Evening at La Dilettante, 26th June

Just a short one today... On Monday evening, we met up with ACC and Vincent Perrin at La Dilettante, and spent a cheerful evening discussing everything under the sun and drinking some excellent booze, see below. As at the old Caves Madeleine which Lolo used to run before opening La Dilettante, the wines are set out on shelves and make for exciting browsing - it's almost like being in a bookshop!

This was an Arbois white from Domaine du Pelican, which is the Marquis D'Angerville's outpost in Jura, and G recalls that it was very pure.

Then we had an Arbois pinot noir, l'Aide-memoire, which was relatively light and just 12.5% alcohol.

We finished off with the amusingly-named L'arselle Collines Rhodaniennes from Bouillot-Salomon, which was from the Rhone, heftier and more animal.

At one point Vincent was talking about labels, and it's noticeable that many of these wines now have much more artistic, eye-catching labels than the traditional Burgundy label. It seems to be the way forward.

We also talked a lot about Saturday night at the Elegance des Volnays dinner and how interesting it had been for us to try so many different vintages of the same wine. Vincent used the word "partager" (i.e. sharing) several times, and indeed that's what it was all about really. And we talked about bottle sizes and how wines from magnum really do seem to age better, even further down the spectrum. The white St-Romain from Domaine Perrin being a good example. Apparently Guillaume has been keen to bottle in magnum and Vincent is coming round to his way of thinking!

An honourable mention should go to the food at La Dilettante. We had an amazing charcuterie plate, an amazing cheese plate, an amazing salad (dressed with hazelnut oil) which perked us up a lot, and the best croque monsieur I've ever had. I'm looking forward to going back and having it again!