Te Koko vertical

Dinner at Island Tang.

First flight:

2004 Cloudy Bay Te Koko - very strong muscat, white grape, a bit of minerals, a little ripeness, and a little more oxidized and rounded.  Metallic, like white asparagus from a jar.  Smoky and toasty oak.  This is certainly more complex than the younger vintages, and shows the evolution of the wine with time.  My favorite Te Koko of the evening.

2005 Cloudy Bay Te Koko - green apple, muscat, a bit more pungent with a little flint.

2006 Cloudy Bay Te Koko - more pungent nose with sulfur, pipi de chat, and green apple.

Second flight:

2007 Cloudy Bay Te Koko - flinty, a lot of oak, pipi de chat and sulfur.  Didn't detect any of the typical fruity notes...

2007 Ram's Hill - soft, butter and sweet.  A bit more metallic, a little bit of pear, muscat, a little floral, and almost jackfruit.  A very lovely wine.  Trounced the Te Koko tonight.

2008 Dog Point Section 94 - oaky, toasty, straw and popcorn.  In a blind tasting, I would have picked it as a white Burgundy and not a Sauvignon Blanc...  Very different in style to the others.

Full post on dinner is here.