Pernand-Vergelesses 1er cru Sous Fretille 2007, Rapet Pere et Fils

The other night we treated ourselves to this Pernand. I cunningly didn't look up beforehand where it had come from or how much it cost, so as to minimise preconceptions. I was also not entirely clear about where P-V actually is. Checking the yellow book reveals that it's near Aloxe and Ladoix.

It had been living in the fridge for the past 2 weeks (uncharacteristic self-control on my part!) so it was very cold. I decanted it half an hour before G got home.

It was a pleasing light straw colour as you can see. I found it rather dumb on the nose, possibly due to the excessive refrigeration.

On the palate it was quite sharp and austere - a refreshing wine - more Puligny than Meursault - but there was some honey there too. It had great length. G thought it was fabulous while I thought it was merely very nice, so we had a divergence when it came to scoring - he thought it was a 9 whereas I was stingy and only gave it an 8, so that's what it will get on the giant spreadsheet.

Talking to him about it later in the week, we think it may have been the "getting home after work on a hot day to find a lovely cold glass of white wine waiting" effect that caused him to rate it so highly. Tchah! I would never let such factors influence my judgement... Anyway, winter now appears to have arrived so we won't have that problem again in the near future.

We thought this was £25 wine and when I checked afterwards, I found that it cost 29 euros so that was pretty spot on. It came from Mon Millesime in Beaune. All in all, good stuff but I shan't be rushing to have more when there are so many other premier crus out there!

Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire vertical!

The other night after a hard day at work I succumbed to temptation and cracked open a bottle of my 2006 Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire. Shortly afterwards, G appeared and informed me that he had opened a bottle of (NB my) BGO 2005 downstairs the previous evening and still had some left. Immediately the light bulbs flashed on and a vertical tasting ensued.

Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire isn't something you see much of and I've just attempted to find out what the definition is, without much success. Basically it's a mixture of pinot noir and gamay, so it's a bit like a passetoutgrains, but passetoutgrains has to be at least 1/3 pinot, whereas I'm not clear if any such restriction exists for BGO.

Both of these wines came from Domaine Michel Martin, who happens to be the owner of the gite we have stayed in several times in Chorey-les-Beaune. I've tasted there twice and always enjoyed it very much. Monsieur Martin is always twinkly and welcoming and his wines are quite humble but delicious of their type.

Recently I acquired a mixed case of the 2005 and the 2006. The 2006 (on the left) has a vibrant red colour and is smooth, relatively light and very quaffable. My only quibble is that I get a slight stemminess on the finish. However, having been out in Burgundy for the 2006 harvest, we saw that a lot of the grapes were full of rot, so to produce something this good from that vintage is actually quite an achievement.

The 2005 is a darker, murkier, plummy colour. It has perhaps greater intensity and is well-rounded. Weirdly, we've discovered it gets better a day after opening. 2005 was a fabulous year for burgundy so I would predict that the 2005 BGO would beat the 2006, but what is surprising is how good the 2006 actually is.

Label detectives will note that the label underwent quite a transformation between the two years. Think I preferred the old one - the inverse law of labels means that this probably bodes well for the future! Hope he produced some BGO in 2009...

Sunday lunch in Brixton, 12th Sept

Last Sunday G and I went round to ACC's pad in Brixton for lunch. It was an absolutely beautiful autumn day, and there were lots of goodies on the menu!

We kicked off with a comparison of two whites, my Bouzereau Meursault 2002 and an Auxey-Duresses 1995 from Domaine Veronique de MacMahon provided by ACC. The Bouzereau was its usual self and I have blogged about it before so won't go over it again. The Auxey was fascinating. It had a nose of lemon and honey. I think if I'd been tasting it blind I would have mistaken it for a riesling, as it had a core of lime juice acidity. Very vibrant and we all liked it. It made the Meursault seem quite fat by comparison. Check out the classy wax seal!

Then we had a comparison of two reds: a Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Abbaye de Morgeot 2006 from the Marquis de MacMahon provided by ACC versus an Echezeaux (grand cru) 1997 from Denis Thomas which I brought along.

The Chassagne was lovely - a gorgeous ruby colour. Very pretty and scintillating. It was classic Chassagne and reminded me why this is my favourite style of red burgundy, perfumed and elegant. We gave it a 9 for premier cru project purposes. Which, consulting my giant spreadsheet just now, is remarkably consistent as we had a half of the 2001 a couple of years ago and gave it an 9. Pleasing.

The Echezaux was rather a mystery as I picked it up for a bargain basement price at a recent auction. We weren't familiar with the producer but made the assumption that you don't get to produce grand cru burgundy unless you have some idea what you're doing (with perhaps one notable exception ahem) and it didn't disappoint. It was browner than the Chassagne, not surprising given its age, and more meaty on the nose. Rich, serious, delicious, intense, and mellow. That's probably enough adjectives. ACC liked the label and in particular the way the E of Echezeaux is in red. That's very classic, apparently.

Then we moved on to the hard stuff and in particular this old Bisquit cognac. At this point I was starting to flag and my handwriting becomes completely indecipherable except for "PRINCE BERNARD" which I clearly thought was an important point to note. Also "1956". Presumably the label detectives thought it was made then? It was very mellow and there was no fieriness left in it, which worked for me.

The food was great as always as ACC is very talented in that department - the smoked haddock and lentil terrine and tarte au praline were particular highlights. Thanks very much to ACC and we shall have a rematch in due course (better expand my terrine repertoire quick)!

Sipsmith Gin

Despite the name of this blog, I am not solely an Amatrice du Vin but also an Amatrice du Gin (and indeed myriad other alcholic substances).

The Waitrose mag had a huge plug for Sipsmith Gin this month and to show that I have not remotely learned my lesson after the blue gin debacle, I immediately went into credulous yuppie wanker mode and had to get some. It's made in Hammersmith and is all very artisinal and they only make small batches, the sort of thing of which I thoroughly approve. It's a remarkably precise 41.6% alcohol and cost the princely sum of £24. It also set the security alarm off as I left the shop but I decided to be nonchalant and pretend it wasn't me.

The article was illustrated with pictures of hairy men with beards who make the stuff, who look more like members of CAMRA than what I would expect a gin-maker to look like, although come to think of it I have no idea what I'd expect a gin-maker to look like. Possibly something like myself, after G discovered a juniper tree growing at the family estate in Rutland. But apparently the Sipsmith guys found it very hard to get a licence to distil so don't hold your breath.

Anyway, the same mag had a recipe for a pear martini so I also bought some ruinously expensive pear juice in order to have a bash, and that's the reason why this evening's post is even more rambling and inane than usual. This stuff is good!

My adaptation of the recipe (as I forgot to look it up beforehand and therefore forgot to get a lemon) is as follows: bung loads of ice in cocktail shaker, add a splash of elderly vermouth, then add equal quantities of gin and pear juice. This has turned out very well-balanced and not too sweet, which was my main concern, so I think the lemon can probably be dispensed with. The flavours complement each other well and it has a nice autumnal feel to it. This would be a good cocktail to make when you had company as the pear juice allegedly only lasts for 3 days after opening which means I have a lot of martinis to get through before Tuesday. Must get cracking!

I think a proper assessment of the gin will have to wait until I've made a dry martini or a G&T with it. But first impressions are favourable.