Sharon Bowman
Sharon Bowman
London is a city of decadence and costliness, even in these times, so what better way to make like the locals than to join a few wine writers and taste some things my pocketbook cannot afford?
Instructive!
1999 Screaming Eagle - I walked in and Neal handed me a glass. "Taste this." I sniffed, sipped and spat. "It's a youngish merlot, probably a Saint-Emilion, maybe 2001?" Neal waited few seconds and said, "Actually, that's 1999 Screaming Eagle." Oops. Another friend immediately broke into laughter, saying I had just spit out a 1,000 wine. Actually, this wine was plushly elegant, extremly well-balanced, and I would never have thought a "cult California cabernet" would be that way. With coffee and dark fruit, it was silky and very long on the palate. Worth its fetching price? Not on your life. But a pretty wine, still.
1993 DRC Romane Saint-Vivant - my first taste of anything from this domain. On the nose, not hugely expansive, with some swishing leaves and pinot fruit, but on the palate, a first, sneakily quiet attack, then suddenly a burst of amazingly opulent aromatics. I was knocked off-balance and burst out laughing (which always goes down well at a wine tasting). A second sip showed it changing and offering a more austere face; came back to it a few minutes later, and it was still gloriously long, but the bit of underbrush Neal reproached it with was there.
1976 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia GR - here is a fine, slightly older wine; sour cherry nose, with a tangled attack on the palate, really a mix of wood and rocks, a thin, lean, nice body to it and a sour finish. Loved this.
1995 Le Pin - this was young and slightly hard, still, but had great persistence. More foresquare than I would have thought, and again, when you're dealing with wines this pricy (I believe somewhere around 750?), you look for its secret. No secrets with Le Pin; just well-built, muscular yet balanced merlot.
1996 Grange des Pres - here there was a slightly muddy, animally nose; it had depth and body, and lots of leather and sweat and all those dirty things that make southern reds so interesting, a nice battle between the easygoing seductiveness of syrah and the bloody grime of mourvdre.
1983 Petrus - a crazy nose of cigar box and dirty spice and rotten leafy stuff (rotten tobacco), then a tacky persistence with licorice and a lot of acidity on the palate.
1982 Chteau Lagrange - eh. Old Bordeaux aromatics, then light and pretty once sipped, if a bit candied/old-wine-tasting.
2007 COS Pithos - a Sicilian wine from amphoras, I was told? So much olive juice on the nose! And so much olive juice on the palate, along with maybe a smushed underripe plum.
Then some whites:
1990 Chteau Carbonnieux blanc - very smillon on the nose; slightly weak on the palate, slightly old, slightly oxidative, and a hollow mid-palate. Yet, there was good persistence, and with a little time in the glass, it rounded out, some, around its oxidative core, which was pleasing in a minor-key way.
1997 Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc "L'Ore - hm. Wax, oily; OK. I suppose I don't "get" Rhne whites, because this did not live up to its exalted reputation, for me.
1971 Bischofliches Konvikt Piesporter Goldtropfchen Auslese - a gorgeously ample wine with orange confit and some residual sugar/botrytis.
1976 Ernbacher Steinmorgen Riesling Sptlese - Here's where I shock everyone and dip deeper and deeper into sweet wines (wait for the next one). This had super balance and petrol, but it was a bit thin. Fine fare, but nothing I would run around the block for.
1990 Huet "Le Haut Lieu" Moelleux 1re Trie - sometimes, you've got to take one for the team. How could I simply have written "gorgeous chenin"? Did someone steal my notes while I wasn't paying attention?
Instructive!
1999 Screaming Eagle - I walked in and Neal handed me a glass. "Taste this." I sniffed, sipped and spat. "It's a youngish merlot, probably a Saint-Emilion, maybe 2001?" Neal waited few seconds and said, "Actually, that's 1999 Screaming Eagle." Oops. Another friend immediately broke into laughter, saying I had just spit out a 1,000 wine. Actually, this wine was plushly elegant, extremly well-balanced, and I would never have thought a "cult California cabernet" would be that way. With coffee and dark fruit, it was silky and very long on the palate. Worth its fetching price? Not on your life. But a pretty wine, still.
1993 DRC Romane Saint-Vivant - my first taste of anything from this domain. On the nose, not hugely expansive, with some swishing leaves and pinot fruit, but on the palate, a first, sneakily quiet attack, then suddenly a burst of amazingly opulent aromatics. I was knocked off-balance and burst out laughing (which always goes down well at a wine tasting). A second sip showed it changing and offering a more austere face; came back to it a few minutes later, and it was still gloriously long, but the bit of underbrush Neal reproached it with was there.
1976 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia GR - here is a fine, slightly older wine; sour cherry nose, with a tangled attack on the palate, really a mix of wood and rocks, a thin, lean, nice body to it and a sour finish. Loved this.
1995 Le Pin - this was young and slightly hard, still, but had great persistence. More foresquare than I would have thought, and again, when you're dealing with wines this pricy (I believe somewhere around 750?), you look for its secret. No secrets with Le Pin; just well-built, muscular yet balanced merlot.
1996 Grange des Pres - here there was a slightly muddy, animally nose; it had depth and body, and lots of leather and sweat and all those dirty things that make southern reds so interesting, a nice battle between the easygoing seductiveness of syrah and the bloody grime of mourvdre.
1983 Petrus - a crazy nose of cigar box and dirty spice and rotten leafy stuff (rotten tobacco), then a tacky persistence with licorice and a lot of acidity on the palate.
1982 Chteau Lagrange - eh. Old Bordeaux aromatics, then light and pretty once sipped, if a bit candied/old-wine-tasting.
2007 COS Pithos - a Sicilian wine from amphoras, I was told? So much olive juice on the nose! And so much olive juice on the palate, along with maybe a smushed underripe plum.
Then some whites:
1990 Chteau Carbonnieux blanc - very smillon on the nose; slightly weak on the palate, slightly old, slightly oxidative, and a hollow mid-palate. Yet, there was good persistence, and with a little time in the glass, it rounded out, some, around its oxidative core, which was pleasing in a minor-key way.
1997 Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc "L'Ore - hm. Wax, oily; OK. I suppose I don't "get" Rhne whites, because this did not live up to its exalted reputation, for me.
1971 Bischofliches Konvikt Piesporter Goldtropfchen Auslese - a gorgeously ample wine with orange confit and some residual sugar/botrytis.
1976 Ernbacher Steinmorgen Riesling Sptlese - Here's where I shock everyone and dip deeper and deeper into sweet wines (wait for the next one). This had super balance and petrol, but it was a bit thin. Fine fare, but nothing I would run around the block for.
1990 Huet "Le Haut Lieu" Moelleux 1re Trie - sometimes, you've got to take one for the team. How could I simply have written "gorgeous chenin"? Did someone steal my notes while I wasn't paying attention?
