Beaune 1er Cru les Marconnets - Maison Remoissenet 2009

Expect to see more good reports on this Beaune house over coming years. It changed hands in 2005, and since, a key character from Louis Jadot (Bernard Repolt) has joined the team. 2009 was a pretty good year in the region. Fruit all round is fairly concentrated and deeply coloured, and it's expected to cellar well in the short-medium term (acid is in the main a little low, so although tannins are good, long-term cellaring might not pay off so well)

This partiular one is from Les Marconnets, a sub-region of Beaune, just out of town, and carrying Premier Cru status.

Pieropan Soave 2011

There's a whole heap of Soave out there that makes it hard for any decent producerer in the region to charge a reasonable amount for their product. It's a bit like all that $5 Australian Chardonnay, in that it's created a niche for itself that is broadly "tastes OK for a cheap wine". And so, we can buy any number of Soaves off the Dubai shelf for about 30AED - they've got a little in the way of aromatics, some zing, and are always good with food (probably because they are so watery and neutral).

But just like Aussie Chardonnay, that's not what Soave is really all about. It's about a grape called Garganega, which, when made well, has an intense level of natural spice, is fragrant and floral, and has a long and flavoursome finish full of citrus and stone fruit. In the Soave Classico DOC, where this Pieropan wine hails from, the alluvial soils are less fertile than on

Martin Codax Albarino 2011

Warm straw coloured. Wow - smashing banana lollies on the nose, giving way to pineapple and herbs, very aromatic. Palate has citrus and apricot and some ever so-subtle lean grassiness. Finish is lemon pie and minerals. Slightly oily on the palate, in a good way - makes it very gluggable. Nice and dry, and an excellent alternative to give all my Sauvignon Blanc loving friends when I'm sick to death of New Zealand gooseberries and cats pee. Drink with grilled fish with a salty charcoal crust.

Drink Now
15/20
70 AED + Tax

Veuve Cliquot Demi Sec NV

This was served out of decanter in this occasion to limit bead and improve texture match with paired dessert. Sweet of course, lemon-puff and candied peel style with soft marshmallow and white peach middle. Slightly creamy, and a little honeyed/mineral. Slightly short on the finish, but that's pretty common with a dessert fizz. Partnered beautifully with dessert of yellow peaches, raspberries and cream.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>> 

Drink Now
15/20
295 AED + Tax

Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame 1998

Gorgeous. A big yeasty nose with a slap-in-the-face character of honey and butter on hot toast. Threads of hair-thin bead trail in the glass. Lovely mineral/autolytic palate with a finish of strawberries and rhubarb laced with malt and sherbet. This wine blew me away in the lineup of several champagnes, for it's length - which just went on for minutes - and superb development.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>> 

Drink Now
18/20
1015AED + Tax

Veuve Cliquot Vintage Reserve 2004

The Vintage Brut resents dryer and crisper than the NV, with more bready character and a concerntration on mineral and savoury characters with some reserved green apple fruit. Slightly austere in flavours, but the body makes this wine more of a mouthful than other aperitif style Champagnes. Will probably age quite nicely too.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>>  

Drink over 5 years
16.5/20
AED 375 + Tax

Veuve Cliquot Vintage Rosé 2004

Similar fruit to the NV (strawberries, red currant) but more toasty and yeast dominated, and plenty of vanilla on the nose. There is a huge candy hit in the mid-palate that some will love (I however found it disturbed the balance a little), and makes it a great Champagne for food - Christmas turkey would be perfect. Trophy winner Decanter World Wine Awards.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>> 

Drink Now or over 3-4 years
15.5/20
450AED + Tax

Veuve Cliquot Rose NV

Generous red fruit on the nose, voluptuous palate full of wild strawberries and biscuit. Lovely length. Slight sweetness (only marginal, it's still a dry wine) and very fine bead. Explosive flavour, very good value.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>>

Drink now or over 2 years
17.5/20
345AED + Tax

 

Veuve Cliquot Brut NV (Yellow Label)

Plenty of mousse and a warm but pale gold colour. Current bottling seems a little lighter in character than some years. It can be a very broad and yeasty Champagne, but is very nicely balanced at present. Nutty, brioche, red apple.  Not overly dry, and a good introduction to Champagne.

From "Champagne in the Brain" a fizzy rundown of ranges of Veuve Cliquot, Joseph Perrier, Laurent Perrier, Taittinger and Bollinger, April 2013. Read more>>

Drink Now
16.5/20
295AED + Tax
(buy it on special - the price varies greatly)

Zenato Santa Cristina Vigneto Massoni Lugana 2011

It's Trebbiano, Jim, but not as we know it. There are some who would say it's not Trebbiano at all, but something else, closer to Vermentino, but not quite that either. Lugana is a tiny region that runs along the shore of Lake Garda in Veneto, and there are a couple of wines styles from the region, but all come from the same grape, Trebbiano (or it's little sister).

It's so much richer and more vibrant than the slightly nutty but fairly neutral Trebbianos you might find elsewhere. Instead it's perfumed and slightly floral, and also a little like a vanilla tea cake. I'm not quite sure where this vanilla/cake flavour comes from though, because the wine is completely unoaked. The palate reveals a little sneaky citrus - almost like a clementine but so soft, and then bending into white peach and orange blossom. It finishes with just a touch of green almond.

Fantastic food wine, but keep the dishes fresh and simple - chicken caesar salad, grilled white fish, or for a contrast, a gentle triple brie with some herb crackers - you know the kind of thing. Lovely, lovely wine.

Drink now or for 1-2 years
60AED + tax
17/20

Jacobs Creek Reserve Riesling 2007

Well, this was a find. Usually I would veer away from any white older than 3-4 years for sale in the UAE (except perhaps a super dooper white that is in the temperature controlled cabinet), due to the storage issues - I've had more than a couple of cooked whites from 2009 this year. But, this wine was under stelvin (screw cap), and I know it well - it ages very nicely, and 2007 was a long cool ripening season for the Barossa region where this comes from - making it a good Riesling candidate for a little extra time in bottle. Besides, I was nostalgic for Aussie Riesling, and this was all I could find.

This time I hit the jackpot - kinda. It's a great example of what happens to Riesling when it ages - it's got that slightly resinous/waxy character that many call petrol - but it's not petrol at all. It's hard to describe. In fact, it would be better to compare it to the smell of lemon essential oil as compared to fresh lemon. Imagine that's what's happened to your fresh floral limey riesling. It's more savoury, more concentrated than the real thing, and sitting a little off-tangent. This oily texture and slightly lanolin nose is accompanied by a little toast (from age, definitely not oak).

Then we get into the fruit. It's still there in buckets - mainly lime of course, with the last lingering floral nuance, which will probably disappear over the next year and be replaced by a dried saffron and then hay character, which is already creeping in. Right before the finish you get a saline/mineral hit. The downer with this wine is that the end is a little short. The acid is still darling, but I was kind of hoping that I'd get a little honey and toast to finish me off. That doesn't really happen - heaps of limey essential oil and a whisper of marmalade.

Ah well, you can't have it all. This wine is very cheap for its quality, and I doubt you'll ever find another aged Aussie Riesling on a Dubai shelf. Get in quick - there's not much left (MMI).

Drink Now
AED 59 + tax
16/20

Fleur Du Cap Unfiltered Semillon 2012

Ok - this is nothing like the Semillons back home (Oz, where they're lean and grapefruity or toasty and linseedy). Nor is it anything like the Semillon blends from France (lean again, with grass and citrus and a little honey, unless of course it's botrytised and that's a whole different ball game). It's uniquely South African, I suppose, but having tasted very little varietal Semillon from the country (it only makes up about 1% of total wine grape production for SA), I couldn't say that with much authority.

It's unusual - medium bodied, milky, with some sweet oak, and finishing only just off-dry. There's a little sweet oak and some nice leesy nuances, and then a whiff of sulphur that isn't off-putting in the slightest - more savoury and funky, showing some thoughtful winemaking. It's Chardonnay in disguise, I believe, but the fruit is more floral and pear-like, so not completely pulling it off - which is probably a good thing - after all, there's plenty of Chardys around, and it's lovely to try something a little novel.

Drink now or for 2 years
50AED (purchased tax free)
15/20

Danie De Wet Limestone Hill Chardonnay 2011

Well, Wine-Ed-101 will tell you that limestone and good wines go together, so I picked this up hoping it wasn't a marketing campaign to make a hill full of stones and planted with lime trees, sell. Lucky, it's not. And, it's quite a lovely surprise. This wine is for those who love their Chardonnays with a real punch. It's that free-draining gravelly soil taking water away from the vine and concentrating the berries. It's absolutely choc-a-bloc with flavour. The nose is lusciously leesy - yeast, butter, vanilla and nuts - like walking past a bakery that's just taken almond croissants out of the oven. The fruit hits after a little sweetness on on the front palate - mainly green apples and white peach. The flavour on finish is a little short, but it's worth it for that tongue smack, and at least the acid plays nicely around the mouth, preventing all those rich and slightly sweet flavours from cloying.

Drink now or for 2 years
AED 55 + tax
15.5/20

Lamblin Chablis Fourchaumes 2010

This Chablis is from a lovely vintage and a very well rated premier cru. Fourchaumes is one of the better crus to start with after trying a few village Chablis - it doesn't break the bank, drinks fairly well early, and usually shows that extra depth of minerality that you don't get so much in the village wines. But this particular one is a step beyond. Maybe I just opened it at the perfect moment, but this is one of the best wines I have had all year.

It's powerful nose is intoxicating enough - green apples, sage, cinnamon, even a little green mango, but what gets me most is the finish. After a mouth-filling, slightly creamy and intensely peachy middle, it stretches into a generous seam of lime, saline, honeysuckle and minerals that just keeps on going and going until it reaches throughout your entire nervous system. Oh my god - weak at the knees stuff, you can taste it even a minute after you've swallowed it. Now, I know I bought it at Duty Free in the Airport, and I can tell you that the price should be about 200AED, but I'm pretty sure it's quite a bit less. You might even pick it up in the UK for just over 20 quid.

Drink Now or save for 4 years +
170AED (approx - sorry, I forgot!)
18.5/20

Duval-Leroy Brut NV

This Champagne is far too cheap. It's only 2/3 the price of Moet and yet its better - well, it is for those who like a richer style of fizz anyway. It's a very complex champagne, and delivers all round. Nose is almonds, apples and honey. Front palate bursts with red delicious and burnt sugar, middle palate is toasty with hints of redcurrant and gorgeously round. The finish is long, and spicy like a figgy pudding. It's a fantastic aperetif, being a meal in itself, yet its fullness means it will even deliver with a fruit and pastry based dessert like tarte tartin. Bargain Champagne. Also comes in 3 x 200ml packs at Dubai duty free for emergency Oh-God-I need-a-good-wine-in-my-lonliness moments.


Drink now or for 2 years
145AED + Tax (purchased at a duty free outlet)
16.5/20


PS - pronunciation is doo val lair hwah

Cattier Premier Cru Brut Rose NV

One of the least expensive rose champagnes on a Dubai shelf. And dirham wise, for a pink champers it does well. Strawberries and cream style up front, bursting with flavour, then tapering (possibly a little to quickly) to some toast and molasses development. Finish a little short, but its  nice and dry. The lack of complexity and length mixed with the oomphy front palate and bargain price is a trade off that essentially ends in value. At under 200aed this is a fab celebratory wine, especially for those who are considering the choice between big brand blanc brut and a cheaper rose.

Drink now
14/20
175AED + tax (purchased at duty free outlet)