TN: Christmas Day Wines

[JonoB]

2008 Chateauneuf-du-Pape; Domaine de Sénéchaux
herbs, garrique, strawberry, blood, iron, red plum and hints of cherry; nice freshness and good poise and balance. Good concentration and depth; fairly complex but in no way cloying or overly ripe; cassis and pepper underly the more perfumed red fruits. A really lovely wine and an excellent effort although some may think of this as dilute! Grass, sage, and a hint of liquorice. I really like this... ****(**+) or [3.5+4+4.5+4.5=16.5+/20]  

2002 Dom Pérignon
sulphur and reduction, lemons, chalk and burnt/smokey bacon, pork fat, but lean, crisp and focused, apples, minerals, wonderful poise with good concentration. This need a lot of time to really sing, but there is so much potential and has nice length. A bit of nutty, lanolin should pop through with more bottle age. Somehow it has similar whispering characters to the Josephine but perhaps with less obvious fruit and more backwardness! This will be a stunner in time. ***(****+?) or [3.5+4.5+4.5+4=16.5+++/20 potentially 19/20]