Epic trip continued...

On Sunday morning, G got carried away at the bakery so we enjoyed a huge breakfast of ficelles au lardons, almond croissants, pains au chocolat and normal croissants. Then eventually we heaved ourselves into action and wandered into town to have a look round some shops.

At last! The new 2013 cassis has arrived!

We found a few choice goodies particularly in Magnum, and then came back home where I plugged my ipod into a little speaker in order to play Now That's What I Call Disco while I made some gougeres. Eventually G, who has no sense of fun, banned Now That's What I Call Disco and we had to revert to Paul Van Dyk's Vonyc Sessions podcast. My favourite tracks on here are Incarnation and a jazzed-up Lana Del Rey thing which you can listen to here if you want to recreate the mood.

I made the gougeres smaller than usual which had the advantage a) that there were more burnt, crunchy bits and b) the mixture made about 200 gougeres with lots left over for me to pig out on during the rest of the week.

With the gougeres, we had this bottle of Pernand-Vergelesses 2010 from De(ux) Montille. Let's just say it was on the acidic side, and was much improved by the gougeres. Not one I'd rush to have again.

Then some cheeses - an amazing Ami de Chambertin (which according to a cheese website I've just consulted, is "related to Epoisses, but more stout in appearance"), a Trou du Cru, a Delice de Pommard and a young Comte which had been bought primarily to make the gougeres. These all came from the local supermarket but despite that were sensational. The Trou in particular was oozy nine millimetre.

Also some pate, terrine and cornichons.

To drink with all that, we had this 2005 Cote de Brouilly from Chateau Thivin which went down a treat. We were intrigued by the Cuvee de la Chapelle gold sticker, and check that label out! The Inverse Law strikes again.

After all that, a restorative glass of marc was in order. That morning, G and I had been keen to get in the traditional "bottle of marc for the house" and ACC had suggested a trip to Dennis Perret on Place Carnot as they had a good range. Indeed they did - we picked up this Chateau des Jacques 1986 for 31 euros. Being a bit thick jetlagged, we hadn't registered that this was actually a Louis Jadot marc, but despite that, it was pretty damn good, as it should be after 27 years.

I can't remember what we did in the afternoon - watched some crap French TV and went for a little lie-down, I suspect. Then in the evening it was off to la Ciboulette (aka "Cibbers") which is one of the few places open on a Sunday night. It was packed and we had to wait a while for things to happen. We struggled with the wine list and eventually ACC consulted the owner who found us a nice white Savigny from Catherine and Claude Marechal. For our red we were able to have a 2011 Auxey from the same producers, which really hit the spot - young and fruity. Then it was back home to the spooky cave for marc and coffee to prepare for an action-packed day of appointments on Monday.

Epic trip to Burgundy, Sept 2013

Last Saturday G, ACC and I set off to Burgundy in our usual style i.e. a cork was gently eased out of a bottle of Pol Roger as the Eurostar drew out of St Pancras, much to the amazement/jealousy of fellow passengers. This was accompanied by some Roka Cheese Crispies, which didn't last long. There was a slight altercation when it turned out I'd forgotten to bring forks for our salad, but G manfully went to the buffet car and stole some plastic numbers so harmony was soon restored.

At last we got to Beaune station and found the heavens had opened. We made our soggy way to the local supermarket to stock up on essentials like pate, cheese and 200 bottles of Badoit, and then after multiple attempts managed to find a taxi. We were staying at a new place which was allegedly in the centre of Beaune, so it was quite surprising when the taxi hurtled out of the town centre and had practically made it into open countryside before drawing up at a very ordinary-looking house with a clothes-drier outside sporting several pairs of gentleman's socks. Nevertheless, this was the address we had been given.

A man inside overheard us talking and came out to see what was going on. It turned out that this was the home of madame who was renting us the gite and not the actual gite itself. Oops! Since our taxi had by now disappeared into the distance, the chap phoned madame, who was waiting for us at the gite, and she drove back to collect us. G and I got in the back of her car/van where there were no seats, so we had to crouch on the floor and hold on as best we could, while ACC had the benefit of the front seat. You know you're in Burgundy when stuff like this starts happening. G claims that his mackintosh will never be the same. Eventually we made it to a street we recognised and then turned off down an extremely narrow lane. I was very impressed by madame's precision driving - there was about a millimetre of clearance on each side.

It's still not entirely clear why she gave ACC her own address instead of the address of the gite, but we were happy because the gite was much closer to the town centre than the house with the socks had been. She showed us round, including unnecessarily detailed instructions on how to use the microwave, dishwasher etc., and explained at length the additional tariffs for towels, cleaning etc. I left the others to it at this point and went to get the luggage, managing to give myself concussion on the low ceiling of the utility room. Then it was time to go for dinner. Hurrah!

Usually we go to Caves Madeleine for our first dinner of the trip, but shockingly, it was fully booked, so Cheval Noir was our second choice. We walked through Beaune in the rain, G leading the pack and accelerating like Mo Farah as he spotted his destination. Getting out of the horrible rain and into the warmth and serene atmosphere of that place was one of the nicest experiences of the trip.

We sat at the same table as last time and had a wonderful kir to start with. Afterwards we debated whether it was only so good because it was the first of the trip. I guess we should have gone there again on the last day to test the hypothesis. Amuses-gueles quickly appeared and then a melon thing in a glass, with slivers of bacon in it. We had the 30 euro menu with extra cheese at a supplement of 9 euros. The highlight for me was the Norwegian trout with "espuma" potatoes - the wonderful fluffy, cheesy potatoes we had last time - while ACC had a piece of pork with loads of girolles. I really enjoyed my main course but was nevertheless jealous of his and started hinting that we needed to come back again later in the week, but to no avail. To drink, we had some white Auxey-Duresses and then some red Auxey-Duresses 2009 from Domaine Bzikot, both of which were very good. The bill was 200 euros for the three of us, and we had eaten and drunk very well. Once again, we felt Cheval Noir was on the verge of a Michelin star. Certainly the 30 euro menu is excellent value.

ACC wanted to go to "Route 66" on Place Carnot afterwards but it looked packed and we ended up in another cafe where we had a disappointing marc and then decided to go home and try out our very own cellar!

Chorey, Chorey everywhere

Madame had generously provided us with a bottle of 2006 Chorey-les-Beaune from the family estate. Obviously we were very excited to try this as we know from frequent missives from the Wine Society what a great vintage 2006 was for red Burgundy (#sarcasm). It was predictably revolting. We had a look round the cellar to see what else there was, but it was literally just bottles and bottles of this stuff. Quite sad really. Fortunately while at the supermarket G and I had taken the precaution of getting a bottle of Maranges 1er cru la Fussiere from Domaine Pagnotta, so at least we had something drinkable, even if on the rustic side.

In fact the cave itself was strangely spooky, with weird agricultural implements on the walls, and an odd stone semi-religious figure in a hole in the wall presiding over proceedings. On a subsequent evening, G closed the door which made it feel incredibly claustrophobic. Something out of a horror movie could have happened at any second. Imagine being imprisoned in there, with just 5000 bottles of revolting 2006 Chorey-les-Beaune to drink... It didn't bear thinking about. Fortunately this was not our fate, and we made it to bed soon after midnight, knowing that we didn't have to get up early the next morning.

A pair of ports

The other day, when I opened my credit card bill I unexpectedly found a £20 off voucher for Waitrose wine, but the catch was that I had to spend £100. Seconds later I was on their website to see if they had any decent madeira left. Sadly, they didn't - no great surprise - but then I saw they had some Taylors 40 year old which reminded me of the period a couple of years ago when I got into 20 year old tawny port. As this is the big year, I thought "now or never", and went for it. A few days later, this arrived.

Imagine my surprise when I mentioned this self-indulgent splurge to G and he informed me that he was in possession of a bottle of Taylor's Crusted Port bottled in 1973, which he got at auction. A sort-of-horizontal port tasting ensued!

We tried the 40 year old tawny first, pouring it straight from the bottle. It looked glossy and clear. On the nose, we got fruit cake, with a hint of ginger. I also found a vanilla custard thing going on which G pointed out was due to the use of oak casks. I loved the palate, which was very smooth, with a creamy texture, and not too sweet. It was very crowd-pleasing and reminded me slightly of Woodford Reserve bourbon - easy drinking. I was very happy with it and might even buy it again, as I think I know some people who'd enjoy it.

Then it was on to the crusted port. Here's the cork, which came out whole, more or less, thanks to G's expertise with the corkscrew.

And here's a delightful photo of the sediment in the sink. Ew!

I had to ask G exactly what a crusted port is. Apparently it's made from a mixture of vintages that weren't declared and is bottled early so that it will throw a crust. It's a style that isn't made any more. G thought that this one was probably mainly from the 1971 vintage which wasn't declared. As the 40 year old tawny is a solera, you'd expect there to be quite an overlap between the two wines, but the tawny was aged in barrel, while the crusted port matured mostly in bottle.

We decanted it, and it looked murky in the glass (on the left in the photo below). On the nose, it was frankly offputting. G said it smelled of burnt rubber, and there were also some sharp chemical notes and a sort of over-ripe tropical fruit thing going on. Let's just say expectations were low!

But the palate wasn't congruent with the nose, which was good news. It was more powerful than the tawny, with figs, panforte and cocoa. It had more depth and intensity and was altogether more interesting, with a marvellous finish.

We continued to drink them side by side on a subsequent evening but found that the crusted port was starting to fade, so at that point we polished it off by itself. The tawny is still going strong and claims to last 7 weeks after it's been opened. Somehow I doubt it'll last that long...

Sunday lunch at mine, 18th Aug

Last Sunday ACC came round to my place for lunch and to plot our next trip to Burgundy which is only a couple of weeks away!

We got things started with my penultimate bottle of Chablis 1er cru Montmains 2008 from La Maison Romane. We had some of this just a couple of weeks ago, but if anything this bottle was even better with a fabulously rich nose, almost like a Meursault, and perfectly balanced palate with core of acidity holding everything together. There was some discussion as to whether the final bottle should be drunk soon or not - G thought we should drink up, but ACC made the case for keeping it for a while. I certainly need to make sure it's saved for a relatively special occasion and not guzzled on a random Tuesday night.

We had some smoked salmon to go with it. Difficult to think of a better combination.

Then it was on to this bottle of red Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru la Cardeuse 2007 from Bernard Moreau. I bought this from Mon Millesime for 37 euros about 4-5 years ago, and since then it's been living at G's country cellar (hence the OJW written on the label, to deter marauding relatives).

It was quite a warm day and the oven was on for the roast beef, so I popped it in the fridge about an hour before we drank it. It had a lovely nose; at the time I wrote "cherries?" but consulting the premier cru spreadsheet notes for other Chassagnes I now wonder if it was actually redcurrants. On the palate it was succulent and slightly chewy, and I found a bitter note on the finish, rather like coffee. The overall verdict was that it was refined and poised, but for me didn't quite hit the heights I'd been hoping for given its monopole status. I gave it an 8.

Finally, we had this Bourgogne Rouge 2005 from Dugat, brought along by ACC. It had an enticing dark nose, which G described as magnificent. On the palate, there was black cherry and dark chocolate going on. It was complete, rich, integrated and delicious. Frankly it knocked spots off the Chassagne. Others described it as a "baby Gevrey" and clearly it was not your average bourgogne rouge, but I didn't spot any liquorice which would have been the Gevrey giveaway. Thanks to ACC for bringing along something so wonderful.

Two weeks today I'll be in Chambolle-Musigny... very excited! But hopefully there's time for one more post before then.

Vintage Variation tasting, 12th Aug

On Monday, we twirled our imaginary ironic moustaches and made our way to Shoreditch to attend this tasting held by ACC of the Burgundy Portfolio in Leila's Shop on Calvert Avenue.

I'd never been to Shoreditch before; the extent of my roaming in that direction has been Old Street "silicon roundabout". As we approached it on Monday night, we walked along a section of Old Street full of shabby 1960s office blocks with a dreary air of hopelessness. I decided that the area reminded me of Wellingborough town centre, and G said that he'd been thinking of Peterborough. Maybe the geeks are too busy developing killer apps to notice the architecture.

Fortunately things looked up fairly quickly on the other side of the roundabout and Shoreditch seemed similar to the nicer bits of Clerkenwell, with interesting warehouses and Victorian buildings, but with a side order of Vietnamese cafes and trendy bars. Eventually we found the venue, which turned out to be a charming cafe down the far end of a quiet side street. A cheery group including several familiar faces were getting stuck in to a choice of two cremants de bourgogne - either the normal or the rose from Domaine Jean-Pierre Bony. I opted for the rose which I've tried before and liked. I didn't really pay a huge amount of attention to it but it went down a treat.

After some preliminary chit-chat, we took our places at the table. This was a sit-down tasting, which is my favourite kind as I find I can concentrate better, get to listen to ACC's take on the wine and anecdotes about the wine-makers, don't have to sharpen my elbows to get to the booze, and can make proper notes. Also, we had some food, which helps put the wine in context. On this occasion there were wooden boards bearing cheeses and saucisson, alongside bread, cornichons and crisps. G was ravenous and within minutes had practically eaten his own body-weight in Comte and saucisson.

The theme of the tasting was vintage variation and for the most part we drank pairs of the same wine from different vintages. The first pair was the Petit Chablis from Domaine Nathalie and Gilles Fevre, the 2011 against the 2012. We were supposed to drink from young to old, and therefore pour the young wine into our left glass and the old wine into our right glass. This required a surprising amount of concentration every time the wine went round and somehow seemed counter-intuitive. I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that we're used to reading from left to right and therefore unconsciously expect the older thing to be on the left and the newer thing to be on the right. Who knows.

The 2012 had only been in bottle for 3 months, while the 2011 had been in bottle for 15 months. I liked the fresh, lemony nose on the 2012 and found it quite sharp on the palate, which made me think it will be good in a few months' time. The 2011 was definitely drinking better now, but wasn't quite as crisp. G and I agreed that we preferred the 2012 but opinions around the table were mixed.

Then we tried the 2009 and 2010 Bourgogne Blanc from Domaine Florent Garaudet. This domaine is in Monthelie which is on the other side of Volnay from Pommard, and not a very well-known appellation. We visited the domaine back in January and came away with the impression that Florent is very passionate and even obsessive (in a good way) about his wine.

We'd tasted the 2010 at the white burgundy and port tasting a few weeks ago, and I liked it then. I liked it this time too - it was well-balanced and precise. We were less keen on the 2009 - G described it as "butch" and I thought it lacked the special quality of the 2010.

Then we tried the 2008 vintage of the same wine and this was very impressive, drinking very well now and with a great finish. Florent Garaudet is only in his early 20s and ACC thinks that he's one of the great stars of the future. He might just be right.

Next we tried two viogniers from Domaine de Sermezy which is in Beaujolais. The 2012 had a very strong smell of pear drops on the nose, which was perhaps a little too powerful. And sadly the 2011 was corked - it was fizzy but there was also an underlying mouldy sock thing going on. This was a shame, as ACC said the 2011 is generally better than the 2012.

Then it was on to the reds. First, we compared the 2010 and 2011 Moulin-a-Vent "Mortperay" from Domaine Benoit Trichard. I preferred the 2011 - it had a lovely nose but was not yet knitted together. ACC said it had a purity of fruit and more polish. We followed it up with the 2009 of the same wine, which was drinking now. I liked it but thought it perhaps wasn't as pretty as the 2011. Also, I've had a lot of the 2009 Moulin-a-Vent "L'Exception" from the same producer, so am staying loyal to that.

Finally, the highlight of the tasting: two vintages of Nuits-St-Georges 1er cru Les Pruliers from Domaine Jean-Pierre Bony, the 2010 and 2011. For me, again, the 2011 was the winner - it had an absolutely beautiful nose. It had lovely cherry fruit and was very elegant, with a wonderful finish. This will be first-rate when it's ready, and I succumbed to a half case to be tucked away for 10 years. I don't think I'll regret it. Thanks again to ACC for another fascinating tasting.

Recent drinking round-up

Summer has been flying past and it's beginning to feel slightly autumnal outside, so time for an update. The last entry I wrote on here was just after my birthday, but the celebrations didn't end there! The following Thursday I went up to the top of the Shard with a couple of friends. This was great fun, as was the barbeque pulled-pork bun from Borough Market which we had for lunch afterwards.

View of Borough Market from the Shard

Tower Bridge with Canary Wharf in the background

The next day I took my gang of beancounters from work to the Hawksmoor Seven Dials for dinner. This is a wonderful steak restaurant - they get their steak from the Ginger Pig - with several outposts around London. For some time they've had a £5 corkage offer on Monday evenings, but I recently found out that they do corkage for £25 the rest of the week and an email enquiry revealed that it's the same price for a magnum as for a bottle. It seemed like a good opportunity to drink one of my magnums of Moulin-a-Vent Cuvee Exception 2009 from Benoit Trichard.

It fit perfectly into the magnum-size quilted bottle bag my mother made for me some time ago. In fact, half the office admired the bag more than the wine. But then half the office is teetotal, weirdos.

I wasn't expecting anything from the team in return so was quite taken aback when they proudly produced a wooden box containing a 1973 armagnac from Baron de Lustrac! They proceeded to tell me all about how it had been secretly procured from a certain wine merchant in the SW2 area with much detective work and cloak-and-dagger operations. Obviously we had to crack it there and then so we could all enjoy a glass, and a very classy drop it was too. The problem of how to get the wooden case home was also solved as it too fit perfectly into the magnum bag. That bag is seriously useful!

G and I have been trying to ration ourselves on the armagnac since then, so there's a slight possibility there might be some left to be shared with the aforementioned wine merchant in the near future.

Fortunately, marc de bourgogne stocks are high as G procured two old marcs from a source which I am sworn to secrecy not to reveal. This bottle may appear empty but that's only because the cork fell in so we had to decant the marc into another bottle. They were relatively cheap and cheerful as marc goes, but very enjoyable in the rustic style.

A couple of other bottles of note - this Chablis 1er cru Montmains 2008 from La Maison Romane a.k.a. Oronce de Beler and his horse, Prosper. This came from the Burgundy Portfolio. Magnificent, perfect Chablis. It was a lovely mid-gold colour, with lemon and honey on the nose and quite unctuous on the palate. We thought it was drinking very well now, no need to wait, but that it was better with food. It was rich, stylish and well-balanced, and the finish went on for minutes. It was hard to imagine a better Chablis, and I'm very happy that I have two more bottles.

And this curious find which came from an auction. It's is a Vosne-Romanee 2003 from Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg, a domaine with which I was not familiar but which received quite a good write-up in Coates. I put a cheeky low bid on it and got the case. The first bottle we tried was distinctly on the baked side and very '03. Not unpleasant as such, but not what I had been hoping for. But with the July heatwave we've taken to chilling our reds and G chilled the second bottle. When we drank it, the baked characteristics had vanished to reveal a wine that was tres Vosne. Wonderful!

Finally, a very yellow photo of some cheese. This is my camera playing up, not some deliberate special effect. I made a belated trip to Beillevaire in Montpelier Street last Saturday as I had become addicted (again) to Trou du Crus from Waitrose and wanted some proper, well-kept Epoisses. Sadly, they had sold out - tragedy! - but the lovely assistant pointed me to something called a Soumaintrain which as far as I can tell is basically a giant Epoisses. Who knew this existed? It did the job, lasted all week and I shall be looking out for it next time certain cheese-eating friends come round for lunch.

Birthday celebrations

On Thursday it was my turn to clock up 40 years on the planet, so some celebrating was in order. G and I met up outside La Maison du Chocolat on Piccadilly and walked to Bar Boulud at the Mandarin Oriental for dinner. En route, G was approached for directions by several lost tourists which we deduced was because he was looking very posh in his suit and therefore the tourists thought he was a local.

I went to Bar Boulud last year with my friend M and regretted not having the Piggie burger, as I was too embarrassed by the silly name to order it. I didn't let that get in the way this time, and it was utterly delicious and definitely the thing to go for on all future occasions.

To drink, we had a glass of Ayala rose each and then a bottle of Auxey-Duresses from Coche-Dury. We had the 2007 last year and it was one of the stand-out wines, so when I was reading the Bar Boulud wine list on the internet and saw the 2005, I knew this was the wine for me. But it turned out they only had the 2007. We asked the waitress if any of the 2005 was still available and full credit to her, she said she wasn't sure and would get the sommelier. He told us that an alarmingly high proportion of the 2005s had been duffers, so we were better off with the 2007. Decision made. Once again it was absolutely wonderful and lived up to my very high expectations with its heavenly heady sweet berry fruit nose.

After dinner, we hopped into a taxi and arrived home for a marc tasting!

I currently have three marcs on the go (sound of tumbrils rumbling in the distance) - the Felettig vieux marc de bourgogne, which we believe is about 25 years old, the Lamarche 1961, and the d'Angerville from the 1930s which G gave me for my birthday. This is the same one that I got him for his birthday and which we consumed over the course of that long weekend away.

It was amazing how similar they were in colour! The verdict was that each was very good of its type. The Felettig was relatively rustic compared to the other two, with raisins on the nose, while the Lamarche was smoother and had more sultanas going on. The d'Angerville had lost the fruit on the nose but had turned into a very fine old spirit, still quite fiery. G repeated his theory that with old spirits you can't really tell what they were originally - if someone had told us it was Calvados, for example, we would have believed them. For once I think the price differentials genuinely reflected differences in age and hence quality.

Lurking in the background on the left was a bag from La Maison du Chocolat containing pieces of chocolate-covered orange peel, an extra surprise present from G. These will join my recent discovery, Willie's Sea Salt Caramel Black Pearls ("It's a journey of endless surprises with these rare and precious pearls" according to the back of the box), in future assiettes de chocolat.

Then last night it was off to the Perseverance for a small celebratory dinner with family and friends. We had the room upstairs to ourselves, which was great.

We got there in plenty of time to get the wine sorted out, as there were things to be decanted and things to be put in ice buckets. Fortunately for me, G took care of all that stuff.

It was quite a line-up!

Alfred Gratien champagne 1995 "Cuvee Millenaire" en magnum with some gougeres as an aperitif.

Corton Grand Cru 2005 from Domaine Parent with our starters - poached sea trout with samphire and cucumber in my case.

Chateau Latour 1960 with the beef - 50 day aged Dexter. A stunning combo, absolute highlight of the evening! Once again I think I have taken my sister-in-law's claret habit up a notch and my brother probably won't thank me for it.

Auxey-Duresses 2005 from Domaine Prunier en magnum with the cheese - Stinking Bishop and some lovely oatcakes.

Chateau Rieussec 1976 with the lemon tart and raspberry sorbet. We brought a second bottle just in case and G was amazed that the first bottle whizzed round the table and was empty in seconds, so it was just as well we had the second!

And finally, the Lamarche 1961 marc de bourgogne and coffee, which brought the evening to a fine conclusion. I forgot to tell my friend L a joke I made up specially for her - what's a pirate's favourite digestif? Marrrrrrrrrrc.

I've just had an email from my mother saying that she and my father both "woke up feeling completely clear-headed" which just goes to show that the good stuff is good for you.

All in all, it was a really good dinner and went exactly to plan - nothing was corked or faulty, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Now I need to get cracking and start planning my 50th!