Notes from my monthly blind tasting lunch.

We started off with a stuffed Dungeness crab, so the restaurant had to
stick in a white as none of the participants had brought one.

2004 Monte Armontes (Catalyud) - we are more familiar with the reds
from this area, and I have no idea what the varietals might be, but the
nose was stony and it was full and soft in the mouth and went well with
the crab and that was enough for us!

2003 Domaine Huegenot Gevrey Chambertain Vielles Vignes - some people
were asea with this one, but it seemed to me to be easily identifiable
pinot noir. Where I felt some uncertainty was origin as it was an
elegant fruit forward wine with no Burgundian pong in the nose
whatever, just pure fruit. It seemed a little flat in mid-palate
initially but with air it came around and was a delightful village
wine.

1994 Faustino V Gran Reserva - a Rioja with a bitter cherry and
chocolate nose, slightly drying at end , an indication that it might be
a bit long in the tooth, but pleasant. Most wines from this excellent
vintage are in fine shape, but I have never considered Faustino to
produce particularly long lived wines, so maybe that was the
difference.

Served with a prosciutto wrapped salad.

1983 Ch. Brane Cantenac - after a discussion about the 1986 earlier
in the week and my reminiscence about how pleasant the 83 had been
early in life, I found that I still had a bottle, so brought it out.
The nose was quite good, but the wine lacked the fruit it had
heretofore possessed. Maybe I was being harder on it because it was my
wine, as most found it to be a presentable luncheon claret.

2000 Quinta do Carmo Reserva (Alentejo) - dark wine with a quite ripe
nose that had a slight sour cherry note, and ripe and sweet in the
mouth. Interesting - this wine has a lot in common with another
favourite of mine, Los Vascos, from Chile, as Lafite also owns and
operates this winery (busy boys at Lafite - see
http://www.lafite.com/en/domaine.php From their site, this wine is
made of Aragonez 40 to 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah 20 to 40%,
Alicante, Periquita, Trincadeira 20 to 30%, sees 12 months in all new
oak. Interesting wine!

We were into fig stuffed chicken by now.

2002 Lumiere - no, this is not the famous Vancouver restaurant, it is
actor Gerard Depardieu making wine in Morocco, and we sure went around
the world trying to figure this one out! A blend of syrah and
Grenache, it was characterised by a very mint and chemical nose (not in
a bad way), and was weighty, interesting and showed commendable length
in the mouth. The 15.5% alcohol was betrayed by a bit of heat in the
nose.

1991 Viader - this wine, a blend of cab sauv and cab franc from Howell
Mountain, was showing a really Bordeaux-like nose! It was warmer and a
big wine, but was very well balanced with very good length. I have
always admired what she can do with winemaking and this one is now on
the plateau of drinkability but will hold for some years. A pleasure to
taste a mature well made California wine after the cloying awkward
plethora of young American and Australian creations I've tasted
lately.

1988 Conn Creek Zinfandel - from the (obviously neglected) depths of
a friend's cellar, this wine, from a maker not known to me as
particularly adept with this grape, rather predictably failed to
exhibit one iota of varietal character at this advanced age. It had a
nose characterised by one taster as being 'sweaty feet', still had
some tannins and a bit of pepper to it, and while the flavour profile
was ripe, it had lost too much fruit to be pleasurable. Textbook
example of why many people say you shouldn't age Zinfandel. I'd had
a bottle of really good zin in my hand to bring to this, which would
have made a great comparison, but the restaurant leapt into the breach
with:

1999 Cape Mentelle Zinfandel - I always get this wrong as it is
pretty clearly varietal zinfandel (though often with more mintiness
than usual) and one doesn't think of Australia when the word
'Zin' pops up. Huge menthol nose, not very tannic but still young
and has a way tyo go yet, quite good, and at 15.9% alcohol also hot.

1998 St Hallets Old Block Shiraz - we headed south for the end of
this lunch - and this wine was drinking well now. A nose of black
cherries and flowers, and smooth on palate, with fruit levels under
control and not over the top as in some wines from this ripe vintage. I
recall the 1994 as needing some time to come into balance but this one
seems very nice right now.

1996 Ch. Reynella Basket Pressed Shiraz - whack of oak and mint a
giveaway (and a hint of Bret?), and nice blackberry fruit under that.
This wine is now in balance but shows a tad rough at the end. I find
that I have some in my cellar and based on this tasting will leave it
be for a couple more years to see what happens.