2009 Croix de Beaucaillou

Tasting this soon after the 2009 Fleur de Clinet, it seems that the second wines of the Bordeaux big brands are really good and are ready for drinking now in 2014.

This second wine of Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou was ready to drink almost right out of the bottle.  Medium bodied and very pleasant. It is not a strong wine but is soft, fruity with a hint of sweetness. Goes well with some meats cooked Chinese style -  like roast pork and suckling pig!  At less than $80, I am glad I had bought a case of this.  Let's see how it progresses.

Fleur de Clinet 2009

 

 Chateau Clinet scored a perfect 100 points from Robert Parker for their 2009 vintage.   Jancis Robinson scored it 19/20.  This must be an amazing wine.  However for mere mortals the cost of perfection is prohibitive.  The next best thing is to go for their second wine, Fleur de Clinet.  It tasted far better than we had expected from a second wine.  With just less than an hour of opening,  the wine was breathing well.  This is a fine, smooth, full bodied wine with a bouquet and taste of dark cherries and blue berries. Went very well with the cheese that was served on that day.   At less than $80, it is a bargain.  The trouble is that this is not easy to locate here in Singapore.

A Tale of Two Chablis

Recently I had tasted two bottles of Chablis from the same maker but from different vintages and from different climats.  I was amazed by the big differences. The common factor in both bottles was the producer Jean Paul & Benoit Droin.  The first bottle was a 2007 Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot

Over a Teochew dinner, I had high expectations of this Grand Cru. However much to my disappointment, this bottle turned out to be very average, not any different from any generic Chablis. Pleasant drinking but low on concentration and taste.  Fortunately, the producer redeemed themselves after I had the chance to try a bottle of 2009 Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir.  

The difference was like day and night.   Here was a wine with character and complexity. With a delicate nose, it tasted of a combination of mangos and apricot with a strong hint of minerality. It had a long finish.  I believe this one has the potential to age. It will be interesting to taste this again after 3 to 5 years.

2011 Domaine Bruno Clair Marsannay Les Longeroies From one of the best producers in Marsannay, this was a fruity light wine to go with some local snacks on this sunny afternoon. A bit too sharp on the palate for my liking,  but the kueh pai tee was delicious.

Clos du Marquis 2004

Very soon after drinking the 2006 vintage of this wine (see earlier post), I had the opportunity to taste the 2004 at a Chinese lunch. With a cepage of 57% cabernet sauvignon, 38% merlot, 3% petit verdot, 2% cabernet franc, this was a softer wine with a fruity taste of cherries.  At ten years, the tannins have fully mellowed, giving the wine a very smooth texture. It went perfectly with the xiao long paos you can see in the picture.

Clos du Marquis 2006

A second label by the good people of Chateau Leovillle Lascases, the Clos du Marquis is an understated wine from St Julien.  It had a bouquet of dark plums and a hint of oak.  Not very concentrated, but smooth.  A very good wine to go with medium flavoured meats.  In this case, it provided good accompaniment with the tuna tempura which tasted more meat-like than fish.

2009 Alain Hudelot Noellat Chambolle Musigny

This bottle of Chambolle Musigny was very well-rounded and delicious.  Its plummy rich taste made it a good pairing with some of the meat dishes done Chinese style.  Here you can see the claypot pork belly and the lamp chop.   Flavourful dishes but not too heavy as to overwhelm the delicateness of this burgundy.

 Bordeaux En Primeur 2013 Tasting

Attended a tasting of around 20 types of wine today.  Mostly mid and low level classified growths, with the big names unfortunately not making an appearance. Still, it was a welcome opportunity to taste the wines after reading so much doom and gloom about the 2013 vintage from the wine press (pun un-intended).

The wines generally turned out to be better than expected. More like 2008 than 2007.  The best wine of the evening was the Domaine de Chevalier blanc which was very concentrated and long, followed by the rouge version.  Its Pessac Leognan neighbour from Chateau Malartic Lagraviere came up a close third.  Both the reds were medium-bodied with tastes of ripe black fruits and were smooth and well balanced, despite the fact that these were just barrel samples which had just taken an intercontinental flight from France to Singapore.   One can only imagine that they will improve significantly with time.

2006 Chateau Lagrange

The wine selected to go with the anti-diet main course of tenderloin and foie gras was a bottle of 2006 Chateau Lagrange, a third growth from St Julien.  At eight years old, this bottle was ready for drinking although a few more years of aging will not hurt.  A balanced wine with smooth tannins and a taste of black currants, it provided a good counterbalance to the rich oiliness of the dish.   A good reliable bordeaux from a decent vintage can still be found at a reasonable price.

Champagne and Pasta

On this warm lazy day, there is nothing better than a nice cold bubbly to go with an alfresco lunch.   This Champagne Blanc de Blancs by Chateau de Bligny was dry, refreshing with a hint of apples.  Fine bubbles and smooth drinking, it is more than a match for many of the more commonly seen brands of champagne (non-vintage), but priced much more reasonably.

La Dolce Vita

Italian wines with Italian food for dinner, two red classics and one lesser known white.

The evening started with a white wine from the north-eastern region of  Fruili, the 2008 Bastianich Plus, a white wine made from the Friulano grape. This was a label and grape which I had not seen before and therefore did not know what to expect.  The smell and taste took me by surprise.  The bouquet was unexpectedly strong with the smell of very ripe grapes and orange emerging once the wine was poured.  In the mouth, it was slightly sweet - at about half the sweetness level of a German Spatlese - with a taste of pears and honey.   It displayed a surprising level of complexity. A very unusual but satisfying wine.  It went well with the the fritto misto (crisp fried seafood) and brodetto di pesce (fish broth).

The second bottle was a 2007 Tignanello, a 'super-tuscan' that needs no introduction.  The 2007 vintage was considered a good vintage and the cepage for this wine was Sangiovese(80%), Cabernet Sauvignon (15%) and Carbernet Franc (5%).  A medium-bodied red with a rich nose of cherries and flowers and a taste of lush fruitiness.  A very pleasant wine to pair with food of moderately strong flavours, in this case a hearty large plate of pasta. My only regret was that the bottle was not opened earlier. The wine got progressively better as the meal went on and was at its best right at the end. A two hour airing would have been ideal.

The final bottle was a 2007 Barolo from Pio Cesare.   It was a classic barolo that tastes of a good mix of dark fruits and grassy, earthy and smoky notes.   A big and concentrated wine which was a good match with the highlight of the meal - a large slab of char grilled aged Florentine steak.  A superb pairing.  The 2007 can be aged for another few years and will be better in, perhaps, 2016.

2009 Vosne Romanee, Domain Sylvain Cathiard

A ruby red coloured wine with a nose of plum, cherries and a hint of flowers. At about five years, it has matured well, losing some of its early fruitiness but gaining some weight and depth in taste.  Very smooth and appetising to go with the meal. It was versatile enough to go with most of the dishes of a five-course Chinese dinner,  starting with  the mixed  platter you see here (crispy prawn/char siew/duck).

Morey St Denis and Fried Sharks Fin

The highlight of today's dinner was the fried shark's fin with crab meat.  Unlike the usual shark's fin which is served in soup, this version allows the diner to savour the taste and texture with precision.   One of the wines served at dinner was a 2011 Morey St Denis Rue En de la Vergy by Domaine Bruno Clair.

A fine perfume of roses and red fruits emerged as soon as the bottle was opened.  Very fruity with strong notes of cherry and strawberrries.  At a very attractive quality to price ratio, this appealing wine is capable of converting any wine drinker into a burgundy fan.   A very delicious wine pairing with a luxurious dish.

2009 Leroy Bourgogne Rouge

To go with the fried rice at home today, I decided to pull out a bottle of Burgundy.     Today's wine is a bottle of 2009 Bourgogne Rouge from famous producer, Leroy. 

The wine has a soft pleasant nose of red fruits.  After an hour's aeration, the tannins of this young wine had softened perfectly.  It was light-bodied, although I should say that the concentration was stronger than I had expected of a bottle from such a basic appellation.   It is a good companion with lightly flavored food such as the fried rice I had today.  

 

Barolo and Satay

The buffet at the Pan Pacific Hotel offers an East meets West experience.  The vast amount of food on offer is mind boggling and the variety available is more than one can cover in one visit.  The type of food ranges from Japanese sushi, Thai tom yam, Hongkong tim sum to 'western' staples such as pasta dishes and grilled meats.  In my view, the most desirable dishes are those that hail from the South East Asian countries.

The wine for the meal was a 2007 Marcarini La Serra Barolo. From the Piedmont region of Italy and made from the nebbiolo grape, this was expected to be a medium bodied red wine which should go well with the Asian food available.  The wine had a fruity and floral bouquet which was a pleasant  introduction to the taste to come.  Not very complex in taste but it has a very smooth velvety finish that makes you reach for the glass more quickly than one should.  Opened just before the meal, the soft tannins of the wine smoothened out quite quickly and the wine was drink-friendly in 30 minutes.  The cherry - raisin fruitiness of the wine was a good complement to the Thai pandan chicken and fried rice.  It was an excellent pairing with the mutton satay, with the acidity of the wine providing a good balance with the strong sweet/spicy taste of the peanut sauce.  

Barbera d'Alba and CKT

One of best things about living in Singapore is the wide range of dining options. Very high quality food is available throughout the day and night and for all sizes of wallets.

One of my all-time favourites is the humble char kway teow. In this instance, I preferred to have it as a take-away - not only for the option of eating it in the comfort of home, but also because the char kway teow was served in the traditional dried opeh leaf. Encased in such a leaf, the noodles will have a chance to absorb its fragrant leafy aroma on its way home.   Eaten at the stall, the opeh will hardly have any material effect on the taste, mainly providing some tactile and visual enhancement to the consumption process.

To go with this dish I decided to pull out a bottle of 2007 Luigi Pira Barbera d'Alba. One of the more affordable wines from this well regarded Italian wine producer, the Barbera d'Alba provided a good match for the simple but tasty Singapore dish.  Slightly earthly with a hint of cherry, it was a light-bodied and easy drinking wine that suited the casualness of today's lunch.  Although the taste did not last very long on the palate, it nevertheless provided sufficient weight to the strong tastes of the sweet sauce and lap cheong in the dish.  All in all, at about $35, it was good value for money and I would recommend this to go with a casual meal.

 Burgundy and Peking Duck

The challenge with selecting a bottle of wine to go with dinner for two at a Chinese restaurant lies in the wide variety of food available in the menu and the unknown food choices we might make when we get there. Ideally, one should bring along both a white and a red for full optionality.  However, for two moderate drinkers, turning up at the restaurant armed with two bottles for a casual dinner seemed a bit excessive.  In such circumstances a burgundy is often a good bet, being versatile enough to be compatible with a wide range of Chinese food including some types of seafood and meat dishes.

The wine I decided on was a 2011 Morey St Denis Clos Solon VV, Domaine Fourrier. At a youthful age of only three years, it was still very fresh and was bursting out with fruitiness. With soft silky tannins, it was very balanced, with the some sweetness of fruit.  The smell and taste of red cherries coming foremost to mind.  This was a very good bottle of wine that performed especially well in light of its humble village wine status, and at less than $90,  was also very good value.  

As you can see from the photo, one of the dishes ordered was Peking duck. The MSD was a superb pairing with the light and crispy duck skin.  The sweetness of the wine blended well with the sweet sauce in the pastry.  The acidity of the wine provided a refreshing contrast to the second preparation of the duck meat which was fried and served with fresh lettuce leaves.  

Lunch at Basilico

Lunch at Basilico in the Regent Hotel. This is arguably the best buffet lunch in Singapore.  While some other places can boast of a larger spread,  I think the quality of the food here, especially the antipasti, is one of the best.  The highlights were the many types of cured meats, olives and grilled vegetables in typical Italian style.  There is also a large selection of warm food, of which the smoked duck and lamb chops were my favourites.  The wine selected was a 1995 Chateau Boyd Cantenac, a rarely seen third-growth from the Margaux region of Bordeaux.

The bottle was opened just before lunch began.  The nose was very light with not much of a bouquet to speak of.   The taste was gentle, with a hint of berries, quite typical of a Margaux.  At 19 years, all the tannins have been softened and it was a very smooth and easy drinking wine.  The wine was probably at or just past its peak and will not improve further.  

It went very well with a majority of the dishes, especially with the antipasti such as the proscuitto and rock melon combination.  The soft fruitiness of the wine complemented the salty, sweet and slightly meaty taste of the antipasto. 

Last week I had a chance to taste a 2007 Pichon-Longueville Baron from a half bottle format (375 ml).

As many of you probably know,  Pichon Baron is a second-growth wine from the Paulliac region of Bordeaux and 2007 is generally thought of as a low year for Bordeaux wine.  

The bottle was opened half an hour before a casual take-out Italian meal of beef lasagna and grilled vegetables from Galbiati Gourmet Deli. So how did a "good" wine perform in a "bad" year?

I was pleasantly surprised by the 'strength' of the wine which still had the characteristic taste of a Pichon Baron.  Some Bordeaux wines from the 2007 which I had tasted were distinctively watered-down and had lost their unique flavours. Still by no means inexpensive, the 2007 Pichon Baron was sold at a lower price than those from the better vintages.  Maybe the satisfaction was even higher because of the lowered expectations, but overall I thought it was good value for money and would certainly recommend it.

What I liked about this wine was that it was medium-bodied and fragrant, which went well with the meal. Most importantly, it did not overpower the taste of the food, although with hindsight, the choice of this wine may not have been the best combination with this meal.  The gentle and rounded nature of the wine went well with grilled vegetables but a more robust wine like a Brunello would be more suitable to cut through the oiliness of the lasagna.  

Welcome to my blog. Here, I will share my encounters with wine and related topics.  Thank you for reading!