Notes from a blind tasting lunch. The December lunch usually lures out some special wines and this was no exception.

2014 Coche-Dury Bourgogne-Aligoté – ripe citrus nose with significant oak, good acidity in a lean flinty framework. Best Aligote I have tasted!

2001 Zind-Humbrecht Riesling Brand – now showing some colour, this wine had a wonderful nose of pear and almonds, juicy acidity in the mouth, finishing long and quite dry. Really excellent Riesling!

2009 Domaine Bruno Clair Marsannay Les Grasses Têtes – good fruit nose with some barnyard and spice, in the mouth tasty but a tad low on acidity. Decent, drink up if you have it, BTW, I am advised that the vineyard should not be translated as ‘Fat Heads” so I checked Clair’s website: “The origin of the name Grasses-Têtes is not well defined. This terroir, located in the middle of hillside, is composed of a very clay soil (fat land) mixed with large limestone banks (large heads).”

1979 Château Ducru-Beaucaillou – faithfully cellared by me for thirty odd years and this traitorous wine was corked! Damn – should have been good. So I pulled out my back-up, also from St. Julien.

1975 Château Branaire – I have drunk almost a case of this, one of my favourite 1975s, starting many years ago as it became progressively less hard. It is now just past peak but still offers a lot of enjoyment. It was a wpure garnet colour to the rim, and had an excellent cigar box and plum nose with faint spice hints, It was balanced and elegant and has retained sufficient fruit on palate to make it a pleasure to drink even at the age of over 40 years.

2004 Clos de Tart – undoubtedly Mommessin’s best Burgundy. Medium colour with an interesting nose that included mint, spice, some dill and a little tobacco smoke. In the mouth, it was medium bodied, showed resolved tannins and dark fruit with berry motes and was long and elegant. Great showing from a difficult vintage.

1988 Ch. La Lagune – typical claret nose, fairly dark colour, still, and some good fruit and cedar and cassis notes in the nose, as well as some ripeness, which you don’t always see in this classically structured vintage ( I like the 88s while most prefer the fatter 1990s). Excellent length and now at peak.

2000 Vergelegen – this was before they started calling this flagship wine “V”. Dark wine with a minty dark fruit nose that had us thinking of California or Oz. Plum and chocolate on palate and a lengthy minty smooth finish. Very good.

1977 Grahams Port – and no I do not call it Porto, because my bottles are not labeled that way, although I have seen Porto on some, which are perhaps later releases. Medium colour showing maturity, and a pruny sort of nose with some spicy raspberry elements, the usual Graham’s sweetness levels but well balanced and very decent length