New Notes for Old Wines

A kune-kune pig at our local farm. The breed is considered maori and was very rare until it found a sponsor who bought as many as possible in New Zealand and started a breeding program. Beautiful they ain't




We've been tasting/drinking more wines that have appeared on Bowes Wine offers in the past. It's been fun. Here are my notes:

2004 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Vergers, Guy Amiot N.B. This didn't appear on a Bowes Wine offer, but other Amiot '04s did. I thought it mighth be interesting for reference
A creamy nose, smoky/toasty, with melon/peach fruit. Notable hints of dried fruits, especially apricot. Nut.
Plush, cool and concentrated fruit on the palate: apricot again. Then it becomes structured and grippy. There are smoky minerals to be found at a bristling finish. Very long wine. There's excellent purpose and drive here. The minerals on the finish have a ground glass quality to them. Another year perhaps? Medium acidity. A lovely weight of fruit and lovely profile. Touch of lime juice at the end.

2004 Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume, Dom William Fèvre Original drink dates 2009-15, which should be about right
Quite a reticent nose. Some lemon fruit aromas. Too cold? Slight whiff of clean straw and talcum. Herbal, sage-like note.
Lemony palate. Touch closed. Excellent fruit concentration, length and freshness; just still a baby. Another year.

2003 Crozes-Hermitage Cuvée Christophe, Domaine des Remizières Original drinking dates 2010-20, which are way off the mark. I would drink this in the next year or two. Phew, those '03s were hard to call
Virtually opaque garnet bowl. Narrow garnet band at rim Quite a savoury, dry nose. Dry spice: a hint of turmeric to the gingernuts. Some black and red fruit showing, but pretty reticent. A notes of dried herbs - sage maybe - emerges after a while, along with a touch of toast from the wood and an aroma like a steak that's dropped into the barbecue coals and been forgotten about.
Touch creamy on entry, then immediately picking up fine, medium integrated tannin, more, I expect, than one would guess on tasting it. The fruit is remarkably cool seeming for the vintage. Some big grip in here and there is a dryness that hints at torrefaction. Fruits are red and black plums and something smaller; currants, perhaps. Real solidity at the finish. Hmm. Needs flesh and rare flesh at that.

2003 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Le Grande Garde, St Bénoit Original drinking dates 2013-20. See above x2
Medium deep in the glass, the bowl is really quite mahogany i.e. aged looking, the rim grading out to gold/brick Nose is not that pronounced, but nicely rich, with really quite a bit of torrefaction in its aromas of dark chocolate. Hints of liquorice root, biscuit, smoke and spicy black fruit of cherry and bramble. There's a slight note of garrigue here.
This is decently balanced, yet there's a coarseness to the tannins that shouts '03. Decent length. Fruits that are mostly dried. Mouthcoating. Really quite mineral around the finish: sandy.

2001 Hochheimer Holle Riesling Auslese Trocken, Franz Kunstler
N.B. This was a surprise, as it turns out to be sealed under a plastic cork. Due to this I would recommend consuming it over the next couple of years
This is a pronounced med gold/yellow colour The nose is complex, of candied lemons and Earl Gray tea. Notes of lime and toast, plus a wheaten aroma. Smoky crushed rocks and spice.
Dry-but-rich. Concentrated fruit with a fine, parallel profile. Long, with powdery terroir at the end. Lively and quite solid this.