I am keenly aware of Purple pagers' thirst for reviews of more mature wines, as opposed to the thousands of reviews of young wines that are available on this site. As I explained recently in TNs – housekeeping announcement, I really am trying to get into the habit of entering notes on the wines I come across at the dining table into our database more regularly in addition to those taken during a hard working day at the tasting table.
You can see, for example, if you go to Tasting notes search and enter some very recent dates in the Date of publication fields at the bottom of the panel on the right, some of the wines I had the pleasure of trying this last weekend.
In the light of my rather critical comments about Napa Valley Cabernets published on Saturday in Ridge – a California exception, I opened a couple of examples from the early 1990s and was delighted to find the Long Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 1993 Napa Valley in absolutely ripping form, showing just how much distinctive character some of the Valley's hillside vineyards have.
On Friday, thanks to specialist importer Patrick Grubb, I had the chance to taste the madeira shown here that is so old and rare that no-one, not even specialist writer on madeira Alex Liddell, knew exactly how old it was.
It was also a great treat to compare Dom Pérignon Rosé in from the 1998 and 2000 vintages, and by chance to encounter at two different meals two very fine whites from Wittmann in Rheinhessen. (Dom P's box and label continue to become snazzier and snazzier for successive vintages, by the way.)
Then there were the two old-vine Barossa Valley wines from Kaesler which arrived too late for the tasting I reported on in The oldest vines in the world? These were hugely (and I mean hugely) impressive.
And finally, a late entrant into our extensive coverage of 1,400+ 2008 burgundies, a range of really rather impressive whites, mainly Meursaults, from Dom Bitouzet-Prieur. To find them, just put Bitouzet in the Free text search box in the Tasting notes search.
The only rather sobering (if that is the right word) thought is my realisation that these tasting notes most recently added to the database represent by no means all of the wines I tasted and/or drank since last Friday lunchtime. But I will try to ignore that worrying realisation and instead try to continue to add as many reviews as possible directly to our rapidly expanding collection of tens of thousands of tasting notes.
Furthermore, in the spirit of providing more reviews of mature wines, I hope you enjoy this week's theme: older bordeaux.