Savigny-les-Beaune 1er cru La Batailliere Aux Vergelesses 2005, Albert Morot

This premier cru Savigny, a monopole, came from the same auction, along with a couple of premier cru Beaunes.

I had the privilege of visiting this domaine in February 2007 with ACC and H. I remember this trip quite vividly because we missed breakfast that day as the domaine is on the outskirts of Beaune and we had to allow time to find it. I hadn't had any coffee, it was a freezing cold morning, and the chateau initially appeared to be deserted. Not a good start.

But then our host (the impressively named Geoffrey Choppin de Janvry) turned up with his dog in tow and gave us a very classy tasting using Riedel glasses - I've never been to a tasting before or since where they used those! We tasted our way through various 2006 and 2005 premier cru Beaunes and my impression was that these were tannic wines which would need some time to come round, but there was one in particular where I recorded that it was too good to spit out, so I waited till Geoffrey's back was turned and then glugged it, in breach of all tasting etiquette.

So I had high expectations of this wine. We decanted it about half an hour before we drank it, and it had a lovely dark purple colour. But whereas the cask sample of 2006 Savigny which I tasted in 2007 had cherries and raspberries on the nose, here we detected chocolate, blackcurrant and roast meats - more of a claret nose!

On the palate, it was not what I was expecting at all. Savigny is normally quite silky and smooth and relatively fruity, but this was not like that at all. It had monster tannins and not enough fruit to balance them. We had it with a steak, and not even that could make this a wine which was enjoyable to drink. I found it a struggle, and wished I was drinking the village Savigny from Maison Champy instead. I find this very strange, as in the words of the great Anne Parent, the 2005s were wines that "made themselves" and at the tasting I liked the house style.

We looked up the domaine in Clive Coates' book on Burgundy and found that he said the wines were not rich enough for the oak. Now I'm wondering what to do with my two Beaune 2005s - I think they will need to be tucked away and we will have to come back to them in 5 years' time and hope that the tannins have softened by then. I'm not going to write this domaine off just yet.

Domaine Leflaive Bourgogne Blanc 2007

I've been a fan of Domaine Leflaive's bourgogne blanc for a while, and one of my first en primeur purchases was a case of the 2002 which we drank in 2008-09 and which gave great pleasure to all who tried it. So I was thrilled to pick up a case of the 2007 at a recent auction. One tends to think of bourgogne blanc as entry-level stuff, but in the case of Domaine Leflaive this is misleading. This wine puts many premier crus to shame but sadly is priced accordingly - it's going for roughly £35 a bottle according to Wine Searcher. Very nice to get it for considerably less than that!

It turned up in a wooden case which I shall be adding to my collection. Although it's a bit early to be drinking it, we couldn't resist a bottle to see how it was getting on. I was in charge of opening it and narrowly avoided dislocating my shoulder getting the cork out, thereby avoiding a trip to the local A&E. (Time to get a new corkscrew, hint hint G.)

We decanted it about half an hour before drinking. It was a light gold colour. We immediately recognised it on the nose - it's one of those wines which has a unique and distinctive smell, quite lemony and oaky. On the palate, it was lovely - well-balanced, elegant and precise but with considerably acidity. Very Puligny in style, which is to be expected as Domaine Leflaive are one of the top producers in Puligny.

I doubt whether I'll ever be in a position to buy their higher end stuff - a quick check of Corneys website shows that the only wine they have from Leflaive at the moment is a 2008 premier cru Meursault which is going for £60, ouch, so it is a real privilege to drink this. It's the kind of wine that makes me sit there with a silly smile on my face. If it were a premier cru, it would be a high 9, verging on a 10.

It's beginning to drink now but if I have any self-control I ought to pace it over the next 5 years. No more than 2 bottles a year then, for special occasions. Definitely not to be drunk on a Monday night just for the hell of it! But then I would never do anything like that.

Sunday lunch, 6th June

Last Sunday we went over to the Roti in South Kensington for lunch, an establishment which focuses, wisely in my view, on roast chicken. It's under new ownership but I was pleased to see that the fundamentals remained the same - in particular the fact that they do a great deal on corkage.

We were celebrating G's birthday so ACC brought along a couple of fine bottles and G brought along a couple he'd found in Paris. I didn't bring anything but I did pick up the bill.

First up was a bottle of white Cote de Beaune, La Grande Chatelaine 2006 from Giboulot. G got this in Paris and was understandably excited, as Gibbers is top notch booze. I've had the privilege to visit the domaine in Beaune, with ACC and it was one of the best tastings I've been to. He's passionate about his wines, which are biodynamic and made in tiny quantities - there's a sense that they're his babies (similar to Anne Parent) and they have an incredible purity to them. We've only been put off because they're relatively expensive, which is understandable, and being biodynamic you need to decant at least an hour before drinking which is somewhat inconvenient if you come home in need of something NOW after a hard day at the office. But I'm getting to the stage now where I'd rather splash out on something wonderful than have more of something pedestrian.

G's second bottle was a red Santenay from Jean-Claude Belland, Clos des Gravieres 1er cru 2003. ACC told us that Berrys used to sell Belland's stuff, so the fact that G got this in Monoprix did not count against it. It was impressive for a Santenay - not a highly regarded appellation - and a reminder to self that I like the 2003s now (I didn't like them at first but am prepared to admit I was wrong)!

ACC then produced the 2007 Ladoix from Domaine Parent. I was favourably impressed - I liked the jammy fruit - and could be tempted to get some of this in due course.

Finally, ACC wheeled out this Bonnezaux which is a sweet wine from the Loire from Domaine des Gagneries, 1999. He told us that he got this at a very favourable price some years ago and we were privileged to drink the last bottle. Smashing stuff, with good acidity. We didn't have pudding in the end (despite the attractive menu) and it didn't matter as this wine was fine by itself. We agreed that it was a better lunchtime wine than a Sauternes would have been. I haven't had much Bonnezaux but this was a reminder that it's a style I find very appealing.

After this we wandered down the road to the gelateria and then made our way to Carluccios for a digestif (grappa for G, Frangelico for me, and a dodgy Italian brandy for ACC). An great end to an excellent lunch!

Meeting of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society, 14th May

On Friday it was the much-anticipated third meeting of the Society. Some complex bottle-swapping and book-collecting arrangements were effected and I joined ACC for a quick G&T at the Carlton beforehand, causing much outrage among the staff at my attempt to a) keep my wine with me and b) keep my coat with me. A portrait of Michael Howard smirked at the proceedings, but sadly no members of the Cabinet were present for me to pelt with mini-Cheddars.

Then it was off to our venue for the evening, the Savile in Brook Street where we met the other members of the Society - G, T, P and D. I was unable to take any photos as cameras are banned, but that's probably just as well as it would have been disruptive and I might have missed out on a refill while I was faffing about.

The idea behind the Society is that each member brings a bottle which is supposed to be in some way obscure or interesting. One is not supposed to spend mega-bucks, although some members have shamelessly infringed this rule in the past and surprisingly the rest of us were not minded to kick them out.

Sitting in the bar, we kicked off with my contribution, a 2002 blancs-de-blancs champagne from Jean Comyn who is a fairly obscure producer and therefore just about fitted the bill. Comments were recorded in the book and on the whole were favourable although the general opinion was that it would be better in 5 years' time. It would be one to tuck away for a while, if I still had any.

Then we went upstairs to the dining room where we had two bottles of Vina Tondonia 1998 rose provided by T.

This was a revelation - we all sat there saying we'd never had any pink wine like it. It was remarkably dry and fully mature, and altogether rather serious for a pink. Everyone found it interesting and I get the impression from the book that most of us liked it, although I can't read ACC's scribble even at this early stage in the evening.

Next up we had two reds side by side: G's Barbaresco 1982 from Bruno Gracosa and D's Seneca Shore Merlot Kylix Cuvee 2001 from New York. This was a fascinating comparison. The Barbaresco was much paler than the merlot, and quite a shock to the system on the palate - very dry and mature. The merlot was full and rich and something of a crowd-pleaser. P and T were vocal in its praise, and disparaging of the Barbaresco ("would remove paint from a wall or two" was one comment) but ACC described the merlot as "frontal" which sounds vaguely rude but he's right - it had an upfront immediate charm but not much of a finish.

We had a quick claret from the club's list to go with the savoury, which was fine but overshadowed by its eminent predecessors.

With pudding, we had a bottle of 1997 Chateau Guiraud, a Sauternes which ACC had procured for a bargain price from a branch of Somerfield. It still had a gaudy price label on it. This was very enjoyable sauternes and comments in the book are positive (T: "Brill!" I can't believe T actually wrote that!) and only G sounding a note of doubt - "not complex".

Finally, we moved on to the star wine of the evening, P's Moscatel 1900. This was a dark brown colour, and stunning. It had a serious intensity and wonderful balance, and the finish went on forever. I was fascinated trying this serious madeira after all the other not-at-all-shabby wines we had drunk, to find how comprehensively it beat the competition. Everyone raved about it in the book apart from ACC who had fallen asleep by this stage (it had been a long day, apparently). "Heavenly", "nectar" and "double plus good" were all used.

P was awarded the prize for wine of the evening, and T was awarded the prize for the wine most in the spirit of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society, both well-deserved accolades. Bring on the next meeting!

Recent drinking round-up 2

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. It's taken me a while to get organised and take photos of the things I've been drinking over the past few weeks, but here they are. In no particular order, largely because I can't remember what we had when...

Savigny-les-Beaune les Fourches 2005 from Champy, en demi. This emerged from a Norfolk cellar which shall remain nameless, and I was happy to acquire it although it was a bit of a risk as I hadn't tried it beforehand, and G predicted doom. Fortunately the gamble paid off!

Maison Champy are negotiants based in Beaune and I've been there a couple of times. The last time we had an extensive tour with the delightful Sophie which was brilliant - we got to poke around in their cellars where they have stuff going back about a century - but overran by about two hours, causing us to abandon our plans of a leisurely lunch and have to eat a quiche on a park bench instead, but I won't hold that against them. It was a good quiche.

I always think Champy are very typique - they somehow always seem to capture the essence of a village. This Savigny is very good indeed - tres Savigny, smooth and velvety and elegant but with a richness. If this were a premier cru, it would be scoring an 8. I love the fact that it's in half bottles, and I love the fact that I have 24 more in bond, in two packs of 12 so I can get some out soon and the rest when I can't delay gratification any more.

Auxey-Duresses Les Clous 2007 from Sylvie Boyer. I got this as part of a mixed case of interesting whites in the £12-18 range. This was the most interesting and inevitably also the most expensive of the bunch. Very accomplished. I believe some sort of family bust-up means that she's not making wine at the moment but on the basis of this I do hope she gets back in the game soon. Have to deduct a few marks for the screwcap though - tchah!

Bourgogne Rouge La Chapelle Notre-Dame, from Domaine Nudant, 2007. I picked up a case of this last year and it's one of my house reds. It's relatively light and sometimes has a hint of apricot kernels and a slight muskiness. G is not a big fan (although there's some bottle variation and he has made favourable comments a couple of times) so I tend to neck this myself when he's away for the weekend. I've enjoyed it but don't think I'll be rushing to buy any more - plenty more bourgogne rouge in the sea, so to speak.

Cremant de Bourgogne from the Duchesse de Magenta. Sadly this was my last bottle of this wonderful cremant. I think it's blanc de blancs (aka blanketty blank) and it's much more of a champagne-style cremant than some. We were lucky to get the small allocation that we did and am not expecting any more to be available so there we are. Heigh ho.

Ah, an old friend. This is the Bourgogne Rouge '07 from Domaine Parent. G and I have been getting through this stuff like nobody's business. The 2007s were relatively light and charming, so this doesn't need decanting and leaving for an hour, which makes it convenient for weeknight drinking. Plus I have to say the label is stunningly beautiful compared to most of the monstrosities out there. Clearly this is the exception to the Inverse Law of Burgundy Labels which I will discuss in a later post. Stay tuned!

It has been drawn to my attention that I rarely (never?) talk about wines you could buy in the supermarket on this blog. That's because I don't buy much wine from supermarkets. I mainly drink Burgundy and any Burgundy in a supermarket is going to be produced in mass quantities in order to meet the demand, whereas it's the small enterprises that produce the interesting stuff. However I will from time to time buy other wine in a supermarket, and 9 times out of 10 it will be sherry when Waitrose have a special offer on. I love all sherries and in the summer, a glass of cold fino or manzanilla goes down very well.

This La Gitana from Hidalgo was on special a couple of weeks ago - a couple of quid off, so it was about £6.50, and very nice it was too, chilled, with some pistachio nuts and some almonds. NB it's important to treat sherry like a proper wine and not leave it open for weeks - drink up asap. Under no circumstances behave like an elderly aunt, put it in a wooden cabinet and wheel it out again at Christmas.

This is Chateau Tour Cormeil 2006 - a claret, gasp! It's really nice and has that blackcurranty thing going on, and everyone in the office loves this too, we had it at a Christmas party and it went down very well. Not hugely expensive by claret standards - only about £12 I think.

The other night G got back from Rutland with these two beauties from Hugenot - a Marsannay and a Gevrey-Chambertin, both 2005, so we thought it would be interesting to try them side by side. The Gevrey was powerful and muscular and beefy as expected - G had already had a bottle a while ago and had given it a good review - but the Marsannay was a revelation! The fruit jumped out of the glass at me (which is always a good thing) and it was vibrant and very juicy and delicious. I don't know much about Marsannay except that it's the most northern of the villages in the Cote de Nuits, practically at Dijon, and that I always get it confused with Maranges, which is down in the south. Need to start paying more attention.

Last but by no means least, the other night we had one of G's Alsace haul, procured after the Alsace dinner. This was the 1970 Sporen. It was an absolutely beautiful golden colour, and quite dry and refreshing. Remarkable to think that it's 40 years old. Wonderful!

Burgundy lunch, 19th April

On Sunday, it was my turn to host lunch with honoured guests ACC, Baron McG and G. We had planned to kick off proceedings with a bottle of white Beaune 1er cru Clos des Mouches 2006 from Yves Darviot - so imagine our delight when Baron McG produced a bottle of the same, from the 2005 vintage! A Clos des Mouches vertical ensued.

It was interesting to see that the 2006 was in a much darker bottle than the 2005. Apparently the darker bottle protects against UV of some sort - but that's quite enough science bit for me. The 2006 was very good, but the 2005 whopped it - it was a brighter colour and more full-on and unctuous in the mouth, with a glycerine quality. We had some gougeres fresh from the oven, and found that with food and a bit of time, the 2006 improved considerably, but the final scores were 2006: 9, 2005: 10. Thanks to the Baron for sharing his last bottle with us. Fortunately G has more of the 2006 which is great news, as we think it will last another 4 years or so.


Next up were two premier cru Gevreys I brought back from Burgundy in January, both monopoles from Domaine des Varoilles. First we had the 2003 La Romanee, which was lovely. The nose jumped out of the glass and was quite heady. Baron McG detected Suze (which makes a change from curry). On the palate it was powerful, heady and concentrated with lots of liquorice, very easy to drink, and which went well with my beef carbonnade. It scored a 9.

This was followed by the 1999 Clos des Varoilles, which I'd expected to be better, as it was older and also from their named vineyard. However it was slightly disappointing after the 2003, still good but lacking oomph somehow. We thought it was complete and well-balanced but more old school and we suspected the winemaking may have changed generations in between. It scored an 8.


Then it was on to the wine ACC had brought, a 2002 Blagny 1er cru Sous le Dos D'Ane from Domaine Leflaive. Here's a photo of the bottle levitating - Blagny has amazing magical powers. This was the last vintage made of this wine, as the following year Domaine Leflaive converted the vineyard to chardonnay, which fetches a higher price - so a rare treat. I see from my notes I wrote CLASSY (must have liked it a lot to get carried away upper case). It was medium-weight after the Gevreys, and elegant with a lovely berry fruit, very Cotes de Beaune in style. It scored a 9.


Finally with pudding (rhubarb crumble) we had one of G's 1971 German rieslings which he picked up at auction recently. I didn't make notes but this is lovely stuff especially for less than £6 a bottle! It complemented the crumble very well.


As we sat around drinking coffee, G leapt into action, whipped on the Marigolds and did the best part of the washing-up, which was very kind. This whirlwind deserved an action shot - thanks to Baron McG for undertaking photographic duties.

It's not often one gets to drink 5 premier cru burgundies at a sitting - all in all, another great Sunday lunch!

Chateau Leoville-Barton 1978

A de V drinking claret shocker! But seriously, I love claret, I just think it's poor value compared to Burgundy. G brought this back from his Rutland cellar on Monday, and it was a real treat. He bought it at auction and modestly informs me that it didn't cost the three figures it probably would do retail. Lovely, smooth, mature claret - went down an absolute treat with the roast beef. I'm trying to pay attention more to the claret I do drink. Chateau Leoville-Barton is a St Julien, and is a deuxieme cru i.e. in the second tier of the 1855 classification of the wines from the Medoc. This wine was from the 1978 vintage which is not especially well-regarded but is quite old-school = drinking nicely at 32 years.

In other news, I came across this article in the Grauniad today about the 2009 claret vintage and whether the people tasting it have any idea what they're talking about. I don't suffer from the problem of verbosity when it comes to tasting notes. Most of mine read along the lines of "Nice!" "Wow!" or "Ew!" and are smudged with purple goo. Have to agree that tasting cask samples is not as easy as everyone thinks - trying to predict what something will be like in ten years' time is tricky, hence my traditional "Tannic Monster!" tasting note when visiting Domaine Parent.

Interesting to note that the Gentiane won the poll. Who was the other Genepi-lover, I wonder, and had he/she actually tried the Genepi? Guess we shall never know... Need to think of another poll now!