At the first table, HPK was presiding over a mixed bag of white wines. Two particularly stood out for me. First, the Chablis premier cru Montmains from La Maison Romane, of Prosper the horse fame. This had a really enticing nose and was the first big tick of the evening. The second was the "Ali Boit Boit et les 40 Buveurs" (ho ho!) produced by Agnes Paquet, who I note refers to herself as a "viticultrice" on her website, fab. I love her wines generally and this was something very different - a Prosecco-style fizz in a bottle with a crown cap, 50/50 chardonnay and aligote, and just 8% alcohol. Someone I spoke to said it reminded them of cider and I could see why - it was very effervescent and medium-dry. Just the thing to drink cold at lunchtime in the park on a hot summer's day, and good value too.
I was very happy to see Vincent Perrin - I've never forgotten time he prevented us from getting hypothermia by letting us sit in his kitchen - and apparently he'd flown in from Guadeloupe especially. I tasted my way through the range of five wines he was showing. The Bourgougne Rouge was its usual light style - I scribbled "very fresh lunchtime style" which I see is exactly the same as I've always said about it, and am glad I bought a case of the 2009 last year. Then there were three Volnays in ascending order, from a village wine "En Vaut", to the premier cru Sous la Carelle de la Chapelle, up to the monopole premier cru Les Gigottes. Again, these were elegant and stylish but difficult hard to taste now as they need time. I asked Vincent how long he would keep them for and he said 3-4 years. Then finally I tried the Pommard Chanlins which is a village wine. This vineyard is on the border with Volnay and right next to a premier cru vineyard (Rugiens). It was a much darker colour than the Volnays, and generally richer and bigger, but still elegant. In the past, I've tended to taste Perrin's wines just after tasting the monster Pommards made by Anne Parent. His is rather lighter in style than hers, but this year, I couldn't resist going for some.
At the next table was recent discovery Ludovic Belin with a range of wines mainly from Pernand-Vergelesses and Corton. I hadn't tried any of his wines before. First up was the Pernand-Vergelesses "Belles Filles" Blanc. It was slightly awkward asking Ludovic, a cheeky-looking young chap, for some of this, but fortunately I was in conversation with someone who spoke French so I was able to tag along behind her. My record-keeping at this stage of the evening was not all that it could have been, and I appear to have placed both a tick and a question mark next to this one. I think this means that my initial impression was favourable, but then when I came on to the next one, I thought that was even better. This was the Pernand-Vergelesses premier cru Sous Fretilles. The quality here was excellent and what was perhaps most surprising was that it was already very nice to drink and one wouldn't have to stash it away for too many years. Then there was the white grand cru Corton - lovely to try but sadly out of my price range this year.
On to the reds... first was the red Pernand-Vergelesses "Belles Filles" which had a wonderful nose of cherry stones and at £100 for 6, was very good value, given that some Bourgognes are now creeping up to £160 for 12 en primeur! There was also a premier cru Savigny-les-Beaune Les Lavieres which I think may have been the best Savigny I've ever tried, and the grand cru Corton-Renardes which again was lovely, and I'm still thinking about possibly getting some - at £220 for 6, again this seems like exceptional value.
Finally I moved round to ACC's table where he was presenting a variety of reds. As usual the Santenay and Chassagnes from Domaine de la Choupette went down very well, and Anne Parent's Ladoix and Pommard 1er cru Chaponnieres also stood out for me. I have to admit I was flagging by this stage, as there were about 40 wines altogether and I'm not used to tasting so many at once! Lightweight, etc.etc. ACC will probably be too modest to report this on his own excellent blog, but just before leaving, Oz Clarke said that he was "nibbling round the edges and there's some good stuff at the edges". An excellent summary of what the Burgundy Portfolio is all about - finding people making stuff in tiny quantities, so often nobody has heard of them, but which is still high quality.
I only realised at the end of the evening that these wines were all from the Cote de Beaune, which I suppose confirms that I'm a Cote de Beaune girl at heart - I love the purity and elegance, although I do also love the bigger dark fruits of the wines from the Cote de Nuits. With brilliant timing, the full en primeur offer has just appeared here on the Burgundy Portfolio website, so I can spend the rest of the day pondering what else to go for this year.
Finally (fanfare please) this is my 100th post on this blog! Thanks to my readers, whoever you are. I know some of you but am often intrigued to see that someone in e.g. Russia has been having a look! As long as the Chinese don't find out about Burgundy, we should be ok... On to the next 100 and there's lots to look forward to with the annual Madeira dinner, lunch at mine, and a Swiss Pinot Noir Society dinner all coming up in the next few days. So much for "Janupause"!
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