Swiss Pinot Noir Society, 17th March 2022

On Thursday night, it was over to the Savile Club for an SPNS dinner. Five of us were present - me, G, ACC, D and P - sadly T was unable to join us on this occasion.

We kicked off with this champagne from Paul Bara, a special cuvee from 2012, provided by G. The bottle was an interesting shape, kind of squat, but my picture didn't come out very well. G told us that a group of growers had clubbed together to buy these bottles and that they all had to agree on anything bottled in them. It was my kind of champagne - mature, rich and yeasty, and drinking beautifully now. A great start to the evening. 

The Savile staff politely asked us if we'd be willing to go upstairs to the restaurant a little earlier than usual, as they had a big St Patrick's Day dinner going on and wanted to stagger the orders. We ascended the swooping staircase up to the ballroom, and were seated at our usual table. The restaurant itself was less busy than usual, which was rather nice as it made hearing each other easier.

P had brought along this white, bottled in a very modern-style bottle which led some to suspect it might be vodka. It was in fact Berton Vineyards Winemaker's Reserve Aranel Riverina 2019, from Australia. It was a very pale colour, aromatic, reminding me of lychees, others of melon. It was light, floral and clean, and went down very easily. I imagine it would be a refreshing wine to drink in the summer. 

My own contribution was this Meritage 2017 from Thirsty Owl in the Finger Lakes, which I bought back in 2019 and which had been hanging around at D's house for the last couple of years. I wasn't sure if it would have survived, but was relieved to discover that it was fine. Meritage is a Bordeaux blend and there was more than a hint of cabernet franc in this. It was exuberant and fruity and relatively young. I hope to revisit to the Finger Lakes soon and this is the kind of thing I'll be buying for my cellar.

D had also brought along a red from the US - a Haywood Estate Rocky Terrace Zinfandel 1996 from Sonoma. What a treat! It was big, rich and delicious with lovely dark fruit, and was drinking very nicely now. D told us it had been in his cellar since around 1999 and I continue to be very grateful for his ability to delay gratification and for sharing these treasures with us. We didn't have a formal discussion but G and I both considered this to be the wine of the evening. 

P had brought along another red, this Lestoa Rot 2003 from Strohmeier who are based in Austria. This was unusual - a very dark colour, showing no signs of age, and D described it as astringent which I think summed it up nicely. There was some debate about whether it had high tannin or high acid. According to P, it worked well with wild boar sausage. To be fair, having it after the Zin probably didn't do it any favours. 

Finally, ACC had brought along this Croft LBV 2013. He was a little disconcerted to discover that G and I had attended a 1985 tasting the previous evening, but it's only fair to judge everything within its own category, and this was lovely stuff, fruity and approachable, and a great way to round off the evening. Thanks to all for a very interesting range of wines!

Recent drinking roundup - omnibus edition!

The bookshelf has been covered in empty bottles for some weeks waiting for a catch up session. When next door's builders drilled a hole into my flat and had to come round to repair the damage, I had to hide them all in the cupboard to avoid giving the wrong impression, so perhaps it's time to get on with it. In order of aperitif to digestif...

Fino Perdido from Sanchez Romate, which the Wine Society are selling for £7.50. It's a complete steal at that price and is going on my "buy some of this every time I buy stuff from the WS" list.

Lilbert-Fils blanketty blank champagne, £32 from the Wine Society. Just my kind of thing, light, fresh, elegant. Would have again.

Chablis 1er cru Vaulorent, Brocard, 2008. I'm trying to eat more fish, which means drinking more white, and for complicated reasons I don't have much in stock at the moment so placed a mixed order with the Wine Society. This Chablis cost £20 a bottle. We thought it was a good example of the genre, with crisp minerality and a great finish. It seemed good value and was drinking well now, but wasn't in quite the same league as the Fourchaume-Vaulorent made by Nathalie and Gilles Fevre.

Terrenus 2011, £10.95 from the WS. I seem to have thrown away the bottle, but this was a Portuguese white. It was light and fresh and clearly had Vinho Verde in its family tree. We thought it would be a nice wine to have in summer with fish and garlic.

Tahbilk Marsanne 2010 from Australia, £9.95 from the WS. G had wanted to try this for some time and compared to bourgogne blanc it's keenly priced. I didn't make tasting notes but it was crisp and dry and we found it interesting enough to drink the whole bottle. Not sure I'll be rushing to have it again.

Thymiopoulos Naoussa, 2011. This was a Greek red from the WS, which cost £10.50. It was billed as being Burgundy in style, and for once this description was actually correct. I was impressed from the first sip and would certainly buy it again. If you didn't know it was Greek, you wouldn't guess.

Beaune Lulune 2010 from longstanding favourite biodynamic producer Emmanuel Giboulot, via the Burgundy Portfolio. G has bought a quantity of this and we thought we'd see how it was getting on. It had a divine tinned strawberry nose, classic Beaune. On the palate it was elegant, precise and pretty. We felt it would improve with age, so the rest is being tucked away for a while.

Moulin a Vent, Cuvee d'Exception, 2009, Trichard. I bought this at a Burgundy Portfolio tasting about a year ago, and it had really come on. It was a dark colour and was rich and intense with black cherry fruit. Quite monster for a beaujolais and I thought it would appeal even to someone who thinks they don't like gamay (tchah). It was drinking well now but might well improve. I've succumbed to two magnums of the stuff so guess I'll get a chance to find out!

L'Etrange, Maison en Belles Lies, 2010. This also came from the Burgundy Portfolio and was one of G's recent purchases. It's a mixture of gamay and pinot noir, but while I'm not always mad about passetoutgrains, I really enjoyed this.

Nuits St Georges les Plantes au Baron, R Dubois et Fils, 2005. I'm not altogether sure where this came from, but it's quite likely that I bought it in France some time ago thinking it was a premier cru. We found it lacking in fruit and rustic but gluggable. The final verdict was "nothing to write home about".

Griotte-Chambertin 1996, Grand Cru, Domaine des Chezeaux. This was a bottle that G had left over from a wine dinner. He told me to lower my expectations beforehand. It was dark and glossy to look at, and on the nose had black fruit, game and leather. It tasted savoury and earthy, and was smooth and well-integrated, but short on fruit and reminded us of a premier cru Gevrey rather than a grand cru. It definitely needed red meat, and we gave it an 8.

Several years ago we had a 1993 from this domaine which was lovely, so this was disappointing. We subsequently discovered by reading Coates that they get their grapes from two different growers, one of which is significantly better than the other, but there's no way of knowing which it's going to be as it's not on the label. This isn't very helpful and would make me wary of buying their wine again.

Happy days - a bottle of Coche-Dury! We'd spot that dreadful label at 100 paces. This was an Auxey-Duresses 2007 and G picked it up in a wine shop in Paris for 68 euros. We drank it with some roast beef. It looked lovely, with silky legs, and on the nose had sweet fruit and ripe raspberries. On the palate I noted it was (expletive deleted) delicious while G said it was clean as a whistle. It had a beautiful sweetness, and was supple and effortless. The finish went on for minutes. An absolute stunner, 10 points on the premier cru scale.

At the time, I attributed this wine's loveliness to the fact that it was made by Coche-Dury, but I've subsequently come to realise that it was also partly the Auxey style which I like very much. Shall certainly be looking out for some more! But probably not from Hedonism Wines, where it costs £126. Ouch.

Delaforce vintage port 1977. I wasn't familiar with Delaforce, but the opportunity came up to buy some of this at what seemed a very good price for vintage port of this age, so we grabbed some. It was complex, not too sweet, with notes of pontefract cake. It had a great finish and was still drinking after 4 days (amazing it lasted that long!) which suggests it still has life left in it. We concluded that while it wasn't first rate port, it was very good, and good value.

And finally, since G has still failed to start his cheese blog, I'm required to cover this topic too. I can't really complain as these are three cheeses which he brought back from the shop in the Nine Streets in Amsterdam. The one in the middle was my favourite, a 4 year old Gouda. They sell cheese online at "E-cheese". I think we may be paying that site a visit soon...