May 2021: 2009 Château La Vieille Cure, 2005 Winemaker’s Collection Cuvée No.1, 2011 Arnoux-Lachaux V-R Aux Reignots 1er, 2009 Groffier Sentiers 1er, 2008 Delamotte, 2018 Michel Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet, 2016 Bouchard Meursault Perrières 1er…

2009 Château La Vieille Cure. Aired in bottle for ninety minutes prior to dinner at Ka Soh, 02 May 2021. Deep garnet red. Attractive nose of ripe plummy characters. Very good fleshy presence of cool ripe fruit and currants imbued with traces of graphite minerals that impart very fine intensity, showing excellent depth and layering. Open with glowing tones. Highly supple and delicious. Don’t underestimate Fronsac. This wine can hold its own in any line-up.

2009 Goulée. Aired for sixty minutes prior to dinner at home, 03 May 2021. Displaying a deep garnet red, this wine by Cos D’Estournel exudes a lovely dense bouquet of dark roses, ripe red fruits and dark currants matched by a rich velvety medium-full body layered with fabulous fruit, delivering notes of ripe raspberries, dark cherries, haw and violets with a slightly forward presence, beautifully balanced with unobtrusive acidity and finely-grained tannins. This is easily within the league of classified growths but at a fraction of the price. At its perfect drinking peak now, and will hold for years. Superb.

2017 Louis Jadot Mâcon-Villages. Aired in bottle for ninety minutes prior to dinner at home, 05 May 2021. Attractive nose of brioche, honeysuckle and cool icing with a tinge of green fruits. Beautifully rounded and full. Very seamlessly integrated with subtle chalky tones, sublime acidity and fine depth of superbly nuanced clear citrus infused with a discernible note of bright ferrous elements that confer good verve and definition with a slight velvety warmth. Excellent.

2016 Domaine Bouchard Père et Fils Meursault Perrières 1er. Aired in bottle for two hours prior to dinner at Imperial Treasure Great World, 10 May 2021. Delicate lift of white fruits, citrus and icing. Medium-full. Excellent concentration of cool ripe fruit, displaying clean precision with sublime acidity and great tensile presence, yielding some minerally detail with understated chalkiness over time as it fleshed out with increasing intensity of glowing white tones that lingered with lovely length. Superb.

2011 Domaine Arnoux Lachaux Vosne-Romanée Aux Reignots 1er, courtesy of Vic at Imperial Treasure Great World, 10 May 2021. Classic pinot tint with a deep garnet core, exuding delicious red fruits and dark roses that is most alluring. Medium-bodied. Open with restrained intensity, displaying layers of dark fruit imbued with Vosne spices and herbs, well integrated with sleek acidity. Still youthful. Excellent.

2011 Domaine Roblet-Monnot Volnay Piture 1er, courtesy of Alvin at Imperial Treasure Great World, 10 May 2021. Tasted blind. Opaque pinot tint, proffering a superb delicate fragrance with a distinct dash of tangerines. Good concentration of fruit, slightly darkish in tone within a confined spectrum again with a tinge of citrus at its core. Very cleanly defined with fine acidity and verve. I nailed it.

2009 Domaine Robert Groffier Chambolle-Musigny Les Sentiers 1er, courtesy of Sir Bob at Imperial Treasure Great World, 10 May 2021. Beguiling nose of rosy feminine characters with a tinge of earth. Medium-bodied. Open with reddish hues. Fairly rounded and opulent, displaying lovely acidity and fine definition with subtle intensity and detail, developing a little more of tangerines as it sat in the glass. Excellent.

2009 Château Marquis de Terme. Aired in bottle for three hours prior to dinner at Wah Lok, 11 May 2021. Deep purple. Delicious dark fruits and currants on the nose. Full-bodied, exuding youthful intensity with a high-toned tight tensile minerally presence. Mellowed a little after another ninety minutes with emerging cool ripe fruit, yielding chewy tannins with some inner detail of dark cherries along with smoky savoury characters. There’s plenty going on with quite a fair bit of sophistication but this wine needs another ten years to sort itself out.

2008 Champagne Delamotte Blanc de Blancs. Popped and poured at Crab At Bay, 13 May 2021. Restrained nose of green fruits and delicate citrus. Rounded fullness of cool ripe fruit with characters of lime, clear citrus and pomelo. Superbly ripe with detailed intensity and excellent refinement, oozing with sweet subtle acidity that stretched to its persistent finish. Drinking very well now.

2018 Domaine Michel Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet, courtesy of Alice Wee at the tasting room of Wine Clique, 14 May 2021. This wine opens with rich creamy buttery characters on the nose that gave way quite quickly to dense chromatic white tones. Rather plump and rounded with a lovely warmth, imbued with minerally characters on a distinct gravelly base. Structured with fine definition and understated intensity, tapering to an austere ferrous finish. Excellent.

2014 Jean-Marc Pillot Bourgogne Blanc, aired in bottle for ninety minutes prior, 16 May 2021. Light greenish hue. Very good presence and purity of fruit, displaying dominant characters of yellow citrus and green fruits charged with fine acidity and intensity, decent in layering and finish. Unpretentious. Drinking well but worth keeping longer.

2008 Domaine Leflaive Bourgogne Blanc, courtesy of Casey at his office, 17 May 2021. Lovely golden hue. This wine opens with effusive but controlled chromatic white tones layered with fair complexity and attractive sweetness. The palate is marked by an unusually high-toned but well-integrated acidity, imparting a certain brightness that detracted somewhat from the narrow spectrum of baked apples and pears, a tad short as well.

2005 Fontanafredda La Rosa Barolo, tasted over two days 18-19 May 2021. Evolved crimson. Came into its own only on Day 2 when it snapped together with good concentration of plummy characters and tangerines amid rosy hues, medium-bodied, underscored with fine acidity that imparted good tension, balance and well-integrated tannin structure. Really needs plenty of time.

2005 Winemaker’s Collection Cuvée No.1 (Michel Rolland), tasted over two days 20-21 May 2021. From a sealed OWC kept in storage since its initial release. Dark crimson, exuding delicious secondary characters of cedar and cinnamons with dark plums and black currants. Medium-full. Still imbued with very good concentration of fruit that exert youthful intensity and tension, just thinning out a little with a trace of dryness towards the finish. Drinking well. Only 5,000 bottles annually, made by a celebrity winemaker each year from a single plot of Château D’Arsac in Margaux.

2005 Château Barde-Haut, tasted over two days 23-24 May 2021. Deep garnet red, proffering mulberries, cranberries and dark fruits with good concentration, structured with youthful tannins. Gave way overnight to ripe red plummy tones with perfect balance and acidity, coating the medium-full palate with mouth-puckering supple intensity. Still hasn’t quite developed secondary nuances.

La Joya Oculta Aalma D’Malvasia Singular, specially sent over by Jimmy Lim, a leading wine commentator in Spain. A 100% malvasia from very old vines planted in 1910 in Pago Cuba Negra, this bottling is a blend of the 2014 and 2015, specially made for Jimmy for his 75th birthday and to celebrate his 50 years of residency in Spain, bearing his surname in Chinese (林) on the label. Displaying a yellowish-greenish tint, this white opens with notes of spicy nutmeg, olives, clear and yellow citrus imbued with clean fresh acidity, showing excellent concentration and balance with lively zest. Became more minerally after some time, imparting a touch of austerity at the finish but the balance is still there. Drinking well. Many happy returns, Jimmy! Tasted 26 May 2021.

2009 Château Monbousquet, tasted on 30-31 May 2021. Opaque purple. Dark berries dominate with good concentration and youthful intensity on the medium-bodied palate, structured with good weight and integration though it doesn’t exude much charm. Entering its drinking window.