Hatching a Plot

Earlier this year we had the Affectionately Known As (AKA) Man and Lovely booked in to stay with us, but we were called away and missed them.  There was no escape this time – no escape for them, as we hatched a plan to share some hospitality with them.  The AKA Man and Lovely have been very kind to us in the past, so it was a pleasure to reciprocate.  We know that the cleanest, purest dry whites are their favourites, with good bubbles, Chardonnay-based wines and the occasional Pinot Noir seem to hit the spot, so that’s what we poured their way.

Two of the latest NV Champers that SWMBO and I like at the moment were the starters.  SWMBO is enamoured by NV Laurent-Perrier ‘Brut L-P’.  Fresh, light, florals and citrus fruits, the dosage a little noticeable, and invitingly accessible and soft, this is looking as clean and fruity as ever.  It appears lighter than it really is, and there’s plenty of satisfaction.  I’m a fan of the more complex and drier style, and in recent tastings NV Charles Heidsieck ‘Brut Reserve’ has done it for me.  And the bottle serve did it again.  Tighter, drier, with intense flavours of yellow stonefruit Pinot Noir, definite autolysis and aldehyde notes, clearly with plenty of Reserve wine.  A restraine and fruiter Bollinger-esque style in some respects.  The AKA Man and Lovely concurred with their quality and style.

Two N.Z. Chardonnays at the top of their game next as we moved along the plan.  Firstly the newly-released 2011 Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay.  Beautifully vibrant but concentrated citrus and mealy fruit with fine acidity, and the perfect touch of flinty complexities.  It’s youthful, but already a star.  Then the multi-trophy champion 2010 Villa Maria ‘Keltern’ Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay, softer, richer, sweeter, a year down the track and beginning to come together in harmony.  Masses of complexity with sulphide reduction and flint, but sucked in by the fruit.  It all worked superbly.  The surprising aspect was how quickly this is coming to maturity.  The Neudorf was the winner here.  Both SWMBO and I enjoyed the Villa Maria, but to the refined palates of Lovely and the AKA Man, it was too sweet, and lighter!

Onto the French wines, the highlight of the story.  The white, a 2006 Raveneau Chablis 1er ‘Montee de Tonnerre’.  I feel Chablis of late shows the advances in ripening, and the rapier, cutting acidity of the past is truly gone.  The flintiness is also more mellow, and dare I say it, they can have an unctuous aspect.  This did, but it had a rainwater purity and a delicious delicacy.  Dry as it it could be, it was an all round star, but for the AKA Man, the ultimate.  Then the final act in the plot revealed, an Armand 2001 Rousseau Chambertin.  Faded colour, and initially undemonstrative, but seriously brooding.  A strange, but enormously pleaasing combination of power and elegance.  Complex brown fruits and undergrowth, and the classical ‘blood and fur’ of Gevrey-Chambertin.  Growing in power and density in the glass.  Almost glorious, but not quite.  A wine we all mulled over quietly in our own minds, probably all too fearful of saying it didn’t quite sing at its best, but also that we may not be quite sophisticated to appreciate it fully?

Then a little something to sweeten us on our way.  A 2010 Loosen Erdener Trpppchen Kabinett.  Youthful and sherbetty, with exotic florals.  The sweetness looking more than reality, due to the contrast with the savoury, firmer structured red.  Absolutely decadent in its subtle sweetness and fruitiness.  It wasn’t a wine for Lovely, but the three of us enjoyed its sweet finish to the plot.