July 2025: 2021 Résonance Wines Pinot Noir 2005 Robert Arnoux Romanée-Saint-Vivant 2021 Roux Père et Fils Saint-Aubin

Penfolds Champagne Cuvée Brut NV at Shang Palace, 02 Jul 2025. Pale golden, exuding powerful yeasty tones to go with its dryish crisp intensity while the incisive palate boasts a bold presence of orchard fruit with distinct ferrous undertones. A collaborative effort with Champagne Thiénot.

2013 Champagne Dom Pérignon, courtesy of Harry at Shang Palace, 02 Jul 2025. Light golden. Open with a lovely sheen of fabulous tiny bubbles that exude a delicate glow of early secondary characters. Turned a little more stony as the initial rush of white fruits and frangipani took on a recessed tone, distinctly more minerally over time. Easily outshines the Penfolds with its class and sophistication.

2021 Domaine Roux Père et Fils Saint-Aubin at Shang Palace, 02 Jul 2025. Pale golden. Restrained nose of longans, matched by a superb clarity of cool glacial tones on the lively delicate palate, its acidity perfectly judged with just a hint of understatement, rendering crisp definition with lovely slender linearity. This is a gem.

2021 Résonance Pinot Noir at Shang Palace, 02 Jul 2025. Good colour. Effusive in cherries, red fruits and strawberries. Superbly layered with effortless grace, its imperceptible supple tannins giving way to a subtly nuanced and understated palate, quite impeccably balanced with a refined savouriness. Supremely elegant though a tad short. A revelation, nonetheless. Farmed by Louis Jadot in the Willamette Valley, Oregon.

2017 Château de Chamirey Mercurey 1er La Mission monopole. Aired for two hours ahead of dimsum at Imperial Treasure Great World, 06 Jul 2025. Light golden. Keen presence of lime and clear citrus. Very generously imbued with a warm ripeness, boasting fine clarity and lovely acidity. Settled down with cool subtle orangey overtones as the fruit turned slightly backwards, developing an understated glowing finish.

2014 Domaine A.-P. de Villaine Saint-Aubin 1er Les Perrières. Aired for ninety minutes ahead of dinner at Otto Ristorante, 09 Jul 2025. My second bottle in as many months from the same batch. Displaying a superb clear golden hue, this wine opens with crème and icing amid a chalky gleam. The fullish palate carries good weight and intensity of dense yellow citrus and spiced pear laced with suave acidity, yielding a further hint of tropical fruits within its cool glacial demeanour, eventually developing a distinct salinity. Showing better than before. Probably at its peak and likely to hold on for several more years.

2005 Domaine Robert Arnoux Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru, courtesy of John at Otto Ristorante, 09 Jul 2025. Popped at the restaurant. Fairly deep crimson at its core, exuding an alluring fragrance of dark cherries, roses, blackberries and currants. Still wonderfully full and fresh, its sublime acidity exerting a supple tensile presence that broadens the expanse of glorious fruit on a bed of velvety tannins. Morphed together very well with understated plummy overtones. Very impeccably balanced and proportioned, coming across as traditional in the best sense of the word. A superb effort by Pascal Lachaux.

Champagne Piper Heidsieck Essentiel Brut NV at the Silver Kris Lounge, Changi T3, 12 Jul 2025. Pale golden. Dense acerbic intensity of lime and other citrus infused with minerally elements.

2022 Markus Huber Gruner Veltliner, on board Singapore Airlines Business Class SIN-LHR, 12 July 2025. Clear golden. Quite effusive in its distilled chalky clarity. Rounded with lithe suppleness. Very subtly nuanced. Modest finish.

2022 Maison Louis Latour Mâcon-Lugny Les Genièvres, on board Singapore Airlines Business Class SIN-LHR, 12 July 2025. Light golden. Clear chardonnay character with understated white tones and chalk. Quite fleshy, imbued with a distinct mid-palatal minerality that impart lovely freshness though it’s a little short.

2020 Pewsey Vale 1961 Block Eden Valley Riesling, on board Singapore Airlines Business Class SIN-LHR, 12 July 2025. Pale. Undertones of petroleum notes on the nose and cool rounded palate, tinged with a trace of saline glare that impart a bit of edginess.

Champagne Pierre Peters Blanc de Blancs Brut NV at Claridge’s, London, 18 Jul 2025. Pale. Refined clarity with cool shades of green fruits and orchard, displaying a soft gentle intensity with fine delineation amid understated overtones, pampering the palate with a touch of velvet. Great balance.

2020 Domaine Pierrick Bouley Monthelie 1er Les Clous at Claridge’s, London, 18 Jul 2025. Deeply coloured. Raspberries, blackberries and currants dominate with a tinge of varnish on the nose. Rather savoury and fleshy, developing striking acidity with an attractive tannin structure over time, becoming more delicious and integral with emerging notes of chocolate.

2023 Sirmontagu Côtes de Provence Rosé at L’Epicerie Georges in Nice, 19 Jul 2025. Pale rosy orangey hues. Fairly crisp and clean with a bright intensity of grapefruit. Perfect for summer.

2024 Rapiteau Chardonnay Les Plants Nobles at Cafe de Turin in Nice, 20 Jul 2025. Pale greenish. Fine density of fruit and floral notes in equal measure, supported by a firm minerally line with a bit of biting intensity. Modest finish.

2023 Estoublon La Reserve Blanc at restaurant La Pinede, Aix-en-Provence, 22 Jul 2025. Pale. Fig, some mint and green fruits dominate, showing fine intensity with a firm minerally undertow. Fleshed out quite quickly with refreshing freshness and fullness.

2024 Domaine de Castlenau Les Ronces Chardonnay at the Silver Kris Lounge, Heathrow T2, 26 Jul 2025. Rather greenish in colour, exuding summer hay, green fruits and leafy mint. Medium-weight with a distinct trace of salinity amid its smooth acidity. Decent finish.

2019 Evening Land Seven Springs Pinot Noir. Aired for ninety minutes ahead of dinner at Crab At Bay, 28 Jul 2025. Good colour. This wine opens with ripe darkish plummy fruit laced with traces of sweetness, structured with supple tannins. Quite subtly nuanced with gentle inner detail of tea leaves. Good refinement.