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DRUNK(!)

DONE THAT!

To be sure - what a pleasurable thing it was.
SuperBOWL 2003 was the second successful exercise at getting the 'UK - online' wine enthusiasts together without the aid of a modem. Held at the City Inn in Glasgow - which itself was not a bad venue - good rooms and a nice smoked haddock for breakfast!
Mr wine-pages.com (Aka Tom Cannavan) did a good job of keeping everything together with his team of 'blackshirts'; arranging a walkround tasting, 4 'workshops', and a dinner to drink whatever was left over! The most startling statistic I heard was the little matter if 75 people and 274 bottles of wine - there was also a story about a bottle of Mouton '94 which would have taken the total up to 275 - but Tom might prefer not to go into that!
Everything started on the Friday evening - or at least it did for a select bunch of people - select by virtue that they were the quickest off the mark to bag a limited place at dinner. What a dinner it was too - the super-offline was held at Braidwoods restaurant; a one-star Michelin place where the accent is definitely on the ingredients and the flavours rather than intricate presentation - nicely complimented by discrete and assured service - a pleasure indeed. Actually as well as being quick off the email-mark, you had to also supply a special bottle to accompany the meal - it really was a super wine line-up to compliment the food:
1990 Pol Roger, Winston Churchill
Broad in the nose, lots of secondary aromas. Super mousse and good length. Perhaps I expected more, but still a very good wine.
1991 Raveneau, Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot
A young looking medium yellow. Amazingly subtle nose with floral and soapy hints, something new with each sniff. Fat palate, seemingly devoid of fruit, but again super complexity and length. Seems still very young - a wine that's unlikely to shine at a large tasting - but exquisite.
1989 Domaine Niellon, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Chevenottes
Golden colour. Nose is quite honeyed. Honey on the palate too, just a little rasp of acidity on the finish. Lots of interesting points, but a wine that wasn't really 'together'
1992 Château Haut-Brion, Blanc
Most people disagreed with me, but I just couldn't get along with the pine resin and solvent nose of this wine. Despite this, once in the mouth I thought this was lovely, beautiful texture and fantastic length. For me, half a great wine!
1991 Comte Georges de Vogüé, Musigny Vieilles Vignes
Lovely colour, a deep core of bright ruby red that slowly fades to the rim. Despite a concentrated core of currants and red fruits on the nose, I thought this was just a little reserved. Completely the reverse on the palate; expansive, super intense curranty fruit, excellent acidity and super length - good tannins too. Very young and very super.
1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Richebourg
Blood red colour while decanting - looks superb in the glass; fading to amber at the rim. The many layered nose is bloody and meaty, turns a little smokey with time - already lost most of its fruit though. Unfortunately a bit more evolved than it should be, but at least there are no cooked notes. The palate has superb balance and the explosion on your tongue is hard to believe after the Musigny, but it is indeed at a higher level. By dint of the tannin clinging to your palate this wine has length to die for - special.
1961 Château Montrose
Deep colour. The nose is deep and a little inky. Medium density on the palate and a wonderful smooth ride - super balance. Not quite the length of many wines here, but an amazing 40 year old. Ignoring age, in absolute terms this is a very, very nice wine.
1983 Château Haut-Brion
Nice ruby core. Nose is a little less dense than the Montrose, but perhaps a little more complex - though does build with time in the glass. A lovely wine, which although more concentrated than the Montrose, for me at least, doesn't have the same balance - less complete if you like.
1982 Château Pichon-Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
Deeper colour. An iodine depth to the nose. The balance is just superb, slightly chocolatey on the long finish too. Whilst writing almost nothing about this wine, it was actually my wine of the night because it was the most complete wine on show - you could just keep drinking it all night. I laugh in the face of people who award 100 points to wines (apparently 'you know who' did for this), some wines tonight had more interesting noses, some wines had better length, etc., etc. However, without doubt this is a 'complete' wine.
1986 Cyril Henschke, Hill of Grace
Maybe a wine that suffered a little, but only because it followed the 'Comtesse'. I think this might have done much better directly after the Richebourg, but then again that would be a tough act to follow - old shiraz and older burgundy having many similarities. Ruby/garnet colour. The nose was just a little lifted in a volatile way, some demerara sugar notes too. The palate is just showing a little more acidity, but not enough to detract from a lovely, gently aged presentation. I liked the palate much more than the nose - lovely drinking.
1983 Château d'Yquem
Heretic! - heretic! Well it's not my fault I wasn't impressed - I don't think! Deep golden colour. Not as bad as the Haut-Brion blanc, but there's a resiny note to the the nose, although still intruiging depth - N.B I couldn't force myself to take a deeper sniff of the Haut-Brion, so some improvement here! The palate has depth and some length, but frankly I wasn't taken along on this particular ride.
1971 Hochheimer Königin Victoria Berg, Rheingau Riesling
Slipped in at the end by Toby - a cut down, but for me tastier version of the Yquem - a nice wine.
Neal Martin did a good session on 1997 Bordeaux which I came in late for, hence, missed the blind tasting bit, but came up with the following: Pichon-Lalande, quite nice. Cos d'Esournel, more astringent, less charming, though obviously very young. Ducru-Beaucaillou, more mineral and floral nose, again young and astringent. Haut-Brion, more cedary - comes through on the palate too. Intense fruit with better balance than the last two. Leoville Las-Cases, a good wine, but suffers in comparison to the Haut-Brion. Cheval Blanc, I really shouldn't have tried this at the end, seems to have much less concentration, it's certainly friendlier than the others but I expected more. - Sorry if the notes were over-long!
I did a quick session on Griotte-Chambertin - despite the crowd getting rowdy after drinking for 2 hours. I somehow seemed to taste almost no wines apart the the various Germans - which I rather enjoyed - and there was also some rotten buggers giving me wines to blind-taste in the evening - I got one right though! Chocolate and Shropshire Blue cheese was purchased from a rather fine food and wine emporium called Peckhams and then it was rally-driving all the way to Manchester Airport - but only until next year!