A surfeit of white wines at this blind tasting lunch:

2004 Vincent Girardin Chassagne Montrachet Le Cailleret – loight
colour, nose with lemon and a tropical hint, slightly high acidity,
medium body and medium concentration. Decent.

2004 Ch. Haut Bergey – this white Bordeaux wasn’t showing much nose –
maybe a bit of lime, and was clean and fresh. Bit cold.

2004 Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte – very slight mustiness quickly went away
and left a very pleasant wine with citrus nose, elegant balanced and
tasty.

1998 Castello di Fonterutoli Chianti Classico – black cherry in the
nose and a hint of cinnamon, medium weight, a tad lean, still some
tannins, decent length and a dry finish.

1995 Ch de Cruzeau – this little Bordeaux had been excellent for years
but is now fading, with the frist bottle corked and the second showing
pleasant but sliding.

1999 Ceretto Monsordo – a blend of cab, merlot, syrah and Nebbiolo
from Piemonte , this was from my cellar and a bit of a disappointment.
Dark, with a cocoa nose, sweet entry and medium tannin, decent balance
and a graphite hint at the end, it was ultimately unsatisfying and
lacked geographic context.

2000 Vergelegen Estate wine – this si always good quality, 100%
cabernet with a nice, slightly funky warm fruit nose with a hint of
leather, good stuffing lots of acid and tannin and a dry finish.

1994 La Jota Howell Mountain Cab – I wouldn’t have believed that this
would be ready for drinking, but it was very good. Deep red, nicely
scented with a bit of mushroom and blackberry, it was actually fairly
soft and drinkable now!


2004 Cayuse Camaspelo (Walla Walla) – 70% cab, 20% merlot, 10% cab
franc. Excellent sweet cherry nose, soft and supple on palate with
very good length. Ready now and delicious.

2003 Tormaresca Masseria Maime (Apulia) – dark purple wine with nice
nose with some spice, a bit hot, good body and slightly bitter finish.
Quite good.

2000 Aalto Ribera del Duero – dark wine, still tannic, with a beef and
vanilla nose, with a hint of salt, and some pluminess. Full bodied and
juicy with a future ahead.

1991 Quinta do Noval – medium red colour, hot ripe nose, this was
quite light on palate and hot and spicy but lacked the fruit to
convince me it was a vintage Port . Browning a bit. Time to drink
this.