La Maison Romane dinner, 1st November

This dinner, arranged by ACC of the Burgundy Portfolio, was held a week ago last Thursday at the Cavalry and Guards club on Piccadilly.

I identified the building by the gaggle of tall young men in black tie hanging around outside and made my way up the impressive staircase behind some of the same chaps - fortunately they were going to a different event otherwise I'd have been seriously underdressed! As it was, I committed a major faux pas by not leaving my coat downstairs, and probably won't be allowed back.

It's a very posh club, and we had a private room where a table was laid for 14. There was a distinct horse motif to the room which was no coincidence. La Maison Romane is based in Vosne-Romanee and run by Oronce de Beler whose USP that he uses a horse, Prosper, to plough various vineyards and then receives payment in kind in the form of grapes. There's a certain secrecy as to whose vineyards these grapes are from but anyone who takes the trouble to get a horse in is someone who goes beyond the usual attention to detail in their winemaking, so this is good stuff.

The above photo is from la Maison Romane's website and stealing from the blurb for the dinner, a quote from Oronce: “Our vigneron-suppliers deal freely with their vines, but all chemical treatments are excluded as we prefer maintaining the vineyards by horse-pulled ploughing. Our chosen vineyards are mostly biodynamic, too. All the grapes are hand-picked and thanks to a contract with the vigneron-suppliers, we harvest the very same rows of vines that we work on throughout the year. The whole bunch (including mature stems) is then sorted by hand again in the fermenting room so that only the finest grapes are pressed. The wines are then aged in old Tronçay forest oak barrels for between 15 and 19 months. The wines develop according to the lunar cycle and are then hand-bottled by gravity. All these methods allow us to get the very best final product.”

En aperitif, I was given a glass of lovely-looking golden liquid which got my senses tingling right away. It was rich and intriguing yet bone dry on the finish. I assumed it was something from the Cote d'Or so was taken aback to find that it was actually a Pouilly-Fume 2008 from the Loire. Really quite remarkable.

After that, we sat down for the meal and I was lucky enough to be seated next to Paul who works at the domaine with Oronce and was there to talk us through the wines. So I was able to get the low-down straight from the horse's mouth, groan. His English was excellent which was a relief as I had things I wanted to ask - most of all, what does the horse do that a tractor doesn't? He told me that the horse doesn't compress the soil and so leaves more air in it for the various micro-organisms to thrive. Also, the chap behind the horse, who controls the plough, can see what he's doing much better than someone in a tractor could.

With the starter, a wild mushroom parfait, we had some 2008 Chablis 1er cru les Montmains and some 2010 Macon Rouge. The 2010 vintage of the Chablis was the big star of the Burgundy Portfolio's January en primeur tasting, and I treated myself to a case which is still in bond waiting for me to get my greedy paws on it. The 2008 was reassuringly good. It was difficult to make tasting notes so apologies if my comments are on the vague side, but this was tres Chablis and went down a storm.

It was also difficult to take photos, since one wished to be civilised and not sit there snapping away like an irritating bloggeuse, so G surreptitiously took some at the end which is why all the bottles appear to be levitating.

Paul described the red Macon as being halfway between a Beaujolais and a Burgundy. It's made from gamay, but had greater depth than your average Beaujolais. G and I had a red Macon quite recently which didn't wow us and I felt that this wine was overshadowed by the rest on offer.

With the main course, a partridge wellington, we had two reds side by side: the Pommard 1er cru L'Argillieres 2008, and the Corton Grand Cru Les Perrieres 2009. The Pommard was full of expressive terroir and I found it powerful and earthy. Paul thought it was showing particularly well.

The Corton took things to another level. It had what can only be described as an unusual nose - definitely not for the faint-hearted with a whiff of the farmyard, sous-bois and something a bit animal going on. On the palate, it was silky and complex - a wine to drink slowly and take seriously. I was advised by ACC to buy some back when it was en primeur and am delighted that I did. I won't rush to get it out though - it was drinking but will probably improve over the next few years.

Finally, with the cheese course, we had the two Star Terre (starter = entry level, ho ho) wines - a syrah and a grenache. In the past I've loved the syrah and not really liked the grenache, no disrespect to the domaine but just a grape preference. On this occasion it appeared to be the other way round which was perplexing but the mystery was solved when we found that our waiter had poured them the wrong way round. Whether this was true for everyone present I'm not sure. There was less to choose between them than there has been in the past, and some present - not naming names - decided to make their own mixed Rhone by combining the two. Disgraceful behaviour!

Paul mentioned in passing that the Scandinavians are very fond of the domaine's white wines, while the Italians and Spanish go for the red. Further questioning revealed that the Chablis is on the wine list at Noma, while some of the reds are on the wine list at a top Spanish restaurant whose name I didn't catch.This is a cult domaine and the stuff isn't cheap, but it's a privilege to drink it. An amazing evening!

SPNS dinner, 18th Oct

Fresh as a daisy from the Perrin dinner the night before, it was straight down to the Savile Club on Thursday evening for the next gathering of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. On this occasion there were just four of us as sadly ACC had fallen by the wayside and P was AWOL. 

I took off my coat and made my way to the bar overflow area where T, D and G were cheerfully installed and appeared already to have scoffed the best part of a bottle of pink port. Being a perfect gentleman, T lost no time in pouring me a tumbler of the stuff on the rocks. I'd known in advance that he was bringing a fortified rose wine and had been intrigued but had never for one moment realised it would be a port - Offley's Rose Porto to be precise. T exhorted us to imagine that we were "somewhere south of Slough" by which I think he meant some hot, exotic country relaxing under the palm trees. It went down a treat - the ice chilled it down so it wasn't too sweet but remarkably refreshing and certainly something I'd consider buying again. Available in your local 'Trose for a bargain £9.99. Brilliant SPNS fare.

As usual, however, D out-weirded us all by bringing along a Japanese fizz with the moniker "Niagara Sparkling" which he got in Japan. Strangely this one doesn't seem to be available in my local supermarket. It had a remarkable nose - the others got lychees but for me there was a chemical note that belonged in a potting shed or garage, and it took me ages to work out what it was. We decided it wasn't nail polish remover but might be diesel or kerosene. On further reflection I have a feeling it might have been firelighters. Anyway, I found the palate more enjoyable and it reminded me of a sparkling Vouvray. Fascinating stuff.

My contibution paled by comparison. This was Mouratus, a white pinot noir from the Loire, made by J Mourat, which came from the Wine Society. It was the 2010 vintage. I've never had a still white wine made from pinot noir so thought it would be interesting. Sadly, it wasn't - it was bland and had no finish. We all agreed that it was disappointing and would have been better with bubbles. 

Then we moved on to G's red, Amorino 2005 from Podere Castorani, which he got from Avery's of Bristol. This claimed to be 13.5% alcohol but seemed to me to be closer to 14.5%. It was an "international" wine in the sense of being big and powerful but without much local character. It was approachable but I found I got rapidly diminishing returns. The comments of the others were generally favourable (apart from T's which seemed to be all about his delicious marinaded ox cheeks), but I suspect ACC would have hated it.

Finally, G had taken the liberty of bringing along some of my Pacherenc de Vic Bilh, Saint-Albert, 1999. I brought a bottle of this to the previous SPNS dinner and it had turned out to be corked. This additional bottle had been lurking in G's flat so I hadn't realised I still had any left. Fortunately this one turned out to be ok and everyone seemed to enjoy it, the consensus being that it was not too sweet. Not a "great" wine but pleasurable and excellent value, and at 50cl the perfect size to round things off.

I stole a photo of the Savile dining room as we were leaving - a remarkable setting in which to have dinner! Then we went back downstairs for grappa, coffee and further conversation. Another great evening.

Domaine Marie-Christine & Vincent Perrin dinner, 17th Oct

Last Wednesday I attended this dinner held at the Perseverance just off Lisson Grove, held under the auspices of the Burgundy Portfolio. Also there were my brother and sister-in-law, G, Baron McG and a number of other familiar faces. ACC was our host and Vincent Perrin himself was there to talk about the wines.

I've visited this domaine twice, in January 2010 (notes here) and in January 2011 (notes here) and have always liked the house style which is elegant and allows the terroir to express itself.

We started with a glass of the white Saint-Romain "Combe Bazin" from 2010 which was very enjoyable and still had that floral quality which I liked about the 2008.

Some gougeres appeared but didn't hang around for long. Top marks to my sister-in-law for comparing them unfavourably with mine, admittedly mainly on grounds of size.

Then we sat down and got on with the main business of the evening. With a starter of wood pigeon and chicken liver terrine, we had two village Volnays - the 2010 Cuvee Marie and the 1999.

There was a clear colour differentiation - assuming I had my glasses the right way round, the 2010 is on the left and the 1999 on the right. I found the 2010 hard to judge at this stage as it's still very young. The 1999 had, as you'd expect, much softer tannins, a velvety textrure and a hint of tinned strawberries. The second bottle of it (there were 14 of us so two bottles of each wine were consumed) seemed to have dried figs and raisins on the nose and was very ripe, suggesting a certain amount of bottle variation.

The next pair of wines, drunk with the main course, were this 2008 Volnay 1er cru La Carelle Sous la Chapelle and a 1998 Volnay 1er cru Les Gigottes, which is a monopole ("not to be confused with a monopoly" said ACC) and therefore of great interest from the perspective of the Premier Cru Project.

The Carelle was very smooth and those at my end of the table detected redcurrants. But for me, the Gigottes was the winner of this bout with its cedary nose and black fruit flavours that reminded me of the kind of claret I love - hopefully I won't be excommunicated from future Burgundy Portfolio events for saying that. I succumbed to temptation and ordered some the next day.

Notice also the change in label style. 1445 refers to the date when the Perrin family began making wine in Volnay. Vincent is clearly a moderniser with his new bold typeface.

I really do enjoy the food at the Perseverance and this evening was no exception - the main course was roast venison with red cabbage, parsnips, port and juniper.

Finally, with the cheese course, we compared a 1999 Volnay 1er Cru les Gigottes (monopole) with a 1999 Pommard "Chanlains". I found this Gigottes quite intense and brooding and on balance felt that I preferred the 1998. The Pommard had notes of liquorice, dried currants and fruit cake. G really liked it and went for some, while I already have some of the 2010 tucked away so it will be interesting to compare them in due course.

The cheese course consisted of an extraordinary chunk of ripe Stinking Bishop servied with oatcakes and chutney. Baron McG, connoisseur du fromage, commented that Stinking Bishop must be "twinned with Epoisses". There was certainly quite a resemblance, no bad thing.

All in all, a good time was had and it was fascinating to compare the young and the old and drink them as they're intended to be drunk, i.e. with robust food. Thanks to ACC for organising and to Vincent Perrin for making these lovely wines.

Miscellaneous autumnal ramblings

No particular theme this week but another catch-up on bits and pieces.

New sherry alert! I came across this in Waitrose and it immediately jumped out at me due to the resemblance to the wonderful sherries Dad gave me for Christmas last year (see here). It's made by Gonzalez-Byass and is called Delicado. It's a limited edition fino and someone more conscientious than me has reviewed it properly here. It's £13.99 for a 50cl bottle which is an excellent size in my opinion, allowing generous portions for two over two evenings. Quite expensive for a fino but we felt this was worth it so I'll be back for more in due course if it's still there.

While on the subject of aperitifs, at long last the Ali Boit Boit et les 40 Buveurs has shipped, just in time for winter! Never mind - we didn't have much of a summer anyway. This is a wine I first tried back at the beginning of the year. It's made by Agnes Paquet (NB viticultrice) and is a sparkler, a 50/50 mixture of Aligote and Chardonnay. There's some technical stuff on her website here about how exactly it's made, and I'm not sure if it's technically a cremant de bourgogne or not, but the take-home point is that it's just 8% alcohol. I don't think I would have guessed this if I didn't know already, but it certainly is quite light in style and I'm very happy with it. The fact that it comes with a crown cap makes it even more perfect for quaffing on a park bench.

We've continued to drink up G's haul of old Hugels and very pleasant they have been too.

This Bourgogne Rouge 1998 from Domaine Maume, which is based in Gevrey-Chambertin, also arrived and was fascinating. It was lighter and more acidic than I expected, almost piquant. Looking forward to drinking the rest of it.

After my disastrous adventures in cider the other week, I read an article in the Grauniad about perry which encouraged me to try the stuff. We had Henry Westons 2010 vintage against Waitrose 2011 vintage. Both were dry and relatively strong but the Henry Westons beat the Waitrose in my opinion. The Henry Weston cider wasn't bad either, so now I know what to go for in future.

Adventures in cooking: I found that the East London Steak Co, which I use as an occasional alternative to the Ginger Pig, sell legs of mutton, so I got some and did it in the slow cooker.

G made his "signature" biryani with the leftovers, which was excellent, as the mutton was less fatty than lamb.

Last week my boss brought back some quinces from his country estate so after several days had passed with me looking at them and them looking at me, eventually I found a Nigel Slater recipe (here) and after reading his column out loud in a fey voice as per tradition, we cooked them. They were amazing. I shall now have to drop some hints that I'd like some more...

Today I attempted to make granola cupcakes. These consist of flaked almonds, dessicated coconut, chopped up unsulphured dried apricots, butter and honey. Unfortunately they fell apart as I took them out of the tin so it's back to the drawing board - but they taste bloody delicious.

Normal service will be resumed this week as I have two dinners out in a row - a Vincent Perrin tasting and the next SPNS dinner. Tickets have also been booked for the New Year outing to Burgundy. So lots to look forward to!

Embarras de Sauternes luncheon, Sun 30 Sept

Last Sunday, G and I travelled to Windsor to visit T in his new abode and help him and a couple of other friends drink some of his stash of Sauternes. The goodies that awaited us more than made up for the complicated journey to get there - it's not often you get to drink five Sauternes at a sitting! G made notes which meant I didn't. Now I have nothing to refer to except my memory and the photos I took, so details may be a little sketchy.

First up was this Chateau de Fargues 2003 en demi. I've rated this chateau in the past and I remember a tasting I attended in Oxford years ago where we drank Yquem against Fargues and I came away with the distinct impression that I preferred the Fargues, particularly considering the price differential. As a welcoming drink it was very enjoyable but on further reflection we felt that it was a little low in acidity. 2003 was a very hot year so perhaps this had something to do with it. T has quite a stash of the stuff so maybe it should be tucked away for a bit to see if it gets better with age.

Next was this Chateau Lafaurie-Peyraguey 1996 which I'd never heard of, and I don't think I was the only one. We speculated that the difficult-to-pronounce name might be the reason it's not well-known in the UK. It was distinctly darker in colour than the other wines but I think the general consensus was that it was not one of the top-end Sauternes.

After that we had this Chateau Myrat 2007. Again I wasn't familiar with this chateau. I enjoyed it but the feeling was that this wasn't great Sauternes, by which I mean that both of these two were lacking complexity and also had relatively short finishes.

We got on to the good stuff at last with this Chateau Rieussec 2000. This was proper Sauternes with botrytis flavours - really lovely.

And finally, Chateau Guiraud 2002. Again this was clearly the real deal and T's favourite of the tasting. I'll beg to differ and go for the Rieussec instead. Arguably they were neck and neck, both fantastic.

To go with the Sauternes, T provided a wonderful buffet of epic proportions and G and I brought along a magnum of Yves Darviot's Beaune Greves 2005 which sadly didn't show very well. I have a number of theories as to why this could have been but probably drinking it in the middle of a sweet wine tasting was never going to do it any favours. Never mind, I shall look forward to drinking the rest in due course.

The leisurely afternoon was rounded off by listening to some Flanders and Swann classics. They don't make 'em like that any more. Then we suddenly realised it was past 8.00 and time to get back to the metropolis, and thus a new record for a six and a half hour lunch was set. Thanks very much to T for his hospitality and giving us this opportunity to drink such amazing wines - quite an experience!

The Burgundy Portfolio 2010 en primeur tasting part deux

On Thursday evening, I attended this Burgundy Portfolio wine tasting which was held at the City University Club. The first mission was to find the venue which at first glance appeared to be a pub - then I spotted the discreet entrance and walked up the stairs to the second floor which was good exercise. It was only when I got there that I spotted the lift!

I was greeted at the door by ACC, grabbed a glass and got down to business. There were two tables and things were on a help-yourself basis which seemed to work well and as far as I could see everyone behaved themselves with pouring quantities. This can sometimes be an issue and when I was on the cruise a couple of weeks ago I was amused that the Americans with whom we sat for meals poured very stingy glasses of wine for everyone, while the Canadians on the same table poured themselves glasses full to the brim. Which might explain why the Canadian guy had a very purple face. But I digress.

The first table consisted of wines not yet shipped to the UK and I hadn't tried any of them before. The domaines present were Didier Montchovet, Albert Joly, Chateau Genot-Boulanger, Maison en Belle Lies, Jean-Pierre Bony and Yves Chevalier. Of the whites, my favourite was the 2009 Puligny-Montrachet from Albert Joly. Generally the reds were more my cup of tea and I enjoyed the 2010 Beaune 1er Cru Les Greves from Maison en Belle Lies, which is perhaps not surprising as I do love Beaune.

However, the stand-out wine of the evening in my opinion was this Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Damodes 2010 from Domaine Jean-Pierre Bony. Pretty much everyone I spoke to liked this, whereas there were differences of opinion on almost all the other wines. I got redcurrants on the nose and found it a lighter style of NSG which isn't an appellation I usually go for. It had impressive length too. ACC explained that part of the Damodes vineyard is premier cru, but this wine is made from grapes from the non-premier cru bit. This is the kind of thing a Burgundy geek like me likes to look for as often it indicates good quality but without the premier cru premium. At £270 a case in bond this seemed to be good value.

Then it was onto the second table, featuring wines which have already been shipped. I was amused to discover I've already bought about half of them.

On the left were some Chablis from Domaine Gilles and Nathalie Fevre. Once again it was the Petit Chablis 2011 that impressed me the most, especially at £12.95 a bottle. It was enjoyable to drink something so approachable as the wines on the previous table will not be ready for some time. S noted that it wasn't very Chablis in style - it's quite fruity rather than minerally - and we speculated about what Petit Chablis is exactly. It turns out that as with Burgundy, it's to do with the classification of the vineyard and the Petit Chablis vineyards are the ones further out that aren't good enough to be generic Chablis, 1er cru or grand cru.

In the ice bucket in the middle of the table were old favourites the Cremant and the Rose from Domaine Felettig, both of which I've had a case of and have enjoyed over the summer. There was also a Fleurie 2010 from Domaine de Sermezy which O rated highly, and a Santenay from Bachey-Legros which I liked a lot, but was now only available in magnum. While I love the magnum format (and have fond memories of the tasting a few years ago which was a series of controlled experiments, proving that wine from magnum really does taste better), until I move to more spacious accommodation there's a limit to how many magnums I can utilise. ACC told his habitual joke about how it's the perfect size for dinner for two...

Then there were two wines from Domaine Audriffed - a Bourgougne Rouge and a Vosne-Romanee. I liked both of these but have already bought some of the former and have some other Vosnes from the same producer so didn't bite on this occasion. It was nice to confirm that I still liked them though!

The room had the most leather sofas crammed into a small space that I've ever seen, along with a picture of HRH which pleased Baron McGuffog. I really liked the vibrant tiles set into the fireplace. However, on perusal of the leaflet about the club, I discovered it's only open at lunchtime on weekdays so probably not one I shall be joining in the near future.

Finally, it was good to see at least one Master of Wine there who was famous enough for me to recognise! All in all, another very enjoyable and educational evening.

Odds and sods

Today’s post is going to be completely lacking in narrative structure, but instead will be a meandering ramble taking in the past couple of weeks.

First, I went on a cruise along the Moselle and the Rhine with my mother for four days at the beginning of September. This wasn’t a wine tour but we did have a dinner in Strasbourg beforehand where we had this Riesling from Gustave Lorentz (a whopping 17 euros) and flammekuchen and some rather delicious puddings.

Flammekuchen - spot the difference. One had extra Munster!

My pudding - nom nom nom

Mum's creme caramel - she seemed pretty happy with it!

We got up at the crack of dawn on the Sunday morning and a coach took us from Strasbourg to Cochem on the Moselle, a journey involving some exciting hair-pin bends. Here we got on the boat which travelled the next day to Koblenz and then back down the Rhine to Strasbourg. The Moselle is very pretty and when the boat was moored, I could see fish swimming about in the river. The towns we stopped off at were mostly small places and very touristy so I didn’t buy any booze to bring back.

Cochem, on the Moselle

Steep vineyards by the Moselle

It was nice to see so many vineyards and often they had their name on a big sign visible from the river. I was impressed by how steep they were – sometimes the gradient looked perilously close to 45 degrees. I wouldn’t fancy working in them. The gentle slope of the Cote d’Or is bad enough after a moderate Burgundian lunch.

This cat sensibly stayed in the shade and shunned the strange English women who wanted to talk to it

I got back to A de V Towers last Saturday to find that G had drunk all my marc so he will have to get the next batch in (hint hint). This week we've mostly been drinking my house red and white – the Bourgogne Rouge 2009 from Odoul Coquard and the Bourgogne Blanc 2008 from Anne Parent. Both are showing really well at the moment and are just the ticket after a hard day slogging at the coal face.

"Ne bouillez pas!" the somewhat bossy instruction on the back label

Also, we've been finding that the sherry which I wrote about last time works very well with some soupe de poissons. This stuff, intermittently available from the Waitrose tinned soup section, is amazing and you can feel it doing you good as the Omega 3s work their magic.

Sadly, the Inverse Law of Labels didn't apply in this case

G got adventurous at the weekend and picked up this bottle of red Macon-Serrieres 2008 from the People’s Supermarket down the road in Lamb’s Conduit Street. I wasn’t very familiar with red Macon, but it turned out to be similar to Beaujolais. It didn't wow us. I wasn’t feeling particularly well that evening so that may have influenced my judgement, but we didn't finish the bottle which is very unusual!

During the week I indulged in some cider – this Rekorderlig and some Aspall Lady Jennifer’s.

I bought the Rekorderlig because it was Swedish. It describes itself as “Premium Strawberry-Lime Cider” so really I should have realised what I was letting myself in for. It was sickly and frankly not very nice.

The Lady Jennifer’s was much better and was light and dry as described. However after all the manzanilla we’ve been drinking, I fear I’ve lost my taste for fizzy commercial cider.

Things I’ve enjoyed this week:

1. A meeting with a professor who described a formidable high-level Coca Cola executive with whom he’d had dealings as “the kind of woman who eats a bowl of rusty nails for breakfast, just to get her in the mood”. Not an expression I’d come across before but delightfully pungent.

2. Listening to The Menu, a weekly Monocle podcast presented by a guy with a very weird accent. This turns out to be Markus Hippi who I gather is from Finland, which explains a lot. The programme is mainly a series of interviews with various international food-related people and it seems the whole archive is available! There was a particularly interesting piece on the renaissance of craft beers in London which made me want to investigate further.  

3. Discovering that Bring It On: the Musical is showing on Broadway. This is the kind of news that makes me very excited. Of course everyone will be familiar with the film version of Bring It On, about rival groups of cheerleaders and starring none other than Eliza Dushku of Tru Calling fame (#sarcasm). I’m still working on persuading G to join me on a weekend trip to NYC. He seems strangely reluctant. 

An empty packet - the cheese itself didn't hang around long enough to get a photo

 4. Speaking of Trou de Cru, guess what I found in Waitrose. It’s been rebranded by the mainstream producer of Epoisses as a “Petit Berthaut” but to me it’s a Trou and mighty fine it was too. Still, one baulks slightly at the price differential – this was £3.25 whereas a normal Epoisses is twice that, yet the Epoisses is four times the size. Some sort of equation involving square roots seems in order.

5. While we’re on the subject of cheese, I’ll try not to gush too much about my trip to Pascal Beillevaire yesterday evening but let’s just say that when it came to choosing a goats cheese, the lovely woman who runs the shop decided she wasn't happy with the ones on display, so despite a sudden flurry of customers she took the trouble to go down to the store room to find the perfect goats cheese for me and came back with this.

The cheese of glory!

“Is it a Pouligny Saint-Pierre?” I asked innocently and she was suitably impressed at my powers of cheese-identification. I'm still glowing with self-congratulation, although I know perfectly well that this is a very easy cheese to identify, being such a strange pyramid shape. I also received yet another free chocolate mousse and a brace of natural yoghurts. Apparently they're doing cheese and wine evenings on the first and third Thursdays of the month – am seriously tempted to pop along for one of those some time.

6. A wine tasting held by ACC of the Burgundy Portfolio on Thursday night, which deserves its own separate post and will receive it in the near future. 

7. Finally, the excellent news that Eurostar tickets have been booked for New Year in Burgundy! Can’t wait.