When you don't want to drink too much...

The pandemic in the last few months has made it difficult to go out with friends, resulting in many of us retreating to dine much more at home. Were these the occasions when you wanted to have wine but then decided not because you did not feel like you could finish the whole bottle?

OK…there are now tools to help you save an unfinished bottle but many friends prefer to look for half bottles which would fit perfectly into these situations.

The challenge is that wine shops do not usually carry many good half bottles. Realizing the situation, we have sourced the following recently:

NV Krug Grande Cuvee (WS95) at $600/half – This mouth-watering Champagne shows a lovely finesse despite its power. It possesses a rich profile of crème de cassis, toasted brioche, lime blossom and singed orange peel, ending with a long and plush finish.

2010 Ormes de Pez (JS95) at $150/half – Full-bodied Bordeaux red with seductive blackberry pie, Black Forest cake plus nuances of dark chocolate and licorice, this vintage is the best from the estate for a long time.

2015 La Cabanne (JS95) at $150/half – From Pomerol (Bordeaux), this medium-bodied wine is showing lots of black fruits and fine grain tannin…already approachable and will keep for another decade.

2015 Gisocurs (JS96) at $220/half – Bordeaux estate deserving stronger recognition, with this medium to full bodied wine showing blackberry and red currants on top of roses and pencil lead, ending with a good finish.

2015 Peby Faugeres (WA98) at $460/half – Not the most well-known estate from St-Emilion but this is such a great wine with a strikingly gorgeous nose of exotic spice and blackberries, plum reserve, cherry, lavender and licorice. The palate is full-bodied and the finish deep and long. Not to be missed.

2009 Palmer (RP98) at $1,150/half – Great vintage from a great Bordeaux estate needing no introduction. This is a gorgeously good wine fit for the best of occasions.

Other than half bottles, we also have the following new additions recently:

2010 Branon (RP97) at $750/bottle – The quintessential elegant Bordeaux that is becoming a cult wine in recent years, with this one showing sensational richness and extravagant fruits. Shame that less than 8,000 bottles were produced!!!

2010 Larcis Ducasse (RP98) at $680/bottle – From one of our favourite Bordeaux producers and a superstar of this great vintage, this is an elegant and yet an unbelievably intense wine with compelling freshness and precision, offering notes of licorice, incense, smoked meat on top of black fruits.

2001 d’Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz (RP98) at $420/bottle – Perhaps the greatest example of the cuvee from South Australia, this fabulously concentrated wine has become somewhat mellower with age. Its dense black-purple/inky colour is accompanied by celestial aromas of black fruits, licorice, incense and toasted oak, with an amazing almost 1-minute finish.

We encourage you to browse our website www.vinopolis.com.hk and view our wine list. If you want to buy anything, do that through the website, or send us a request via e-mail, or WhatsApp 9195-7383. Thank you for reading…