This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
On the second day of Christmas
Continuing our list of festive fine wine picks, db’s Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay suggest another (self-assembled) mixed case to send to your true love.
Format: Here the theme is wines that are not from Bordeaux but that have, one way or another, a connection with Bordeaux and La Place de Bordeaux. Your true love might even have you identify the connection before allowing you to pull the cork – which is why this appears on the second day of Christmas (which is Boxing Day) and not on Twelfth Night! Spoiler alert: for the impatient amongst you the answers appear below.
The Bordeaux connections: Orma, from Bolgheri (here in the 2013 vintage) is a wine that is now distributed through la place de Bordeaux, even if it wasn’t in 2013. Quinta do Noval (here in the form of the delightful Colheita from 2009) is, of course, a sister property of Pibran, Pichon-Baron and Suduiraut. Kracher, too, is distributed today through la place Bordeaux – though, like Orma, the 1999 vintage long predates its first Bordeaux release. And Champagne Philipponnat’s Le Léon, though not distributed through la place, is of course the sister wine of Clos des Goisses, which is!
Yours for: Again, this will depend a little on where your true love does her shopping. Orma 2013 is available from Lay & Wheeler for just under £60. Quinta do Noval Colheita 2009 is available from Sandhams in Caistor for £62.65. Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese N °6 Grande Cuvée Nouvelle Vague 1999 is a little more difficult to source, but has a recommended retail price in the EU of €200-230 depending on country for a full bottle. Philipponnat’s Le Léon will set your true love back just a little more, typically around £185, tax and duty included.
Tasting notes
Orma (Tenuta Sette Ponti) 2013 (IGT Toscana; a blend of 50% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Cabernet Franc; 15% alcohol). Young, bright and fresh, but powerful with plenty of spice and meaty density evident from the first aromatic encounter. ‘Solaire’, as the French would say – redolent of the summer sunshine that made this what it is. But what’s especially lovely here, and slightly expectedly so, is the sense of lift and the hints of a more delicate florality that soar vertically from the glass. On the palate this is intense, dense and concentrated, with grippy, grainy, very textured tannins that are ever so slightly prickly but never harsh or aggressive. Orange zest; fresh leaf tea; mocha and leaf tobacco; lavender rolled in dark chocolate; a little balsamic note too and that authentic very coastal Tuscan saline minerality. This has aged very well and will age gracefully for a fair bit longer given the chance – but it’s tempting to pull the cork now. 95.
Quinta do Noval Colheita 2009 (Tawny Port; a very limited production and with all of the fruit sourced from the Quinta do Noval estate itself; 21% alcohol). Gloriously enticing aromatically with lots of vertical lift. Black tea, camphor, eucalyptus and dark berry fruits, maybe a hint of kirsch. Toasted almonds and fig jam, Christmas spices with a subtle hint of Swedish liquorice. On the palate that liquorice note returns. This is soft, seductive but definitively saline in its minerality. Beautifully sustained on the tapering finish by fine-grained tannins and liable to bring a smile to face of the even the most grumpy of seasonal visitors. 93.
Kracher Trockenbeerenauslese N °6 Grande Cuvée Nouvelle Vague 1999 (80% Chardonnay; 20% Welschriesling; 206.7 g/l of residual sugar and 8.4 g/l of total acidity to compensate; vinification and aging in new oak barrels for 22 months; 10.5% alcohol). Part of Kracher’s most recent library release – indeed, the oldest part! This is breath-taking and monumental as I was not the only person to notice when it was poured at an hors Bordeaux reception in Bordeaux on the eve of the September la place releases. There I tasted this from magnum; I now re-taste it from a standard bottle and, interestingly, my notes are practically identical. Now I know how this unique wine ages – very well, as it turns out! Rich and nutty, with dried and fresh fruit notes intermingling – red berry fruits, cherry and almost a hint of damson. There’s that signature saline intensity to the minerality, here almost a suggestion of nori and oyster shell – definitely iodine – and that combines with the fresh, vibrant citrus acidity to hold the extraordinary residual sugar level here in perfect balance. This finish is extraordinary and with its marine salinity and slight hint of grain it has me thinking Islay whisky! 98.
Champagne Philipponnat Le Léon 2015 (Champagne; 100% Pinot Noir; extra brut; a dosage of 4.5 g/l; disgorged in October 2023; just 3723 bottles produced). Wondrously fresh fruited. Red berry and stone fruits, notably black cherries and freshly plucked wild strawberries, elderberries and blackberries. This is graciously floral too. A suggestion of Angelica. Lifted. Light but with a disguised power and impressive concentration. There’s gentle touch of tannin too. A champagne, as ever, of great structure. Ample but chiselled, but at the same time pillowy and ethereal. It is very linear and pure on the finish, but voluptuous and soft and enveloping. The limestone minerality and sense of structure is the essence of this and the balance is wonderful. 95.
*while the second day is actually 26th December, the db offices will be shut between Christmas and New Year, so publishing in advance should give you time to get organised and stock up!
Related news
Thousands of hospitality businesses 'put on ice' by Scottish Budget