Vosne 1er cru vertical!

Yesterday I invited a select group round for Sunday lunch with the aim of drinking two of my vinous treasures recently out of storage. Yes, it was time for a vertical tasting of the legendary Vosne Romanee 1er cru Reignots from Domaine Audiffred! The two vintages in question were 2010 and 2016, and I'd like to think we're probably the only people in the world who have ever carried out this comparison as these wines are so rare and quantities very limited.

G and I had polished off a bottle of Vosne Champs Perdrix 2016 also from Audiffred on Wednesday night, so that was still fresh in our minds. I'm a big fan of the Champs Perdrix which isn't a premier cru but feels like one, and this was no exception. It was a light to medium weight with a lovely perfume, beautiful autumnal fruit and sous bois, and some chocolatey tannins on the finish. It reminded us a little of Morey St Denis, never a bad thing.

On to the Reignots... this was famously the wine which ACC could smell from across the cellar the first time he visited Domaine Audiffred, and fortunately for us he was able to persuade Henri to supply some in very limited quantities. 

We tried the 2016 first. It was a significant step up from the Champs Perdrix. I'd opened it three hours earlier and gave it an hour in the fridge. Again it was medium weight but this wine was absolutely bursting with fruit and we went through all the different colours of currants - black, red and white. It was supremely elegant, with a wonderful finish. We felt it was at the beginning of its drinking window.

The 2010 was even better. The cork was very crumbly so I had to decant it. It was more savoury, and both beetroot and "high quality saddle" were mentioned, but not in a bad way - it was very complex. It had a wonderful core of acidity and every sip was a pleasure. There was no doubt that this wine deserved 10 points on the premier cru scale, while the 2016 was perhaps a high nine. The 2010 was drinking very well now but I don't think there would be any rush, not that I have any more. 

We also had a bottle of Don Zoilo 15 year old amontillado from Williams and Humbert, which came from the Wine Society. This was good stuff and very nutty and intense. It definitely needed food. Fortunately I had a mixed charcuterie board from the Dorset Meat Co and the amontillado went particularly well with the spicy chorizo. 

Finally, we knocked my last bottle of Smith Woodhouse 1994 on the head. This has always been lovely stuff with its notes of pontefract cake, and this bottle was no exception. 

In other news, last week G kindly invited me to attend the Lay & Wheeler 2021 en primeur tasting at Glaziers Hall over by London Bridge. It was an interesting event, especially as I haven't been to an en primeur tasting since January 2020, and am not very familiar with Lay & Wheeler's range of producers. It was noticeable that many of the wines we particularly enjoyed had no price listed but were either sold out or you were asked to register your interest. I gather from Jancis's article in the FT that the 2021 vintage was very challenging and quantities small. 

For me, the highlights were:

• the white premier cru Chassagne-Montrachets from Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard and Domaine Bruno Colin
• the Macon and Pouilly-Loche from Marcel Couturier which seemed to be exceptionally good value
• the reds from Domaine Comte Armand, which took me back to happy evenings at Caveau des Arches 
• the reds from Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg, although I suspect these are way outside my price range!
• the Vosne Romanee 1er cru Clos des Reas from Domaine Michel Gros, an old favourite
• and above all, the premier cru Nuits-St-Georges from Domaine d'Arlot which had a wild quality to them that I found very exciting. 

It was a pleasure to try these wines, even though my Burgundy buying days are coming to an end now, and thanks to G for inviting me!

SPNS dinner, 15th March

Last Friday we had another SPNS dinner at the Savile Club and I'm delighted to report that all members of the SPNS were present and correct for once!

My contribution was this Cremant de Bourgogne Blanc de Noirs from Domaine Felettig, which was bought several years ago and had been languishing at the bottom of the wine rack as we had thought it would be interesting to try a bottle with some age on it. G bravely went first and gave a grimace, which I think created an expectation among the group that it was going to be terrible, but actually it wasn't at all. It was definitely on the elderly side with yeastiness and biscuity notes. Some detected a weird finish but overall it was considered drinkable and actually improved as time went on, although of course by that stage we had inevitably drunk it all.

P brought along a 1992 sauvignon blanc from Cloudy Bay which apparently he bought en primeur at the height of the hype. It was remarkably youthful and zingy with the classic elderflower nose, while D detected green olives. G said it was a marvellous survival and I would never have predicted that it would be so youthful. It was very kind of P to share his last bottle with us.

T contributed this Vina Tondonia rose 2008. It was a beautiful colour and had a lovely floral, herbaceous nose. D described it as bright and alive and P found it vibrant and great with goat's cheese, while T thought it was still a bit young. ACC wrote something in the book which apparently I'm not meant to quote but since I can't read his handwriting anyway there's no danger there. I found this wine full of character. T says it's still the world's best rose and he's the expert so I wouldn't dream of disagreeing

ACC had brought along this Pur Jus 2016 from Chateau Landra in the Ventoux and described it as pure and juicy, ha ha. It had what T described as a full bouquet, quite earthy, and on the palate was very fruity and powerful. It's a low sulphur wine and I found it dangerously drinkable but noticed it was 14% so have to be careful with that! It went well with food and T particularly enjoyed it, I think.

D had brought along something very unusual, a 1999 Small Berry Mourvedre from Cline Cellars in Sonoma. This was another 14% wine but less of a surprise in this case! ACC told me that mourvedre is a Rhone grape so it was very interesting to try this alongside the Ventoux. It was a very dark colour and hard to believe it was 20 years old, it seemed so youthful. It was complex and powerful with lots of mint and fruit.

Finally, G stole the show with this magnum of Harvey's Bristol Cream bottled in 1977 to celebrate Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee. This was a dark brown murky colour and quite sweet. I got notes of butterscotch and it went really well with my millionaire's pudding. G described it as coherent, old school sherry, really very pleasant and good fun. We all enjoyed it and polished off the magnum with no difficulty whatsoever. As ACC put it, God Save the Queen!

All in all, it was another very interesting and enjoyable evening and thanks everyone for your contributions and notes in the Book.

Recent drinking round-up

The Palo Cortado project has continued with this Cayetano del Pino Viejisimo which is apparently around 30 years old. This was a half bottle from the Wine Society and cost £21. It was admirable, more elegant than the Capuchino, and perhaps slightly lighter in weight. G commented that it had no volatile acidity. Price-wise it's a little more expensive than the Capuchino and I'm not sure it's better as such. I'd love to have them side by side some time!

The other night, G contributed this bottle of Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Morgeot 2011 from Domaine de la Choupette. I'm a big fan of this domaine's red wines, and this white was up there. It was pale gold in colour, and very classy with good structure, balance and acidity. It had that slightly waxy quality one sometimes finds in Chassagne and went down surprisingly quickly with our fish soup. "A disastrous combination of excellent and easy drinking" said G.

On another recent occasion, ACC came round and contributed this excellent bottle of Chambolle-Musigny 2002 from Edouard Bryczek. He had bought a case of this back in the day and recently got it out of storage. What a treat! It was textbook Chambolle drinking beautifully now, smooth and well-integrated with ripe fruit. Positively sensuous.

The Epoisses made a bid for freedom and I couldn't resist taking a photo of it climbing down the side of the cheeseboard! Anyway, this will probably be the last entry here for 2016, which has been a difficult year for many reasons. Roll on 2017. Bonne année, tout le monde!

Capuchino palo cortado

Lately I've been getting into palo cortado sherry - yet another PC Project. At a tasting at Corney and Barrow in Notting Hill a few years ago, palo cortado was memorably described as the transsexual of sherry, because it starts off as a fino and then basically becomes an oloroso (see Wikipedia for the science bit). The results are quite special.

I've mainly been drinking Williams and Humbert Dos Cortados 20 year old which is available from Waitrose at £15.99 for a half bottle, or £12 as I always wait for the intermittent 25% off deal. Last time round I also acquired some Apostoles which is from Gonzalez Byass and costs £19 for a half bottle (or £14.25). This is apparently 30 years old, and includes some pedro ximinez which makes it sweeter and in my opinion wasn't very well-integrated.

So anyway, recently I was doing a Wine Society order and decided to be self-indulgent and treat myself to this Capuchino 30 year old from Osborne. I've tried their 30 year old oloroso, Sibarita, before and enjoyed it very much. This comes in a 50 cl bottle, enough for 4 generous glasses, so much nicer than a half bottle. Credit to the WS for selling it at £22 as opposed to £31 plus from other retailers.

It was definitely a notch up from the Dos Cortados and an aperitif to be savoured. It had the sharp, bracing quality of fino, but with a richness and complexity from the oloroso side. I found the weight of it very pleasing and detected hints of coffee and walnut. The finish went on for minutes, or would have done if I hadn't been pigging pistachio nuts at the same time. I suspect this might not be everyone's cup of tea - I wouldn't give it to my mother, who is an aficionado of the Sanchez Romate mature medium sweet oloroso, for example - but for me it was a revelation. Oh dear, I seem to have acquired yet another expensive taste!

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!

A sherry and a Beaujolais

This time of year is always a challenge blog-wise as one is attempting to recalibrate one's vinous intake after December. This week I've actually been below the government's drinking guidelines!

Fortunately there are a couple of random things which G and I drank in December which have been sitting on the back burner waiting to be written up. This Fino Una Palma from Gonzalez Byass came as part of a Wine Society mixed case of sherry - as I'm always saying, the main reason for being a member of the WS is access to its great range of advantageously-priced sherries.

This was the 2015 bottling, and en rama apparently means raw so it is not clarified or filtered. It's 6 year old fino and supposed to be drunk within 6 months - not a problem at AduV Towers. It had that bracing, tangy, salty fresh thing and was a fantastic sharpener. We didn't drink it all on day 1, but when I had another glass on day 2 it had definitely gone downhill. The bottle is 50cl, so it might be a good one to drink with friends in future.

Four years ago I was given the Dos Palmas and the Cuatro Palmas by my father, both of which were great in their own way and I wrote about them here. After that, I'd intended to get the Una and the Tres to complete the set, but never did, so it was nice to finally get to try the Una. I'm not sure exactly how much it cost, being part of the mixed case, but it's available for around £11 here (which seems to be a special offer), while the Dos Palmas is now about £17.

Also before Christmas, G visited Brussels and brought back this 2009 Fleurie made by Jean Foillard. I wasn't familiar with this producer but it turns out that his wines are very natural: no synthetic herbicides or pesticides, rigorous sorting, minimal/no sulphur, no filtration. This came in an enormous, weighty bottle exuding class. It was a deep purple colour, and was vibrant, with lovely intense sweet red and black berry fruit. "Gosh" said G. We had it with goose rillettes, which was a great combination, and it also went very well with cheese. We thought that if we'd been tasting it blind and someone had told us it was Morey St-Denis, we'd have believed them. It's expensive by Beaujolais standards, but it's worth it.

Next week sees the flurry of 2014 Burgundy en primeur tastings but as usual there's only one in my calendar - the Burgundy Portfolio tasting on Thursday on 14th. I had favourable impressions of the vintage from my trip in October, so am looking forward to tasting them again and getting some of them stashed away in my cellar!

Sunday night at mine

D came round on Sunday night for another evening of fine wine.

We started with this Pouilly-Fume from Oroncio aka La Maison Romane. This benefited from half an hour in decanter beforehand and showed as well as ever. We had it with some smoked trout which G had got from Borough Market and the challenge was not to guzzle it all while G carried out a lengthy dissection in order to avoid any Queen Mother-style fishbone incidents.

Then, it was on to the reds...

In the blue corner was this Opus One 1985 brought by D.

In the red corner, this bottle of Chateau Latour 1979 provided by G.

The Opus One is on the left in the photo above, and the Latour is on the right. The OO was slightly paler in colour and was drinking very well. It had a lovely silky texture, ripe plummy fruit, and I got a hint of pontefract cake. It was relatively easy-going and approachable but possibly started to fade towards the end.

After the 1968 Latour which we had fairly recently, the 1979 was a return to form. It was far more typical: big, majestic stuff, with the classic cigar box nose and formidable intensity. Apparently 1979 was not well-received when it first came out and one can understand why - this must have been a monster difficult wine in its youth. At 36 it was drinking very nicely.

I wouldn't say there was necessarily a clear winner, but it was particularly exciting to drink the Opus One as we wouldn't be able to find that over here.

With the cheese, we moved on to this Harveys Oloroso, bottled in 1953. G got this (not to be confused with Harveys Bristol Cream) at a recent auction and we weren't sure if it would be all right; fortunately it turned to be fine. It was quite dry on the nose but opened up on the palate and was well-rounded with notes of walnut. It went down remarkably quickly, always a good sign. Thanks to D and G for a great evening!

Recent drinking round-up, 10th October

As so often happens, various things have been drunk but not properly recorded so some catching-up is in order.

I picked up this Vieux Calvados in Magnum in Beaune last year. We were doing some shopping on the Saturday morning and I was outside the chocolate shop next door attempting to avert disaster as a bottle of marc had made a bid for freedom from its bag - memo to self: beware string handles whose knots have a tendency to come undone! - when my phone rang. It was ACC telling me to get to Magnum tout suite. Seconds later, I arrived to find a bunch of random things sitting on the counter which were clearly recent arrivals. They included some old Roulot marc and this bottle of 1945 Calvados. An offer was hastily made for the pair of them, and I became the happy owner of this rarity.

It was so rare, in fact, that no entry could be found for this vintage on Wine Searcher or anywhere else but I knew that Calvados of this age is very, very expensive and subsequent research revealed that the 1937 vintage is available for 2,500 euros! Ouch. Fortunately for me, the proprietors of Magnum had not yet gone onto the internet to research market prices and I paid less than £100. I put it aside for a special occasion but then plans for said occasion were abandoned so it was decided that it could be opened after all. Hurrah!

Of course, I failed to make notes, but it was discernibly Calvados, with appley flavours and a slightly green tinge, as opposed to some of these old spirits where the boundaries between e.g. marc and brandy start to diminish as time goes on. I was surprised by how fiery it still was. We enjoyed it but I think my yearning for old Calvados has now been sated.

A few weeks ago I placed another order with the Wine Society mostly consisting of sherry and treated myself to a 50cl bottle of this Osborne Sibarita 30 year old oloroso. I brought a bottle of this to the SPNS last year (reported here) and enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed this bottle very much too! It really is something very special - seriously intense and complex - and although it costs £21, that price is better than anywhere else, and 50cl is a convenient size. After drinking this, it's been a struggle to go back to bog-standard normal sherry.

This Cremant d'Alsace finally arrived (thanks to the Burgundy Portfolio) and G and I have drunk one bottle so far. It's made by Vignoble des 2 Lunes who are a biodynamic operation, from Pinot Auxerrois grapes. I found it fresh, clean, and elegant with hints of apples and cream. It went down very easily and made a good aperitif. The back label indicates that it is from the 2011 vintage and while I don't think there's any rush, it's good to go and I doubt whether it will improve with age.

At the other end of the scale, as it was quarter end the other night, G decided it was time for another bottle of Latour and contributed this 1968 from his stocks. I hadn't done any homework on it so it came as something of a surprise - it didn't shout Latour in the way that Latour normally does. It was very smooth with a nice viscosity but there was basically nothing going on until you got to the finish when it blossomed. It was a very nice old claret, but not what I was expecting. Latour is normally majestic, complex and cerebral and this wasn't. We thought it went better with food and that it filled out slightly towards the end - it had been decanted about half an hour beforehand. G said that 1968 was a "minor vintage" and that this was considered the best of the wines made that year. It was interesting to have it, but I don't think we'll be rushing to buy any more.

Finally, we recently received some much-awaited halves of wine from Emmanuel Giboulot and naturally a vertical tasting ensued! This was the Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits en Gregoire and the label has undergone some changes between 2009 and 2012. When comparing two wines the likelihood is that one will be go down better than the other and in this case I was surprised - I was expecting to prefer the 2009 but in fact the 2012 had it. The 2009 was quite earthy whereas the 2012 had that pure, scintillating quality that we associate with Giboulot's wines. I'll be interested to try more of both of them and see if this was due to bottle variation or if it applies more generally.

I have a short trip to Burgundy planned at the end of October to see how the 2014s are coming along. In preparation, I've been trying to improve my French using an online programme called Duolingo. This is quite fun although I'm not sure that my new vocabulary of sharks, whales, turtles, bees and monkeys is necessarily going to be much help in the cellars of the Cote d'Or. Fortunately I have a copy of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui to even up the balance! À bientôt!

Recent drinking round-up, 2nd August

No particular theme today, just a recap of what we have been drinking over the past couple of weeks.

This was a 2013 Beaujolais "Champ Blanc" made by Julien Merle, which G picked up in Triovino in Lyon for around 19 euros. It's a natural wine and we served it slightly chilled. I found it delicious and pure with vibrant fruit, while G described it as "essence of Gamay". At 12.5% we could be confident there'd be no hangover the next day either.

Last Sunday, ACC joined us for dinner and we were treated to some leftovers of this Chablis 2012 Grand Cru Les Preuses, from Domaine Nathalie and Gilles Fevre, Obviously this is very young, but it was already drinking nicely, probably because it had been open for a little while. I was struck by how elegant and pure it was. The use of oak is judicious at this domaine.

Then, I was excited to drink this white which I'd been saving up for a suitable occasion - a Bourgogne Blanc 2008 from Domaine Roulot. We don't see much Roulot in the UK and I'd never had a white from this domaine before. This bottle cost 39 euros from Antic Wines in Lyon. It didn't disappoint - it was like a baby Meursault with richness but also a lively streak of acidity and an edge which kept it interesting. It was beautifully balanced and drinking very well now. Those 2008 whites are so good.

With the cheeseboard we had this Bourgogne Rouge 1993 from Domaine Bernard Delagrange, which I believe ACC had picked up in the bargain bucket at Magnum in Beaune. This had survived remarkably well and went down a treat.

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending a wine tasting hosted by the Burgundy Portfolio at the Gallery Magda Danysz on Charlotte Street. This was very entertaining as we were given a tour of the remarkable space, which included a secret cinema hidden away downstairs, and were served a different wine in each part of the gallery. The wines were generally old favourites, but the white Pernand-Vergelesses from Pascal Clement was showing particularly well on this occasion.

On Friday, G and I tried out this Greek red, which was part of a recent order from the Wine Society. It was described in their notes as being like a Cote de Nuits burgundy, and I could see where they were coming from, as it had dark red berry fruits. I quite enjoyed it, but at 14% alcohol it was on the heavy side. G was not so keen and refused to drink it, but relented the following evening and helped me polish off the remainder. The fact that it was better on night 2 suggests that it's probably too young, but at £19.50 a pop I'm unlikely to rush out and buy any more with a view to keeping it for 3 years.

As an aside, I'm slightly miffed with the Wine Soc at the moment, because they seem to have discontinued the Norman Hardie Canadian pinot noir which I had from them some time ago. I didn't write about it on here at the time, as I was planning to get some more and take it to an SPNS dinner and didn't want to spoil the surprise, but I thought it was excellent, and now I can't get hold of any more. Grrr! However, what the Wine Society does do very well is sherry, and I ordered a little mixed 6 pack last week.

We opened this Cayetano del Pino Palo Cortado last night and I was hugely impressed with it. It's made by Sanchez Romate who always seem to do a good job. It smelled almost sweet on the nose, but it's actually dry, nutty and complex. At £14.50 a bottle it's a snip, and I'll be back for more in due course.

Also in the picture is the first course of G's "Superfood Supper" which he treated me to last night. I usually do the cooking so this was a nice change.

The second course involved mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes, and we opened my penultimate bottle of Meursault 2008 from Vincent Perrin.

This has been a spectacular wine, and I've enjoyed it very much. It's drinking beautifully at the moment and is everything you want in a Meursault.

The main course was a delightful crab and dill concoction, along with avocado. We used to eat a lot of crab on toast, but since the grill has now packed up due to too many vast hunks of beef being roasted in the oven, and in an attempt to lower the carb-count, this was an excellent alternative.

Next up, an assiette de fruits. Super-fruits, in fact.

Finally, the best super-food of all - cheese! G had been to La Fromagerie and got some Roquefort, Comte, a Banon, a Charollais and an Ami du Chambertin to go alongside the dregs of a Pecorino and a Valency from the 'Trose. There was so much that two cheeseboards had to be pressed into action. I hasten to add that we only had very small amounts of each, served with some Peter's Yard artisinal sourdough crispbread things, which have been the breakout hit of the summer.

To accompany this, we had a half bottle of Coufis Vin Doux from Chapoutier, which had the vintage (2008) on the cork. I really enjoyed this - it wasn't too sweet, and had lovely apricot flavours. Looking it up on the Chapoutier website, I'm not at all surprised to see that it's made from the viognier grape. I'm not sure why it's not allowed to be called a Rhone wine - perhaps it's from the wrong side of the tracks or something. This too came from Triovino and G thinks it cost about 18 euros. I'd certainly have it again, and find myself fervently wishing that Triovino had a branch in London.

That brings us all up to date. It's already beginning to feel slightly autumnal here and I've pencilled in a trip to Burgundy in November. I've been hearing good things about the wines of the 2014 vintage so am looking forward to trying them myself!