Notes from a brown bag blind tasting dinner

2006 Vieux Telegraphe blanc – really hard to pin this one down as it
wasn’t showing any specific varietal characteristics (unless you are
tuned in to clairette I suppose). Most were thinking chard, but with a
bit of pear and tropical fruit. A little simple but very pleasant
drinking.

1999 Colombo Cornas Les Mejeans – not the nest showing for this wine,
which has always been amazingly forward. This time out it had a clean
Rhone nose, medium weight, and was pretty simple if pleasant.

2002 Moillard Pommard-Epenots 1er Cru – this one threw us – it didn’t
have a typical nose and was darker than a Burg often is. It finally
developed some cherry notes in the ripe fruit nose with time and it
also showed more oak than I usually look for in a Burg. Once we knew
what it was it was nice enough and certainly needs some time.

1983 Ch. La Lagune - I was a bit worried about how this would be
holding up, but it showed beautifully with a mature obviously Bordeaux
nose of vanilla and fruit, with a hint of tar, fully mature, smooth on
palate and with good length.

1996 Dominus – this didn’t fool us into thinking it a Bordeaux,
perhaps because it followed the real thing. I got black fruit and
spice in the nose, with a hint of nutmeg, very good flavour
concentration and a nice long finish.

1994 Plaisir de merle Cabernet – this Cape wine was showing better
than the last couple of bottles I tasted – quite dark, with a warm
slightly burnt nose, the fruit seemingly a tad light at first but with
good follow-through and concentration

2003 Hazyblur Baroota Shiraz – and now for something completely
different! Dark with minty nose with anise, not ovr the top in the
mouth, but with good sweet fruit. Needs a long decant.

2005 Groth Cabernet – big dark wine with a big sweet nose and not much
doubt about origin. Not huge on palate but still fairly weighty, and
not yet developing much in the way of secondary interest, but not bad
now.

2003 L’Archange St. Emilion – dark with an iron/blood nose, full
bodied but still pretty tannic, and hard to tell where it will go.

2000 Ch. Dereszla Tokaji 5 Putt. – it only took one guess to nail the
grape here. A well made example, not cloying and light on its feet
with a clean lemony nose, medium sweet and very good length.

2003 Ch. Lafaurie Peyraguey – straw colour, sweet nose with lots of
fruit, fairly sweet in the mouth, but decent balance. I prefer them a
tad leaner but there were lots of admirers around the table.