Oeno at home: tasting wines from this high-end wine company

This time last year I went to an amazing tasting at Landing 42 of the Leadenhall Building in London. It was for OenoTrade, and it featured some amazing wines and masterclasses as they launched this new venture in style.

This year it was done remotely, with 12 small-bottle samples and a full-sized bottle of Champagne delivered in a fancy white coffin-like box. I’ll write up the Champagne separately (it was really good), but here are my notes from the sample bottles. [A couple of the wines aren’t scored because I wasn’t confident in the sample.]

Chateau de la Rouliere Anjou Blanc Les Terrasses 2018 Loire, France
Rounded and fruity with a grainy structure and some notes of honey and citrus. Seems a bit tired and flat. Not sure of this sample.

Freemark Abbey Chardonnay 2019 Napa Valley, California
Appealing nose of peach, nuts and some crystalline lemons. The palate is soft, smooth and rounded with nice pear fruit and some fine spicy characters. Stylish and textural, this shows really good balance and a smooth, rounded character. 93/100

Lamy-Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot 2017 Bourgogne, France
Honey, nuts, pears, apple and spice, with a core of good acidity. Has a stony, attenuated character on the palate. I’m not quite sure of this sample.

Domaine des Beaumont Chambolle Musigny Les Chardannes 2018
This shows lovely ripe, sweet berry and cherry fruits, with an open character and some firm tannins on the finish. It has a sour cherry edge. Lovely fruit intensity here, with sweetness and purity, countered by nice freshness. A touch of bitterness on the finish. 93/100

Daniel Twardowski Spätburgunder Hofberg GG 2018 Mosel, Germany
Elegant and fresh with bright strawberry and raspberry fruit. Fresh with good acidity and some tannin. Linear and direct, this has a bright future ahead of it, with raspberry crunch on the finish, as well as a touch of sour cherry. 94/100

Liber Pater Denarius 2018 Bordeaux, France
This has a clay-like edge to the powerful, concentrated blackcurrant and blackberry fruit, with a stony core to the dense fruit. There’s a hint of green here that integrates really nicely into the savoury-edged, intense, clay-like palate. I really like this: edgy and intense, with a core of lovely fruit. 94/100

Silver Heights Emma’s Reserve 2018 Ningxia, China
50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Merlot. This is plush and ripe, with some sweet rounded slightly jammy blackberry fruit countered by some notes of green blackcurrant. Concentrated with a lushness hemmed in by some salty hints and green notes. Not particularly tannic with a smooth, grainy structure. Lots to like here. 92/100

Tenuta di Arceno Chianti Classico Riserva 2016 Tuscany, Italy
Dense, quite structured, but with plush black cherry and blackcurrant fruit. There’s a lovely fruit core here: it is fresh and quite detailed, with nice fruit sweetness. Accessible and also with a hint of seriousness. I really like it: modern Chianti Classico. 92/100

Dominio de Es Vinas Veijas de Soria 2018 Ribera del Duero, Spain
Concentrated and dense with sweet berry fruits and a bit of firm tannic grip. There’s some well integrated oak, bringing some sweet vanilla and cedar notes as well as some structure. This is concentrated and impressive with lots of everything. Not my favourite style but impressive none-the-less. 93/100

Graceland Vineyards Three Graces 2013 Stellenbosch, South Africa
Savoury and drying, this has firm blackberry and blackcurrant fruit with some appealing evolution. Notes of earth and leather with some smoked meat and charcuterie notes alongside the fruit. 90/100

Chateau Belle-Vue Le Chateau 2012 Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux
This is really good: it’s quite structured with nice blackcurrant and berry fruit, with some chalky underpinnings and nice freshness. It’s quite concentrated with some brightness. This is a really good. 93/100

Cervantes Blacktail 2017 Napa Valley, California
Great concentration here with sleek but well proportioned with intense blackcurrant and blackberry fruit supported by oak. Grainy, a bit ashy, quite delicious with some firm structure. Impressive, in a modern style. 93/100