Decanter wine tasting London 21 & 22 November

Two intense days in London sampling wines from 98 different stands and probably more than 110 different producers was quite a challenge. Fortunately the whole thing was extremely well organised with a nice booklet being provided with all the wines. Tasting hours were from 11 to 17 both days. I will come back with more comments about individual wines later but here some highlights;
- Ch. Beychevelle , St Julien 2000 to 2007 fresh light and delicate style
- Ch. Brane Cantenac, big dense wines
- Ch. Palmer and 2nd wine Alter Ego big solid requiring > 20 years
- Ch. Boyd Cantenac outstanding 1999
- Ch. Chauvin 2001 elegant wine for the next 5 years
- Ch. Fleur Peyrabon 2001 also at peak now at reasonable price
- Bodegas Luis Canas, Rioja quality first, Amaren Reserva 2002 fantastic
- Del Palacio De Los Frontaura Y Victoria, bodega in small district Toro in Spain with big wines
- Louis Jadot very mineral driven white burgundies
- Ch D'Eclans, Provence big fantastic rose for big wallets
- Vidal Fleury, Rhone watch out for this producer with excellent Cote Rotie
- Champagne Boizel reasonable priced high quality champagne
- Castello Banfi, Tuscany with the best single vineyard Brunello
- Il Molino di Grace, Tuscany their 100% sangiovese called Gratius was surpreme
- Col d'Orcia, Tuscany super Tuscan called Olmaia
- Fontodi, Tuscany still with one of the best IGT (Flaccianello) perfect with wild boar
- Zenato, Veneto with a 100% excellent Merlot (Sansonina)
- Matetic Vineyards, Chile fantastic Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir
- Catena Zapata, Argentina with beautiful Malbec and Cab Sauv at high altitudes
- Alves de Sousa, Douoro Portugal fantastic selection and not afraid to experiment
- Vergelegen, Stellenbosch, South Africa lots of good Sauv Blanc and Shiraz

Comments

Chambolle Musigny 2006 by Patrice Rion

I am still in Burgundy mood, which is a very expensive mood to be in wherever you live but especially when stuck in Norway. Luckily the selection is quite good and Friday my eyes landed on a Chambolle Musigny 2006 by Patrice Rion. Patrice Rion is a small bio-dynamically family run winery in Nuits St George and was created in 1990. According to what I was told previous weekend in Paris, Volnay and the Chambolle are the two most elegant and seductive wines from Burgundy. The wine is not unlike a Beaune Premier cru with a medium dark red colour but perhaps slightly less "fat" with a lovely delicate smell of raspberries and cherries. The taste was soft, elegant, silky , smooth, velvety with lovely fruit, balance and creamy tannins. Very yummy indeed and so is the price at around 40€, but when you need Burgundy its worth every penny! Chambolle Musigny 2006, Patrice Rion P+ and drink between 4 to 6 years old. Domaine Michele et Patrice RION, vins de Bourgogne and please

Leoville Lascases 1988

Last week was a special week for me as I received my last pay check from my previous employer. An event that required some sort of celebration with some good friends. Of the many bottles opened during that evening was a Leoville Lascases 1988. This Bordeaux wine from St. Julien is second Grand cru classee but it has the quality of a first growth. This chateau was also the wine that made me change from beer to wine as I had the pleasure of tasting a Leoville Lascases 1945 back in 88. The 1945 just knocked me off my guard and I remember thinking what a fantastic wine it was and what an experience to drink this wine from the year when world war 2 ended. I was in shock and I then just decided to enter into the world of wine. I have always had a soft spot for this chateau ever since. And to my pleasure it has been performing well at much more reasonable prices than the much more expensive first growths in the 1855 classification. Nowadays a bottle of this wine costs around 180€ while a p

Wiston BdB 2011 - England

This is a fantastic 100% Chardonnay (Blanc de Blancs) from Wiston estate in England. Below are some remarks from the estate itself and Decanter: Selected from the chalkiest and steepest part of our vineyard, Wiston Estate Blanc de Blancs 2011 is elegant and expressive, with enticing notes of white peach, apricot, brioche and crushed oyster shells. Awarded the very top prize of ‘Best in Show’ in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2019 (the equivalent of the Wine Industry’s Oscars!), this decadent single vineyard, single vintage, single varietal Blanc de Blancs is perfect for immediate drinking and will also age beautifully. “Time spent on lees after secondary fermentation pays huge dividends for English sparkling wine, endowed as it always is with high natural levels of acidity. That’s a lesson triumphantly proved by this 2011 Blanc de Blancs, with its soft mousse, lifted, almost floral aromas and deft weave of apple, tangerine and pear fruits rippled through with yeasty, bready rich

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