2005 Leflaive Bien-Bâtard-Montrachet, 2004 Domaine Romanée-Conti Échezeaux, 2007 Château Rayas, 2017 “Y” d’Yquem

The great SC hosted a private dinner on 10 July 2026 at his exclusive luxury pad The Marq On Paterson Hill, curating the wines as well to match the exquisite culinary art of Master Chef Joseph Yeo. With such good food, good wine and great company to kick off the weekend, I cannot thank the host enough for the distinct privilege and generosity. 太感谢了!

2008 Champagne Dom Pérignon. Pale, exuding an enticing fragrance of peaches and keen citrus amid cool icy tones that impart lovely presence and elegant intensity, developing a distinct note of matchstick burnt on the nose over time. This is singing beautifully but still at an infantile stage. Likely to evolve at a glacial pace.

2005 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru. Dull golden, proffering cinnamon and apricot with a hint of orange peel amid glacial tones. The fruit is a little recessed initially on the palate, dominated by balsamic and dry herbal elements, before fleshing out with a reductive mouthfeel from the floor of bright stony minerals. Still wonderfully fresh as it stretched out with good length, imbued with subtle acidity. Would be difficult to call out in a blinded tasting as it doesn’t possess the usual weighty signature of Leflaive.

2009 E Rouget Nuits-Saint-Georges, courtesy of Boon. Good colour. Well extracted with a profusion of red fruits and cherries that impart a bright fullish density with an undertow of dark plums, developing later a hint of earthy minerals in a nod towards its terroir.

2007 Château Rayas Réservé. Some evolution in colour. Fairly effusive in rosy hues of cherries and red plums though tinged with a distinct note of heated metal and refined minerals. Medium-full, displaying a concentrated focus and intensity of dense fruit laced with minerally tension throughout its fabulous length that stretched towards a spicy finish.

2004 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Échezeaux Grand Cru. Good colour, proffering a delicious fragrant floral lift of rose petals and red fruits. The palate is marked by a dominant high-toned acidity that over-shadowed the expanse of soft plummy fruit that is set a little backward without the deeper vein of fruit and complexity one would expect, developing a further note of mint on the nose over time.

2005 Henri Bonneau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Réserve des Célestins. Deep ruby. Lifted density of red plums on the nose and medium-weight palate, dressed in soft velvety tannins laced with lively acidity that conferred lovely tension. Highly integral, not heavy at all.

2017 “Y” d’Yquem, courtesy of Dr Ngoi. Pale. Cool white tones dominate amid the soft fragrance of almonds and frangipani, boasting sublime acidity that contrasts beautifully against the full expanse of delicate white fruits, yielding fine transparency and great refinement.