Monday, September 14, 2009

A great weekend

We were visiting friends at the weekend and, as well as some amazing weather, we also enjoyed (thanks to the generosity of the aforementioned friends) some amazing wines. Lineup on Friday was :


Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle - refreshing, crisp, quite broad


Donnhoff Riesling Spatlese - delice, off-dry but amazing balance and concentration, delicious


Mugneret Gibourg Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru "Feusselottes 2002" - our fave Burgundy producer, great terroir, great vintage, this was stunning


Faiveley Mazis Chambertin 2000 - tight by comparison, still coiled, but will be excellent in 5-10 years time and certainly no hardship now.


Food and wine were so good, we completely forgot to talk about politics, economy etc!!











We had a sensible earlyish night and had a great lunch on the beach the next day with the leftover roast lamb and risotto from the night before. We washed this down with a bottle of Bruno Paillard Vintage Champagne from the 1999 vintage. I have been somewhat underwhelmed by other champagnes from this celebrated producer, but this was excellent. Sun blazing, we still haven't spoken about the R word.



We spent the afternoon on the beach with the kids, even got into the sea and got home to get ready for the night ahead.

That night, the big guns came out, there were people coming and going, great night had by all...
lineup as follows:


Cristal 1996 - just coming into its own, this was amazing stuff, great balance of elegance and power - excellent.


St. Michael Eppan Centenary Wine 2007 (magnum) - this was a special bottle given to us to celebrate the centenary of this excellent winery. It was a mystery blend, full and rich, possibly more suited to food, rather than necking it back before dinner as we were.


Carillon Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Perrieres 1996 - like most white burgundies from the late 90s, this wine has had its issues with early oxidisation, but this bottle was magic, fresh as a daisy with a stony, mineral finish.


Remoissenet Charmes Chambertin 1996 - amazing nose on this, palate still a bit tight. Not sure if it is going anywhere, but still delicious.


Ducru Beaucaillou 1995 - wine of the night for Pam, pure, drinking perfectly, Bordeaux at its wonderful best.


Pegau 1998 - seemed a bit rustic after the polished sheen on the Ducru, fully mature and very good.


COS Scyri 2000 (magnum) - smooth and funky, easy drinking and very good


Pieropan Recioto Le Colombare 2000 - we skipped dessert but had a glass of this to finish - sweet with nice marmaldey fruit and good length.





All in all a fantastic weekend, good for the soul. Great food, great wine, great weather, great company. And no mention of NAMA!!

4 comments:

Will said...

Gabriel,

All I can say is WOW! Sounds like an incredibly line up of wines and I'm delighted that they showed so well for ye! Some wines that I would love to try in the mix there, very jealous.

I like the photos in the posts by the way!

Cheers,
Will

Gabriel Cooney said...

Hi Will,

it was special alright - almost like one of your normal weekends!

Will said...

My normal weekends are much tamer than this. We aspire to this level of excess but rarely if ever achieve these levels.

I'm still impressed that there wasn't a duff bottle in the lot that you tried, as there were plenty of potential time bombs in there..

Gabriel Cooney said...

Well, we looked at 2 suspiciously brown looking bottles of Puligny before finding the good one, lots of bottle variation going on there. The Charmes was a bit underwhelming as well.