Recent reds

Now time to look at the reds which we drank in March, in ascending order of seriousness. 

My Eaux-Vives from la Maison Romane appeared at long last. I'm pretty sure this is from 2014 although we struggled to find the vintage on the bottle. It claims to be only 12% like most of Oronce's wines (hmmm). I find this one fascinating in a weird way. It's one of those low sulphur gamays with a certain feral quality and a hint of farmyard, like the ones from Chapuis and Maison en Belles Lies. The fruit profile is not standard and made me think of weird Scandinavian red berries - possibly the Nordic crowberry - or maybe sour cherries or lingonberries. Not a serious wine and probably wouldn't appeal to everyone, but I like it and I think G does too. 

And now a bunch of premier crus, as G has been reigniting the Premier Cru Project and has taken over my rather garish colour-coded spreadsheet on the subject. Here we have a Savigny les Beaune 1er cru  "Les Peuillets" 2014 from Domaine Guyon, who are based in Vosne Romanee. This was decanted for two hours. I found the nose promising with red berries and icing sugar, and some not-unpleasant volatile acidity. We finally settled on wine gums as the prevailing note. On the palate it had a silky texture and was richer and fuller than expected, but I found a sharp, bitter note on the finish. Overall we gave it an 8. We thought this was like Savigny made in the style of Vosne, and since to be honest neither of us is a massive fan of Savigny as a village (although weirdly we did have two early 10 pointers from there) this was more to our liking than I thought it might be.  

Here we have a Morey-St-Denis 1er cru la Riotte 2014 from Domaine Taupenot-Merme. This was decanted for the best part of four hours. It was a relatively light colour with a pale rim, and glossy with nice legs. Expectations were high and it had beautiful rich, sweet fruit, reminding me of tinned or baked strawberries. However the finish was a bit weird and we felt it wasn't altogether joined-up. G found black tea on the back palate. Some quick research showed that others thought it needed a further three years. We gave it an 8 but thought that it had the potential to become a 9 in time. It also went noticeably better with food, as this eliminated the problematic tannin thing. G informed me that MSD is his new favourite village, so I'd be all in favour of him getting some more and hanging onto it for a bit to see what happens. 

Next we have this Nuits-St-Georges 1er cru Aux Argillas 2012 from Domaine Jean Chauvenet. This was decanted for 3.5 hours. It was glossy in appearance with an attractive rich nose. On the palate, it was quite ripe with considerable tannin and black fruits, along with a certain earthy quality. Rugged, yet attractive. Tom Hardy was mentioned. Given that I don't always particularly enjoy NSG, it was a pleasant surprise. We felt it was just about ready but at the beginning of its window and would last a further 10 years, so no rush on the 2012s. We gave a it a high 8 but felt it had the potential to go higher.

An old favourite here - Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru les Morgeots 2010 from Domaine de la Choupette. This was dark and glossy with a sweet, enticing nose. It had lots of lovely sunny fruit - strawberry tart and blackcurrant. It was congruent, mouthwatering, rich and delicious. "Absolutely gorgeous" said G and it reminded me why I love red Chassagne so much. It went very well with venison fillet, and we think it will last another 3-4 years but I doubt it will get the chance. We gave it a high 9. Wonderful stuff, so happy I bought it back in the day. 

And finally, we had this Vosne-Romanee 1er cru Aux Brulees 2013 from Domaine Michel Gros back at the start of the month. What a treat. I have fond memories of the Clos de Reas from the same domaine so expectations were high. It looked absolutely beautiful and had a very attractive nose of red fruits. I suggested summer fruit compote while G put the case for summer tart. There was definitely a lot of raspberry going on. It was flowing and silky, medium weight, with a wonderful finish. G made a comment that it did a little dance on the palate, like a gavotte. Not a wine to guzzle, as there was a lot to unpack and it demanded attention. We thought it was drinking now but that it would be good for another ten years, and toyed with giving it a 10 but in the end settled for a high 9. A pleasure to drink. 

The weather is improving and I have a self-indulgent random day off today, lured by the prospect of a boozy lunch in someone's garden. Things are looking up! 

Lunch at mine, Sunday 22nd July

On Sunday,  ACC and Baron McG joined me and G for another epic lunch. It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago so I was in the mood to indulge!

Getting things off to a good start

The Baron kindly brought along some delicious little parmesan biscuits which he had baked that morning, based on a recipe by Simon Hopkinson. Some of them had a daring sliver of red chilli on the top. The secret ingredient was mustard powder, which I must consider adding next time I make gougeres, as the combination of cheese and mustard is one that appeals very much. To go with this we had a bottle of Krug 1989 left over from one of G's recent wine dinners. It was mature, yeasty, full-bodied champagne and very enjoyable. Obviously it costs megabucks, so not one we're likely to have again in the near future.

Next up was a bottle of Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru Les Folatieres 2007 from Bzikot. This had been sitting on my wine rack for some time waiting for a special occasion, and we had it with some smoked salmon from Hansen and Lydersen, who we had finally tracked down at Maltby Street the previous day, and some rye bread from the Nordic Bakery. The Puligny was a glorious golden colour. It took a little while to open up, was bigger than I expected and certainly ready to go.

Nom nom nom

On Friday night I'd been to the Ginger Pig and had fallen into the trap of losing all sense of perspective. This often seems to happen when I go to the Ginger Pig. Somehow, surrounded by enormous chunks of meat, one starts to think that a three rib roast is quite a normal size for four people and it's only when one finds out that it's actually five and a half kilos that one realises that perhaps it's actually quite a lot. But by then, of course, it's too late... actually that's not entirely fair as the butcher saw me wince and did ask if I wanted him to cut a bit off, but it looked so amazing that I decided to go for it as it was. We roasted it on Saturday to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's instructions and it came out looking like this. Confirmation that the bigger the piece of meat, the better the result.

Back to Sunday lunch - as it was the start of the recent heatwave, we served the beef cold along with a tomato tart from Marylebone farmers' market and some salad. The first red was our old friend Beaune Greves 1er cru 1999 from Yves Darviot, which needs to be drunk up fairly soon. This bottle was beautiful as ever. I have often raved about it in the past and it remains the pinnacle of price/quality ratio as far as I'm concerned. Just amazing.

Next up, with the cheese course, was a bottle of Vosne Romanee 1er cru Clos de Reas 1999 from Michel Gros, another old favourite and again one which did not disappoint. I read somewhere recently that ideally reds should be served at cellar temperature which is lower than room temperature, so we chilled both reds slightly, which was a good move and one to remember for future reference.

The Epoisses makes a bid for freedom!

A digression about the cheeses, which came from Pascal Beillevaire in Montpelier Street just off Knightsbridge. I've written before about how offputting I find La Fromagerie in Moxon Street, with its incredibly heavy shoulder-dislocating door to the cold cheese room and a general sense that somehow you're not worthy to be allowed in there. I don't think this is just me being paranoid as G has noticed it too. So I was expecting this Parisian cheese shop located in the area of the London mega-rich to be super-snooty.

Au contraire! When I visited on Friday evening, the assistant was friendly and quite happy for me to have a look round by myself. After I'd spent a few minutes mooching about, taking care not to swipe priceless cheeses off the shelves with my rucksack loaded with 5.5 kg of beef, I enlisted her help. We had a serious discussion regarding the components of the ideal cheeseboard - I knew I wanted some Epoisses, some Beaufort, some Bleu des Causses, and a goaty thing, but fancied one additional wild card cheese. She suggested a sheep's cheese - bien sûr! - and I got to taste a wonderful pungent and smoky example of the genre which was the missing link. I'm not sure what the name of it was but will find out next time I'm there. I also got an evil dried-up little goaty thing for G - this is chevre sec, which is sold by weight so this particular one cost about two quid. I'm now the proud owner of a Pascale Beillevaire loyalty card and received a "little present" in the form of a chocolate mousse. All in all, a delightful experience and I think it may become a weekly habit!

I failed to take any photos of pudding, but made the world famous Petits Pots (to a closely-guarded family recipe) which is also basically a chocolate mousse. To accompany this, we had this Mas Amiel 1975 provided by G. This is a sweet red wine from Maury, an area in the Roussillon, one of the few wines that goes well with chocolate. Which it certainly did!

Finally, the piece de resistance was provided by ACC - a kirsch and a poire william liqueur, both with some serious age on them.

Good example of the Inverse Law of Labels

We think the kirsch may have been made in 1950 as there's a punched out 50 on the label (just below the second M of Commerce). These two made a very enjoyable end to the occasion - another five hour special!

Premier cru project update

Last weekend we took the opportunity to drink some premier crus, three on successive evenings! Rather self-indulgent but we have to move the Project on somehow...

First up, a red Mercurey les Sazenay 2003 from Chateau Genot-Boulanger. I picked this up in the shop in Meursault in January for the princely sum of 14 euros, and looking at the domaine's website I see they are based in Meursault. It had a dark colour with a slight what I described as murkiness but G thought that was a little disparaging - let's just say it wasn't exactly transparent. On the nose there were powerful baked fruits as one would expect from the super-hot 2003 vintage, and on the palate these continued and I detected some liquorice as well. All in all it was quite rustic but more serious than we had expected. It didn't make me long to buy more Mercureys and we gave it a medium 7, nothing to write home about.

Second, a white Chassagne-Montrachet Les Blanchots Dessus 2001 from Darviot-Perrin. This was the second bottle of this we've had recently - the other was back in February which I wrote about in more detail here. It had a wonderful golden colour and on the nose it had toasted nuts and lemon. It was lovely, well-balanced, rich with good acidity and the finish was excellent. It worked well with crab on toast. Once again, a solid 9.

And finally, a special treat after a hard Monday counting beans - G kindly provided a bottle of Vosne-Romanee Clos des Reas Monopole 1999 from Michel Gros. We decanted this for an hour and a half beforehand. It's the most beautiful-looking wine, with amazing legs. On the nose it was rich and enticing with dried fruit, and on the palate it was big, silky and full of different flavours - G said it was taking him on a "flavour journey" which may be the most pretentious thing I've ever heard but I know what he meant - things appeared and disappeared. I got coffee, earth (not that I know what earth tastes like), dark cherries, plums and cocoa.

We've had several bottles of this wine over the past two or three years and only one has been disappointing - inevitably, the one I shared with other people. Otherwise it's been the perfect Cote de Nuits wine, majestic and wonderful. A clear 10 and a great start to the week.

Dinner at the Savile, 16th July

Last night G generously hosted a dinner for me and my family at the Savile, to celebrate my birthday which was last Sunday. We brought the wines ourselves, and spent many enjoyable evenings planning exactly what we would have. In the end, all the wines turned out to be French, what a surprise, but I restrained myself on the burgundies as thought it would be fun to have some different things for a change.

We started off in the bar with a bottle of non-vintage Bolllinger rose, which G acquired from our local Unwins when it was closing down, and got it at about half price I believe. Everyone raved about it, and it had a lovely fruit and weight. The perfect start to the evening.

Then we went upstairs to the restaurant and continued proceedings with this 1976 gewurztraminer from Hugel, part of G's Hugel acquisition back at the beginning of the year. It proved very popular and my mother even asked me what it was. As on previous occasions, we found that its age had given it time to mellow and it had become something really interesting.

We followed up with the Hugel riesling 1969 which prompted some humorous comments as this was the year my brother was born. For me, it was less wondrous than the gewurz, but still lovely mature Alsace, and went very well with my marinated mackerel.

Next was an old favourite, the 1999 Vosne-Romanee Clos de Reas from Michel Gros. I've had several bottles of this and it had never failed to disappoint. So it was inevitable I suppose, that the one we had last night with my family wasn't quite as good as the previous bottles. I don't know if it was coming to it after the Alsace wines or what, but I found some strange appley top-notes going on. They diminished with time and with the accompaniment of red meat. G agreed that it wasn't quite what we'd hoped for. Still, that's burgundy for you, you do get these bottle variations.

After that, we moved on to a bottle of 1996 Hermitage La Chapelle from Paul Jaboulet Aine, an iconic wine of the northern Rhone which I love. I bought this bottle after a tasting held by ACC, for no particular reason except that he was offering a good deal on it, and put it on the rack for a rainy day. My family all loved it as I thought they would, particularly my sister-in-law who has dangerously expensive tastes when it comes to this sort of thing. But it would be hard not to like this wine - powerful yet elegant.

We finished off with this Rivesaltes 1982 which G bought from Waitrose It's a 50cl bottle which is a good size, and everyone got a couple of small glasses. A very pleasing dessert wine, not too sweet, which went well with everyone's various puds.

Then it was back downstairs for coffee and brandy for some, and then a whistlestop tour of the club including a very bad performance by me of the Entertainer on the piano in the ballroom. Memo to self: resist the temptation to play the piano after a bottle of wine!

All in all, a very enjoyable evening.