El Sentido de La Vida 2012

We tasted this interesting wine from Spain at dinner the other night. A Vino de la Tierra de Castilla, it was an organic Petit Verdot with a smidgeon of Cabernet Sauvignon (10%). Now Petit Verdot is generally a minor player in Bordeaux blend, from the eponymous region or from elsewhere and it is rare to find it being the star of the show. Wine labelling law being what they are, it seems that it is legal to label this wine in the EU as a Petit Verdot varietal.

The wine was a deep ruby with a warm woody fruity acid nose. The palate was off dry with red fruit acid and wood, well supported by an acid woody backbone.

A Chablis Tasting

We went to this tasting at a wine shop the other day. The promotion is for the whole month but not all the shops present all the listed wines for tasting. In the end , there were 6 Chablis wines which were tasted, from village right up to Grand Cru. Being Chablis, they all showed different degrees of acid and minerality, three of the six showed some degree of fishiness on the nose. Four of them showed a hint of astringency, reminiscent of grape skins, but not at all like tannins. The three Premier Crus showed their different characters, and the Grand Cru was rich with a touch of fruit. Who says Chablis was all alike?

Wines for the CNY trip

The family just came back from Beijing for the Chinese New Year. We brought the above wines to drink for the trip as well as one of those Ozzie wine boxes. Beijing food is more meat than fish or seafood, so we got all reds. I thought it would be a good idea to try limiting the wines to between $100-200 a bottle, and to have screw cap closures for convenience.The above was what we ended up with - two Pinot Noirs, one NZ and the other from Tasmania; a Hunter Shiraz and a Coonawarra Cab.

They were all very enjoyable and the screw caps did save a lot of hassle. The added bonus was that a bottle being more convenient to handle than a wine box, they can be rinsed out refilled to bring the wine out for dinner, the more awkward wine box staying in the hotel room. What about ordering wines at the restaurant, I hear you say? Regardless of the markup and corkage, even supermarket wine (which the above all are) that you bought yourself in Hong Kong offer more assurances than the local offerings.

Hospice de Beaune Cuvee Maurice Drouhin Beaune 1er Cru 2011

This was one of the wines I tasted at the KCCWS AGM recently. Scrutinizing the label, one can see a line at the bottle with white letters on a black background under the heading Acquereurs, the name of the Wine Society with the Club crest. On further enquiry, it turns out that the Wine Society together with a number of its members had formed a group to bid for Hospice wines and this was the result. A barrel was bought and they seemed to be bottled in magnums (I suppose they will bottle the whole barrel in the same bottle size.) Nice to know that the Society is active in this manner; maybe one of these days, I might ask to join in on the venture with them.

As for the wine, it was a deep limpid ruby with a  sweet acid stewed berry nose. The palate was slightly sweet and acid with hints of berry and wood, well supported by an acid backbone.

Dead Arm 2004

I tasted this wine at the brunch after the KCC Wine Society AGM last weekend. This is a wine I have tasted a number of times, but though I had blogged about this label, I have not written any entries about any specific bottles I tasted. This is as good a time to rectify it as any other.

The flagship shiraz from d'Arenberg, the Dead Arm  is classified Outstanding (the 2nd category) in Langton's classification. This 13 year old wine was a dark purple ruby even with this much age under its belt, and sported a sweet minty berry nose. It was sweet with berry fruit and acid on the palate, well supported with a nice acid backbone. Delicious now but will still go strong for years to come.

The KCC Wine Society AGM

The KCC Wine Society holds its AGM on a Sunday in January and it is followed by a Sunday Brunch, with wines of course. A selection of wines are brought out from the "cellars" for the members to enjoy. The above is a selection of the wines we had this year. The wines this brunch included a very broad range, from classic clarets to Burgundies (2 each of whites and reds) to Chateau Musar from Lebanon and an Aussie Shiraz, the Dead Arm! This goes to illustrate despite assertions by some, the Society is not obsessed by claret. Some of the individual wines merit further exploration and these will merit their own entry.

Leroy disappointment

The name Leroy conjures up such expectations that anything short of perfection generates disappointment. Unfortunately, whether this is because it is a wine beyond its best, or it was just a dud bottle, my experience with the above bottle came nothing near that mark. That I tasted the bottle rather a long time after it was opened did not help matters either. The bottle was worse in my mind that the NZ Pinot Noir from the Hong Kong born dentist I had the other day, even allowing for the differences in style and age.

This disappointing wine was dark ruby, with a slightly sweet acid berry nose. It was minimally dilute on entry going onto an acid minimally fruity astringent palate, with an acid astringent mid palate and an astringent finish.