SPNS summer dinner, 8th July

A de V has been on an extended break but is now back with a vengeance and with some catching up to do!

Back in July, G organised a Swiss Pinot Noir Society dinner which was held at the Perseverance on Shroton Street just round the corner from Marylebone Station. We'd heard good things about this place from ACC and also the Dos Hermanos blog, and it was felt that a change from the Savile was in order.

It took me longer to walk there than I'd expected, so I was a little hot and bothered when I arrived, but things rapidly improved as I joined ACC and T in the downstairs bar and ordered a Prosecco cocktail from the blackboard of tempting goodies. We also got a bowl of hand-made crinkle-cut crisps, which were excellent. Eventually G turned up which completed the quartet for the evening, as sadly our fellow-members P and D were unable to attend on this occasion.

Suitably restored, we went upstairs to the dining room, which is a beautiful room with lovely Georgian windows facing south down towards the Marylebone Road.

Proceedings commenced with my contribution, a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Rose 1985. I'd been saving this up for a special occasion, and since it was my birthday 3 days later this felt like a good time. I got it at an auction, so there was an element of doubt about whether it would be ok or not. It was!

It was a beautiful dark salmon colour, with slow bubbles. Mature and wonderful. Everybody liked it.


Next up was G's bottle, a 1983 gewurztraminer from Rolly Gassman, which was also well-received. It was medium-sweet and aromatic with lychees and rose on the nose. T also detected citrus peel and ACC noted that it was not "too grandmother's handbag", always a good thing.

Third was ACC's offering, a 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet from Ramonet. I was very excited about this as a) I love red Chassagne, b) I love 2007 and c) I love Ramonet! I raved about it in the Book - wonderful colour, beautiful perfume, lovely mouthfeel, quite velvety. Very sensuous and an excellent expression of pinot noir. T agreed - lovely Burgundy, ACC wrote something boastful which I can't read (except to tell that it's boastful) and G was the sole voice of dissent saying it was "good, but no more than usually sensational". Some people are hard to please. Just look at it!

A quick honorable mention of the food at this point, which was excellent - the menu tends towards the meaty and offally which works for me, and is of the school of proper ingredients not messed about. For my main course I had calves liver which came with potatoes and sage. Mmmm. I'm amazed that I managed to take the time to take a photo of it instead of digging straight in!

Finally, we had Trevor's wine which had a very unusual label. The photo has come out rather blurred, but even in focus it was hard to work out what this was. It described itself as a Vin de France by Pascal Simonutti, who is based in the Loire Valley.

G detected rancio on the nose and found it an acquired taste. Was it really good or really terrible, he asked tactfully? My response was "Jesus Christ!" It was a brown murky colour and I found that it smelled of old socks and/or potting shed - T suggested turps. The palate was consistent with the nose i.e. horrible. All in all, very interesting, but not my cup of tea.

Moving swiftly on, this was an excellent dinner and I have already been back to the Perseverance where I had another wonderful meal and some very keen value vieille prune. This is the sort of pub I wish was just round the corner.