It was well worth a trip to Old Brompton Road to check out this newly opened, beautifully decorated shrine to Italian wines. Simone the managing sommelier kindly arranged an impromptu tasting. The highlight was a simply superb gewurztraminer from Alto Adige – so perfumed, like fresh crushed rose petals, and fine crisp balance. £24 a bottle, so a special one with Christmas dinner. Kiran and I must make another trip here. Also has a tasting room downstairs with a lovely selection of wine books.
Category Archives: news
Auction gamble on mature Bordeaux
I recently bought a mixed case of 21 bottles of mature Bordeaux mostly from the 1970’s with a couple from ’66 and ’64, both birthday years of wine loving family members, which is what initially drew my attention to the lot.
For some time I’ve been trying to pick up some mature wines at auction. But taking the view that one should expect a discount of around 30%, given that the provenance of Duty Paid auction wines cannot be a hundred percent guaranteed, I have been consistently disappointed. Admittedly I had been targeting full cases but was still quite surprised to receive an invoice for both mixed lots that I had placed absentee bids on. I had thought they were cheeky bids.
Clearly by pursuing mixed lots one eliminates the investment market and probably most merchants, BUT one is taking a gamble. So far, I have opened five bottles – three bottles of Grand Puy Lacoste 1975 (classed growth), and two Chateau Houissant 1975 (St Estephe cru – never heard of it either). Three of these have been excellent (2x Houissant & 1 GPL) and two undrinkable.
The lot description of the GPL did highlight that two had ‘cut capsules’ one with ‘mid shoulder’ and the other with ‘high shoulder’ level (the level of the wine in the bottle is a critical indication of how well it has been stored and its likely quality). However when opened, the bottles only had about 1.5 cm of cork left. The corks must have pushed out (perhaps over heated?) as sometimes happens and burst the capsule. Someone then just trimmed them off but the remaining cork was not enough to stop the wine from completely oxidising.
The good bottle of GPL clearly from the same case had a level of ‘very top shoulder’ (apparently anything down to high shoulder should be fine for such an old wine) and still had a core of fruit with a bit of steel to start with and lovely savoury notes developing as the wine opened up over the evening, incredible. The two bottles of Houissant have also been delicious, less fruit but more of the classic, leather, tobacco, earthiness, which is impressive for a humble wine.
So far then I think I’m ahead, though sadly the levels of the ’64s are not so good, we shall see. Happy gambling!
Aunty Jan’s wine surprise
Best known for her awesome collections of art not wine, it was with quite a shock that I fell upon an untouched case… 1979 Chateau Musar-Gaston Hochar! Gently removed the fragile cork and had a glass with breakfast.
Musty, earthy, ammoniacal, it took a bit of getting used to, but opened up after five minutes, revealing a hint ofremaining fruit. Over the hill and a subsequent bottle was cloudy, but great excitement to come across such a rare relic.
Kumeu River Coddington 07 v Olivier Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet Les Enseignères 05 er cru
Can’t compete with Adam’s recent jolly, but on a Kiwi note we tasted the above blind on 29th December. One light, the other a darker golden colour. On the nose the lighter was more closed with a touch of furniture polish; the other more woody. On the palette, the lighter with nicely balanced acid, fresh and minerally, taut but a little short; the other richer, fruitier, with more wood and more length, though at first a little harsh.
By now I had recognised the darker, richer wine to be the Kumeu River Coddington. Having read about how often the Kumeu chardonnays are mistaken for top flight Burgundies such as Puligny or Mersault (see Farr vintner blog for a similar blind tasting) I was a little disappointed at how easily we had distinguished the New Zealand wine and how different it was in character: much more extravagant and effusive. However the way the two wines developed in the glass was perhaps most interesting.
The Puligny improved in the glass showing more intensity, filled out a bit and developed more length, all refinement and restraint. The Coddington remained for a while dominated by the oak on nose and on the palette, pleasurable but a bit harsh. However as the evening wore on, I found myself wanting more fruit intensity and some nuttiness from the Puligny. The Coddington by contrast gained complexity and eventually completely dropped the oakiness in flavour of intense rich fruit, perhaps without as much balancing acidity as the Puligny, but nevertheless with just enough to keep it engaging. It continued to have good length and to be overall delicious.
The Coddignton was polished off that night and the Puligny the next day when it had really come together in a refined but more intense way.
Tasting the full line up of different single vineyard Kumeu’s at the Farr Vintner Xmas tasting the range of styles was apparent, from intense and steely like the Hunting Hill to luscious and perhaps a little flabby in the Mates vineyard. Perhaps one of the more steely vineyards would have matched the Puligny better, but for me the Coddington provided a good balance and delivered in terms of pure drinking pleasure all the way to the bottom of the bottle. It leaves me thinking that comparisons with aristocracy of burgundy are beside the point.
Vina Patricia Gaucho
Unfortunately only available at Gauchos restaurant or their wine shop in Piccadilly (Cavas De Gauchos), just gorgeous, smooth, full bodied, chocolatey, fantastic Malbec from Argentina. Shared in Gaucho Manchester with my sister Berlinda who quite brilliantly summed it up, “This wine is a meal in itself!” So true, but didn’t complain when the ribeye arrived!
Bodegas Vizcarra with the Swig, Bordeaux Index and Enotria wines
We took the fine quintuplet of Juan Carlos’ wines to these wine importers. Starting off at the Swig boys in Chiswick surrounded by countless wine samples! The boys were impressed but some concerns on pricing.
Followed by a lunchtime meeting in Hatton Garden with the very impressive Bordeaux Index. The head buyer turned out to be a ‘brummy’ friend of the Curtis family. Again, great interest in these wines and the possibility of some business after summer.
Lastly an evening tasting with Michael Israel from Enotria wines, which were sampled the following day by the buyers.
A very tough day was suitably rewarded with beef onglet, sauce Bordelaise at Comptoir Gascon in Smithfields!
Corney and Barrow tasting at the Groucho Club, Soho on 11 May
Fine wines, fine venue, excellent merchants. Tried PSI from Pingus and many more fine wines. Had the wine buyer amused by mention of the ‘twin peaks of Leflaive’.
Chateau Pavie-Maquin 2004 St Emilion grand cru classe tasted blind with Penfolds Bin 407 2006
The first business meeting of the New Year was aptly commenced by a ‘new world versus old’ blind tasting. After a bit of tooing and froing it was clear that wine A had more complexity, more on the nose and was our clear favorite, with a mixture of fruits and cedary wood. Wine B was good enough to enhance the lamb lasagne verdi but somewhat lacking in depth. Wine A indeed was the Pavie, although we were slightly worried, having watched the film ‘Bottle Shock’ the night before.
Lots was discussed, including the proposed structure of the vertical tasting, introductory talk, costings and feedback sheets.
We structured the SMSA event into eight rounds (further details here). Rather pleasingly, we had both already written proposals for the structure and both came up with near identical plans. Other proposed events will be a Channing school tasting in Sept/Oct and a spring WanderCurtis tasting, possibly at Jacksons Lane/Red Hedgehog/Highgate Society/Bull or other venue. It will be an exciting year!
We may attend the Justerini and Brooks Burgundy 2008 tasting next week and Decanter Bordeaux tasting in February.
Christmas in Hook Norton
Wish I was chez Franz!
My brother in law ‘forgot’ the wine supply. Luckily dad’s wine came to the rescue and we rather guiltily raided his dwindling store of Imperial 2001 Reserva Rioja, Spain.
A lovely intense palate of red berry fruits with spices and sweetness of French and American oak. Went down very well with forerib of beef in horseradish butter.
Mince pies were washed down with Bimbadgen 2006 botrytised semillion. This is delicious and lush, full of honey dried fruits and that joyful botrytis finish. Phil promised to bring the Mouton next year!
WanderCurtis Wine 