This month’s blind tasting lunch notes.

2005 Bret Bros. Pouilly Fuisse Climat La Roche – sulphur and lemon in
the nose, mineral and a hint of apple.

2006 Jean St. Honore Meursalt - don’t know this producer, but liked
the wine. Bit more colour, a light straw, and less mineral and more
fruit, fuller in the mouth and tasty.

1999 Hendry Pinot Noir, Hendry Vineyard (Napa) – nice pure fruit based
nose, with maybe a very slight hint of animal, a pretty garnet colour,
shading to brick at the edges, good depth and smooth in the mouth.
Very pleasant New World Pinot.

2000 Montes Alpha Syrah – floundered about a little on this one as it
didn’t really show much syrah character. Good colour, a slight hint
of mint in the nose, and some vanilla/oak, and on palate, medium
bodied with medium length. The nose picked up a bit of blueberry with
time. In good shape, which means I won’t be in any hurry with my
Folly, their premium syrah.

2004 Ch. de la Colline Carmine – something I picked up from what I
judged to be one of the best Bergerac producers a couple of years
ago. Still some purple at the edges, fairly ripe fruit nose with
currants, soft tannins, good length. Lots of stuffing here and will
continue to mature. Ironic that these wines sell for maybe 10-15 E
when a petit chateau a little further west, offering inferior wine,
sells for more.

1998 Vieux Donjon – medium colour, soft tannin, fairly smooth on
palate, red fruit, a bit warm. OK, but no better. This bottle seemed
prematurely ageing compared to the ones from my cellar, and I made a
mental note to haul one out soon to confirm that impression.

2004 Clos des Papes – fairly dark, ripe nose, a bright wine that seems
mostly Grenache (this turned out to be correct) with good length and
medium tannins. Some nice berry fruit here and it should continue to
improve for awhile yet.

Porto Rocha 3 Century Tawny – a blended tawny from this Portuguese
owned house, with wines from 1899, 1900, 1945 and 2000 (doubtless to
freshen it up a bit). The wine was basically brown in colour, with a
sweet figgy nose and fairly sweet in the mouth although the balance
was quite good. Interesting wine, quite good. Too bad they didn’t
realize that the third century didn’t begin until the year 2001, so
this is only Two Century Port……