Fournier, Thierry Brut Reserve

87 points

Champagne, France.

Very good quality for a low price (bought in French hyper-market). Great grower Champage. Highly recommended for the price.

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Chateau Du Tertre 2000

90 points

Margaux, Bordeaux, France. 13%

Lovely, drinking well now. Has classed growth depth but is lacking in excitement and sheer intensity compared to Chateau Ferriere which I consider a close rival.

Les Clissages D’Or Muscadet Serve et Maine 2009

87 points

Lovely savoury muscadet. Perfect with shellfish. Dry mineral-like. Bargain.

Chateau Suduiraut 2002

93 points

Sauternes. 13.5%

Don’t drink with desserts. For the first few nights I thought this was a bit tired, sweet but a bit hard and simple. Lacking creamy lanolin, bortrytis, just not quintessentially Sauternes. Then on the 3rd night I paired it with sardines cooked in olive oil, lemon juice, shallots and capers. What a transformation.

And the wine clearly wasn’t oxidized as it drank well over the next 3 nights (under winesave argon).

Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2002

88+? points

Pauillac. 13%

2002 was a vastly better vintage than is generally thought but only on the left bank Cabernet oriented vineyards. Yet this is pretty green. OK a green seam is part of the GPL style. I’m not sure if this is going to be a lean long distance runner or whether it deserves the damning with faint praise that a number of critics (eg Parker) have given it. My money is on this turning out better than expected. It’s dark, in no way extracted and the estate has the pedigree.

At the moment leave it. Buy it if you see it priced low (as I did) you can easily pay double or three times as much for younger vintages. Have faith.

Chateau Ferriere 2004

92 points

Margaux, Bordeaux. 13%

Starting to show hints of its longer term potential. Very good wine for its rank in Bordeaux, the vintage, and price.

Aromas of oak sawdust, dry no sweetness or oak astringency. Lovely brooding fruit, currents and some minerality. Ripe modern but in a good sense. Good food wine.

Lacoste Borie 2005

90 points

Pauillac. 13%. Second wine of Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste.

In this vintage it’s everything you could reasonably expect for a 2nd wine or any wine at this price. Beautifully relaxed and unforced in the GPL house style.

Chateau Beaulieu comtes de tastes 2006

83 points

Bordeaux Superieur. 13%

A very superior Bordeaux Superieur but in this vintage they are trying too hard. It’s a dense dark concentrated and extracted. The first thing that struck me on the nose, as it were, was greenness. I’ve not tried many 2006, wasn’t really expecting this.

I suspect that 2006 is not unlike 2002 capable of producing some very good wines (on the right bank 2002) but also some unbalanced forced green wines.

Chateau Haut-Batailley 2001

90 points

Paulliac, Bordeaux. 13%

Starting to drink rather well now, this isn’t very concentrated, certainly not at all extracted. It reminded me of a good 1999.

Fresh acids and quite sweet tannins make this very appetising. Nice berry core. Good claret especially if you dislike heavier blockbusters.

Drink over the next 10 years.

This wine encouraged me to place an order for their 2009.

Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling Auslese 2004

87 points

Mosel, Germany. 8%

Gently sweet, not particularly concentrated but nice Riesling flavours. Matched well to Indian food, a combination I had not previously tried.

Drink now.

Wynn’s Oven’s Valley Shiraz Burgundy 1990

92 points

14%

Once (perhaps) all the fruit for this came from Oven’s Valley (now usually called Alpine Valley) but this, one of the last few vintages of this wine, is probably a blend – perhaps with fruit from nearby Rutherglen, or elsewhere.  This area in Victoria is near Albury, half-way between Melbourne and Canberra.  Very continental climate, potentially cool (cool nights), but also some very hot days in Summer.

A piece of Australian wine history. Large old oak, restrain when it comes to added acid.

Bought at auction. Cheap cork but in perfect condition.

Aromas of age, leather (old furniture), warm, figgy. Sweet (more than expected) and very soft but with quite a bit of vitality for its age. Very good wine that won’t get any better. Amazing that a commercial wine like this, no tannic blockbuster, nothing ‘reserve’ about it, can age so gracefully.

And this is no fluke. I remember buying old bottles of this when I was a Uni student 20 years ago.

Dominque Laurent Marsannay clos du roy veilles vignes 2005

89 points

Burgundy, France. 13%

Unusual in that it lacks the floral charm of the best Marsannay and other minor Burgundies yet isn’t as profound as the best premier league wines. What it is is a fairly weighty masculine Burgundy.

I’d leave it until 2012 to see if more charm develops though it’s a good solid drink now.

Te Mata Estate Coleraine 2005

90++

Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. 13.5%

This is svelte stylish classy, also brooding with (quality) oak dominating. It’s what I’d expect of a young classed growth Bordeaux. It’s easy to have doubts that the wine hasn’t enough stuffing to last the decade or so needed for the oak to subside into its proper background role, yet the best Bordeaux aren’t bold show-stoppers. I wonder how this would compare to something retrained like Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste 2005?

Don’t drink until 2015.

F and D Clair Santenay 1er Cru Clos Des Mouches 2002

90 points

Burgundy, France. 13%

The last bottle of a thoroughly enjoyable case of Burgundy. Nothing forced, nothing over-blown. Gentle but it put on weight over the years and comfortably aged to 8 years old.

Not a show pony but a few years back in a small competitive tasting against 1 or 2 good Australian pinots it showed its class.

Good value.

Chateau Leoville Poyferre 2002

91 points

Saint Julien, Bordeaux, France. 13.5%

I was just in the right mood, and the food was right for this dark strong but green wine. A savoury claret that needs food. The greenness is refreshing and appetizing. Like a 1996 but with greater concentration.