Auslese, Sandrone and Yquem

Dinner at Yin Yang.

1993 von Schubert Maximin Grünhäuser Abtsberg Auslese 83 - nose of citrus lemon, plastic and white pepper.  Perfect balance of acidity and sweetness.

1997 Sandrone Cannubi Boschis - pine forest, fruity and sweet, smooth on the mid-palate but with a tannic finish.

2003 Yquem en demi-bouteille - really sweet on the palate.  Viscous like honey.  Nose of orange and acetone.

Full post on dinner is here.

8 + 2 for birthday

Dinner at Wagyu Kaiseki Den.

1980 Dom Pérignon Rosé - nose of raspberries, minerals, a little plummy, savory, fruity.  A lovely wine.

1998 Haut-Brion Blanc - decanted, of course.  Surprisingly sweet, like marzipan.  Oxidized nose but still wonderful, like cooked sugar cane drink (竹蔗茅根水), dessicated coconut, Chinese licorice (甘草) and toast.  A beautiful wine!  Interesting that the accelerated oxidization has produced such an orange color in a 15-year-old wine.

1955 Massandra Collection Sherry - dry on the palate, straw, plums, caramel, savory and mineral.  Very much like Chinese yellow wine.

1979 Rousseau Chambertin - really lovely wine.  Animal, farmy, bacon notes.  Sweet fruit, plummy, fragrant and beautiful.  There's an elegance that belies that masculinity here.

1970 La Mission Haut-Brion - old and over the hill.  Nose a little cooked, dusty and chalky, brett, wet cardboard, and savory soy sauce.

1983 Jaboulet La Chapelle - surprisingly sweet creamy corn, straw, and a little toasty.  Drinking nicely.

1982 Latour - WOW!  What a beautiful bottle of wine!  Classic pencil lead, smoke, black tea, cassis and minty.  Slightly savory on the palate.  When was the last time I saw such perfect balance between power and elegance?  Amazing condition.

1971 Günther Mehrlein Mittelheimer St. Nicolaus Riesling Spätlese - marmalade, salty plum (話梅),  savory, desiccated coconut.  Flat and dead on the palate, acidic.

Kokuryu Hachijyu-hachi Go (黒龍 八十八号) - classic banana, tropical fruits.  Soft and elegant.

1983 Margaux - another lovely wine but would have benefited from additional aeration.  Sweet fruit, grassy, toasty.

Full post on dinner is here.

80s Bordeaux

Dinner at Mandarin Grill + Bar.

1982 Dom Pérignon - what a beautiful nose!  Very toasty, definitely savory, mineral, salty plum (話梅) for sure, with a hint of Chinese licorice (甘草).  Later on there was toffee, caramel and maple syrup!  Wonderful!  Fat, thick and round texture, but the finish was a little on the short side.

1990 Krug - mineral, savory, toasty.  Later on the toasty notes got heavier, along with citrus.  Always a beautiful wine.

1986 Cos d'Estournel - mint, a little sweet, smoke, surprisingly floral, black pepper.  Lost a little of the structure on the edges, resulting in a lighter palate, but there was still reasonable length in the finish.  We agreed that the '86 looks like it's going downhill and best to drink them up.

1989 Pichon-Lalande - smoky and earthy, with some cassis and black fruits at the core.  Classic Pauillac from a great vintage.

1989 Conseillante - a little ripe and stewed, slight hint of rubber perhaps...  Sweet on the palate.

2009 Italo Pietrantonj Passito Rosso - a red dessert wine that is sweet but not heavy on the palate.  Nose of forest pine, herbs.

Full post on dinner is here.

MNSC does casual

Dinner at a friend's house.

1996 Pol Roger Blanc de Blancs - a little savory, plummy and yeasty.

1999 Armand Rousseau Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St.-Jacques - a little sharp and alcoholic, slightly ripe on the nose, a little potpourri and a little floral, with some animal notes.  Still pretty young.

1988 Armand Rousseau Chambertin - a bit more animal, exotic spices and red fruits.

1996 Mugnier Musigny - much cloudier and seems older.  Ripe red fruits, also slightly sharp, with a little coconut butter.  Later after chilling down a little, rose and floral notes emerged.

1966 Lafite-Rothschild - really smoky, soy sauce, earthy and black tea.

1990 Angelus - green pepper, a little tight at first, kinda ripe but needed time to open up.  A little soy sauce towards the end.  A little more smoke and earthiness.  Nice but not as good as I had hoped.

1989 Margaux - mint, earthy, concentrated and slightly sweet on the palate.

1976 Lafite-Rothschild - a little grassy, sweet.  Pretty enjoyable.

1986 Margaux - alcoholic, ripe, minty.  Still tight as it's just been opened.

MNSC Dinner - Amuse Bouche

The Ox hosted an MNSC dinner at Amuse Bouche in Hong Kong.

1973 Dom Pérignon Œnotheque, disgorged Spring 1999 - nose of Chinese licorice, toasted nuts, ripe, a little savory, toasty and yeasty, almost like sourdough.  Good acidity balance on the palate.  Due to late disgorgement this didn't taste like a 40-year old Champagne, but as it's more than a decade since disgorgement, it wasn't really "fresh", either.  Beautiful.

Flight 1:

1961 Ducru-Beaucaillou - opened and decanted 10 minutes before serving.  Very smoky and minty nose.  Grilled meats, saddle, black tea with a sweet fruit core.  A little metallic with some soy sauce at the end.  Smooth and medium-light bodied.  An elegant and lovely wine.  96 points.  Sourced from Altaya.

1973 Ducru-Beaucaillou - opened and decanted 10 minutes before serving.  Funky nose with pine forest.  A little chalky?  A little stinky, with animal notes.  Lighter than the '61.  91 points.

1982 Ducru-Beaucaillou - opened and decanted 1 hour before serving.  Color was noticeably darker.  Nose was very smoky but a little closed at first.  Ripe, stewed fruits, grilled meats.  94points.  Sourced from Altaya.  While the condition of the wine was impeccable, we all agreed that this bottle was not representative of what the wine should taste like.  The bottle I drank a day earlier was noticeably better.

Flight 2:

1973 Mouton-Rothschild - opened and decanted 30 minutes before serving.  Floral and sweet nose, with cassis, a little smoke, farmy, and later a little chalky.  93 points.

1982 Mouton-Rothschild - opened and decanted 2 hours before serving.  Toasty, smoky, more concentrated than the '73.  A powerful wine but very well-balanced.  94 points.  Sourced from Altaya.

1986 Mouton-Rothschild - opened and decanted 2 hours before serving.  A little bit of burnt rubber at the beginning.  Acidity clearly higher despite being the youngest of the flight.  A little pine needle on the nose.  92 points.

Flight 3:

1973 Petrus - opened and decanted 1 hour before serving.  Very smoky, minty, more concentrated and powerful than the previous 2 flights.  Nose of black fruits, a little chalky, green pepper.  Very open and enjoyable. 96 points.

1989 Petrus - opened and decanted 2½ hours before serving.  Smoky, a little sharp, a little ripe.  Nose was a little too closed to enjoy now.  93 points.

1973 Yquem - honey, apricot, marmalade and acetone.  Very sweet on the palate but with enough acidity there.  Another lovely wine.  Sourced from Altaya.

Full post on dinner is here.

82's and more

Dinner at Fook Lam Moon in Hong Kong.

1982 Philipponnat Grand Blanc - recently disgorged so relatively fresh.  Nicely oxidized but not overly so.  Mild on the front palate with an acidic and long finish.  Interesting to drink such an old blanc de blancs.

1985 Hospices de Beaune Mazis-Chambertin Cuvée Madeleine-Collignon par Bouchard - it looks like I didn't learn a lesson from my last bottle… this wine just shouldn't be double-decanted but rather drunk straight out of bottle.  You'd think I would know better…  Nose showed a little stewed prunes right after uncorking.  After an hour it was showing soy sauce, braised pork belly with preserved leafy mustard (梅菜扣肉), minerals.  Acidity was a little high.

1982 Beychevelle - very classic Left Bank, with a smoky veil on top of earthy and mineral notes.  Very smooth and perhaps a little on the light side.  A lovely wine.

1982 Drucru-Beaucaillou - one of my favorite wines, and this was in excellent condition.  Really nice and lovely, with some sweet grass notes, sweet fruit, a hint of smoke and later star anise.

1999 Greenock Creek Shiraz Roennfeldt Road - first whiff was really plasticky… later on showed vanilla and coconut butter, which I guess is what I'd expect from an Aussie Shiraz.  I'm glad this has been cellared for a number of years so that it's softened somewhat.

1970 Warre's - a little sharp thanks to the alcohol level.  Caramel and prune notes.  Very sweet on the palate.  I last drank this on my birthday last year…

Wenjun (文君) - normally I don't drink baijiu (白酒) as I just can't stand the smell nor the taste of it, but for some reason the staff brought this out for us to try.  Typical smell that just seems so artificial to me, while lovers of this would find it very aromatic.  Apparently this has been made in Qionglai, Sichuan (四川邛崃) since the Ming Dynasty.  Two sips is quite enough for me...

Full post on dinner is here.

A mix bag of good stuff

Dinner at Fook Lam Moon.

Jacques Selosse Les Carelles (disgorged February 24, 2011) - salty, minerals, salty plum, sweet on the edges of the nose.  Palate pretty mature and round, almost a little flat, with a little bit of savory minerals.  A blanc de blancs lieu-dit from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, made solera style using 2003 and 2004.

2003 Christophe Roumier Charmes-Chambertin Aux Mazoyeres - a very floral and violet bouquet, with cool fruit, a bit sharp on the nose, but lovely and soft on the palate.  A little animal, leather and dried herbs.  Quite a lovely wine that's pleasant to drink.

1989 Chave Hermitage Rouge - lots of animal and leather, grilled meats, a little smoky, with some toasty oak.  A really lovely wine.

1976 Christoffel-Berres Erdener Prälat Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese - a little plastic, with marmalade and nutty nose.  Wonderful acidity balance with the sweetness.  This wasn't as sweet as I expected from a TBA, but the acidity was perfectly meshing and in tune with the sugar.  Very round and soft on the palate.  What a beautiful wine to drink now!

1995 Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Perrières - big, toasty nose.  Interesting to find acidity in the nose, which was kinda ripe.  Nicely oxidized, with toasty corn.  Finish was a little bitter.  Pretty nice.

Full post on dinner is here.