Recent drinking roundup!

Apparently I haven't done one of these for a while, so as we hurtle towards winter it's time to get caught up and get rid of the mountain of empty bottles in the corner.

G and I drank this half of Alfred Gratien 1999 champagne back in July but it seems I never reported on it. "No harm in that" reported G, quoting my Irish grandmother, quite accurately in this case. It was fully mature, with notes of brioche and toast. G said it was almost custardy and it reminded me of a croissant. It didn't have many bubbles left and we felt it was at the end of its drinking life but it was refreshing on a hot summer Sunday. That seems a long time ago. I actually just discovered a lingering half of the 2000 on my wine rack this afternoon, so that needs to be put out of its misery in the near future!

Between August and October, we guzzled several wines from the Finger Lakes which D has been so kindly transporting back for us. This Red Newt Riesling 2013 from Lahoma Vineyards was lovely. Pale in colour, it had a Mosel style nose but was richer and spicier on the palate, with a burst of lime and G thought a hint of quince on the finish. It was beautifully made and had great balance, with a refreshing core of acidity. It's currently retailing on their website at $24.50 - compare and contrast with the 2012 Sawmill Creek Riesling for sale at Hedonism for £35.10. We wistfully imagined living nearby and being able to buy it by the case.

As an aside, I saw several red newts last time I went backpacking in Pennsylvania!

Another Finger Lakes white we tried recently was the White Springs Dry Riesling 2015 from Ravines. Regular readers will know we absolutely loved this winery. This wine was also pale in colour and had a nose of lime or possibly lime blossom. It was light, elegant and clean, dry but ripe. G said he felt a better person just for drinking it. It was definitely drinking now but we know they make wines for the long haul so it's possible it might get even better in time.

On to the reds - this Ryan William Pinot Noir 2012 amused me by stating it was 12.4% alcohol on the label. It was a dark colour and reminded us of the Cote de Nuits with notes of black cherry and black forest gateau. It was very easy to drink and even had something of a peacock's tail. G thinks it cost $27 which was excellent value.

A few weeks ago we had this Thirsty Owl Pinot Noir 2016, a name which always brings a smile to my face. This was apparently 12.2% alcohol and cost $17 according to G. He also remembered that the winery was founded in 2002 so the vines are young. It was really classic lightweight pinot, pretty but not particularly serious - a vin de soif. We served it lightly chilled, which worked very well, and we thought it was drinking nicely now but would last another year or so. G used the word "unforced" and we agreed it had an honesty about it, reflecting its terroir and climate, not buggered about. It actually reminded us slightly of Giboulot's wines, which is praise indeed. A virtually perfect Tuesday night wine, and again, one that we'd buy by the case if we lived nearer.

I had a trio of wines from the Wine Society recently too, just to see what's going on there. I failed to take a photo of the Cote Roannaise Perdiziere 2016 from Domaine Serol which was a gamay and came in at 12%. It was a little disappointing, to be honest. It lacked any interesting feral notes, nor was it one of those light, pretty gamays. At £16.50 it wasn't particularly great value and I won't be rushing back. I've just realised I actually tried the 2011 back in 2012 when it cost £7.95, and wasn't particularly impressed with it then either! Memo to self: read own blog before ordering wines...

This Naoussa 2016 was much more my cup of tea. It's from Greece and made from the xinomavro grape which is a new one on me, but was described as being like a cross between pinot noir and nebbiolo. It reminded me of a decent bourgogne rouge and at £10.50 it certainly hit the spot.

I cracked this "La Belle Romaine" from Chateau Merande last night. This is a Vin de Savoie made from a grape called mondeuse. It was fine but didn't wow me. It's only 12% alcohol, but at £17 a pop I'd rather be drinking that lovely Coteaux Bourguignon from Romain Chapuis.

We've started drinking this St George gin from California which was a gift from G's fan club in Grand Rapids and it has been going down very well in a G&T, with more floral notes than your average. The style reminds us a little of Plymouth which is always my go-to gin, so that works for me!

Finally, a couple of disappointments. G brought a bottle of Gevrey-Chembertin 1er cru Craipillot, 2001, Gerard Seguin round the other night. It had an amazing nose of liquorice, leather and earthiness, but when we came to taste it we found it rather tertiary (G's word) - it dried out on the palate and had a chewy finish. In the end we agreed we weren't actually enjoying it, and it went down the sink. The same thing sadly happened to two bottles of Combe D'Eve from Giboulot on Wednesday which broke my heart a little. Possibly being in the wardrobe over the hot summer didn't do it any favours. Must do better at maintaining stock rotation in future! Fortunately I have just got some wines out of storage so I'm looking forward to trying those soon.

Dinner at mine, 18th October

On Thursday evening, G hosted dinner at mine and much to my relief did all the cooking for it in addition to providing the wines. We were joined by D and Baron McG.

Proceedings commenced with this Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Morgeot 2013 from Domaine de la Choupette. This was textbook premier cru Chassagne, and I described it as "precise". We all agreed it complemented the smoked salmon beautifully. It was drinking very nicely now, but G thought it was 18 to 24 months away from perfection. We probably also served it a little too cold. For me it was a 9 on the premier cru scale.

With our beef stew, we moved on to this mystery wine. All that was known about it was that the capsule stated "Sichel Fils et Pere, Beaune" although even then, there was a debate whether it was Pere or Frere. That's certainly an unusual order for those words. I've just belatedly Googled it and it seems it was probably Sichel & Fils Freres.

The bottle detectives got on the case and based on the large punt, thought that it could have been bottled in the 1960s so was likely to be a wine from the late 50s or early 60s. It had certainly maintained its colour well.

In fact, it had maintained everything well, and had a lovely nose which was definitely Cote de Nuits. We were thinking Vougeot or possibly Morey St Denis as there was some chocolate going on. It was rich and powerful and had clearly been chaptalised, and had an amazing finish which went on for three or four minutes. The Baron said he liked the "brambly" finish and could imagine drinking it with apple crumble. Basically, it was absolutely delicious old school burgundy and whoever stored it certainly knew what they were doing. But, as G said, it was probably absolutely undrinkable in its youth.

Next up was this Volnay Caillerets from Bouchard, again with no date but suspected to be from around the same time as the previous wine. This had a resinous quality on the nose and was very different from the previous wine, with a lively acidity and great finesse. "Grippy" said the Baron. It had stone fruits going on - plum or damson, and I got apples on the finish, but had possibly been influenced by the reference to apple crumble earlier. G thought this was a wine made for the Hospice de Beaune, but I'm not sure how he arrived at that conclusion.

The third red of the evening was this village Vougeot "Le Prieure" 1966 from Pierre Pennelle. G had saved this for last thinking it would be the biggest of the trio, but it turned to be surprisingly lightweight. It did, however, evaporate mysteriously from my glass!

D had brought a novelty can of 100% California Burgundy d'Casa along, probably from the late 80s, and we felt obliged to taste it for the sake of science. A comment was made about it tasting dusty and I can only describe it as grape juice combined with the contents of an old hoover bag. After one sip, it went down the sink.

Not to be outdone, I wheeled out this bottle of Rata Truffe which I succumbed to after a boozy meal with a certain wine merchant. None of the others there had tried it before, and the reaction was, shall we say, mixed. "The nose is offputting but the flavour is good" was one comment and "Genuinely extraordinary" was another. It was agreed that it might be good in a risotto and I might just have to try that.

Finally, I have to thank D for raising the tone at AduV Towers several notches by giving me this 18th century decanter. It's absolutely beautiful and I will certainly make good use of it.

Epic trip to the US

On Monday I got back from a pretty amazing week in the US.

The first leg of the tour did not go entirely to plan, with an unscheduled stay in Chicago on Saturday night - thank god for the internet and the Hilton Rosemont which meant the evening was not spent on a park bench. Things improved considerably on my arrival the next day in Grand Rapids, when J kindly picked me up from the airport, I dumped my stuff at the hotel and then we met J's wife and little boy for brunch at Cygnus27, on the 27th floor of the Amway hotel with an amazing view and excellent selection of doughnuts.

We did some more exploration of the town. When J met G and me last year, she told us that every year in Grand Rapids they have an enormous art prize - "it's called Art Prize" - and indeed this was a pretty big deal judging from the way works of art were scattered all over the place. Then it was off to J's house to get down to more important business - the long-promised tour of the cellar and inspection of the dedicated champagne fridge!

This number went down very well as did a Chateau Montelena Riesling which I failed to take a photo of but which was a beautiful golden colour, and I think there might have been a Vouvray involved at some point too. J cooked some amazing Indian food and I spent a considerable amount of time paying my respects to the majestic Raja.

The majestic Raja

The next morning, we met for coffee and then got down to some serious culture. First the Grand Rapids Art Museum, which is the home of this amazing piece.

Then we visited a bar called the B.O.B which was on three levels, each one dripping with works of art. We navigated through hordes of school children and J took loads of photos which I subsequently stole.

For lunch, we went to a restaurant called Reserve, which has a pretty serious wine list. A bottle of Franciacorta went down very well as an aperitif, followed by this very pretty Cote de Brouilly along with half a pulled pork panini and a salad.

I must have been in a good mood to allow this photo to be taken!

I was given the afternoon off to recuperate and then we met up again for dinner at New Hotel Mertens, which despite the name is actually now a French restaurant. J had brought along a bottle of Chateau Duhart Milon 2003 which was very enjoyable with cheese - I felt very at home eating Delice de Bourgogne - and a charcuterie plate including rabbit rillettes!

They made a damn fine negroni, too

J's little boy is very sophisticated and wanted croquembouche for dessert. We helped out but there were still leftovers for the next day. This entire plate cost $10. Can't argue with that!

Spot the skeleton dog!

On Tuesday morning, our first destination was Outside Coffee - fortunately the drizzle had abated somewhat, the coffee was excellent, and I enjoyed the kitsch Halloween decorations.

Then we spent some time at the Frederik Meijer gardens, which includes some botanical gardens, a concert amphitheatre, sculpture park, Japanese garden etc.etc.

A possible career move? Perhaps not

We made it back to the centre of town just in time to meet one of J's friends for tacos. Apparently there are 30 taco places in Grand Rapids, and this one was judged to be safe for a visitor. Also, it had a cocktail called "Darker Than Your Soul" so obviously that clinched it.

We then took a whistle-stop tour of Grand Rapids so that J could buy a bottle of gin called "St George" for a certain person. He and I are planning to try it out this evening!

Later on, I got an Uber back to J's house where I was treated to a pre-prandial bourbon tasting.

Oh, the suffering!

I cracked on with that while J put together a treasure chest of goodies to take to our dinner destination.

J's friend R very kindly had invited us round to her place for dinner, and we were joined by some other friends so this wasn't just between three of us...

I wasn't familiar with this champagne but I really enjoyed it - it's not often I get to drink champagne from the previous millennium these days!

My own contribution was my last bottle of Clos des Papes 2002 and I was pretty nervous about it but, hurrah! it turned out to be on top form and everyone loved it.

R's paella was absolutely spectacular and extremely delicious.

It was no time for tasting notes but I seem to recall these two beauties went down very easily!

And this Chateau d'Yquem 1981 certainly did, along with R's fabulous creme brulee.

It was a really wonderful evening and I very much enjoyed meeting people I'd heard so much about, and hanging out outside with R and J afterwards, while the Uber driver got lost trying to find us. Enormous thanks to J for looking after me for three days - I'm so glad I made the trip to Grand Rapids and am sure I'll be back.

On Wednesday I flew to Detroit and enjoyed a couple of hours watching the little tram thing whizzing up and down, with just a tiny sparrow keeping me company, even though we were indoors. Then it was off to Pittsburgh, where D picked me up in the famous Jeep.

Back at D's house, I was delighted to renew my acquaintance with the two felines, Sable and CC, and a happy couple of days were spent including a trip to the booze shop where I picked up this little local number, now installed at AduV Towers. G is particularly pleased with  the back label, which declares "Certified Organic by Pennsylvania Certified Organic".

On Friday morning we headed off to Quebec Run which is a nature reserve in the south of Pennsylvania. Our plan was somewhat scuppered by the discovery that heavy rainfall had turned the track into a stream and we reached a point where what was probably normally a trickle had turned into a sizable river with no obvious means of crossing. I'm trying to be more rugged these days but like the woman said, ain't nobody got time for that. We turned back and found an alternative route to the delightful campsite which D had in mind. This had been described to me as being "by a babbling brook" but was actually now more like a roaring waterfall.

I gathered firewood and took surreptitious selfies while D did all the real work.

Our new 3 man tent, just right for 2 women 

A salamander! Not in the tent, fortunately

We didn't see a single other person on the trail on Friday but on Saturday morning, we were in the middle of breakfast when a horde of boy scouts went past. Apparently this is the sort of thing that happens out in the woods. We packed up and made it back to the Jeep in one piece, although the way back seemed to be mostly uphill, something that we had strangely failed to notice the previous day. Let's just say my gym regime has been kicked up a notch, as the next trip is a month today! Thanks to D for everything as always and I can't wait for our next adventure.