Thursday 27 June 2013

A deal with the Devil

Value Bordeaux. Not two words you see together very often. I got a deal on this. A 2005 classified growth for under ¥5000 is a deal with the Devil. Surely a this kind of wine from this kind of year should command more of a premium? It was with trepidation that I uncorked it, expecting disappointment. Heat damaged in some way, or somewhat sea sick from the long journey to Japan? Of course the first glass was a little closed. The second, drunk the day after, gave me hope. Oh hope. The cruelest of all mistresses.


In this case my hope was not misplaced! Masculine and brooding, this is a Daniel Craig of a wine. The nose has that unmistakable Bordeaux perfume. Cassis and leather. Hint of violets. Wet forest.
Powerful in the mouth, but lacking somewhat in complexity. An almost perfect balance of dark fruit and wood characteristics but none of the floral, vegetal or red fruit character you'd  expect in it's more expensive brethren. Length, medium. I cheated the Devil. Perhaps I should take up the fiddle...

Sunday 16 June 2013

Wine bar Libero: Second anniversary blowout. Part two!

Back to the amazing wine night at Wine Bar Libero, Kyoto! This time I'll go on about the Reds. For your lack of scrolling convenience, I'll repost last week's picture.


I'll begin with the 2005 Romanee St Vivant. Fantastic stuff. Much darker and denser looking than a typical Burgundy. The slight increase in viscosity being apparent on the side of the glass when tipped. The nose was huge and focused with tons of red fruit and a considerable floral character of crushed violets and dried rose petals. Pink and purple pot pourri. Not too sweet. Some fatty characteristics as well. The flavours were not yet resolved. Unsurprisingly, this will need a full 20 years to reach it's peak. Rich and distinctively scarlet in it's fruits, this wine showed none of the vices of over extraction. 


Long on the palate and balanced, despite its youth. I have no doubt in my mind that there'll still be significant fruit left come 2033. Hold your horses!

Next up, one of the wines I brought. I was very excited about the 1978 Lopez de Heredia Gran Reserva Vina Tondonia. I'm sad to say that I completely buggered it up. The night before the party I wanted to open it just to remove the sediment. I was worried about drunk hands mashing the 35 year old cork the day of the event. Just a quick bottle/decanter/bottle/vacuum job then... Wrong! after half an hour prodding and probing with a leaf opener the cork had retreated 3mm into the neck of the bottle. Surely I couldn't use a traditional cork screw? This called for drastic action. Push through and decant.

I tried in vain to mash the cork out of the empty bottle or in some way coax it back into a removable position. After another half hour I gave up and re-purposed an old Chilean wine bottle. By that time this old wine had too much air and was well past it's prime. Who'da thunk it? A 35 year old cork that's like a bullet! That was a blow out, but I also brought a back-up. More on that next time.


 


Tuesday 11 June 2013

Wine bar Libero: Second anniversary blowout. Part one.

Sometimes an extravagant event comes around that one really can't miss. Such an event was the second birthday of my good friend Shohei Juge's wonderful Kyoto wine bar, Libero. The guests had been pouring over the offerings from local wine stores for weeks in advance in order to impress the other guests with interesting bottles. There were certainly some expensive stuff on display and here I give a few impressions.

The sparkling on the left is Michel Gonet's 1998 Blanc de Blanc Millesime. I hadn't heard anything about this wine before it's arrival in front of me last saturday. A rich toffee colour, the mousse subsided quickly as it was placed in my hand. A quick cheers and this was half dispatched in double quick time. The second gulp, once the first spring of effervescence had subsided, revealed a little cork taint that simply couldn't be covered up by the nutty, peely, rindy richness of the palate. A shame. This wine had length. And damp cardboard.

Yellow wax cap? Domaines Raveneau's Chablis 1er Cru Montee Tonnerre 2006. Excellent and my white of the night. Everything you could want from a Chablis plus length! To be honest it's been a while since I've had Chablis I usually source my white burgundy from other places. This rolled back the years with simple, sweetly singing green fruit with hints of steel and flint. There's not much more you can say about the palate of this wine. There's also not a lot more that needs to be said. A restrained nose? Well that would be nit-picking.


The other end of the spectrum now with a huge, limey, oaky blockbuster. Kongsgaard's The Judge Chardonnay. This is one chardonnay that actually looks a little green in the glass. Chartreuse? Let's hope not! If you like lime cordial you'll love this! The power of this wine cannot be underestimated and the length is impressive as well. Looking for secondary flavours proved to be an uphill struggle as wave upon wave of citrus coated my mouth. Changing tack seemed to be an appropriate course of action for tasting this. Simply reveling in the weight and resinous texture of this titan proved to be enjoyable enough for me to have a thoroughly good time. Blowed if I can remember the vintage...



I hope to be back soon with part two, the reds!