Three wines from Chablis and one from New Zealand

Now on to some whites from the past few weeks. As previously mentioned, G has been putting new life into the Premier Cru Project, which means we've been drinking a lot of Chablis.

Chablis 1er cru Vaulorent from Domaine Gilles et Nathalie Fevre is an old friend and here we had the 2015 vintage. This was impeccable, very typique and drinking well now. It was not grand, but whistle clean with a lovely weight and balance. We gave it a high 8.

Next up, a half bottle of Chablis 1er cru Butteaux 2014 from Louis Michel et Fils. This had a classic nose with hints of mushroom and lemon. It was brisk and well-balanced, and went well with our fish soup (NE BOUILLEZ PAS!), the acidity cutting through the richness. It was perhaps served a little too cold, and initially I thought it was a high 8 but it moved up to a 9 as time went on.

The third of the trio was this Chablis 1er cru Vosgros 2015 from Gilbert Picq. It was an attractive pale gold colour and had a splendid nose with white flowers, mushroom and something that I thought might be honey but G identified as honeysuckle. Clearly I need to improve my horticultural knowledge! On the palate it was congruent, with a lovely texture. I got a hit of lemon sherbet and it had a floral, almost herbaceous quality. I thought if I'd been tasting it blind, I might have thought it was a white from the Cote Chalonnaise. It was really interesting - there was a lot going on and it was a clear 9 pointer. It went very well with some top-notch smoked salmon fillet and an Asian salad. We felt it was about as good as a white wine as you could get for £27. 

And finally, a wine from les autres regions - a Sacred Hill Riflemans Chardonnay 2019 from Hawkes Bay in New Zealand. It looked good in the glass, and G found the nose exotic with some mango, while for me it was reminiscent of a Puligny. On the palate, it was quite full and rich with what G described as "a not unpleasing oiliness to it". The prominent use of oak reminded us of grand cru Chablis from an opulent vintage. Apparently it cost £32 which we felt was decent value. A worthy competitor to white Burgundy. 

Recent whites

Just squeaking in before the month end with a report on March drinking. Today I'll be looking back on the white wines that G and I have had this month, five of which were from Burgundy, one from Champagne and one from Bordeaux. 

In ascending order of seriousness, first up is this Bourgogne Cote Chalonnaise from 2017 from Les Champs de Themis, a domaine based in Bouzeron. This was good, honest, well-balanced white burg. Quite fresh, sharp enough to go well with Thai crab cakes, yet not tooth-rattlingly acidic. We felt it didn't need any more time. A useful addition to G's cellar. 

A few days later we had this Bourgogne Blanc 2014 from Domaine de la Roseraie. This was a nice pale gold colour and had a hint of white flowers on the nose. On the palate, it was deft, with a certain saline quality. An enjoyable aperitif.

Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume from Domaine Nathalie & Gilles Fevre is an old friend and I recently got one of my two six packs of the 2013 delivered. We detected white flowers, apricots and stone fruit. For me, it wasn't flinty but quite full with a bracing finish. We thought it was very successful and gave it a 9 on the premier cru scale. It was remarkable value for money, coming in at about £23 a bottle excluding storage costs over the years. It was ready now but I feel there's no particular rush to get the second half case out. 

This Rully 1er cru Molesme 2017 from Jean-Baptiste Ponsot was the second of two premier cru Rullys which G bought recently - I reported on the first in the previous post. This one had a fresh, brisk nose with a hint of mushroom which reminded us of Puligny, but on the palate it was richer than the previous Rully and more like a Meursault. We gave it a high 8 and it went very well with some Perard soupe de poissons. Altogether now: Ne bouillez pas!

Last night we had a bottle of Puligny-Montrachet Tremblots 2015 from Domaine Joly. I'd like to think I would definitely recognise it as Puligny if I tasted it blind, as the nose is very classic. On the palate G detected lime blossom while I got beeswax and a hint of honey. It improved as time went on and developed a petrol quality reminiscent of Riesling. We had it with a crab salad and both of us used the phrase "a real pleasure to drink" at different points during the evening. It's perfect now, and I imagine the rest will be polished off in the next 6 months or so. 

Moving out of Burgundy, G produced this "Les Vignes D'Autrefois" 2013 champagne from Laherte Freres the other night, which is 100% pinot meunier. I found the nose quite yeasty while it reminded G of sherbert lemon. It was almost frothy with bubbles. There was considerable acidity and I got some grapefruit on the finish. Very interesting and a good aperitif.

And finally, the other night we had this Chateau Malartic Lagraviere 2012 white Bordeaux. This was a wonderful golden colour and as someone who doesn't drink a lot of this kind of thing, I really enjoyed it. It had honey, pears and maybe lychees going on, and had great balance and a nice weight. It was serious stuff, exuding quality. Unfortunately it has a price tag to match. Still, a useful reminder that I like white Bordeaux. 

Thanks to G for providing or sharing the above with me. Our occasional dinners together have been one of the few enjoyable things during this interminable lockdown. One is very grateful for a decent cellar at the moment!

Birthday dinner at the Savile, 20th July

On Friday evening, G and I had a joint dinner party at the Savile Club as we have both recently celebrated a moderately significant birthday. We held this in the Elgar Room upstairs, which was a very nice size for ten, and a random selection of ne'er-do-wells and miscreants were in attendance, otherwise known as family and friends.

On arrival we had a glass of this Champagne Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Nicolas Billecart 2002, which we tried in bottle earlier in the year. On that occasion, it went down in the blink of an eyelid, and I think it's fair to say that the same thing happened again. It was perhaps more austere in magnum than in bottle and with plenty of life to come, but had the same lovely floral notes. ‎I hope to drink some more in due course!

With the first course, we had this magnum of Chablis 1er cru Fourchaume-Vaulorent 2008 from Domaine Nathalie et Gilles Fevre. An old favourite from a great vintage, it had never been better. It was crisp and lemony, but with a breadth on the mid-palate that wasn't there when it was younger. it went really well with the sea trout. Sadly this was G's last bottle!

With our main course, a lamb tagine for the carnivores and a vegetarian one for the veggies, we had two reds. First, a magnum of Beaune 1er cru les Greves 2005 from Yves Darviot. This prompted much reminiscence about how we used to stay at Yves' house in Beaune back in the day etc.etc. The 2005s have taken a long time to come round but are getting there now. This had the classic violets on the nose and was very elegant. We have two magnums left and I would still not be in a rush to drink them!

The second red was a magnum of Chateauneuf du Pape Clos des Papes 1998 from Domaine Paul Avril. For me, this was richer and sweeter compared to the Beaune but was still not heavy. An impeccable mid-weight style of Chateauneuf, drinking perfectly now.

Beaune on the right, Rhone on the left

With pudding, we had a magnum of Rieussec 1983 - remembering from the famous 40th birthday dinner that one bottle of sweet wine is simply not enough! This was amazing, rich but with acidity that meant it was not in the least cloying. The marmalade element from the heavy levels of botrytis paired wonderfully with the lemon tart. G informs me that he has acquired three more halves to see if he can recreate the sensation.

It was an absolutely beautiful colour, too.

Then, with the cheese course, a real treat. G provided this Quinta do Noval Nacional 1960 which he acquired from an auction where they described it in the catalogue as "Da Silva 1960". Imagine his delight when this showed up. It was in great shape, still fairly dark in colour, and extremely complex on the palate, with notes of fig and prune and a certain creamy quality. The finish was extraordinary. Absolutely top notch vintage port. Thanks for sharing it with us, G.

And to round things off, we had a glass of Lemorton Vieux Calvados 1972, which was an excellent digestif with true essence ‎of apples.

All that remains is to say thanks to G for organising everything, to the staff at the Savile for looking after us so well, and to everyone who joined us - it was a really enjoyable evening. Now roll on the 50th in five years time!

SPNS, Wednesday 13th June

On Wednesday night, I made my way over to the Savile Club for the latest gathering of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society.

Arriving a tactful minute late, I walked into the bar which was deserted apart from three reprobates standing at the bar guzzling Veuve Cliquot 2008. Clearly I was in the right place. My glass was duly filled and while I'm not a great expert on Veuve, I found this relatively light and refreshing. I wouldn't have guessed it was ten years old. G, who has clearly drunk far more of the stuff than me, opined that it had finally come round. It certainly made an excellent aperitif.

We moved upstairs to the dining room where the only question was which white to drink first? My offering was this 2014 Chablis 1er cru Mont de Milieu from Domaine Nathalie et Gilles Fevre. This was full-bodied and a little richer than some Chablis with a pleasingly weighty mouthfeel. It was drinking well now but we suspected it might not last in the long term.

Meanwhile, P had stashed away this Trittenheimer Laurenz Spatlese 1957 from the Friedrich Wilhem Gymnasium (thanks G for writing that all down in the book). This was a beautiful golden colour and had the classic old riesling nose but for me had lost most of its fruit although it did have some lychees going on and certainly had an unctuous texture. The assembled company found that it became sweeter as time went on. Fascinating stuff.

Once again, my picanha steak was excellent .

D had brought along this 2007 Cabernet Franc from Red Newt Cellars, which I reported on here. I see that when we visited, I wasn't unduly impressed with their cab franc, but this was an altogether different kettle of fish. G described it as "glorious rich cab franc in impeccable order tonight" and it was vibrant with a lot of fruit, pepper and spice. It went down very easily and we suspected that if it had been in magnum that wouldn't have presented any problem. I thought it was drinking perfectly now but D thought it had the potential to age further.

Finally, with our cheese course, we had this Tokaji 4 puttonyos from 1967 which G picked up at auction. He compared it unfavourably with higher-puttonyos Tokaji but actually I think we all rather enjoyed it. It was a murky brown colour and tasted of fruit cake, with notes of figs and prunes. It had a long finish but D noticed that it was low on acidity.

It also had quite a remarkable amount of sediment in the bottle. Ah, the good old days!

Thanks all for yet another very pleasurable and educational evening. Until next time...

2015 vintage continued

I've been to two wine tastings within seven days! These were follow-ups to the Burgundy Portfolio's big January tasting. While that one is always very exciting, there's a lot to get through and it can be overwhelming to a mere amatrice, so I was happy to get a chance to taste some of the same wines again in a more leisurely setting at the Highbury Library wine bar up near Arsenal stadium.

Last week we concentrated on whites, and I forgot to bring my camera. There were eight of us around a square table and we started with Chablis. Both growers, Nathalie et Gilles Fèvre and Céline et Frédéric Gueguen, had managed to pack plenty of acidity into their wines and the premier crus Vaulorent from Fèvre and Vaucoupin from Gueguen were showing particularly well. Premier cru level is where Chablis gets exciting, after all. The consensus was that the Fèvre wines were very elegant, and the Gueguen ones perhaps a bit richer.

Probably the highlight of the evening, however, was the white Beaune from Domaine de la Roseraie which had already impressed me back in January. This was deep and complex and will need time to open up - the drinking window is estimated as 5-15 years. Can't wait!

We also tried an amber wine, made by Pierre Fenals at Maison en Belles Lies, which we were almost forbidden to pour ourselves as it's so precious that ACC needed to keep some back to show the following day. This was made in a very traditional way in an amphora and was very interesting but probably wasted on me!

Then, on Wednesday night, it was back to the same location to try some reds. Word must have got round as this time there were 18 of us sitting around the table so it was quite a crowd.

We began with a brace of Beaujolais - the Brouilly and the Cote de Brouilly from Trichard. For my money, the Brouilly was drinking nicely now with cherry fruit, while the Cote is richer and more complex and will keep longer.

Other highlights, for me, included three wines from Domaine de la Roseraie. First we had the Bourgogne Rouge, which has already sold out, and on the evening I confidently reported that I had bought it already but now checking my trusty spreadsheet I see this is not the case! I should have done. I have however got some of the red Beaune and the Eponyme, which is only available in magnum. The Beaune is a lovely expression of the terroir with the classic perfume, elegance and length, while the Eponyme is the jewel in the crown of the domaine and had massive cheek-coating tannins, wild fruit and generally a grand cru feel to it. What's that coming over the hill? It's a monster... wine and ACC suggested it will be drinking in 7 to 20 years so we could be looking at 60th birthday celebrations rather than 50th, if I make it that far.

We also tried some wines from Microcosmos Chai Urbain, which is a very small winery in Marseilles. I drank a couple of bottles of the Marvin rose (on the left in the photo above) last year and it was wonderful in the very warm summer weather.

It's made from mourvedre, and it has a certain grapey quality and is dangerously drinkable given that it's 14.5% alcohol. I took the opportunity to grab a case. The name always makes me think of Marvin the Paranoid Android in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is no bad thing.

We also tried some reds from the same domaine and I was particularly impressed by the Tempete, which was powerful and intense with black fruits and liquorice. It turned out that this is made from syrah, which explains everything. Apparently 2015 is a great vintage for Rhone - well, this will do me nicely.

Thanks very much to ACC for a pair of fascinating tastings!

Two recent dinners

And the blog is back, by popular demand! Well, one person said he was missing it, so after a hiatus over the summer it feels like time to get back to it.

First up, a Monday evening dinner at the Hawksmoor Air Street with T, D and G. We were led for what felt like several miles through the restaurant and eventually arrived at a booth, which was very nice and made it easier to hear each other. Deafening noise is one of the major reasons why I prefer to dine at home these days, along with escalating wine prices. But corkage at the Hawksmoor is just £5 on a Monday, compared with £25 on all other days, and this price applies to bottles of every size, so it was a great opportunity to drink some magnums.

We started with 2008 Chablis 1er cru Fourchaume-Vaulorent 2008 from Domaine Nathalie & Gilles Fevre, which went down very nicely with some historic scallops. Apologies for lack of detail but I wasn't taking notes.

After that we moved on to steak, accompanied by a magnum of Beaune 1er cru Greves 2005 from Yves Darviot, which I believe belonged to me but had been sitting in G's Rutland cellar for a very long time and I had forgotten all about it. In my opinion, there is still no rush on it - these 2005 reds seem to be built to last. Am now wondering if I have any more stashed away?

With dessert, we drank this 1969 5 puttonyos Tokaji Aszu provided by D, which went particularly well with sticky toffee sauces/puddings. Afterwards we repaired to the bar for a quick post-prandial Calvados kindly supplied by T. Thanks all for a great evening.

Then, last Sunday, D came round to my place for lunch. We kicked off with a bottle of white Corton 2008 from Domaine Parent which recently came out of storage and has been providing much pleasure. It was big and rich with great acidity and a certain honeyed quality. D noted some viscosity, and the finish went on for ages. It has beens even better than the 2007 and went very nicely with our smoked salmon.

Then the main event: two Inglenook 1969s. The one on the left was the main release, whereas the one on the right was from a particular cask. Fortunately I am the proud possessor of multiple Riedel claret glasses so we were able to try them side by side, which proved to be a fascinating comparison.

The estate-bottled wine was very cabernet sauvignon, with mint leaf on the nose, and tasted very pure to me, while the cask wine had greater intensity and an extraordinary finish. At one point I glazed over for a few minutes and was unable to join in the conversation because it needed all my attention.

Both Inglenooks seemed to have a lot of menthol going on and would be great to drink if you had a cold! I was thinking about what made them different from claret and the answer seemed to be that they were lacking the woody, cedar notes that you often find in claret. This train of thought led to a suggestion... get some claret out to compare.

Fortunately I had a bottle of my old favourite, Chateau Montrose 1970, sitting on the wine rack (cue story of the Montrose Moment in Southwold on my 22nd birthday), so this was clearly the bottle to go for.

According to G, the Montrose had some merlot in it. I've just checked, and according to the chateau's website, the 1970 vintage was 65% cab sauv, 25% merlot and 10% cabernet franc. It was certainly much woodier, and held its own against the Inglenooks for the first half hour or so - at that point we thought it ranked in between the two - but then completely fell off a cliff and faded, whereas the Inglenooks kept going and didn't change much over time. It was really interesting to try the three together and thanks to D for the wonderful opportunity to drink old Californian wines which we never see in the UK.

We finished off with a glass of Apostoles, which is a 30 year old palo cortado from Gonzalez Byass, bought from Waitrose during one of their intermittent 25% off deals. This wine also has a spot of Pedro Ximenez in it which makes it slightly sweeter than, say, the Dos Cortados 20 year old palo cortado from Williams & Humbert which is super-dry and definitely an aperitif.

It was a really great lunch, and there were no hangovers the next day, which just goes to show the old stuff is the best!

SPNS dinner, 13th May

On Friday it was time for the next instalment of the Chronicles of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society, and for once we had a full turnout!

I found the others picnicking on quails eggs from P's estate and after some confusion with ice cubes, we commenced with this Gaillac "Gouleyant" from Georges Vigoroux which is made from Loin de l'Oeil and Sauvignon, also provided by P. I certainly hadn't come across Loin de l'Oeil before - apparently it is native to the Gaillac region. It wasn't particularly cold so the ice cubes did in fact come in handy. For me, it was an agreeable, refreshing aperitif and G described it as pleasant quaffing wine. Good with quails eggs.

Then we moved upstairs to the dining room and cracked on with my contribution, this Chablis 1er cru Vaulorent 2008 from Domaine Nathalie et Gilles Fevre. I was gushing about this domaine in my post yesterday and this wine was absolutely top-notch. It had a lovely weight and was big and rich by Chablis standards. This was my last bottle but apparently G still has some magnums... there is probably no rush, to be honest. 2008 Chablis 1er cru Vaulorent from N&G Fevre - #nuffsaid read the comment from the Twitter-loving ACC. Absolutely.

We moved on to a pair of pinot noirs. First, this Spatburgunder 2012 Weiler Schlipf from Schneider, contributed by T. This had an interesting nose which for me had earthy and animal elements. It was pretty and definitely a food wine. There was some debate as to whether it was a typical pinot - T compared it to a Gevrey-Chambertin but I couldn't see much resemblance myself!

This Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits 2013 from Domaine Felettig, on the other hand, was definitely very Burgundian. It was brought along by ACC. This was already drinking well and reminded me of a baby Chambolle. I found it relatively light, soft and elegant although G described it as rich and powerful! The comments in the book were universally positive and I think we all thought this was our kind of wine.

Next up was this Barolo 1986 from Bruno Giacosa which G got at auction. As with all these things, there was some uncertainty as to whether it would have survived, since the provenance was unknown.

The waitress did a great job of getting the cork out in one piece and it turned out that we needn't have worried - it was fine. The nose was certainly mature and I found it quite sweet, but on the palate it was integrated and supple, and it had a wonderful finish. It was a treat to drink this mature Barolo.

With pudding, we had a 1973 Tokaji 5 puttonyos brought along by D. This was old school, fruity tokaji, with dried fruit and figs going on. I think D made the right choice of sticky toffee pudding to go with it, but it did go well with my frangipane tart too. G made a reference to filthy wine-making but the results were delightful.

I was amused by the back label.

Finally, I'd brought along this 1998 Eiswein which T had left behind last time from Weingut Hafner in Austria, made from pinot noir grapes. After a quick bath in the ice bucket we opened it. For me this had notes of apricot and G described it as pleasant, lightweight Eiswein. I think we all liked it, but it suffered from being served after the Tokaji.

As usual, we repaired to the garden where the heaters took the chill off a surprisingly cold evening, and conversation continued until various cars arrived to whisk people off into the night. Another very enjoyable evening, thanks everyone!