Happy new Year to all of you! 2012 was a year filled with many wines, not too many tastings and blind tastings, but certainly enough Epicurian moments to fill a few pages. I certainly have not reported everything, as workload was higher than in previous years, but there are some great moments that are worth being mentioned anew. Read the rest of this entry »

When wine geeks think of the Eighties, it’s not only Madonna, Top Gun or Miami Vice coming to their minds, but also the rise of modern winemaking in Bordeaux concurring with such great vintages like ’82 ’85 ’86 or ’89.

Thus, tasting some wines from that decade is always something special and I was thrilled when Oskar invited me to his round of friends when he was once again sacrificing some of his treasuries he had gathered over the years. It hurts him just a little bit, but it is certainly for a great moment of fun. Read the rest of this entry »

Blind Tastings are supposed to be the essence of this website and yet, it happens that none occurs for very long periods of time. Hence I felt somehow relieved when we finally found a date that worked for all of us and the topic was rather secondary at first.
But then Oskar told me he wanted to make it a special tasting and that he’ll take care of the bottles. I could easily live with that, and laid back in awaitance of some decent wines. Read the rest of this entry »

Damn it was really time for a wine tasting! Especially when I think of some old wines in the cellar which aren’t getting younger anymore and begged to be drunk! We agreed on old Burgundies as the central topic and assembled some 5 bottles, one of them being a Rhône wine actually, but no drama, it’s not that far away anyway.

For a start I opened a 1959 German white with ripped off label, hence some kind of surprise wine. When I bought this bottle very cheaply on Ebay I relied on the aura of the bombastic 1959 vintage which brought up some fantastic wines throughout Europe. And Since our first red Burgundy would be a 1959 too, I thought that would be the opportunity to open it.
We weren’t disapponted: It had a shiny golden colour with a touch of orange, a slightly nut-like nose without any age note, which is impressive for a wine that old. On the palate it was Read the rest of this entry »

It was time again for a nice red wine evening. We didn’t have a real topic and gathered some random bottles of red wine from 1972 to 1997. Here are the notes:

1972 Gigondas, Henri de Villamont

We started with this old Gigondas. Luckily we had no problem with the cork. In the glass it had a nice although slightly blurry red colour. In the nose a little age note with cellar and mushroom. On the palate, lively acidity which probably kept this wine alive. Yet it still appeared balanced and was nicely drinkable but had a rather short finish.
83-85 Read the rest of this entry »

It is always an occasion for great discoveries when Oskar announces he will come by and bring some wine. This time it was even more the case since he brought 4 bottles of old vintage wine and my knowledge about old wine is very limited, so I had an opportunity to learn a lot.

Domaine les Veilles 1979, Saint Ferdinand, Côtes du Rhône

Once poured in a glass you can see light brown shades on the brim witnessing the age of the wine. Nevertheless this Côtes du Rhône is still young on the palate. You can still taste the fire and wildness of a southern French wine in terms of alcohol. On the other hand 27 years have made this wine a very burgundy stile round wine with little tannins and perfect balance. You can smell and taste red fruits but there is no fruit attribute or flavour which someone could distinct in particular except maybe a little earthy taste. A nice discovery! Read the rest of this entry »