Solihull Fine Wine Society, May Tasting.
Champagne and one ringer. An hour before the tasting my son rang and announced our first grandchild had arrived, a boy, and how appropiate a tasting, and I was being driven.
My wife and I will open something fizzy tonight.
All blind as usual.
Pol Roger NV, pale with fine mousse, perry bisquit nose, good fruit and apples and pears, good acidity, a very refreshing fizz for a warm summers lunch.
Pol Roger 1990, a dullish pale gold, maderised, but still drinkable, just...............a great pity
Pol Roger 1996, bright straw, praline apple nose with a fresh dry palate, pleasant, needs more time!!
Wine Soc ( UK only) Le Mesnil Blanc de blancs, 1990, bright straw, a complex nose of pastry and coffee creams, magnificent entry, fulland fat, bounced off your hard palate and filled your mouth with fruit and a hint of spice. Very long and very good.
Alfred Gratien 1996, very pale, but a wonderful mature complex nose with layers of honey, almonds and pastry, soft mousse with all in balance, long ....a pointe now.
Veuve Cliquot, La Grande Dame 1990 pale with green tinge, strange mature nose, oxidative hints and odd, some perry on palate but then someone mentioned the dreaded word....Corked? Heated discussion on corked fizz but most agreed once the word had been mentioned that it was corked. I have never had a corked champagne.
Mumm Grand Cordon 1990, a real sexy looker, complex nose of fruit cake, mint and cinnamon, superb full fat palate with great acidity, very long, my 3rd WOTN
Lindauer Special Reserve NV, NZ. pale pink, organic pisspot pinot, good fruit and spice, a really enchanting wine and my 2nd WOTN, I put it down as a grand marque old rose, it had been cellared for 4 years nad can still be bought GBP 8 in the UK. In fact Rowland, the host ordered 4 cases this morning.
Prestige Cuvee Perrier Jouet " Belle Epoque" 1990, what a looker, sang in the glass, sparkled, a farmyard marshmallow nose with layers of complexity, then a rich full fat fruity mouthful that was a tad flabby, " You call this flabby, it is magnificent, but it needs food" said one member, chacun son gout??
Bollinger Grand Annee, 1990, deep gold with fine mousse, even brighter than the Belle Epoque, yeasty spice nose which was breathtaking in its complexity and pungency. A big rich mouthful of fruit and some spice, huge and so long. A ball breaker, a mans wine, not for the feeble!! For myself and others the WOTN
This tasting was really hard work, made more difficult in that you do not drink GBP 70-200 sparkling wines very often, Many of the wines had been cellared for over ten years by Rowland in his cellar at 11C,
If we went out to buy these wines today ( if you could find them ), then according to wine searcher the tasting would have cost..............GBP 833 for 10 wines.
As someone said " this not champagne, this vintage champagne from great years and is a totally different wine"
The NZ UK readers, now on offer at Majestic at
put it away for a few years
John T