Following on from the first instalment on Paul Jaboulet La Chapelle Hermitage in our last edition of the Asian Wine Journal, it is quite possible that I am becoming obsessed with La Chapelle and perhaps suffering from autosuggestion

My deprivation and craving to try the legendary 1990 was more than satisfied on a recent trip to France, in Bordeaux of all places! Well, at least that’s where the story begins. Participating in the 2007 en Primeur tastings, I was a guest of the Frey family, consummate hosts and my lodgings at the impeccably renovated Château La Lagune. Indeed, an auspicious circumstance if not nostalgic, recollecting my early days as a sommelier, Château La Lagune being amongst the first Bordeaux wines I cut my teeth on.

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Is there another 1961 equivalent in the offering? Cuisine & Wine Asia’s Contributing Wine Editor Curtis Marsh ponders the latest staggering auction result at Christie’s.

In conversation with an enthusiast at a recent wine dinner, the subject turned to the staggering price that a case of 1961 Paul Jaboulet La Chapelle (rouge) fetched in the latest Christie’s Fine and Rare Wine Auction in London, a whopping GBP123,750 (S$342,000) inclusive of taxes and premiums, setting a new European record for the amount paid for a single case of wine.

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Curtis Marsh confesses he cannot get enough Nebbiolo, indeed more than just a passing phase, it is becoming an obsession.

It is not often that I have a preoccupation for a single variety; after all, I do purport to have a ‘wandering palate’. I was for a period last year, fixated with Sangiovese or Chianti Classico to be more precise, having been to Tuscany twice in three months and totally besotted in the idyllic countryside and indigenous produce. Although I remain an advocate, this infatuation has diminished somewhat with the passage of time.

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