New line of wines at the Club

I saw these two new wines at the coffee shop at the Club the other day. Now I know that KCC prides itself as a good sporting club here in Hong Kong, and I know it on good authority that the Club's wine and wine service is also well regarded. After all the Hong Kong Wine Society holds a joint Christmas Party with the KCC Wine Society every year for some time now.

Perhaps this is a new marketing gimmick from F&B to increase wine sales. I am not a golfer so I don't know of Ernie Els, but everyone knows Yao Ming irrespective of whether you are a fan of basketball or not. Until that moment I have not known that either had purchased vineyards and produced wines. There again in the first month of this blog, I had written about Gerard Depardieu's wine-making adventures  and also mentioned other celebrities in the entertainment business who had got into wine.

The myriad changes with extended breathing for the Coulee the Serrant

When we tried this wine at the PWC Loire tasting, I decided to open this wine the night before, so that it had a chance to breathe. Of course, I took a small bit to nose and taste, so that I would be able to see if this extended breathing helped bring out the best in this famed wine. At that point, the wine was a golden colour with a honeyed pruney acid nose and a sweet acid fruity palate supported by an acid backbone.

When we tasted the wine on the night(around 22 hours later), the colour had darkened to light tea, with more sherry like notes on the nose. In fact it smelt more like a Tokay with a bit less of the dried apricot acidity that the sweet Hungarian wine. The palate had become drier yet richer than the night before.

When the wine was revisited 3 weeks later,the tea colour seemed to have taken on a hint of pink. The dried apricot Tokay like nose had become richer and perhaps more honeyed (maybe even with a hint of sweetness, just like when it was first opened). The palate had now become very much like a Tokay, but without the sweetness (perhaps like the szamorodni). The acidic backbone was unchanged, giving sterling support for the wine. Interesting evolution over an extended period!

A 45 year old Coteaux du Layon

 

One of the highlights of the Loire tasting the other day was the 1971 Domaine Touchais Coteaux du Layon. After all, it is not everyday that one gets to taste a well aged wine and wines of over 30 years are decidedly special at any time. I had blogged about Domaine Touchais 3 years ago and this wine was mentioned then and it is finally being tasted now.

This wine was a nice old gold in colour tinted with a touch of orange. The nose was rich with a large dose of dried apricot though marred with a touch of alcohol. The palate was sweet acid and fruity with a good smattering of dried apricot acidity providing sterling support. Jolly good for a 45 year old specimen.

Ambonnay

Ambonnay (from which this Champagne comes) is a grand Cru village on the south side of the  Montagne de Reims hill, a favourable location shared with its neighbour Bouzy (also Grand Cru). It is planted with 81% Pinot Noir and 19% Chardonnay, and the village is famous for good Pinot Noir from vineyards of high elevation. With south facing vineyards, Ambonnay can produce red still Coteaux Champenois wines called Ambonnay Rouge.

There are many famous vineyards in this village, the most noted of which must the Clos d'Ambonnay, owned by Krug. Planted with Pinot Noir only, the rare single vineyard champagne is only made in the best years and its first vintage was 1995.

Chinon

I had tried Chinon wines many moons before, in the PWC "Off the Beaten Track in France" tasting during Lent 2007. We returned to this in the latest Loire tasting at the end of last month. This wine also fared well when we finished the remains from the wine dinner the next day. Chinon is a mainly red appellation (which is unusual in the Loire). The reds and the small amount of rose wines are made mainly from Cabernet Franc (up to 10% Cabernet Sauvignon is allowed), whilst a small amount of white is made from Chenin Blanc. A versatile food wine, it had been famous in the past garnering praise from Rabelais, Joan of Arc and Richard the Lionheart amongst others.

Matchuing a Sancerre from Chavignol with Crottin du Chavignol

There's food and wine matching and then there is matching it in some detail. I have always found goats cheese a bit too strong for my liking, that is until I found that having Sauvignon Blanc wines from the Loire, be it Sancerre or Pouilly Fume, tames that flavour and turns the whole combination into a creamy and delicious experience. 

Ever since I found out that Chavignol not only produces some of the best Sancerre, but also a famous goats cheese (Crottin de Chavignol) as well, I have wanted pairing the cheese and wine from the same famous village Having sourced a bottle of Francois Cotat's Sancerre Les Monts Damnes Chavignol, I went in search of the cheese. Luckily it was not too difficult.

The Chavignol wine was a nice straw yellow with a crisp slightly green honeyed nose with a hint of flowers, The palate started off with a touch of sweetness, followed by leafy greeness and a touch of fruit, well supported by minerally acid. The match with the cheese was better than previous attempts with chevre (goats cheese) and Sancerre, with the cheese being more creamy and luscious with the wine. As with other occasions when smelly cheese (and this one is not particularly smelly at that), all were pleasantly surprised at how the wine and the cheese brought them an experience that would certainly be well remembered.

"Longevity" in Loire reds

We did not manage to finish the red wines the other night and since nobody was interested in taking the unfinished bottles home, I finished them off at dinner the next evening. I suppose they would have been opened for the best part of 24 hours and they were just left at room temperature after arriving home, because my fridges as well as my Eurocaves were full.

The Chinon and the Clau de Nell Grolleau both fared better than the Clau de Nell Cabernet Franc. Those two basically maintained their form from the night before, whilst the Cab Franc had shown signs of tiredness, though holding better than quite a few wines I can think of.There was a touch more astringency, but no noticeable increase in acidity, whilst the fruit was only a touch diminished from the night before. All three did better than quite a few wines many times their price.