Chateau Clinet 克里奈酒庒 2000 - Vintage is not everything 年份不是一切

Sharing wine of the day via facebook, twitter, instalgram, whats app is almost a weekend must-do in my circle of friends.

Not only once I received pictures of Clinet. Clean and flat font of word printed onto the label. Simple and easy to recall.

Finally I had a chance to taste it, from an introduction to a new wine buddy.

I said "Long to drink this. It has been on my to-try list for a while." He then sighed with a wicked smile. "I did not bring the good year along, hope this won't devastate your image to it." This is a 2000 bottle, not a good year? 

Velvet colour, with med tears.

Pungent on the nose red berries, merlot based, typical pomerol, hint of leathery and tar at the end. 

Less strong in volume and thickness in palate than what is expected from the nose. Medium acidity and medium aftertaste. Softer and rounder body after opened an hour and some bitter chocolate with more plummy taste, yet the optimal didn't last. Harsher acid right after.

What is not favorable of Bordeaux is though they are very consistent in flavors, unless there is a change in winemaker, their output depends so much of the weather / terroir. In a good year, they have excellent potential for storage and marvelous quality, in a bad year, you get similar palette yet a lot weaker and drastic drop in quality after hours, sometimes even just in minutes. However what makes the 95T vintage 2000 pomerol a worse year for Clinet?

Let's reference the score. RP87, one of the worse year in the 2000s. Reading the history, that's because the chateau has switched its owners for several rounds while vintage 2000 was from Jean-Louis Laborde who owned from 1998 and died in a car accident in 2001. Until then the successor the industrious Ronan Laborde took over and expand Clinet further in 2012. No doubt that the 2000 vintage would be a struggled year to produce good wine. Guess things have been well now in Ronan's hand.

No offense, normally within same budget, I'd rather have something less famous, and something cheaper to surprise or impress myself. Or perhaps for this new friend who in fond of Italian wine tries to drive me away from big French to cuddle the big Italian~ yea, you actually made it, and I now understand why you wear the wicked smile. 

Just that I never have been sticking to any country, I am an utopian on wine. Next time, just impress me with an Italian wine will do *wink*

First Growth Dinner - mouton 1981 2003

Seldom put aside the dishes when describing my wine dinner. Just that they weren't a good marriage in the beginning. Imagine a simple concept of having  pork companying with Cabernet Sauvignon?

Mouton 1981
Colour not reaching brick red. If not knowing the vintage, the closest guess would be 1999. Nose is very thick, slight hint of oak. Peak after opening for 2 hours, think already passed the peak. Drink immediately within the year, with mild steak or stewed beef.

Mouton 2003

Looking orange-red. However the aging of wine has not reached its peak. You can tell from the aftertaste that the ending is abrupt and not smooth. The indication of good potential is that the abrupt ending node is still swelling in mouth in a frozen state. Less potential to age ones are with deteriorating taste in palate and flat ends. Goes well with ribs and steak. However I was "enjoying" that with pig organs...mmm...

Lalande 1999

Hope I can taste it. I give away this chance to Work...well that's the source to support my luxurious wine life~

Now that I realize what matters to me is not solely the wine. It's everything that makes a dinner perfect. It's fate that I can't live a simple life with only with wine at Dai pai dong.

Wine of the day #6 - Chateau Palmer 2nd wine Alter Ego 2006

Assessment of Quality 7.5/10

Developing, entry level wine due to many primary fruit character and light in body, simple structure. Lack of complexity given most of the intensity is below benchmark, suggesting this should be the entry market level. Could not believe this could be the second wine of a Grand Cru St. Emilion class. Perhaps the vintage was not on the year when the quality is restored to Grand Cru Class as yet that the winemakers tend to put more effort on Tertre Daugay than this. 

帝苑酒店意大利餐廳Sabatini – 還是麵食實際

虛構一個名目，說是為了送別親友。說穿了，都是品嚐美食罷了。

人生當所有東西都有了限額，要求便會提高，總不能對食物敷衍了事。因此為親友選了城中著名的帝苑酒店Royal Garden – Sabatini.

傳統意大利西西里式裝修，名貴皮革沙發、各地烈酒、雞尾調酒列在車架上，還有經典的菲律賓Band隊駐場，腦袋告訴我，今晚要吃一頓傳統的意大利菜才配得上這環境。

是晚品酒列如下：

Flaccianello Della Pieve  2007 – Tuscany

Carrusades de Lafite 1996 – Pauillac

Carpene Malvolti Cuvee Brut – Prosecco

Dragon of Wine for 5 Descendants of the Dragon

Dragon – the symbol of dignity, auspicious power and respect. Chinese people are represented as “Descendants of the Dragon”. Not only is this the year of Dragon, it is also the 5^th Dragon cycle (every 12 years), which is why we had an opulent dinner, celebrating 5 dragons’ 60^th birthday.

So-called “no-budget” wine dinner ^^, I was responsible for wine selection and food pairing. Here’s the sumptuous Dragon Wine list:

1.      Billecart Salmon Extra Brut NV (France - Champagne)

2.      TaittingerPrelude Brut  NV(France - Champagne)
3.      Meursault 2006 (France – Burgundy)
4.      Caymus Special Selection 2003 (USA – Napa)
5.      Chateau Branaire-Ducru 2006 (France – Bordeaux)
6.      Errazuriz Kai 2009 (Chile – Aconcagua Valley)
7.      Niepoort Port 1952 (Portugal - Douro)
8.      Kay Brothers Amery Rare Muscat (Australia - McLaren Vale)


Level of difficulty : *** (5* is the hardest)
Before you click more, let's guess how the food matching was done?