Dragon Phoenix Wine Blog

2005 Beaujolais-Villages, Joseph Drouhin, Burgundy, France

Appearance: medium purple-red

Nose: strawberry and raspberry fruit, not too much carbonic maceration going on here so there is not that that bubble-gum, confected flavour. Bright fruit from the 2005 vintage.

Palate: a pleasant palate with low tannins, medium acidity and decent fruit. Quite good length.

Conclusion: representative and solid Beaujolais Villages in an excellent vintage. Not bad value for the Chinese market at 138RMB either from Torres China.

Rating: 16/20

2003 Trentham Estate Ruby Sparkling Shiraz, Murray Darling, New South Wales, Australia

Appearance: deepish purple.

Nose: lovely Shiraz fruit with blackberry, black cherry and even slight pepper (which doesn’t usually come from Aussie Shirazes).

Palate: lovely mousse, great fruit, even some tannin although it seems like every effort has been made to keep these low. Good length.

Conclusion: impressive sparkling Shiraz, a category we need to taste more of! Available from Gelipu for RMB 228.

Rating: 17.5/20

Labels: 2003, 2005, Australia, Beaujolais, Burgundy, Drouhin, France, Gamay, Gelipu, New South Wales, OCCB, red, Shiraz, sparkling, Torres China, Trentham Estate

2006 Norton ‘Lo Tengo’ Torrontes, Mendoza, Argentina

Appearance: gold with orange tints.

Nose: distinctive Torrontes nose of lychee and mango, but not really the rose-petal or gingerbread quality of Gewurztraminer (nor the orange blossom aspect of Muscat). Torrontes is apparently related to Muscat, but it remains an Argentinian thing really.

Palate: palate was rich with strong tropical fruit, distinctive bitterness and even slightly salty in taste with low acidity, highish alcohol and some length. More pleasant on the nose than palate.

Conclusion: fascinating to taste, but we're not sure we'd want to drink a whole bottle. A good deal at 88RMB, however (from ASC).

Rating: 15.5/20

2004 Moscato d’Asti, Castello del Poggio, Piemonte, Italy

Appearance: characteristic cheerful green colour with orange tints and some sparkle.

Nose: pleasant Moscato nose of highly aromatic grapes. It certainly has not deteriorated into that geranium smell you get on oxidized Moscato d’Asti.

Palate: good fruit, refreshing acidity and balanced medium-high residual sugar.

Conclusion: we were concerned that the bottle-age – which is desirable only in very high-quality Moscato d’Asti wines – might be a problem here, but the wine had held up very well. Good and well-priced for the Beijing market at 134RMB from Palette Vino.

Rating: 16.5/20

2006 Indis Shiraz Rosé, Great Southern, Western Australia

Appearance: purple-pink.

Nose: strong strawberry and red cherry fruit on the nose and even some spice (white pepper?).

Palate: decent palate showing the same strong red fruit qualities, nice acidity and not too high alcohol (weighs in at 12.5%).

Conclusion: A real find from the Beijing wine club Big 9. Indis wines are under the flag of Forest Hill, a really good Western Australian producer. Well-priced at 165RMB.

Rating: 17/20

Labels: 2004, 2006, Argentina, ASC, Castello del Poggio, Indis, Italy, Mendoza, Moscato d'Asti, Norton, Piemonte, rose, Shiraz, sparkling, Torrontes, Western Australia, white

1995 Dom Perignon Champagne, Moet and Chandon

A gift from some very kind friends!

Appearance: medium green-gold.

Nose: Showing some development, Chardonnay-driven (seemingly) with some pleasant autolytic (i.e. toasty/yeasty) notes.

Palate: Complex on palate, with pleasant fruit, fine acidity and great length.

Conclusion: No doubt could be aged longer, but still very fun to drink right now. However, we're much more Pol Roger/Bollinger/Krug kind of people and prefer the 1995 and 1996 Pol Roger Cuvée Winston Churchill wines to this. But it’s obviously a lovely Champagne – and we can’t afford Krug anyway!

Rating: 18.5/20

Labels: 1995, Champagne, Dom Perignon, France, Moet and Chandon, sparkling

2005 Moscato d’Asti ‘La Caudrina’, Romano Dogliotti, Piemonte, Italy

Appearance: medium green gold, attractive fat bubbles.

Nose: beautiful Muscat fruit with grapey and perfumed orange aromas.

Palate: lovely fruit, more residual sugar here than on some examples, but this is matched by excellent acidity and very good length. Moscato d'Asti, although relatively sweet, should be refreshing and this is just that.

Conclusion: one of the top producers of Moscato d’Asti. Beautiful. Possibly a little young at present – other Moscato d’Asti we’ve tried in recent months have been about two years old or so. However, it's not usually worth ageing this kind of wine because it loses its aromatic fruit and tends to smell of geraniums after a while. The La Caudrina should be compared with Dogliotti's La Galeisa, another Moscato d'Asti. Would also be worth comparing both wines with the 2005 Moscato d’Asti Piasa Sanmaurizio, Forteta della Luja, possibly the greatest Moscato d'Asti we've had.

Rating: 18.5/20

Labels: 2005, Forteta della Luja, Italy, Moscato d'Asti, Piemonte, Romano Dogliotti, sparkling

NV Pol Roger Champagne

Appearance: medium gold, delicate mousse.

Nose: this is an aged bottle and showed lovely developed Pinot fruits with some strong autolytic characters (yeasty and biscuity in aroma).

Palate: fine high acidity, lovely fruit with some savoury flavours, great mousse and really good length.

Conclusion: We've been hugely fortunate in tasting all of Pol Roger's wines for a number of years on the back of our involvement in the Pol Roger Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Tasting Match (see other posts for portfolio tastings). Always impressive and the ageing of this non-vintage releases all these toasty and biscuity aromas. Fantastic.

Rating: 18.5/20

Labels: Cambridge University Blind Wine Tasting Society, Champagne, Chardonnay, France, Oxford-Cambridge Tasting Match, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, Pol Roger, sparkling

We were delighted to be able to visit Krug at their historic house in Reims, Champagne (this was before the hand-over to LVMH). Our thanks to Pascale Rousseau and also Laure Mérillon who was very informative, forthcoming and an excellent host.

The sheer number of wines and range of years that comprise the base wines for Krug’s Grand Cuvée is astonishing: often up to fifty or so wines, some as old as fourteen years blended from the Reserve stocks. Krug also keeps all its bottles for much longer before release than any other house (as well as, notably, doing the first fermentation in oak).

So by the time you drink the Grand Cuvée you are getting much more than even a sophisticated NV or some vintage wines can offer. The emphasis is all on blending and not especially on vintages. In fact, Krug only tends to make vintage wines in exceptional years. For example, the house decided not to make any vintage wines in 1992 and 1993; so there will be a lot of pressure on stocks of the 1990 (not that we can afford to buy any in any case!).

Krug Grand Cuvée

Appearance: gorgeous deep straw gold to brass colour.

Nose: very complex nose featuring apples, custard, crème anglaise, white currants, floral notes, marked Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier fruit, old oak, ‘a mixture of old and young characteristics’. Both rich (‘aged’) and very fresh.

Palate: intensely layered fruit and savoury aromas, fine high acidity and superbly delicate mousse. Very long, but a bit fierce at present.

Conclusion: amazing Champagne and one that would benefit from some further ageing in bottle, in fact.

Rating: 18.5/20

1990 Krug

Appearance: deep gold almost orange colour.

Nose: more developed nose than that on the Grand Cuvée, but you can tell a stylistic affinity between the two, even although they are very different wines in composition. Deep Pinot fruit, almost spicy, mature nose, oak, very layered.

Palate: intense and concentrated, but mellowing palate with strong Pinot-dominated fruit, great acidity, a lovely softened mousse and great length.

Conclusion: seems more ready to drink than the Grand Cuvée. Is this more approachable even than 1988 Krug? The 1988 is probably better, but both are amazing.

Rating: 19/20

Labels: 1990, Champagne, Chardonnay, France, Krug, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, sparkling

2002 Prosecco di Valdobbiadene, Extra Dry, Col de Salici

Appearance: medium green gold, attractive mousse.

Nose: intense apple and pear fruit, very pure, some mineral character.

Palate: nice mousse here, cheerful but not unsubtle; great purity of Prosecco fruit, with lovely acidity and very good length.

Conclusion: this is proper Prosecco!

Rating: 18.5/20

Labels: 2002, Col de Salici, Italy, Prosecco, sparkling, Veneto

1996 Nyetimber Classic Cuvee, England

Appearance: deepish green gold, fairly good mousse.

Nose: quite toasty and biscuity displaying considerable contact on the lees and lots of Pinot fruit, powerful.

Palate: good acidity and pleasant dosage, good length, balanced alcohol, lovely savoury fruit.

Conclusion: still on the young side really, despite the fact that Nyetimber has only just released this one after considerable ageing. Nyetimber certainly has the potential to compete with the top Grand Marques of Champagne and Champagne's top smaller growers too.

Rating: 18.5/20

Labels: 1996, Chardonnay, Classic Cuvee, England, Nyetimber, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, sparkling, white

NV Pol Roger Champagne Brut

Appearance: brilliant medium gold, delicate mousse.

Nose: some citrus, but marked with biscuity, yeasty aromas, including almonds, custard. Complex.

Palate: balanced acidity, very slight sweetness of taste (from dosage), but still dry. Lovely Pinot fruit coming through. Medium alcohol. Very well-blanced. Delicate mousse.

Conclusion: excellent balance and depth of flavour here. The assemblage is a third of each of the classic grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. This is one our favourite Grand Marques and the NV Brut, also known as 'White Foil', is capable of further bottle age. Very, very good.

Rating: 18.5/20

Labels: Champagne, Chardonnay, France, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, Pol Roger, sparkling