Solihull Fine Wine Society, December Tasting.
The usual Rowland devious and testing Xmas tasting. All blind, not even an
idea of a theme, area or hemisphere.

Welcoming wine
Grosset Polish Hill Clare Valley Riesling 2007.
Bright and viscous, pale straw, a delightful nose of butter spice and
apricot, fat entry, good fruit with balancing acidity, I thought a
viognier/chard blend.......oops. A very nice wine that needs food.


Flight of four to start

Hermitage La Chapelle Paul Jaboulet 1982
Slightly dull mature, orange rim, vegetal nose of tinned tomatoes and spice,
soft entry, spice and pepper, good balance. Finished a tad short.

HLCPJ 1983
Looks just like the 82, garnet robe, oak and spice, muted backward, firm
entry with big tannins and jammy fruit. spice and complex, layer upon
layer,, long.., .....superb. This wine will live for a long time. 4th WOTN

HLCPJ 1985
Looks like 82, a definite corkiness on the nose, crushed olives, corked on
palate yet drinkable.

HLCPJ 1987
These first four wines all looked similar in the glass, an elegant, sweet
leather pepper nose, a warm unctous entry, tobacco and fruit, perfect now.
3rd WOTN

Next flight of two

HLCPJ 1995
What depth and extract, different league to the first four, nose of morello
cherries, marshmallow, complex , hiding its charms. fat entry with fruit and
big tannins, unbalanced, but enough fruit to stand up the tannins....long
life ahead.

Hermitage Jean-Louise Chave 1995
less extract than the previous wine...a beautiful perfumed elegant nose, a
real dollop of perfume, but what?, Just all there, perfect balance, pepper
and tobacco palate, on the plateau, wonderful 2nd WOTN

last flight of two

HLCPJ 1999
Mature and bright, good legs, a real farmyard and violet nose, is this
claret? no, toothpaste and tomatoes again.. Superb mouthful of fruit, tannin
acidity all in perfect balance, shimmering white pepper. Perfect now, but
will live another 5-10 years.

Croze Hermitage PJ Domaine de Thalabert 1999
Where did this come from? Immense depth, almost portlike, black, what
orgainc overtones yet spicy cherries, wonderful fruit bomb, tannins soft
edged and gave a firmness this wine needed to balance the fruit. WOTN by a
long chalk.

A cunning tasting, oldest to youngest in order, yet the last was so
stunning, we have all gone and bought what we could after the tasting, the
Wine Society still had some left at........GBP 13, yes you saw it right
GBP13

We hav all been told that Jaboulet had gone off after the 90, and the old
mans death. But what about the 1987, dismissed by Broadbent as stewed!!