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Christmas Wine III

wacko said:
I knew of someone who collected wines for years before retirement. Had amassed a couple of thousand bottles but dropped dead on retirement.
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After considering that I felt the need to open a decent bottle tonight. My goodness, this is glorious, wondrous stuff…

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I’ll borrow a whisky review I remember from my twenties - ‘this goes down singing hymns…’ That’s my kind of review - sod all this dusty tannins and floral lift nonsense.

Which reminds me, here’s one I read a few days ago -

‘The full, round and weighty [insert name of wine here], while shapely, is well-formed thanks to both texture and tension that runs through the core of the wine, keeping it all reined in.’

God save us…
 
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I am not enjoying this Montlandrie 2010 one bit - it tastes tannic and bitter. What has changed? Have I changed, is it past its use by date, is it a duff bottle? Time will tell.

On the other hand, I am enjoying Marks and Spencer Sun Dried Tomatoes and Dodoni Feta.
 
Marchbanks said:
After considering that I felt the need to open a decent bottle tonight. My goodness, this is glorious, wondrous stuff…

20240205220108-a06b03bc.jpg


I’ll borrow a whisky review I remember from my twenties - ‘this goes down singing hymns…’ That’s my kind of review - sod all this dusty tannins and floral lift nonsense.

Which reminds me, here’s one I read a few days ago -

‘The full, round and weighty [insert name of wine here], while shapely, is well-formed thanks to both texture and tension that runs through the core of the wine, keeping it all reined in.’

God save us…
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It is definitely much much better than the last time I drank it. It's so good that it obliterates the memory of all other wines, one finest wine I've drunk.

It took 8 years to get to this -- does that mean it will remain as good for another 8 years?

Later vintages are available now, for a higher price than we paid for 2016, but it's quite tempting to buy some and put it away for a few years..

Matias Riccitelli Vineyard Selection Cabernet Franc | Simply Wines Direct

Matias Riccitelli Vineyard Selection Cabernet Franc.
www.simplywinesdirect.uk www.simplywinesdirect.uk
 
Marchbanks said:
Apposite timing considering the recent confusion about/interest in Beaujolais here. Bottle no.2 was a Julien Sunier Fleurie, 2018. This cost me about £18 from a French merchant three years ago, I was shocked to discover. Where does the time go? It was quite slow out of the gates - at first I wondered if it was the lingering effects of the lurgi I suffered recently which severely dampened my senses of taste and smell for a few days - but after a couple of hours it came round, becoming much livelier and simultaneously soft yet austere. Cellar Tracker’s hive mind reckons these have three more years in them. I’m not so sure, I think I’ll finish my remaining bottles off next year. Curious that these feel they may have started their retreat while the JP Brun Crus Beaujolais of the same vintage still feel a bit tough and scowly.

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I have 2019. It was undrinkable for me on Day 1 -- watery and a strong bitter aftertaste (I noticed that some Fleuries are described online as having the taste of dark chocolate -- I don't like it in wine.) Day 2, yesterday, I was out so didn't try it. It is MUCH better on Day 3, today. More fruit, more forward. Drinkable.

What does that suggest -- that it needs more time or what?
 
mandryka said:
I have 2019. It was undrinkable for me on Day 1 -- watery and a strong bitter aftertaste (I noticed that some Fleuries are described online as having the taste of dark chocolate -- I don't like it in wine.) Day 2, yesterday, I was out so didn't try it. It is MUCH better on Day 3, today. More fruit, more forward. Drinkable.

What does that suggest -- that it needs more time or what?
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Maybe… I’m not certain though. Certainly my 2018 improved after an hour or two, but I can’t say I remember it being a lot better on the second day. What you really need is someone who actually knows what they are talking about, rather than some elderly bullshitter who has to wave his arms about to make up for not being able to explain himself succinctly. Where’s @eternumviti when you need him?

While I’m here I might as well mention last night’s bottle. I ordered a dozen 2022 Mourchon this week in the Wine Soc EP offer, so I thought I ought to try a 2016 to make sure it was OK. Obviously anyone with fully working faculties would have done it the other way round, but there you are. Fortunately it was every bit as good as I remembered. Quite Brunier-like - something like Mégaphone with a touch of Guigal about it. In the absence of the usual Saturday night blues show on WKCR I paired it with some vintage Fred McDowell.

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Marchbanks said:
Maybe… I’m not certain though. Certainly my 2018 improved after an hour or two, but I can’t say I remember it being a lot better on the second day. What you really need is someone who actually knows what they are talking about, rather than some elderly bullshitter who has to wave his arms about to make up for not being able to explain himself succinctly. Where’s @eternumviti when you need him?
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I've just polished off the bottle, I'm slightly pissed, not a great wine, won't be buying it again, not sure I'm really looking forward to opening the other two.
 
gintonic said:
last night in Barrafina - with some delicious food

1000009131 by uh_simon, on Flickr
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I'm just always afraid to open Riojas because of time -- the one you have is only 5 years in the bottle. If it were me, I'd leave it for another 5 at least, but maybe I'm being over cautious or just wrong headed -- there seems to be no real way to tell. There's no Spanish cellar tracker, or indeed French or Italian.

I think that many lower priced French wines are made to drink as soon as they're sold, maybe the same in Spain.
 
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mandryka said:
I'm just always afraid to open Riojas because of time -- the one you have is only 5 years in the bottle. If it were me, I'd leave it for another 5 at least, but maybe I'm being over cautious or just wrong headed -- there seems to be no real way to tell. There's no Spanish cellar tracker, or indeed French or Italian.

I think that many lower priced French wines are made to drink as soon as they're sold, maybe the same in France.
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i buy wine to drink now. i have no interest in waiting 5 years etc - i may well be dead. At home we have very limited space to store wine - about space for 24 bottles, plus about 9 in the wine fridge*. As it happens that is what was on the list in Barrafina in Coal Drops Yard......


* - We just use a normal fridge these days. Used to have a wine fridge - but we went through 3 of them and none of them lasted.....
 
The least restaurants could do to justify a 3/4/5 times markup is store red wine for a few years until it is at its best. Most do not.
And then you start drinking them minutes after opening.
Expensive restaurant wine is all nuts really. :)
 
wacko said:
Expensive restaurant wine is all nuts really. :)
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I tend to agree with this - although I think I’d use ‘racket’ rather than ‘nuts.’ If I go out for a meal I’ll stick to a carafe of house red rather than pay £50-£60 above label price. I’ll use the money saved to have a couple of decent bottles at home. I’m not a ‘must pair food with wine’ believer anyway - I tend to eat first, drink later. If there’s an overlap it usually only happens at cheese time. I prefer to let meal and wine stand on their own merits. I always say that if Jancis felt you needed to eat in order to bring the best out of a wine she’d carry a pot of boeuf bourguignon around with her at tastings.

(I appreciate that no-one else on the planet holds these views, so there is no need to tell me!)

Anyway, now I’ve started, here’s last night’s bottle.

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The last of my dozen bought en primeur way back when. About £12/bottle IIRC. Probably about £300 in a posh resto now. (Drop it, Marchbanks - ed). Sorry. I never really warmed to these. It’s obviously really good, classical, left bank stuff - but… something seems to be missing. I think the word might be ‘fruit’. I said as much on CT once and was rounded on for being a fruit-bomb loving clod who obviously didn’t have sufficiently finely-tuned sensibilities to appreciate properly Fayne Wayne (I paraphrase.) It may be true - similar arguments have been offered when I say my audio system is perfectly good enough for me and there is really no need to spend any more on it. But I’d take a bottle of Roc de Cambes over this any day.

Halfway through this rant there was a knock at the door. A courier with a surprise gift.

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A selection of Perrins and a half-bottle Télégraphe vertical. Very nice! What had I done to deserve this? Nothing, as far as I can see - just been in existence. So if anyone else feels like doing the same…
 
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^^ I have found that the cheapest wine on some wine lists is actually quite drinkable. Not the second cheapest mind you: that is the sucker punch double bluff choice.
Your Lagrange 2000 would easily be £300 in a posh restaurant and how disappointing would that have been. BDX is a minefield with more mines than field: I almost feel sorry for the snobby, Brexit voting, racist acquaintance who has a couple of thousand bottles of the stuff and very little else :p
My memory is not as good as it was so I can't remember if I had any Roc but I certainly don't have any now. But you have reminded me that I do have a couple of Aurage 2016 that might need to be drunk this year...
Anyway I'll take the half bottle of Musar 1998 waiting for me this evening over any BDX lottery. I've never set much store by reputation.
edit I think bordeaux needs to be drunk with food. The taste comes from the food and the bordeaux adds err austerity, which is very grown up and right wing. Maybe we are not right wing enough... IMO fruit is required to enjoy wine: not too much but also not too little.
 
wacko said:
I think bordeaux needs to be drunk with food. The taste comes from the food and the bordeaux adds err austerity, which is very grown up and right wing. Maybe we are not right wing enough...
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When it comes to Bordeaux I'm definitely right bank. Does that count?
 
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