Solihull Fine Wine Society, May Tasting.

Champagne and one ringer. An hour before the tasting my son rang and
announced our first grandchild had arrived, a boy, and how appropiate a
tasting, and I was being driven.

My wife and I will open something fizzy tonight.

All blind as usual.

Pol Roger NV, pale with fine mousse, perry bisquit nose, good fruit and
apples and pears, good acidity, a very refreshing fizz for a warm summers
lunch.

Pol Roger 1990, a dullish pale gold, maderised, but still drinkable,
just...............a great pity

Pol Roger 1996, bright straw, praline apple nose with a fresh dry palate,
pleasant, needs more time!!

Wine Soc ( UK only) Le Mesnil Blanc de blancs, 1990, bright straw, a complex
nose of pastry and coffee creams, magnificent entry, fulland fat, bounced
off your hard palate and filled your mouth with fruit and a hint of spice.
Very long and very good.

Alfred Gratien 1996, very pale, but a wonderful mature complex nose with
layers of honey, almonds and pastry, soft mousse with all in balance, long
.....a pointe now.

Veuve Cliquot, La Grande Dame 1990 pale with green tinge, strange mature
nose, oxidative hints and odd, some perry on palate but then someone
mentioned the dreaded word....Corked? Heated discussion on corked fizz but
most agreed once the word had been mentioned that it was corked. I have
never had a corked champagne.

Mumm Grand Cordon 1990, a real sexy looker, complex nose of fruit cake, mint
and cinnamon, superb full fat palate with great acidity, very long, my 3rd
WOTN

Lindauer Special Reserve NV, NZ. pale pink, organic ****pot pinot, good
fruit and spice, a really enchanting wine and my 2nd WOTN, I put it down as
a grand marque old rose, it had been cellared for 4 years nad can still be
bought GBP 8 in the UK. In fact Rowland, the host ordered 4 cases this
morning.

Prestige Cuvee Perrier Jouet " Belle Epoque" 1990, what a looker, sang in
the glass, sparkled, a farmyard marshmallow nose with layers of complexity,
then a rich full fat fruity mouthful that was a tad flabby, " You call this
flabby, it is magnificent, but it needs food" said one member, chacun son
gout??

Bollinger Grand Annee, 1990, deep gold with fine mousse, even brighter than
the Belle Epoque, yeasty spice nose which was breathtaking in its complexity
and pungency. A big rich mouthful of fruit and some spice, huge and so
long. A ball breaker, a mans wine, not for the feeble!! For myself and
others the WOTN

This tasting was really hard work, made more difficult in that you do not
drink GBP 70-200 sparkling wines very often, Many of the wines had been
cellared for over ten years by Rowland in his cellar at 11C,

If we went out to buy these wines today ( if you could find them ), then
according to wine searcher the tasting would have cost..............GBP 833
for 10 wines.

As someone said " this not champagne, this vintage champagne from great
years and is a totally different wine"

The NZ UK readers, now on offer at Majestic at
http://www.majestic.co.uk/find/keyword-is-lindauer

put it away for a few years

John T