Best Schmest

So it seemed like an idea to do a best of 2008 list. But I inspected my notebooks, and discovered that there are actually two lists - the best wines, and those which gave me the most pleasure. Which leaves me wondering what best really means.

Leaving that tricky problem aside, I here present, in no particular order, my top six, extracted from the 1008 listed in my notebooks.

Murdoch James 'Saleyards' Syrah '06. I haven't tasted any other syrah which combines the lightness and intense sweet spiciness of this wine. And at twenty quid, it's not utterly out the window.

i Clivi 'Brazan' Tokai Friuliano / Malvasia '03. Brazan makes the cut for reasons of eccentricity, I suppose. And me being partial to a fair degree of oxygen. Tallasavan would not approve, but Puddleglum probably has a six pack of this under his bed.

Château Cantenac-Brown Margaux '01. This particular bottle was truly singing - second-growth quality, really - with a remarkable freshness and a lovely light floral character.

David Duband Gevry-Chambertin 'En Reniard' '05. A truly Burgundian wine, ethereal and difficult to pin down - the more so in that my notes, although they rave, don't bring it even faintly back to mind.

Carmes de Rieussec Sauternes '05. The second wine of Château Rieussec rather falls into both my 'best of' lists, because we had it with some Roquefort. Sweet-salty perfection, but somehow the honey, wet leaf, and marmalade notes are in harmony too.

Hegarty Chamans No 2 '04. This one gets on my list because it has Carignan in the blend, and because the winemaker, Sam Berger, seems happy to let the Carignan run naked and unfettered through the herb meadows of funky wildness.

All but one of the wines on this list are five-pointers. I leave it as an annoying exercise for the reader to figure out which one ain't - but there is a vinous prize for the first correct guess posted as a comment.

Got the sauternes bleues

Or bleues sauternais, peut-être?

After the d'Yquem glory of last week, it seemed the obvious next step was Château de Rayne Vigneau 1988.

In the glass the wine was glowing, luminous gold, brighter than any wine I can think of. On the nose it was powerful bitter oranges, with an earthy leaf-mold undertone. On the palate there was marmalade, intense sweetness and acidity, beautifully balanced. The finish was very very long, and as fresh as grape juice (sixteen year old wine, egad). A solid 16/20.

But it wasn't d'Yquem. Hand on heart, I do really have to say, it is worth paying the ridiculous, horrendous price, in order to experience the intensity of d'Yquem.

Easy Quem, easy go

Mwahahahahahahahaa! I have seen the future, and it is skint. But I don't care, for I have tasted the nectar of the gods. Also, the ambrosia. And when I say ambrosia, I do not mean rice. Oh no. d'Yquem and roquefort for tea, that's me.

I'm sorry to say that I have got in with a bad crowd. I don't know who started it, The Big Egg or SmallFierceGlasses, but once the idea was floated, there was a certain unavoidable Juggernautiness about it. ThisYear'sTallAustralian was simply rolled over. I feel slightly bad about that, but only ever so slightly, for I have supped of the sap of the lotos, the blessed fluid that goes by the earthly name of Chateau d'Yquem '96.

A rich dark gold in colour, and with an intense aroma of seville orange marmalade - but with an underlying hint of earthiness, the wine (wine! There should be another word for such a superior substance as this) was sweet, powerfully acid, almost smoky-seeming, the flavour of marmalade being joined by a hint of butteriness. But so fresh. Eight years old, it might have been vinified only this month.

We drank it, in part, on bended knee, and on reflection, we ought to have sent out for hats, in order that we might doff them.

Chateau d'Yquem '96 18+/20.