmonious fully mature and yet totally together. View high resolution

Château Fonbadet 1966: a true gem; unexpected but beautiful; an old bottle from a little-known Pauillac estate turned out to be absolutely delicious; yummy harmonious fully mature and yet totally together.

The classics are are the classics for good reason; ‘79 Château Margaux, for example. So dense and fresh, so elegant yet so concentrated; classic cedary nose, perfumed fragrant beautiful complex; a true beauty. View high resolution

The classics are are the classics for good reason; ‘79 Château Margaux, for example. So dense and fresh, so elegant yet so concentrated; classic cedary nose, perfumed fragrant beautiful complex; a true beauty.

There is something hedonistic and satisfying about enjoying a well made bottle of southern French wine. The 2006 Domaine des Girasols Rasteau Côtes du Rhône Villages is a delicious, passionate, earthy wine. Sure, it has some super-ripe fruit and a hint of fieriness on the finish, but the lovely combination of black pepper spice and dark brooding damson fruit from the syrah with white pepper and ripe raspberry from the Grenache, bring back rich memories of the southern Rhône. It has good syrah driven structure and length, yet lovely Grenache roundness; nice weight and body, but pleasantly free of any obvious new oak flavours. With the ripeness (and heat), the classic Côtes du Rhône feel but the old school character it is hard to know what badge to give to this, although I feel I want to give it one. Given that the super-ripe fruit has more savouryness than jaminess, and with the satisfying edgy tannins, harmonious rusticity, this seems, slightly awkwardly, to fit best as an Old School Beauty. It is very enjoyable, whatever it is.   I recommend serving this wine several degrees below room temperature – important for all reds, but particularly here to keep the heat in balance. 49% syrah, 36% Grenache, 11% cinsault, 4% carignan, for those who care. View high resolution

There is something hedonistic and satisfying about enjoying a well made bottle of southern French wine. The 2006 Domaine des Girasols Rasteau Côtes du Rhône Villages is a delicious, passionate, earthy wine. Sure, it has some super-ripe fruit and a hint of fieriness on the finish, but the lovely combination of black pepper spice and dark brooding damson fruit from the syrah with white pepper and ripe raspberry from the Grenache, bring back rich memories of the southern Rhône. It has good syrah driven structure and length, yet lovely Grenache roundness; nice weight and body, but pleasantly free of any obvious new oak flavours. With the ripeness (and heat), the classic Côtes du Rhône feel but the old school character it is hard to know what badge to give to this, although I feel I want to give it one. Given that the super-ripe fruit has more savouryness than jaminess, and with the satisfying edgy tannins, harmonious rusticity, this seems, slightly awkwardly, to fit best as an Old School Beauty. It is very enjoyable, whatever it is.

 

I recommend serving this wine several degrees below room temperature – important for all reds, but particularly here to keep the heat in balance.

49% syrah, 36% Grenache, 11% cinsault, 4% carignan, for those who care.

Château des Tours 2007 Côtes du Rhône : a gorgeous old-school wine; intense classic white pepper singing on the nose, lovely fleshy warm grenache in the mouth, off-set by reassuringly rustic but gentle tannins. Great to find all the elements coming together so beautifully; delicious and appealing. View high resolution

Château des Tours 2007 Côtes du Rhône : a gorgeous old-school wine; intense classic white pepper singing on the nose, lovely fleshy warm grenache in the mouth, off-set by reassuringly rustic but gentle tannins. Great to find all the elements coming together so beautifully; delicious and appealing.


Wow! This was an eye-eponer: Zahner Truttiker Stiefelhalder pinot noir 2007. A pleasant surprise (to me) to find that a wine grown just a few kilometers outside Zurich could be so beautiful. Amazing pure transparent pinot noir, delicate yet intense, fresh and crisp yet complex and silky, precise and focussed yet rewarding and flowing. Made without any barrique, alegedly; certainly free from any of the aromatic character of new oak, just the mellowing, harmonising benefits of aging in old wood perhaps. Not a flashy wine, but compelling, enthralling, fascinating to the end of the bottle. Proabably wouldn’t appeal to modernists; but a great example of showcasing nothing but the grape and the site. Grateful to the knowledgeable and fun Felix Christen for guiding us into this selection, and for excellent conversation while savouring it at the Widder. View high resolution

Wow! This was an eye-eponer: Zahner Truttiker Stiefelhalder pinot noir 2007. A pleasant surprise (to me) to find that a wine grown just a few kilometers outside Zurich could be so beautiful. Amazing pure transparent pinot noir, delicate yet intense, fresh and crisp yet complex and silky, precise and focussed yet rewarding and flowing. Made without any barrique, alegedly; certainly free from any of the aromatic character of new oak, just the mellowing, harmonising benefits of aging in old wood perhaps. Not a flashy wine, but compelling, enthralling, fascinating to the end of the bottle. Proabably wouldn’t appeal to modernists; but a great example of showcasing nothing but the grape and the site.

Grateful to the knowledgeable and fun Felix Christen for guiding us into this selection, and for excellent conversation while savouring it at the Widder.