Wine dinner with London Broker

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I was invited to a dinner at the China Club today hosted by one of my wine brokers from London. They have just posted someone to Hong Kong and wanted to meet some of their clients. It was a casual BYO event so it was interesting to see what people were bringing. I invited my friend Riz to come along and it turns out my regular tasting friend Kevin was also present.

The wines were:

Billetcart-Salmon NV Brut Blanc de Blancs - reasonably easy to drink


Dom Perignon 1996 - always a pleasure to drink and the color remains incredibly light


Grosset Polish Hill Riesling (forget which vintage) - a bit harsh I thought and overly oaky, not made in the Alsace/German style which I enjoy


Grand Puy Lacoste 1996 - classic Bordeaux claret which the brokers described as the most underrated Pauillac on the market, along with Pontet-Canet. I think they are probably right but it's not made in the style that I really like


Mouton Rothschild 1996 - this is much more to my liking as it was a bit more opulent and open


Leoville Las Cases 1990 - not bad but didn't make as much of an impression on me. We discussed our common disappointment with the '82 (how could Parker rate it as a 100 pt wine?) and that we both liked the '85 as a good value wine


Araujo Eisele Vineyard 2000 - this was very elegant and opened up well, very French with grassy overtones


Pahlmeyer Red 1995 - I brought this bottle to dinner and was very much disappointed, as it clearly did not open up like my previous bottles


DRC Romanee Saint Vivant 1991 - this was nice but a bit disappointing, as I felt the nose had a bit of cooked fruit and indicated perhaps poor storage conditions? The label was stained


Emanuel Rouget Echezeaux 2000 - honestly a bit disappointing as the nose faded fairly quickly and the alcohol/minerals became a bit sharp


JL Chave Hermitage Rouge 1983 - this was clearly the wine of the evening for me. The nose was gorgeous and it really showed what a good Rhone should be

Overall it was a good evening...look forward to more of them!