Tasting Notes

Paola Sordo Barbera d’Alba DOC 2017
9.0 stars
19 Oct 2020

We blind tasted this wine amongst 6 other similar Piedmont wines to pick this label out and bring it in to our company to share with our consumers. I can assure you Fine Wines SG puts in our utmost effort to pick out the best value wines to share with our consumers, this is our strength and dedication to sell wines that represent the best of the lot. Made of Barbera grapes coming from the famed Piedmont region in Italy, one can feel the significant characteristics of Piedmont’s grape varietal – paper gripped dry tannins. I do like the content as there’s this addictive deep and concentrated fruits, very compact and concentrated. These wines has good potential to age for decades, although this maybe an entry level wine, judging from the tannin profile, it should be able to age it for another decade without effort. It’s ok to buy to keep.

Artadi Grandes Anadas Rioja 2000
9.25 stars
21 July 2020

A whiff and you can tell that this was American Oak dominated content, a sip and it confirmed the amount of American oak involved. It would have been the oak that you’ll try to identify whether this was new world or old world. I personally think that new world wines tend to infuse overloaded amount of oak, i.e. soaking the wines excessively in the oak barrel. This Artadi initial whiff was full of oak, but it slowly blew off in the decanter, replaced with very compact and powerful fruits, that was very enjoyable. Thus this was very old world winemaking in place.

Grivelet Chambolle Musigny Les Beaux Bruns 1er Cru 1964

9.5 stars
18 Jul 2020

If you ever come across any aged Grievelet (now defunct domaine), buy up everything will be my best advice to you. It was one of the best producers I’ve ever come across after drinking so much aged red burgundies. The nose has some slight earthy tone, and slight hawthorn, while the next day the nose was on an obvious downhill. The content was so charming, it really warmed my heart that this would be the most comfortable drink on a rainy day, a very rich and silky and chunky fruits greeted me warmly. Next day palate didn’t change much, except the charm was somehow missing, these aged wines has to be consumed on the same day for full enjoyment.

E. Guigal Cote Rotie La Mouline 1997
10 stars
15 Aug 2020

Served double blind, from the nose and the palate, I already nailed it to be one of the La La La from Guigal, I ruled out La Turque, so the choice was between La Mouline and La Landonne. I tasted this wine 5 years ago, but I totally had no memory of it until my friend who brought this bottle to test me again pulled out my notes here, I must admit the wine was still exactly like my notes written 5 years ago, and I will not hesitate to award it 10 stars again, as it was stunningly easy to drink, without any rough edges, and gave a lot of pleasure for the friendliness. My preference for La Mouline amongst the three La La La did not change after drinking so many Guigal’s Cote Rotie.

Francois Antoine Jobard Meursault 1er Cru Les Poruzots 2004
9.0 stars
23 Aug 2020

I opened this bottle and it was at a borderline premox, i.e. very ripe, honey alike as well as borderline sugarcane bouquet. Lately I also had the 2002 vintage of the similar producer and plot, and the style was exactly the same as 2004, thus I was really puzzled, was it the style of Jobard or it was really premox? I don’t drink enough aged Jobard Poruzots to jump to conclusion about this unique style, perhaps it did age to become more ripe and towards a premox style. On the palate, I get a lot of honey, honey suckle notes, although I really enjoyed the complexity as well as the multi-layered flavor the wine has produced.

Domaine Heitz Lochardet Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrieres 2016
8.75 stars
15 Aug 2020

Served double blind, it was quite easy to spot that the wine was a burgundy but very difficult to nail it down as a Meursault, not to mention differentiating it as a Les Perrieres. Heitz-Lochardet made his fame producing Chassagne Montrachet wines in recent vintage, and I was fortunate to have a glass of Philippe Colin Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru En Remilly 2016 side by side for comparison. Frankly, this Les Perrieres 2016 paled right next to the En Remilly, as it lacked definitive flavor, and lacked an obvious character, it was like wines being produced for the sake of production, there wasn’t any charm nor excitement. The only saving grace was that this Les Perrieres’ content had a cleanliness and slight transparency, thus making the wine relatively clean. For their pricetag, I’d skip recommending it.

Cos dEstournel St Estephe 1978
9.25 stars
18 Aug 2020

A whiff and the bouquet possessed an undoubtedly signature Cos d’Estournel character of creaminess and compact tea leaves. At the age of 42, it’s at it’s prime drinking window, with totally resolved tannins, while soft and feminine characters took the limelight of the content. The vineyard was situated probably Par 4 away from Lafite Rothschild, my go-to wine for 1978 Bordeaux still firmly stick to Pauillac’s Lafite Rothschild. Cos do share some common characters of Lafite Rothschild 1978, although not immediately obvious. I find the fruits a bit thin, and the obvious lack of strong oak infused wine like the vintages post-1996 was not as attractive as post-1996 wines. However, it still remain pleasantly elegant to drink the whole night.

The Usual Suspect of Four First Growth and a non First Growth
9.5 stars
18 July 2020

As there were 10 wine connoisseur in my virtual tasting, including an MW and a few other MW candidates, so I have to have some fun with them. I know my Bordeaux so well, I know we’re in for some fun, and some jaw dropping outcome. Not a double blind flight, I told all the attendees that there were 4 first growth and a bottle of non first growth wine in this flight. Your job was to pick up the non first growth wine. The lineup:

Chateau Siran 1961, Margaux (a Cru Bourgeois)
Lafite 1955
Mouton Rothschild 1962
Latour 1978
Haut Brion 1960

Siran 61: coming from a superb vintage, this Cru Bourgeois survived the 59 years journey, although showing some cupboard bouquet character (but wine was not corked). It was a stunning fruity wine on the palate, with very structurally sound fruits, very appealing, although the fruits were not as refined as the first growth featured here. Rating 9/10

Lafite 1955: An absolutely appealing wine to me; the bouquet was filled with sweet cassis, almost took me to burgundy if I was blinded if I didn’t know this flight being a Bordeaux flight. This was quite a signature character of aged Lafite. The content was easy, elegant and lovely. The wine gained weight and body the next day, revealing itself as the definitive classic claret. Lafite 55 was a league by itself. Rating 10/10

Mouton Rothschild 1962: Signature smell of burned rubber, and this was my second bottle, still showing the same character. Content was very solid, with very appealing fruits, chunky and moderately big fruits, with a touch of elegance. Next day it showed more coconut tastes! It’s still a solid 2nd growth back in 1962 (Mouton was only promoted to first growth in 1973). Rating 9.75/10

Latour 1978: Some stemmy and leafy nose to start off with, not quite common for first growth to have this character, perhaps a characteristics of a moderate to poor vintage of 1978. Latour is always a robust wine, and I loved the 1978, an absolutely stunning vintage for Pauillacs (my two favorites were Latour and Pichon Baron). Obviously a strong and big wine, it was so robust and powerful that it could easily cover up the taste of all other wines. Rating 9.5/10

Haut Brion 1960: 1960 was a weak vintage for Bordeaux, not many wines survived this vintage except for first growth. Strange bouquet of band aid and eucalyptus, probably showing a weakness in vintage. Actually I quite enjoy the content, as it’s expressing ultra-elegance on the palate despite coming from a weak vintage, still very enjoyable to me although many drinkers didn’t quite like the bouquet which somehow is affecting them on the judgment of the content. Rating 9.25/10

Many connoisseurs chose the Siran 61 as their wine of the flight (fell off your chair yet?), somehow they’re ignoring the finesse and elegance of the first growth. In fact most drinkers commented the Lafite as the 2nd wine, only 2 drinkers enjoyed the Lafite (and I was one of them as I know what I’m drinking). It was a fun and educational flight, but wine this old was anybody’s game. Just give some respect to Bordeaux, when it’s a great vintage, you don’t need first growth to quench your thirst!