Wine Out Thursday had occurred earlier in the week, and one of the treasures I took out of my cellar was this Corton Charlemagne 2013 from Maison en Belles Lies. I've had the privilege to visit this domaine three times, and it's always been a terrific experience. The wines are biodynamic and fascinating, and Pierre Fenals is a lovely chap. Reviewing my notes from the 2014 trip, I see that he shares this vineyard with Bonneau du Martray and Coche-Dury. I can think of worse neighbours!
G sprang into action and donned the rubber gloves in order to deconstruct some smoked fish which he'd picked up at the stall in Borough Market. We had a mixture of smoked trout, smoked mackerel and smoked salmon, along with some evil dark rye bread. The wine itself was a beautiful golden colour, with a buttery nose, and tasted exquisite. On the palate, I got a lot of tropical fruit - pineapple, mango and passionfruit were all mentioned, and it had a wonderful line of acidity down the middle. Fully mature now, it was the perfect accompaniment to the smoked fish, and definitely a wine to savour. I'm delighted that I have five more bottles, but don't think they're going to hang about for long.
It was my turn to spring into action and heat up the beef carbonnade, which I'd made the previous day with additional marrow bone and stock bones. This was a mixed success, as the stock bones had splintered and added a certain Russian roulette edge to proceedings. In future I think I'll just make my own beef stock instead of attempting to cut corners!
With this, we had a Clos de Vougeot 2011 from Odoul-Coquard, which had been carefully cellared in G's country estate but actually belonged to me. It's delightful to have a stash tucked away which tends to be out of sight, out of mind. I had high expectations of this wine and we weren't disappointed. It was a nice dark colour and looked glossy and appealing. G described it as "perfumed, gorgeous" and it certainly tasted expensive - black forest gateau in a glass or even cherries in kirsch. Because 2011 was a relatively light vintage, this was drinking wonderfully now and needed no more time. For me, it was a great wine to share, as it was so powerful I'm not sure I'd have wanted more than a couple of glasses.
Finally, with the cheese course, we had this Beaulieu Vineyards Private Reserve 1969 contributed by D. It emerged that he has owned this bottle of wine for longer than G and I have been on the planet. Now that puts the marshmallow delayed gratification test in perspective! This was a wonderful dark colour and had an amazing herbaceous nose with mint and eucalyptus. On the palate, it was dark and intense and I believe I made an unfortunate reference to After Eights, only to correct myself - it was of course Bendicks bittermints which I had in mind. It had a lovely warm finish of baked plums, and G drank the dregs, which says a lot. We had our doubts that it was really 12.5% alcohol as claimed by the label. It was amazing to think that it was 50 years old, and still on its plateau.
D told us that 1969 was an overlooked vintage, and they don't make them like they used to. I'd spotted some a recent vintage in the Pennsylvanian booze store, but apparently 1974 was the last good vintage. Damn!
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