15 Feb 2014 - HWZ Wine Thread Feb Lunch: Raid ikileo's Cellar theme
8 of us gathered at Asia Grand for Dim Sum and Peking Duck and I pulled out 6 bottles of wine from my personal collection to drink and taste blind. This is a change from our thematic tasting to instead see what each of us are collection. We will be carrying out more of these throughout the year.
As usual food was great and the wines overall tasted pretty good.
Line-up of wines (L-R): Champagne, German Riesling, Italian Merlot blend, Australian Almost-Bordeaux Blend, Australia Shiraz, German Riesling
2008 Pierre Paillard Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Acte 1 "Les Mottelettes" - The 2nd year into Pierre Paillard's 'Act 1' project this is a 100% chardonnay champagne (champagne is made from a blend of chardonnay, pinot noir & pinot meunier). The village of Bouzy, where this producer resides in in known for their Pinot Noir but they are also know for making stunning chardonnay based champagnes as well, hence this 100% blanc de blancs is testament to their skill with chardonnay. Started off delicate, with lots of acid and builds rounded weight in the mouth. Flinty and smokey nose which opens up to citrus and bready notes.
Taken from site:
Single 1,5-acre plot planted with Chardonnay in 1961, located in the heart of our Grand Cru Bouzy vineyards.
«Mother plot» of our own vineyards, «Les Motellettes» are used for replanting our plots, according to the so-called «sélection massale». We thus perpetuate the work of our ancestors and protect the genetic identity of the Pierre Paillard vineyards, a guarantee of the House style. Basically a single vineyard blanc de blancs
2007 Schlossgut Diel Dorsheimer Goldloch Riesling Kabinett - Schlossgut Diel is the pre-eminent producer in the Nahe region of Germany. most of the famous german rieslings come from the mosel region but the owner Armin Diel has made his Nahe estate wines to match the best that Mosel can offer.
Don't mind the long label name: Schlossgut Diel is just the name of the producer/estate. Dorshiemer Goldloch are the names of the vineyards that he harvests the grapes from as each plot has their own character. Kabinett is part of a German grading system (not so much based on quality) but on the ripeness level. Kabinett wines are usually the bulk of the main harvest while other grades like Spatlese, Auslese, Trokenbeerenauslese etc... grow in sweetness.
This is his Kabinett bottling usually meant for early drinking but at 7 years old, this was still drinking incredibly fresh and vibrant and could go easily for another 5-7 years. Slightly off dry with some residual sugar, this went with a range of dim sum dishes very well. Riesling & dim sum pairing always works.
1997 Valdipiatta Trincerone Toscana IGT - an old tuscan red wine. I brought this to test it out but too bad it was too old and past it's prime. this would have been an interesting wine, a blend of Merlot and a traditional italian blending grape called Canaiolo.
2005 Lake's Folly Cabernets - I have been holding on to this bottle for almost 4 years as I knew this needed time to mature. at 9 years old this was drinking very beautifully. a lean and lighter style with lots of elegance which many people thought it was a bordeaux. it is almost a bordeaux as it does have the permitted grapes in bordeaux wines: Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Merlot. But this being an aussie wine, it had 8% of shiraz thrown in.
It's called Lake's Folly because this hunter valley estate's owner, Dr Max Lake many many years ago planted cabernet in the hunter valley when everyone was planting shiraz; hence it was Lake's Folly to plant cabernet. but this has been one of the hidden gems and red wine legends in hunter valley that only the winos really looks for. A delicious dead ringer for a beautiful bordeaux. Will easily last another 10 years.
2001 Gemtree Vineyards Shiraz Uncut - A bought this at a small shop in Holland Village shopping centre which stocks quite a bit of older aussie wines. This was their last bottle and it was quite a steal at under $50. 2001 was a spectacular year in McLaren Vale in australia. Their shiraz generally are more masculine and rich and this was no different. At 13 years old this was still packing fruit which you can imagine how explosive the fruit was when it was just released. But now it has softened with still enough structure and richness and secondary flavours with lots of coffee and chocolate note. This is the stuff you want to drink with stews and richer foods. This is one of their top shiraz.
2006 Markus Molitor Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese ** - Another German riesling. This is from the Mosel region and from the vineyards of Zeltinger and Sonnenuhr. Auslese means the sugar levels were of a specific higher level upon harvest. For this producer he uses stars * to indicate the level of sweetness. This was sweet but it wasn't coying and it had a lot of purity of fruit. Very classy and elegance with some precision in the flavour.
This wine I bought direct from the winery and had it delivered to my friend in Germany. When she came to visit me in SG a year later she brought it with her. These wines can easily last another 1-2 decades.
), i found a few good smooth light shiraz. . 
for a dessert wine. That was enough for me to buy. 
