Recent content by Tom Blach

Exactly that, a perfectly normal procedure though I imagine the new-school 'natural' producers eschew it.

Yes, I'm being unfair to some absolutely great bottles I've drunk over the years. It is overall the feeble acidities and the lack of concentration in comparison to the great sweet wines of Germany and Alsace that leave me uninspired, though it clearly isn't comparing like with like, and...

I have suddenly realised that I don't enjoy actually drinking Sauternes at all, finding it mawkish and unrefreshing.

I wonder what has happened in Muscadet, it suddenly seems quite difficult to buy satisfactory bottles. The weather, I suppose.

Me neither. They've always been terrible at white wine not withstanding the greatness in red.

Leoville-Poyferré was an absolute delight last summer.

Dominique Laurent bought wines from there for a long time, I do not know whether he still does.

I haven't drunk much Gouges from the last 15 years but will be dismayed if it turns out that the wines have gone as soft as the prices have gone hard. Away from LSG and Vaucrains the wines could be superlative bargains and the reputed need for aeons in the cellar was often exaggerated.

A 2007 Forey Gaudichots was really stunningy good a couple of years back, I wasn't expecting something quite so outstanding.

I'm impressed he's allowed that name-could there also be a HCDN 'Le Chambertin'?

I found with 83 (all now gone, sadly) that the supposed rot element tended eventually to precipitate into extremely powdery sediment. When stood up for a very long time then carefully decanted there was a huge amount of joy to be had, particular from the glorious Montille wines which were...

That was an absolute beauty. I liked the Faiveley in general much more than I like the Mugnier.

A bottle of the 02 Rollin IDV the other day was sort of impressive, clearly good wine and enjoyable with some effort but possibly terminally foursquare.

I'm surprised by how much of that reflects my own experience-I do think that both 98 and 01 are showing signs of not lasting as well as 00, however, which I find very surprising indeed. I loved both vintages best at around ten years old, both were not nice at all when released. 02 indeed seems...

That's a name from my past! I used to love the Sylvaners they sold at the erstwhile Waterloo Wine Company in London, eccentric but wonderfully shapely. Also their incredibly well-priced eaux-de-vie, though I've never quite been able to shake the suspicion that grower eau-de-vie in Alsace is...