Gazzab, a good friend from one of the local wine sites, visited Canberra earlier this month for some work-related matters. Over the course of 4 days we enjoyed two dinners and a parting Sunday brunch, having a pretty good darn time with the food and mostly excellent wine, a few bottles quite outstanding. Only a few duds, as per normal. 

Dinner - 03/08/06 Ottoman Restaurant 

Piper-Heidsieck 1990 Vintage Champagne - quite Outstanding - still fresh, although I’d opt for drinking this sooner than later - lots of yeasty/vegemite/autolysis development with sufficient cleansing acidity to remain bright and crisp. 93 points

Cullens Chardonnay 2000 - another excellent wine, still relatively tight and focussed with plenty of potential. 92 points

Denis Mortet Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Lavaux-Saint-Jacques 1993 - very deep colour for its age - less developed than the bottle opened last week on my QLD trip - lotsa sappy cherries and new oak - good acidity provides freshness and focus - excellent structure - this bottle suggestive of needing more time. 92 points

Seppelt Show Muscat 375 ml N/V - gorgeous jumbo raisans, counterbalancing rancio with a smooth, viscous palate and extraordinary length. Moorish with just the right amount of astringency. Incredibly long and satisfying. 94 points

Dinner - 05/08/06 Courgette Restaurant

For starters we opened my first bottle of the 1996 Jaquesson Avize Grand Cru Champagne - a quite lovely young, vibrant sparkling displaying a bright pale straw colour, incredibly fine beading, a bouquet housing fragrant apple blossoms and blanched almonds with appealling complex yeasty autolysis characters following as the wine warmed in the glass. A super-fine, elegant and somewhat racy palate revealed a most attractive creamy swirling mousse, balanced with abundant cleansing acidity and excellent length. This Outstanding wine will improve with another 5-10 years on cork. 92 points.

Another masked sparkler followed - Pierre Gimonet’s “Cuis” 1er Cru N/V - pale colour with an impressive, well-defined column of very fine bead surging up the centre of our glasses. A little soapy on the nose accompanied by broad yeasty notes followed by a relatively simple palate and devoid of much length. Good only. 84 points.

Next cab off the rank was Penfold’s 2002 Yattarna Chardonnay - youthful pale colour, very attractive bouquet of fig, peach and butterscotch over a backdrop of slightly oily new oak. The palate failed to deliver whatsoever - somewhat flat, quite one dimensional and lacking structure, acidity and any semblence of length - abysmal for what it supposedly “represents” - and only saved by the calibre of the nose - most difficult to rate this above 80 points.

Luckily the reds were all excellent to outstanding. Louis Jadot’s 1990 Beaune “Greves” shocked me with its youthful, exuberant demeanour - enticing funky, feral aromas of game, sap, a slight stalkiness, green Satsuma’s and red cherries with top notes of cardamon and cinammon sticks. The palate displayed similar slightly green, but no less attractive complex characters, although the bouyant acidity and firm structure suggest a long, successful evolution. Very long and flavoursome finish. Excellent! 91 points.

Next, Garry produced a bottle of Felton Road 2001 Block 3 Pinot Noir providing stiff competition for the Jadot. Youthful colour; nose of forest floor, tomato leaf, musk, spices and a hint of stalks. Lovely smooth, modulated palate of red and black cherries, some sappiness, bright acidity and very fine tannins combined to produce a classy, finely honed Pinot worthy of 90 points. Noice one, Gazzab.

Mark then pulled out my wine of the night - Paul Jaboulet’s 1999 “La Chapelle” - incredibly deeply coloured, perfumed nose of grilled spiced meats, some funk/animal fur (probably a little brett), iodine, minerals, rampant black fruits, forest floor, savoury background oak, gunflint and sweet earth. Wow! The nuance of the palate mirrors “all of the above” with plenty of body, mouthfilling richness, decent acidity and firm, prolonged tannins reverberating through a truly magnificent long departure. An Outstanding example of low yielding old-vine Hermitage. 93 points. Drink now-2019.

I took no notes or scored the evening’s last two wines. Firstly, Chapoutier’s 2002 Muscat de Beaune Venise was typically perfumed, demi-sec and good but not great.

And lastly, Ch. Reynella’s 1972 Vintage Port was very marginally corked, although most of us saw the underlying freshness both in the colour and sense of well-being of the inky licorice/blackberry/lantana on display.

Thanks be to Garry and associates for their generosity and a great couple of nights!

Tasted immediately after the Vat 1 of the same vintage (see note below) this wine shares a very similar youthful colour. Similarities between the two are obvious with the HVD a little more reticent on the nose displaying broader aromatics, a little more honeyed, toasty character but with an underlying soapy, grassy, lemony, lanolin backbone. In the mouth, there’s more weight than the Vat 1, greater breadth, distinctly more diluted lime cordial character and some bright, but much softer, persistent citrussy acidity that provides excellent couterbalance. Finishing much softer but still with impressive carry, this wine lacks the boisterous vitality of the Vat 1 and will not last as long. Still worthy of a solid 91 points with a good chance of going a little higher with another 5 years hidden in a cool, dark place. 10.5 % A/V and sealed with a cork closure. 

Incredibly youthful bright pale straw in colour, this outstanding example of pristine Hunter Valley Semillon displays a profound minerally-driven nose housing notes of lanolin, hay, honeysuckle and grassy/citrus fruit with only the merest hint of toasty bottle development. The palate’s equally impressive - tight, racy and nervy with rapier-like acidity providing the footstone for a marvellous future in the cellar. Attractive today as a crisp, mouth-quenching, citrussy, grassy Semillon that would go especially well with oysters in the nude, I have no doubt much greater things are in store for anyone prepared to hold on to this youngster for another 10 years careful nurturing. One of the all-time great young Vat 1’s worthy of 93 points today with much higher scores forecast once this beauty sheds the infantile clamps holding it back today. 10.5% A/V and sealed with a cork closure.

This very good, although sometimes variable, producer delivers the goods with this excellent Chardonnay from the 2000 vintage. At six years of age the wine’s colour is still a youthful bright straw/lemon/green. The nose exudes the haunting, complex mineral, slate and chalky notes of the appellation, a strong lees-derived mealy overtone with hints of underripe melon and dried figs providing great interest underneath. Traces of butterscotch and toffe add more dimension, but only after several hours breathing. In the mouth, the wine displays plenty of vitality, crispness and that “well-worn” Chablis racy, flinty elegance with assertive minerally acidity counterbalancing the tart, lemon-tinged melony/mealy fruit. Only of moderate weight, the palate reveals a classical “peacock tail” finish as it slips too easily down the throat. Very little evidence of the thirteen per cent alcohol here, with the lengthy mouth-puckering dry finish providing the perfect ending to a very competent package. 90 points. Drink now-2015.