Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Les Blanchots Dessus, 2001, Darviot-Perrin

On Friday night we cracked this open and I was delighted to find it was ok, after a duffer a few weeks ago. It was the most amazing beautiful gold colour, with a luscious texture and good weight - it was 13.5% alcohol and had lovely legs, ahem.

We decanted it just before serving and it was quite cold but it had that classic, buttery, rich, posh white burg nose. On the palate, it followed through and was delicious, classy booze. G had a cold but even so detected that it had a herbacious quality. I hate to use the word eucalyptus because I don't like eucalyptus, but it had a pure, tube-cleaning quality which was not unattractive. To sum up: just what you want in a white burgundy.

The only other wine I've had from Darviot-Perrin was a red Volnay La Gigotte 1999 (some mystery over the monopole status of that vineyard, yet to be clarified) which we gave an 8 back in November. It was good but not stunning - this was better.

We looked up the vineyard in Coates. I was delighted to discover that it's right next to Le Montrachet. Says it all really. I was very lucky to get this at auction for a fraction of its real value. I don't know much about the 2001 vintage for whites but this was fully mature yet not in any sense over the hill - drinking perfectly now. A solid 9. The good news: I have another bottle!

In other news, on Wednesday I finally got to go to Les Deux Salons, a relatively new Parisian-style brasserie near Charing Cross. The ambience was great, the tables not too close together, the waiters efficient and friendly and the interior beautiful with wonderful fittings and a lovely tiled floor. I would give the food 7 or 8 out of 10 - my friend had the burger which was a little too rare for her tastes, while I had the belly of pork petit salé aux lentilles, which tasted good but required a certain amount of deconstruction on my part. Instead of pudding we had a glass each of ice cider from Quebec, which was interesting and we had no regrets, but at £14 a glass (ouch) not something we'd rush to have again. I will definitely be back to investigate the menu further!