1986 Château Cos d'Estournel

A day of spiritual "advancement" or rather a day marking the beginning of the spiritual pilgrimage. Thank you Emilio, Vanessa and the others who contributed to beginning of his long journey.

Opened the Cos D'Estournel 1986 to mark this day. The first hour, was with medium tannins, high acidity and mediocre. However, it does not feel like a wine that is from 1986, more like one from the 90s.

2 hours later after decanting waiting, dark ruby color, red and black berries, minerals and medium tannins. Fantastic structure and straight forward fruits. Was looking for the earthy tones but somehow it was missing. 2 more to go, will try in a few years again.

2003 Pio Cesare Barolo

Fantastic Pio Ceasre Barolo with deep garnet, floral nose, black cherries, oak, spices and good acidity. Even after it was just opened, it tasted great with full bodied, medium tannins and long finish. After decanting for 1 hour, very well balanced and is soooo much better than the 2002. This is what the Pio Cesare I was looking for. Could consider it as value for money. I think it was already great drinking it now but looking forward to having more of this in a few years!

2003 Vieux Château Landon

Wonder who left that at our place in the first place? This wine is mainly supplied to Business Class on Cathay Pacific. Red fruit, plums and vanilla. Soft tannins with long finish. Actually quite a very good choice of wine for the night although I have not drunk Bordeaux for a long time. Dark purple color but nose is kinda lacking.

2005 Domaine Arlaud Gevrey-Chambertin

Strong red fruit, jammy, soft tannins and spices. Medium to long finish, good structure. This is a father and son (Pere et Fils) vineyard and is a a combination of both old and new. Improved after 1 hour. Not particularly impressive, but good easy drink during the night.

2005 Nugan Estate Third Generation Cabernet Sauvignon

Deep purple, oak, plums and berries. Smooth and reasonable finish. Good price / value. Had it at Ranee's wine class, they asked me to compare it Rawson Retreat from Penfolds. Of course much better, but it cost 3 times as much! Around HKD280.

2004 Sensi Sangiovese/Syrah Mantello Toscana IGT

Had the wine during lunch at Gaia today with meeting with Kenneth and Jansen. Interesting wine of Sangiovese and Syrah from Sensi. Sensi wines are not my particular favorite but this one was surprisingly insightful. This is a simple straight forward wine great with food and enjoyable to all. The wine is very smooth and silky, with good acidity, blackcurrent notes and vanilla. The 2 grapes came together wonderfully with good structure and excellent finish. A very good impression for my first dry of the 2 grapes coming together!

2006 Lucien Albrecht Gewürztraminer Reserve (France, Alsace, Alsace AOC)

Very good wine to go with food with lychee, honeysuckle and floral. Sweet with medium finish and very enjoyable. Had it with Salty fish and goose in Tsuen Wan.

2004 Marchesi Mazzei Castello di Fonterutoli Siepi Toscana IGT

Wine tasting at Alex's place for this elegent wine. Sangiovese + Merlot, excellent nose with strong black fruit. Black fruit, strong tannins all around the mouth, mint and strong vanilla smell. Finish was shorter than expected and the wine dropped off in around 1 hour. The wine is not as enormous as described but maybe it was just this year. Interesting IGT!

2003 Les Fiefs de Lagrange

One of my favorite wines in the past few years. Compared to the 2001, the finish is stronger, and the wine is more powerful. Opened tonight on a typhoon 8 night, dark ruby color, blackberry, minerals, big chewy tannins and long, long tannins. Almost finished my full 1/2 dozen, seems to have closed a bit since last year, not as approachable.

Just read that Suntory bought Chateau Beychevelle, have not had that one in ages, as Beychevelle often comes off as powerful yet simple. Maybe should give it a second chance.

2006 Anaperenna by Ben Glaetzer x2

Another chance having this wine. So smooth, blackberries, expresso, chocolate, leather and lots of oak. Had it with Roast Goose, but did not have enough time for the wine to open up. Really enjoyable wine, and everybody loved it.

2004 Michel Picard Puligny-Montrachet "Les Chalumaux"

Great stone fruit, peaches bursting from the nose. Good acidity, minerals and oaky. Creamy but not oily. It continues to produce great aroma even after opening for 1-2 hours. Served slightly chilled, but drank a bit too fast this time for the other flavors to come out. Still have 2 more to go, maybe should get an extra few before they are all gone.

2004 Réserve de la Comtesse

Had this last night at a wine dinner as the final wine for the night with Vietnamese fusion food under direction of master chef Bobby Chin at Saigon in Stanley. The 2004 is very different from the 1998 and 1999 that I used to drink a while back. Much stronger and more full bodied as compared to before. Red fruit, smooth, medium finish with medium tannins and smell of chocolate. Very good, and probably worth what they are charging for it nowadays!

As second wine of Pichon-Lalande, maybe need to try more of this wine to see how much improvement they have made in the past few years!

2005 Torbreck The Struie

Had 2 glasses of this at SAVVA, above Prince's Buildling. I have always loved Torbreck wines and The Steading, Juveniles, The Factor, The Steading and Runrig very much. This was the first time I had The Struie and was really pleasently surprised! Great, smooth shiraz with licorice, vanilla, spices and great blackberries that are not over-the-top but with sophistication and depth. You can feel the old vine shiraz but the 100% shiraz is better than the grenache blends that I have tried with Torbreck, although I enjoy those tremendously as well. It did not remind me of the hermitage right away, but this has long long finish and finesse.

2002 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne Brut Vintage Rich

Sweat, floral with refined apricot and almonds. Very light and sweet, smooth and beautiful champagne. This champagne is not sold in the US, so its a great privilege to have it in Asia. Elegant, feminine and very enjoyable even though our bottle was not thoroughly chilled. Very good for the price at around HKD550.

2001 Le Carillon de l'Angélus

Thank you Alex bring me the Second wine of L'Angelus at Yue Kee having Roast Goose. Silky, smooth, with fragrant of chocolate and coffee. Lots of sediments and understated black fruit. High concentration of Merlot but a complex wine. At near HKD500.00, depends if you are a Bordeoux lover, for me, its powerful but lacks finesse.

1997 Domaine Denis Mortet Gevrey-Chambertin en Champs Vieilles Vignes

Bought this at the duty free in Macau ferry terminal as tried the same wine 01 last month. Strong raspberries, cherries, tobacco, espresso, wet leaves and reasonable tannin. The smell is of strong smell of leaves, and when the mouth it is like chewing fruits. Medium acidity and long finish. Excellent condition!

Next time would really like to try the Mes Cinq Terroir from the various terroirs of Gevrey Chambertin.

2007 Bon Courage Estate Gewürztraminer Special Late Harvest

This medium sweet wine from South Africa has lychee, honey and some flower scent. It is rather short on length, and has limited complexity. It has 13% alcohol, quite a high % for a sweet wine.

In a way, too simple as a dessert wine and too sweet to be just drunk for pleasure.

2005 Elkhorn Ridge Vineyards & Winery “Le Terre Foss” Pinot Noir

Opened the 2nd bottle of this pinot and enjoyed it much more this time. It is a blend of the 2 vinyards of 777 and 113 which also have their own labels. Elegant with cherries, raspberries, light spices and medium tannin and acidity. Good structure and finish.

Dinner at Clement's place. Good cook with beans with parma ham, avocado dip with chips, clams in wine and cream sauce and red wine spaghetti.

The wine is from Willamette Valley, Oregon, United States. Really good effort and they only produced a 100 cases of this??

Elkhorn Ridge

2006 mollydooker shiraz Two Left Feet

MollyDooker wines are great value for money wines. The Two Left Feet is a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet and Merlot. The wine explodes with fruit with cherries, raspberries, plums and spices. It is very smooth but it does lack a bit of finesse.

You are supposed to take out the Nitrogen with the Mollydooker shake. I did not try it but I will surely do it next time.

At 16% alcohol for all their wines, be careful in drinking them, as the alcohol content in it is way higher than the labeled!

Mollydooker web page

2004 M. Chapoutier Monier de Hermitage La Sizeranne

Syrah from Hermitage. Bought it in Macau as was on special. Monier de La Sizeranne is a wine with blackcurrant tones, rasberries, medium tannins, medium acidity, spicies and the very light hint of liquorice. Very long finish. After decanter, softened abit, and ready to drink. It was its made from biodynamicaaly farmed grapes, which in a way, sounds scary.

http://www.chapoutier.com/gb/societe/index.cfm

2004 Domaine Morey-Coffinet Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chaumes

Got this bottle at Cafe de Paris as the Faiveleys (most of the Burgundies offered) were too expensive.

Medium ruby color. Cherry, plums, rather masculine, high in acidity but elegant. A good treat for my first try of wines from Les Chaumes, Chassagne-Montrachet.

2001 Joseph Faiveley Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru La Combes Aux Moines

Half bottle for this Faiveley. Cherry, red fruit, medium red within medium tannins and high in acidity.

2006 Anaperenna by Ben Glaetzer

New name for the 75% Shiraz from Glaetzer. The vintages 2004 and 2005 was Godolphin but now it is named Anaperenna after the Roman Goddess of the New Year. This year's Cab is higher than normal at 25% and the wine is from the Barossa Valley, Australia.

Still tight, with dark, blackberry smell and vanilla. Powerful wine with great with cabernet sauvignon blending fantastically with the shiraz. Herbs, black fruit, cedar, high acidity when drunk. The finish is unbelievably long. They say it is 60 secs long?!

Had left over blue cheese with it. It really brings the feeling of the "new year" to everyday!

2003 Frescobaldi CastelGiocondo Brunello Di Montalcino (DOCG or IGT??)

Italian dinner with family, wanted something that was pleasant and drinkable for everyone.

This wine almost never disappoints. 2003 is the year entangled in controversy in which traces of non Sangiovese is found in the supposedly 100% Montalcino. (Wine Spectator Article) There is the chance that it will eventually be sold as a IGT instead of a DOCG as what was labeled on this bottle.

However, the wine is still wonderful, with high acidity, moderate tannins and red fruit flavors. Was fantastic with the food.