Clos de La Roche: 1985

9 Aug 2013: We picked the Rainbow Restaurant at Hotel Indigo, Wanchai as our venue for the 1985 Clos de La Roche show-down between Ponsot and Dujac (the bottles!).  For a Friday night, the Rainbow Restaurant was not too busy, but this served us perfectly well, as we could have a larger table to accommodate our bottles and glasses!  Service was friendly and professional at the restaurant.  There was generally good glassware but perhaps they could invest in a few Burgundy glasses for future visits!

Signature Prawn Dish

Food was rather tasty.  I had ordered the signature prawn dish, which I spotted in the SCMP write-up a few months ago....it was elegantly presented and the prawn tasted very fresh but the sweet and tangy sauce made the pairing with our wines rather challenging - this would have gone better with a late harvest Riesling or Riesling Grand Cru from Alsace for example.  The rest of the dishes worked better with our wines: roast pork belly, with crispy skin and very succulent meat, with the fat melting in your mouth!  Crispy salt and pepper frog's legs were also well executed. The sweet and sour pork was also a highlight - pork pieces not too fatty, coated with a light batter, was not oily at all, and married perfectly with the traditional sweet tangy sauce and pineapple.  The spring onion and soya sauce chicken was really tasty - the chicken meat was tender, and soaked up the spring onion and soya sauce in every bite!  I had ordered a wild mushroom and Angus beef stir fry - also nicely done.  For vegetables, the restaurant offers a choice of local vegetables or Australian organic vegetables.  I went for the stir fried Australian organic spinach.  It was really delicious, full of taste and also still retaining the crunchy texture.  We finished with deep fried noodles and pork - again the chef perfected this with a most delicate touch - it did not taste greasy at all, just very crispy noodles with nicely flavoured sauce.

As for the wines, we started with 1995 Leflaive Puligny Montrachet Les Pucelles. Medium gold in colour. Initially I thought the wine tasted a little dull and uninteresting, amid suspicions of oxidation. However, it perked up with aeration.  Nutty, liquorice, white chocolate, fig, honey and quince.  Still retaining a good dose of acidity to keep the balance against the richness.  Rich, still well structured, perhaps a little heavy for some. I would probably advise drinking up. 17/20

The 1999 Raveneau Chablis Les Clos was a modest pale lemon in colour.  Expressive on the nose, especially when it had arrived a little warm, with notes of lime blossom, citrus, green apple, white peach and almond.  A little more austere on the palate, steely and racy, with more saline and minerally notes appearing at the finish.  Nice concentration for the vintage.  This opened up further during the course of dinner.  Drink now and over next 5 - 6+ years.  18/20

The 1985 Ponsot Clos de La Roche Vieilles Vignes was much more evolved than we had expected.  The mature bouquet of prune, animal, savoury, mushroom and humus notes, with some blackberry notes,was added a hint of caramel and even nail varnish, according to Richard.  Seductive, velvety on the palate, with very lush and dense flavours.  There was less vigour and freshness on the palate, than expected.  A wine to be drunk now.  There might not be much upside and it seemed to be showing some signs of decline at this tasting. (Storage might have accounted for this bottle variation because the last bottle that Richard had was not like this, even if it was only a couple of years ago.) 17/20

The 1985 Dujac Clos de La Roche was quite different altogether. A much fresher bouquet, consisting of floral, truffle and savoury notes, still with the hint of caramel.  Much more delicate than the Ponsot, in terms of structure and intensity of flavours.  Less generous on the palate.  A little dryness on the finish.  A nicely mature wine, still showing some finesse, but perhaps not one to hold out for much longer.  Drinking up would be recommended.  16.5/20

One of our friends sneaked in a 1990 Leroy Clos de La Roche.  This was a much more robust and structured wine, without the finesse of the other 2 wines.  Dense and intense flavours of black fruit and spice.  Initially, there was even a slight metallic note which blew off after a while. Quite austere still. Could do with a little bottle age or aeration.  Finishes long.  18/20

This tasting seems to be me rather inconclusive.  We should look at doing a more comprehensive tasting of 'Clos' wines over a period to get a better sense of the Morey Saint Denis Grands Crus.