New Year Eve Dinner

Some friends visited us for New Year, and we ended up opening some really nice bottles.

Version Original, Jacques Selosse
Its been too long since I had the pleasure to drink some Jacques Selosse. This opened with a big, deep, elegant nose with lots of freshly baked bread, red apples and summer flowers. With air it becomes sweeter, with notes of mango, fudge and strawberries. Very, very good.
The taste is fine, elegant and penetrating with lovely purity and all sorts of yellow fruit, and notes of hazel nuts, smoke and dry lemoncello. The finish is very long and the acidity is so finely tuned. This is a great glass of Champagne!
94p   (tasted 2011/12)

2008 Corton-Charlemagne, Bonneau de Martray
This producer always manages to make a steely, long lived CC, and this was no exception. But it proved to be to young today for that real enjoyment. Three hours in a decanter and a couple of hours in the glass, heavy swirling, and what do you get? Minerals, minerals and sweet minerals. Eventually some lemon, dried tropicial fruit and buttery notes emerge, but you have to work for that. But is has depth, and intensity, but needs another 5+ years to give some real pleasure.
The taste is powerful, young, potent and crispy with lots of, almost, hard acidity and some locked up fruit. Very long, very intense, but not really pleasurable right now. But it gets an A for effort. Leave it for at least 5 year.
90p   (tasted 2011/12)

1986 Latricéres Chambertin, Guy Castagnier
An unknown producer for me, but this turned out to be a really nice bottle of mature Burgundy. The nose is open for business with notes of smoked meat, ripe rasberries, wet earth and autumn leaves on fire. Deep, dark and delicious.
The taste is big, sweet and broad with notes of muscovado sugared rasberries, chocolate, damp earth and some old barrels (in a positive way). Long and succulent. Rosehips and smoked spice after a while. This is fully mature and in a very great place today.
92p   (tasted 2011/12)

1978 Charmes-Chambertin, Henri Perrot-Minot
I had high hopes for this bottle, and, luckily, it fore filled them. The nose is as sweet as the Latriciéres but it is deeper, more intense and just greater. The nose is uncompromising in its structure, finesse and depth. Notes of sweet lingonberries, rasberries, smoke, spicies, mushrooms, resin and autumn leaves soares from the glass. Sweet and sour cherries after a while. Complex and utterly stunning!
The taste is full bodied, mature, sweet and refined, with notes of sweet rasberries, smoke, old leather and cold coffee. The finish goes on for over a minute. It is a touch high strung but that adds to the complexity. Great!
96p   (tasted 2011/12)

1903 Bual Reserva, ?
Bought at auction some time ago. Unknown producer. I had decanted it 36 hours before I served it, but when sipping on it yesterday, it would have needed some more time.
The nose is bottomless deep with that glorious high scents that define old Madeira. Great notes of dark chocolate, rubber tent, old leather, pan roasted nuts, white raisins, wet wood and a touch of rum. Very, very big and bold. Very, very deep.
The taste is massive, intense and complex with beautiful structure and notes of sweet/sour raisins, old chocolate, tea leaves, lingonbushes and old leather. The acidity cuts through everything and leaves the mouth clean and longing for more. A beautiful old Madeira - I just love them!
94p   (tasted 2011/12)

Finished the evening with looking at all the explosives from our terrace and finishing the Selosse. A new year begins!