May 2020: 2008 Champagne Dom Pérignon, 2017 Montille Saint-Aubin En Remilly 1er, 2017 Lucien Muzard Santenay Maladière 1er, 2017 Chamirey Mercurey La Mission 1er, 2005 Roc de Cambes, 2005 Destieux…

More stay-home misery and boredom…

2018 Coldstream Hills Chardonnay. Popped and poured, 01 May 2020. Medium-full. Excellent in concentration and fullness with a very clean feel, boasting refined precision and acidity with great balance. More minerally over time, blossoming with white floral tones that added to its lovely intensity, just a tad peppery at the finish. Another bottle tasted on 21 May 2020 (aired for an hour prior) was distinctly minerally right from the start, displaying coarse chalky textures with nutmeg and white floral tones whilst the fruit is set rather backwards, resulting in less than ideal balance.

2005 Fontanafredda La Rosa Barolo, 03 May 2020. Aired in bottle for 60 minutes prior to go with a pan-fried steak. Darkish purple. Raspberries, violets and dark cherries dominate on the nose with a waxy sheen whilst plummy tones occupy the medium-bodied palate, displaying fine concentration and intensity though there isn’t any true complexity even after 15 years, finishing on a dryish note.

2017 Domaine de Montille Saint-Aubin En Remilly 1er. Aired in bottle for 90 minutes prior to tasting, 06 May 2020. Delicate clear citrus and lime on the nose, rather shy, though it explodes on the palate with a kaleidoscope of white floral tones, raw nutmeg and pomelo that expanded with superb presence, delicacy and sublime acidity, yielding lovely inner detail before finishing with the faintest dash of diesel and earth. Far better than a previous bottle last month from the same case. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Lucien Muzard et Fils Santenay Maladière 1er Blanc, 09 May 2020. Greenish hue, exuding grassy elements, faint icing and vanillin with a hint of creaminess and a touch of lemongrass. Very good fullness, displaying controlled power and intensity, yet maintaining great clarity and transparency with a certain lightness and agility. Quite excellent.

2000 Château Magdelaine, decanted for 90 minutes to go with cuisine from restaurant Ibid, specially delivered by Master Chef Woo Wai-Leong, 14 May 2020. Evolved opaque crimson with a rusty rim, sporting red plums, ripe wild berries and dark cherries on the nose amid traces of bramble and licorice, a little dry at first. Fleshed out with good concentration and fullness, displaying characters of gun smoke and flint on a base of iron filings with a dash of creaminess, fairly rounded with unobtrusive tannins though its underlying ferrous tone imparted a lingering austerity all the way to its gentle finish. Rather underwhelming for a 2000. Drink up.

2008 Champagne Dom Pérignon, a gift from MH, tasted on 15 May 2020. Luminous gold. Deep arresting bouquet of golden toast and roasted almonds matched by an even more glorious depth of white fruits that pervaded the palate with excellent presence amidst exciting acidity and a lovely velvety expanse of soft bubbles on a base of subtle but distinct ferrous elements, poised with delicate balance and refined elegance. Already quite outstanding but will be even better.

2015 Hardy’s Eileen Hardy Chardonnay. Popped and poured, 19 May 2020. Unusually prominent greenish hue, exuding green fruits, brioche and honeysuckle. Rather placid and clean initially, taking its time to develop good concentration of floral notes with fine acidity that turned a little sharper over time along with greater intensity of clear citrus and paraffin, evolving rich oily textures as it finished with trailing sweetness. Attractive, but may not be everyone’s idea of chardonnay.

2016 Domaine Lucien Muzard et Fils Santenay Maladière 1er Rouge, popped and poured on 16 May 2020. Raspberries, dark cherries and dark rose petals dominate with very good levels of ripeness, noticeably darker in tone but never heavy. Medium-bodied, displaying good integral harmony with good purity and refined acidity. Very fine.

2005 Château Destieux. Decanted for 90 minutes prior, 23 May 2020 to go with German and Italian delivery from the Kempinski Singapore. Dark fruits and currants dominate with good concentration of fruit and licorice though somewhat dry and woody on the palate. It took another 90 minutes of coaxing in the glass for the wine to gain some lift, fleshing out with more plummy tones, finally shaking off its lingering toughness and austerity to emerge with a classic cabernet complexity on the nose with supple velvety tannins in equal measure.

2006 Fontanafredda Barolo La Rosa, decanted for 90 minutes prior on 25 May 2020. Crimson at the rim. Medium-bodied. Bright red fruits dominate but there is a sense of brittle hardness with an attenuated depth on the palate that prevented the wine from opening up in spite of persistent coaxing, finishing on a minerally note.

2017 Domaine Philippe Livera Bourgogne Rouge, aired in bottle for two hours prior, 27 May 2020. Fairly deep in colour, this wine exudes a forward balance of fresh rose petals, raspberries and mulberries, displaying good levels of ripeness on a firm palate, laced with fine acidity and over-bright minerally characters that, somehow, resulted in attenuated depth and dimension.

2017 Château de Chamirey Mercurey 1er La Mission, aired in bottle for 90 minutes prior on 29 May 2020. Superb seamless integration of very finely detailed citrus and white floral characters with sublime acidity, very subtly balanced and well-proportioned, poised with regal elegance. Developed creamier tones on a backdrop of increasing chalkiness over time with mounting intensity, underscored by deep subtle ferrous minerality. Excellent.

2005 Roc de Cambes, aired in bottle for close to four hours prior to go with foie gras and wagyu rice, 31 May 2020. Deep purple. This wine exudes a generous bouquet of raspberries and dark currants amid savoury overtones and sweet incense. Medium-bodied. Fairly supple, displaying good levels of ripeness and concentration and again with that bit of marinated cooked meat, structured with subtle tannins and very fine seamless acidity, finishing with a dash of ferrous elements. Shares very similar characteristics with Tertre Roteboeuf. Consistent with a previous bottle from the same case tasted in July 2019. Quite excellent, still yet to peak.