Magnums and more

Second blog post in a month shocker! I'm now trying harder to make sure I have a notebook to hand when drinking the good stuff. 

A couple of weeks ago we opened this magnum of Auxey Duresses 2005 from Michel Prunier, which had been lying in my wardrobe for a very long time. I bought several of these and last drank it in 2013 - we decided to give the others some time to come round. Our view was that it is now drinking. It was on the rustic side, old school Burgundy. It reminded G of wines from Doudet-Naudin, and if you told me it was from the 1960s I'd have believed you. I think a couple more of these are residing in Middle England somewhere so it may be one to run by the SPNS in due course... 

A few nights later we had this Savigny les Beaune 1er cru Les Marconnets 2015 from Domaine de la Vougeraie. This was an attractive glossy ruby colour. It had black fruit on the nose, not a typical Savigny nose. It seemed quite big to me but G detected a certain stemmy quality. This went away when we drank it with the lamb tagine and our view was that improved over time. I wondered if it was a bit young, but for me it was lacking in fruit and I'm not sure it would ever really improve. We gave it a 7 on the premier cru scale so a little disappointing to be honest. 

Things improved when G wheeled out this half bottle of Gould Campbell 1980. He has shared a lot of port with me over the past few months which I've enjoyed very much but failed to report on. This was very interesting with fig on the nose, panforte and even milk chocolate - very high quality milk chocolate, G said. The texture was wonderful, lots of glycerine, and there was a hint of Turkish Delight on the finish. It needed no more time and was now a "pop and pour". 

Last weekend we were extremely decadent and ordered a takeaway from Otto's which I have written about before here. To begin with, we drank this Rully 1er cru Montpalais 2016 from Jean-Baptiste Ponsot. This was a beautiful golden colour and had a very attractive nose of unwaxed lemons. It was rounded and creamy in the mouth with a burst of acidity at the end, almost salty. We thought it would be excellent with fish and chips. G declared that marginal villages make great wine in hot vintages, something to bear in mind for future reference. We gave this a 9.

The first course of the very complicated Otto's offering was brioche with duck liver on the left and morels in a sauce on the right. The toaster was brought down from its place above the kitchen cabinets and dusted off for the occasion, and fortunately G alerted me to the fact that the brioche would toast very quickly and we timed it to perfection. The duck liver may be the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, and I plan to attempt to replicate it in the near future - we think port, brandy and butter were all involved. It's hard to believe Otto's doesn't have a Michelin star.

The second course involved duck breast, the famous sauce and some pommes souffles - a miserly portion as we were splitting it over 2 days.

The intention was to have this Beaune 1er cru Cent-Vignes 2005 from Albert Morot alongside. Like the Auxey discussed above, I'd come to realise that 2005 is taking forever to come round, so this had been stashed away in the come-back-to-it-later branch of the cellar. What can I say. It would certainly have been undrinkable young. It reeked to high heaven with famyard aromas and sousbois and there was something weirdly pungent about it. G charitably looked for positives but even he was eventually defeated and agreed it was getting worse with time, so down the sink it went. We gave it a 5 on the premier cru project scale, a disappointing result, as I did enjoy some of the wines from this domaine when I visited it in 2007. 

Next, we opened my last bottle of Santenay Comme Dessus 2010 from Domaine de la Choupette, but something wasn't quite right about it either - it had a stemmy quality reminding me of bad cabernet franc, and a bitter finish. I'm pretty familiar with this wine and it's usually very pleasurable, so something wasn't right. Down the sink it went. 

The pressure was on! Fortunately a bottle of Audiffred Bourgogne Rouge 2016 was on form with the usual exotic fruits on the nose, and went down very well. 

The following night, we had this Beaune 1er cru Greves 2013 from Domaine de la Vougeraie. This was more typical Beaune, medium weight, supple and elegant with nice acidity and complexity. It went very well with the remains of the duck, although I wondered if a big Cote de Nuits red might have gone even better. The nose took a while to open up, and after 2 hours in the decanter it brightened up with notes of black fruit, red fruit and clafoutis. It had a burst of sweetness at the end. Originally we gave it a medium 8 but it was upgraded to a high 8 as time went on. 

Finally, I've been drinking this magnum of Beaujolais Villages 2016 from Maison en Belles Lies for the past few days - not really the ideal size for solitary lockdown drinking but what's a girl to do. It has lots of fruit and is very gluggable, and it's been reminding me of the Coteaux Bourguigons from Romain Chapuis with its slightly feral quality. High praise indeed as that's one of my favourite wines. 

And so on we go... at least there are daffodils outside, the magnolia trees have their buds and I'm looking forward to resuming tastings and dinners soon!

Recent drinking round-up!

AduV is still alive! Just haven't been feeling much of an urge to write a cheery blog at the moment with everything that's been going on. But there's light at the end of the tunnel and some interesting booze has been going down. 

This will be a mostly pictorial report as I haven't been making detailed notes on the whole, with one notable exception below. 

In order of aperitif to post-prandial:

I randomly ordered this Cornish Pastis along with a rum order from BBR. I quite enjoyed it! It wasn't too sweet and G compared it to an ouzo rather than a pastis. It brought back happy memories of sitting outside at a bistrot in Lyon...

White Musar 2012.

This Bourgogne Rouge from Domaine de la Roseraie has been going down well - very accomplished stuff. 

What a treat! A half of 1996 Musar. For me, this was getting to the end of its drinking window. G noticed a lot of volatile acidity, and there was definitely a lot of brett. But it was a pleasure to drink and reminded us how much we like Musar.

The last of my red Meursault 1er cru Cras 2009 from Latour-Labille. What lovely stuff this has been. Reminiscent of a very good Volnay or I might even have thought it was Cote de Nuits with its black fruits. 

I think this was also the last of the Vosne Romanee Champs Perdrix 2010 from Audiffred, which has also been a complete delight and I'm delighted that I have three more vintages in my cellar!

A highlight just before New Year - G splashed out on this 2015 Auxey-Duresses from Coche-Dury. One of my desert island wines, the bottle has gone into the hall of fame on top of the kitchen cabinets. This had a heady, sweet nose of poached cherry - clafoutis or even Bakewell tart. "The fragrance arising from warm fruit" pronounced G. On the palate, it had a velvety texture and was sensual, rich and harmonious with a very long finish. It was bursting with flavour and certainly drinking now but we thought it would keep. Sweet berry compote heading towards summer pudding. A real treat and thanks to G for spoiling me. 

This half of Warre's 1983 wasn't too shabby either! I failed to make notes but do recall that for me it was on the drier side and quite fascinating - not as much fruitcake and dried fruit as some ports, but some interesting darker flavours like leather, tobacco and chocolate. I enjoyed it very much.

I plan to get some more wines out of storage fairly soon and look forward to seeing how they have been getting on... watch this space!

2020 almost over

And so we approach the end of the year, and thank god for that!

I have some good news to report - D made it over for a few days in early December at long last. We holed up in Cornwall in a little cottage in the middle of nowhere with a log fire, and generally had a lovely time. It was perfect timing between lockdowns and am currently back at AduV Towers where I have spent my first solitary Christmas. Fortunately G was around beforehand to assist with dispatching some items on our wine racks.   

This Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Morgeot 2013 from Domaine de la Choupette was the platonic ideal of Chassagne. It was a beautiful pale straw colour and very well-balanced and harmonious with a lovely weight. G detected white stone fruit while for me it was citrussy all the way through. It had been carefully selected by G in a year that was "a little unfocused" for whites.

And it went very well with Bradenham ham and parmesan crisps!

I'd decided it was time to put this Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2011 from Domaine Odoul-Coquard out of its misery and we had high expectations. We weren't disappointed! It was wonderfully dark and glossy and initially we were reminded of black forest gateau but then amended it to sachertorte, although there was certainly some black cherry action. Rich and powerful with fabulous ripe fruit, it did the business and reminded us how much we loved the 2011s. 

I'd made it over to the Ginger Pig and La Fromagerie, and was quite proud of my cheeseboard consisting of Beaufort, Stitchelton and a crottin, to which G added some other evil goaty thing as he likes to do. (Still no sign of the Odyssey de Chevre companion blog...)

With it being the festive season, a half of Suduiraut 2001 seemed appropriate. There was some issue with a crumbly cork which led to G decanting it into a claret glass, which showed off its colour very nicely. It was absolutely lovely, with a massive amount of botrytis. I said something about apricot jam which G corrected to Elvas apricot jam, and it had wonderful glycerin and a peach note on the finish. It went much better with amaretti morbidi than it did with the cheese. We had a debate about whether it's on its plateau yet or not. G thinks it will improve so I mustn't rush to drink the rest.

We finished off with a Battle of the Elderly Spirits! 

G brought along this Vieux Calvados Domfrontais 1972.

While a few weeks ago, I procured this Caroni 1997 rum from BBR.

It was quite amusing to see how similar in colour they were, but on the nose there was no trouble telling which was which. The Calva was fragrant with notes of pear - G informed me that it's actually made from 2/3 pear and 1/3 apple, which either I never knew or had forgotten. I found it quite fiery and quite dry, and wouldn't have guessed that it was almost 50 years old. 

The Caroni is quite fascinating. At 60.4% alcohol it certainly needs to be cut with water, and on the nose it has some rubber tyre and a strong liquorice thing going on. I've been enjoying it but it was very pricey and not something I'll be rushing to buy again. Still have over half a bottle left, which is almost a whole bottle once water is added. And no regrets - this year has been so miserable that a few self-indulgences were in order.

Wishing everyone a happy New Year and hoping that all our lives get back to normal asap in 2021!

Rum diary

Oh dear, it's been a long time since my previous entry. Hope everyone is doing ok. It's been an unsettling time at AduV Towers. 

I had formulated careful plans for my lovely American fiancee to visit me in the UK this week which wouldn't have been easy, with the complicated and inhumane quarantine rules, but I'd found a way of doing it which I considered reasonable and legitimate. Then the second lockdown was announced in the most incompetent way imaginable and all my careful plans had to be cancelled. I'm now hoping she can come over in December but the way this government behaves makes it very difficult to predict what might happen. At least there are now vaccines on the horizon and the prospect of a return to some kind of normality next year. 

In the first lockdown, instead of learning how to bake sourdough bread and/or reading War and Peace, I taught myself how to play poker. I've wanted to learn this for a long time and consider it a useful addition to my skill set. In the second lockdown, some more adult education: I'm learning about rum. 

I'd been feeling irritated for a while that decent bourbon in the UK is so expensive. My house bourbon was alternating between Bulleit and Eagle Rare depending on which one was on special offer, and I enjoy them both, but then I went and spoiled myself with things like Koval and the Big B and it's hard to go back. 

I was reminded of rum by this wine label which G gave me a long time ago and it brought to mind the question why did I not have something suitable for it to be decorating? Clearly this sad state of affairs needed to be rectified immediately. G told me that he'd recently had some BBR Jamaican 14 year old rum and had been impressed. Apparently BBR had (maybe still have? not sure) some guy who went round the distilleries and picked the good stuff. Admittedly I haven't explored the world of the major rum producers (yet...) but I get the impression that the BBR bottlings are quite a steal. 

I whizzed onto the Whisky Exchange website as I needed to buy some Stoli Vanil for a certain beloved person who at the time I thought would be visiting me soon. I know everyone thinks it's hilarious that I'm about to get married to a woman whose drink of choice is vanilla vodka and Diet Coke but I only see positives in this! She does also drink margaritas, mojitos and Amaretto and ginger beer, so we'll establish a comprehensive cocktail cabinet when I move over there.

It turned out that if I bought the Nicaraguan 13 year old, as opposed to the Jamaican 14 year old, for a whole extra pound more, I would meet the much sought after threshold of free delivery. Incidentally, the offerings on BBR's own site and those at the Whisky Exchange overlap but have some differences. 

The Nicaraguan 13 year old costs £76.95 and I consider it well worth it. Caramel and toffee on the nose, creamy with a very spicy, hot finish - hot in the culinary sense. Ginger. A hint of dried tropical fruit. I wonder if I might think it was a bourbon if I didn't know it was a rum, and so we're back to G's theory that certain spirits trend towards the same flavour profiles after a period of time. This is especially delicious with some Lindt Excellence of the dark sea salt variety. 

Having whetted my appetite, I subsequently indulged in further items from the range. 

Barbados 13 year old. £86.95 from the Whisky Exchange (as opposed to £95 from BBR). A little more restrained on the nose, perhaps even floral. Definitely drier on the palate, more subtle. Complex and sophisticated. Again, creamy flavours and glace cherry. Harmonious. From Foursquare, which a little bird tells me is a rather good distillery. Not sure its worth £19 more than the Nicaraguan though, to be honest. 

Guyana 14 year old - £90 from BBR. According to their website this is from 2003 so is now actually 17 years old. Interesting to see how pale it is compared to the others. My initial reaction was that it wasn't my cup of tea at all - I found it offputtingly medicinal on the nose. Second time around, I worked out that it's more like a Scotch, and if I approach it that way I can appreciate it more. It has a certain iodiny, herbaceous quality which leads me to suspect that G may like it more than me. On revisiting the BBR website I see that it has received one 2 star review, so clearly I'm not the only one, and it could explain why they still have it. But if you like Highland Scotch, it might be worth a look. 

These rums all come in at 46% but they're a little pricey to be everyday drinkers, so I investigated further and discovered that BBR also do a more basic range. I acquired a bottle of the Nicaraguan from that range at a mere £30. It was perfectly acceptable but frankly not very interesting. I think it would be fine in cocktails, but it wasn't really a "sipping rum".

The Whisky Exchange then tempted me with something called Black Tot at £35 on special offer, generally around the £40 mark elsewhere. Again, it's 46% and I'm getting all the flavours I enjoy - molasses, toasted pineapple, ginger... it's very fruity and aromatic and unmistakably a rum. Compared to the others, it's perhaps a little obvious, but hey it's half the price. It packs a punch, it's enjoyable and doesn't break the bank. I've stocked up! 

Recent drinking round up! - whites

G has been making a good stab at keeping the Premier Cru Project going, so over the past few weeks we've notched up a few more.

This St Aubin 1er cru le Champlot 2014 from Sylvain Langoureau was a nice pale gold colour and had a classic St Aubin nose, lemony with a hint of toast. It had a nice weight and was refreshing with good acidity. The finish improved as time went on and developed a tingle of its own, reminiscent of gooseberry. We had it with a Thai chicken and mushroom stir fry which worked well. Described as entirely satisfactory, we gave it a solid 8. 

 

On to two Puligny 1er crus, both 2014s, both from Drouhin. A few days ago I made my trademark Parmesan crisps (wonderfully easy recipe - put teaspoons of grated parmesan on a baking sheet, bake for 5 minutes at 200C) to go with the Clos de la Garenne, a very small vineyard near Folatieres. This was a beautiful colour, with that Puligny mushroom thing going on on the nose, and rich and full on the palate. Our favourable first impression gradually receded somewhat as we failed to detect any great complexity which was surprising for a wine at this level. Other commentators had given it very good reviews but we assume they must have drunk it young, so maybe it hadn't lived up to its early promise. It did go well with our fish soup and in the end it managed an 8 but I think we'd hoped for more.

 

We had this 1er cru Champ Gain from the same producer and the same year back in July. In the absence of a notebook I made brief notes on my phone, but it's interesting to compare with the other one. It had the mushroomy thing again and a certain waxiness on the nose. On the palate, it had a lovely weight and was crisp and typique, elegant and polished with a great finish. G detected lemon peel but felt that the oak was slightly intrusive and thus it was awarded a 9. This vineyard is a bigger one up towards Blagny, which may explain why we liked it.

And finally, to Chablis where I've been getting through supplies of this 1er cru Montmains 2011 from La Maison Romane. This has been a real pleasure to drink. It looked amazing in the glass, and on the nose G detected lemon verbena while I got a hint of lemon curd. On the palate, it was dry yet rich and fully mature, with a nutty note on the finish. It reminded us of a premier cru Chassagne rather than a Chablis, and became more honeyed over time. We gave this a high 9 and made a note to drink my one remaining bottle in the near future. 

Lunch at the Baron's, 6th September

On Sunday I took the tube for the first time in months over to Baron McGuffog's neck of the woods where we were joined by ACC and G at the "pub table" in the garden. What follows will mostly be a pictorial account.

My contribution was this bottle of pink champagne from Jean Comyn which we calculated must have been at least 10 years old. The colour was compared to Lucozade and it had certainly mellowed in the intervening period but was possibly now on the elderly side! I attempted to incite ACC to tell his Comyn joke which involves at least 15 minutes of build up, but the moment passed... 

With our starter we had this white Marsannay 2017 from Romain Chapuis which was lovely, rich white Burgundy drinking very nicely now.

It went extremely well with this amazing onion tart which the Baron made from an Elizabeth David recipe. The bar just got raised!

It took an enormous amount of self-control for us not to eat all of it and save some room for the rest of the meal.

Next up, a magnum of Lombois Volnary 2014 from Domaine Perrin which was made by Vincent's son Guillaume. This was earthy, almost like a Pommard, and starting to drink. It went very nicely with the pigeon and peas. 

ACC had brought along some of his famous magnum of Prunelle which was a delight. I failed to ask the bottle detectives how old they thought it might be, but maybe 1970s? It had that almond or apricot kernel thing going on but we were assured it wasn't cyanide...

A finally, a bottle of young vintage port - 2016 Smith Woodhouse, to go with the chocolate cake, which was another triumph. 

Thanks very much to the Baron for hosting - a very enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Picnic in the park, 2nd August

And so the summer continues... Still no light on the horizon as far as big life plans go, but I'm now resigned to things going on like this for some time. Meanwhile, as my wedding has been postponed and plans for a big (by my standards) celebration have flown out of the window, there is wine to be drunk! I was delighted to be joined by ACC, G and the Baron for a picnic in the local square yesterday. 

   

Proceedings commenced with a bottle of Delamotte 2002, which is a blanc de blancs and from an excellent vintage. G explained that he had brought it to my attention a few months ago, and then I'd gone and bought a whole case. Well, obvs. There was some debate about how long it will last but in my view there's no great rush so the odd bottle here and there over the next 2-3 years will go down very nicely. 

ACC pointed out this comet motif on the foil. We wondered if this was a reference to Hale-Bopp, but Google tells me that was in 1997. It seems there was a comet called Ikeya-Zhang in 2002, which completely passed me by at the time, but seems like a cheery thing to have on a bottle of champagne and one can only hope the stars will align again soon. 

I made some cheese straws to go with the fizz, which were somewhat lacking in appearance but still tasted pretty good, made with the Cornish Vintage Quartz cheddar from Waitrose. This cheese is rated strength 7 on a scale of 1-6, and in my experience under no circumstances should be eaten after 3 pm as it has a tendency to cause nightmares. Which is a shame, as it's very delicious.  

Next up was this bottle of Corton Charlemagne 2013 from Maison en Belles Lies. For me, this is absolutely wonderful stuff, the epitome of Chardonnay, drinking very well now. Apparently there is still some available from the Burgundy Portfolio - I highly recommend grabbing a bottle or two! We had it with a chicken, apricot and pistachio terrine which worked very well. 

Moving swiftly on, this red Corton Les Renardes 2008 from Domaine Parent was also exemplary. Normally I'd have decanted it, served in proper Riedel red burgundy glasses etc, but as this was a picnic, it had to be served as it came. I had chilled it, which possibly brought out higher acidity, and it was a wonderful example of pinot.

It was an absolutely beautiful colour too.

And then, dessert! I failed to take a photo of the meringues I made, which incorporated pistachios and chocolate chips, based on Nigella's "forgotten cookies" recipe, although Nigella sadly let me down by pretending these would cook properly in a switched-off oven.  

With these, we had two half bottles of Suduiraut 2001, apparently one of the best ever Sauternes vintages. The first half was wonderful, lots of citrus and marmalade, but the second half was even better! It was a slightly darker colour, more gloopy and ACC detected butterscotch. Interesting that there should be so much variation between bottles from the same case. I'm glad we drank them in that order. We finished off with a spot of Epoisses which happened to be hanging around in my fridge *innocent look*

It was very enjoyable to have this get-together after recent months of doom and gloom. Thanks to the boys for your company and giving me an excuse to drink these beauties!