Tasting Notes

E. Guigal Cote Rotie Cotes Brune et Blonde 1983
9.5 stars
24 Feb 2020

I recalled I drank a bottle of Guigal’s La Mouline 1983 back in 2017 (https://www.finewines.com.sg/e-guigal-cote-rotie-la-mouline-1983/, it was rated 100 points by Parker and was our group’s wine of the night), thus I did not hesitate to purchase this bottle for the sake of drinking some fabulous wine. The style was very reminiscent of the La Mouline sibling; started off with extremely floral notes, big and bold, slowly tamed down to more Burgundian like over time. I couldn’t really find fault with the content except for very slight elevated acidity, very smooth and pleasant, with loads of light cherries. Content also improved after 1+ hours in the decanter, turned out to be more chunky and masculine, with a lot more ripe cherries than the initial light cherries.

Gruaud Larose St Julien 1970
9.0 stars
22 Feb 2020

Upon removing the metal foil, to my shock, the cork was missing! I really didn’t know how long the cork has fallen off into the bottle, and it wasn’t floating, so I suspected it may have fallen for a while as it was completely soaked and sank to the bottom of the bottle (I only found this out after decanting the whole bottle). As such, the content has been held up only by the metal foil for god knows how long! This was my second encounter of such a case, the previous case was a bottle of Pichon Lalande (forgotten vintage). A whiff and I shake my head, it’s probably bad due to the musty and damp closet bouquet. Well, I almost poured the whole decanter into the sink till my wife stopped me, “give her a second chance”, she whispered. I did and waited half an hour (for a 48 year old wine, that’s eternity!), and I realized the musty nose has gone off, in fact the content was improving tremendously! Very smooth and creamy, albeit still a bit of salty hawthorn character, very easy to drink, definitely has that aged Gruaud Larose legendary character produced during the Cordier era. Phew, don’t write off a bottle easily till you have exhausted all means to try to revitalize it!

Pichon Lalande Pauillac 2008
9.25 stars
1 Feb 2020

Like I always reiterated, Bordeaux without 10 to 30 years they’re undrinkable! 10 years for poor vintages like 2007 or 1997, they were approachable right now (except for many first growth), while any seriously good vintages of Bordeaux, keep it for 30 years or longer. This Pichon Lalande 2008 obviously belonged to the better vintage, as the content was totally not ready to drink. Bouquet was great, addictive, feminine, soft and slightly smoky, implied that it should have a good body. And the drama came, the body was not even anywhere ready to be drank! Tight, tannic and with super grip of tannins just overwhelmed the palate. I can’t even find a trace of womanly character which was signature of Pichon Lalande’s character. So, take my initial advice, you want to splurge $200 on a bottle of good wine, make sure it’s worth the price tag when you consume it. Or at least read my notes for recommendation!

Moillard Pommard Premier Cru Epenots 1993
8.0 stars
1 Feb 2020

Customers don’t know what they were buying all the time, especially with unproven or untasted wines, buying red burgundy was equivalent of stepping into a mine field and get blown up. Tonight this was my second minefield that I stepped into, and luckily I didn’t pay for it, but I still feel for the owner who may have paid a bomb for this magnum. Just don’t look at the plot of land, oh it’s a Pommard Epenots and you think they produced great wines regardless of who the winemaker was! That’s a total myth! This was a totally horrible wine, a glass of it and I had enough bad comments about it. Nothing was wrong with the nose, but the body was totally disjointed with taste, while still dry and tannic, I would rather drink a tasteless wine than this disjointed content. It was truly totally hopeless wine that I really didn’t bother with any top up despite serving from a magnum and with abundance of leftover. All my friends agreed with my comment so I was not with my own biased opinion.

Albert Bichot, Vosne Romanee, 2005
8.5 stars
1 Feb 2020

It was really tricky to drink red burgundies, as it’s truly a minefield. This was the first minefield of the night. This village wine was made entirely of Pinot Noir, a very fragile and delicate grape varietal. However, there’s no stopping this grape to age properly, and even after 15 years in the bottle, this was still not ready to drink although it’s pleasant and easy, however, the tannins were not resolved at all, definitely due to the 2005 vintage character. As such, the wine contained a lot of grip, thus giving you the “brake and go” feeling when you drive an uncalibrated car, choking my palate so frequently. The most important problem with red burgundies that I faced was the “right drinking window” with integrated and melted tannins was really hard to come by.

Bahans Haut Brion, Pessac Leognan, 1998
9.25 stars
1 Feb 2020

I only had 1 glass of this wine as I have a lot of wines to drink tonight, and all my notes were from memory without taking detailed notes, so I’d just write the experience without detailed tasting notes. 1998 was an extremely great vintage for La Mission Haut Brion and Haut Brion, this being the second wine of Haut Brion was in decent shape, in fact the content can rival many left bank classified growths effortlessly. Feel free to compare this wine with, say, Branaire Ducru 1998, I’m sure this wine has the upper hand. Very earthy style, but at the right drinking window right now, should not keep any longer.

Bollinger La Grande Annee 2008
9.25 stars
1 Feb 2020

Drinking side by side next to the Louis Roederer NV champagne, after a few sips, I threw away all my Louis Roederer champagne as it really tasted horrible next to this sexy Bollinger. Sharp as it has a lot of minerality on the front end of the palate. Precise as it cuts through the saliva with laser sharp precision. And with the final touch, it just caressed the palate with it’s creaminess. This 2008 was way too young, it’ll need another 2 more decades to show it’s true color. Stop drinking, age it!