Mar 2025: 2019 Larue St-Aubin Montceau, 2017 Yvon Clerget Volnay sous la Chapelle, 2012 Château Rayas Blanc, 2012 Ch Rayas, 1996 Billecart-Salmon Le Clos Saint-Hilaire, 1995 Louis Jadot Chambertin Clos de Bèze, 1990 Faiveley Chambertin Clos de Bèze

2017 Domaine Yvon Clerget Volnay 1er Carelle sous la Chapelle. Popped and poured at Imperial Treasure Great World, 12 Mar 2025. This unassuming wine opens with attractive plummy red fruits laced with a dominant salinity, beautifully crafted with sublime acidity and subtle tannins that convey great clarity and clean precision within its fleshy freshness, exerting palpable tension. Impeccably proportioned and integral. Only his third vintage then, but Thibaud Clerget’s precocious talent was already evident.

2022 Jean-Marie Fourrier Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes, courtesy of SC at Gordon Grill, 13 Mar 2025. Very pale. Effusive bouquet of straw, summer hay and lemongrass that blossomed with elegant grace and roundedness. Medium-full, the fruit turning more backward in favour of a refined clarity, laced with pointed acidity to distract from its distinct austere minerality.

2022 Jean-Marie Fourrier Pommard 1er Les Saussilles Vieilles Vignes, courtesy of SC at Gordon Grill, 13 Mar 2025. Deep plummy red, imbued with generous swathes of ripe raspberries and cherries that exude overtones of haw and varnish, imparting plenty of presence and power though, rather surprisingly, it doesn’t quite plumb the depths, limited as well by a mid-palatal brightness from emerging notes of malt and gravel.

2012 Château Rayas Blanc, courtesy of SC at Gordon Grill, 13 Mar 2025. Dull golden. Superb on the nose, boasting an irresistible complex of apricot, cinnamon and mandarin peel with a hint of diesel. The medium-weight palate is beautifully proportioned with a teasing intensity of pears and pineapples, displaying great definition, peppered with minty overtones throughout its glowing length, finishing on a dominant note of preserved orange peel.

2010 Château Rayas Rouge, courtesy of SC at Gordon Grill, 13 Mar 2025. Dark, big and brooding, slightly medicinal on the nose and rounded palate that boasts sleek acidity and smooth intensity, taking on a surprising reductive pungency as it developed greater suppleness. But this is far from ready, yet to evolve into the seductive rosy temptress that command top dollar.

2018 Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Grand Cru, courtesy of SC at Gordon Grill, 13 Mar 2025. Impenetrably deep garnet. There is obviously plenty beneath the dark brooding reluctance at this stage, the wine infinitely masculine and dense, simply austere and unyielding. Likely to outlive most of those at the table.

2019 Domaine Larue Saint-Aubin 1er En Montceau. Aired in bottle for almost two hours ahead of dimsum lunch at Wah Lok, 16 Mar 2025. Clear luminosity. Very lovely on the nose where an oily density of white floral hues and tropical fruits exude exciting detail, underpinned by slick acidity that conferred great verve. Settled down with cool glacial overtones, taking on a refined minerally presence. Highly integral. Excellent.

2017 Domaine Yvon Clerget Pommard 1er Les Rugiens. Aired in bottle for three hours prior to dinner at Bedrock Bar & Grill, 17 Mar 2025. Classic pinot tint. Some secondary development is evident where the concentration of raspberries and dark cherries is giving way towards more plummy characters set against a plush velvetiness tinged with minty spice and a certain minerally brightness and salinity, its gruff tannins offset by a dash of sweetness. Speaks of the terroir but Volnay is where Clerget truly comes into its own.

Rockford Black Shiraz (2012 disgorgement). Popped and poured at Liang Kee, 22 Mar 2025. Classic tones of warm ripe Barossa shiraz replete with liquorice and earthy herbaceous characters laced with lively acidity, finishing with a dash of liquor. Perhaps just past its prime, missing the layered dimensions of the best examples of Rockford’s famous sparkling red.

1996 Champagne Billecart-Salmon Le Clos Saint-Hilaire, courtesy of Kok Hiang at Atout, 27 Mar 2025. Displaying a deep golden luminosity, this wine boasts a rich glowing complex of creme de la creme and mature chalkiness amid yeasty undertones. Still amazingly full and fresh, underscored by gorgeous acidity superbly integrated with refined ferrous elements that impart great precision within the delicate sheen of very fine bubbles, developing a brilliant intensity over time. Outstanding!

1996 Domaine Robert Ampeau et Fils Meursault-Charmes 1er at Atout, 27 Mar 2025. Golden luminosity, exuding faint citrus and orchard fruit. Still imbued with lively acidity that conferred superb freshness on the medium-full palate underpinned by very well-integrated minerality, blossoming with glowing detail and intensity.

1995 Domaine Louis Jadot Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru, courtesy of LF at Atout, 27 Mar 2025. Opaque reddish brown. Quite effusive in mature red fruits with herbaceous overtones. The robust fleshy palate is distinctly masculine in its dense tensile velvety textures imbued with balsamic elements that impart a hint of rusticity. Still far from drying out. This is old school grand cru, built to last.

1990 Domaine Faiveley Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru, courtesy of Jason at Atout, 27 Mar 2025. Still deeply coloured, proffering generous layers of dark plums, currants and black cherries with delicious detail and amazingly youthful intensity. Highly agile and integral. At its peak and will easily hold for another couple of decades. One is truly drinking the vintage.

2021 Peccavi Chardonnay. Popped and poured over lunch at Imperial Treasure Great World, 29 Mar 2025. Luminous pale greenish. Delicate floral hues, citrus and kiwi dominate on the nose with a hint of petroleum. Very well integrated and refined on the medium-full palate, layered with fine density of fruit and lithe acidity that impart an illusion of oiliness.