Coop and I popped a cork on an 07 Donjon just to see what we could
see.

But first:

2005 Oratoire Dom. St. Martin Haut Coustias - blend of Marsanne,
Roussanne, Grenache Blanc and Clairette. Showing significant colour, a
mature nose with buttery notes, in the mough quite soft but not over
the line into flabby, and a nice ripeness.

2007 Vieux Donjon CNduP - medium purple colour, big sweet nose not
showing much spice or pepper yet, mainly fruit, quite nice on
midpalate with good fruit, and at least decently long with a bit of
spice coming in at the end. Needs some time - eve 2-3 years may open
up some more interesting facets to this wine. Reports that it lacked
fruit must relate to specific bottle issues, perhaps from a cooked
batch.

1990 Chapoutier CNduP La Bernardine browning edges, nice clear garnet
colour, ripe warm nose, smooth and long, a nice contrast of two wines
17 years apart.

2006 Turkey Flat Butcher's Block (Barossa) - an SGM (in order of
content, presumably) blend from Oz, this was easily identifiable as
Syrah based but harder to instantly spot as Australian. Sweet nose
purple wine, the Syrah to the front in the nose, and not overly sweet
except in the finish, where I thought it over-did it a tad, as well as
betraying its roots.

This was brought out to whet palates and wits for the cribbage section
of the program.

On 2009-10-05 06:02:57 -0700, "Bill S." > said:

>
> 2005 Oratoire Dom. St. Martin Haut Coustias - blend of Marsanne,
> Roussanne, Grenache Blanc and Clairette. Showing significant colour, a
> mature nose with buttery notes, in the mough quite soft but not over
> the line into flabby, and a nice ripeness.

Could you explain "significant" color a little more? I wasn't sure if
you meant the color itself was significant, or the depth of color or
what... That is, was it a deep amber and you were expecting oxidized
notes, or was it grass green?