1990 Gazin & 1994 Mouton Rothschild

These are notes from another super-indulgent dinner at Skirt, W Hotel, Sentosa Cove, 13 June 2013, where each of us ate two steaks of grade 9 marbling. I can just about feel another one of my coronaries shutting up. To accommodate the restaurant’s corkage policy of one-for-one (or a SGD50 fee per bottle), we bought a 2010 Maison Kerlann Pouilly-Fuisse from the expensive (and unimpressive) wine list. Fairly generous from the first pour with notes of yellow citrus and green apples, crisp and medium-bodied on the palate stuffed with vanilla amidst clear minerality, eventually developing delicious fat in the mid-body over time, tapering to a linear finish. Not bad at all.

We paired our first steak, a 250g skirt cut, with the 1990 Ch Gazin that was decanted on-site. This came across as dark and vibrant, stuffed with mulberry, cedar and dark currants with a touch of spice, medium-bodied with an attractive dryness at the sides, framed by sweet subdued tannins that transformed over time into a tightly knit texture that oozed sophistication and sexiness, supported by a high-toned minerality. The wine came together very well after an hour, superbly balanced with a fair degree of joie de verve, just lacking in real opulence. Clearly still way off its peak. Again, like most Pomerol, it would have been difficult to place in a blinded tasting, but who really cares when there is so much here to enjoy. Excellent.

The piece de resistance, for what was actually just a casual dinner, was the 1994 Ch Mouton Rothschild, decanted on-site and paired with a 250g dry-aged Tajima Australian crossbred wagyu sirloin. The wine was opaque and surprisingly aromatic for this vintage, its classic Pauillac signature of tobacco, wood shavings, dry mushrooms and a dash of forest floor instantly recognisable, complemented by lovely dark currants, sweet prunes and a mild salty minerality that proved to be highly supple, yielding a very good mouthfeel. To be honest though, it was unlikely one could have identified this as a premier cru if blinded, but it certainly surpasses all expectations for a 1994. Thanks, John, for the wines.