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.

Recent drinking round-up, 31st Aug

G and I have been drinking a few bits and pieces lately which don't really need an individual entry (= code for I have been too lazy to make proper notes about them) but which I want to record here.

First up, these lovely halves of manzanilla procured for me by ACC of the Burgundy Portfolio. This is Bodegas Argueso San Leon Manzanilla, which I'm told is a step up from the Las Medallas from the same producer, which I've had from the Wine Society before. It's also a bit pricier. The halves look very smart in their box with the red capsule. Smashing stuff and very refreshing after half an hour in the freezer. I'm very happy with it and we've been getting through it at a rate of knots. Well, one has to make the most of the fleeting English summer!

This was a Muscadet sur lie from Comte Leloup du Chateau de Chasseloir 2007 from the Wine Society. It's a bit older than your average muscadet and claims to be some special cuvee, so we thought we'd try it as an alternative to white burgundy. It cost £8.95 but wasn't exciting and I wouldn't bother having it again. Top marks for jazzy string around the bottle though! I have no idea what that's all about.

Another white from the Wine Soc in the search for alternatives for white burg, as much as I love the stuff it's nice to have something different occasionally. This Saladini Pilastri Falerio 2010 was more like it. I think this was part of the mixed case of weird things (I hear a disapproving voice murmuring "les autres regions") that we got a while ago. The Wine Soc have moved on to the 2011 which is only £5.95. It was quite full-bodied and gutsy but good in the hot weather.

Then we have some reds. I've blogged about this Beaune 1er cru Clos du Roi 2007 from the Martins before. This was the last bottle on the rack and didn't disappoint, lovely classic Beaune.

Then a red I haven't written about before - a Meursault Rouge 2006 from Latour-Labille. I bought a case of this en primeur and got it out a few months ago. We tried it and, well, it wasn't that great, so we stashed it away in the hope that it was just going through its "sulky adolescence" and would come round in due course. What a relief to drink it the other night and find that it had done so - it's now delicious and soft with lovely fruit. There's no hurry to drink the rest but it's good to know I can if I want to.

And finally, this old friend - the Meursault 1er cru Les Cras 2007 also from Latour-Labille. This is wonderful wine and every sip is a pleasure. We think it's still a 9 but have no doubt that it's going to become a 10 - we had a debate about whether it's already reached that level. Given that the village level Meursault has taken 6 years to come round, arguably this should be reaching its window in a couple of years time, except that the 2007s are more approachable in style. Both of these red Meursaults are highly unusual as most vineyards in Meursault are planted with chardonnay. All the more reason to enjoy them while we can. I can't wait to try them both again in a few months' time!

Dinner at ACC's, 25th August

On Saturday evening, G and I caught the trusty 68 bus to the wilds of zone 3 where we joined ACC at his new gated residence for dinner.

We kicked off with an elderly gin and tonic, made from gin that was of unknown age but seemed pretty old, and was 49%! This was a recent acquisition from the second best wine shop in Beaune. In fact it's described as "genievre" on the bottle so may be closer to Dutch jenever than gin. Either way, it made the best gin and tonic I've ever had - very floral and refreshing. Memo to self to get some high-strength gin. With this we had a lovely beetroot and broad bean dip and pitta bread, which I mystifyingly failed to photograph.

ACC lost no opportunity to show off his jeroboam of marc, photographed with the gin bottle for contrast. Sadly we didn't open it on this occasion...

Then we moved on to a white, which G brought along. This was a Domaine Leroy Bourgogne Blanc 2008. He got this in Paris for the princely sum of 38 euros, and we had high expectations because Domaine Leroy is a top domaine and because 2008 was a great year for whites - Anne Parent's bourgogne blanc in particular has been giving us an enormous amount of pleasure lately. The Domaine Leroy had a whacking amount of new oak, no sense of terroir, and all in all we felt it was rather "international" i.e. aimed at the US palate. ACC suspected that there was a problem at the domaine in 2008 and that this bourgogne contained a lot of declassified premier and even grand cru wine, which you might think would be a good thing but not if they were being treated with lots of new oak which didn't suit the wine. So in summary, it was drinkable and I found it pleasant enough, but we'd expected something more.

Our starter was some duck and calvados pate served with ACC's home-made bread and a very jazzy salad of leaves and toasted almonds dressed with olive oil infused with garlic.

Next up on the drinking front was a magnum of red Chassagne-Montrachet 2005 from Domaine Ramonet. This immediately made up for the disappointment of the white. It was rich and smooth, with lovely integrated berry fruit. All in all, it was excellent, and slipped down a treat with our cassoulet, which was the perfect thing to eat on a damp Saturday evening.

Then we moved onto cheese, which I'd procured from what is now my favourite cheese shop, Pascal Beillevaire in Montpelier Street, earlier in the day, braving flash floods in Hyde Park as nothing was going to stand between me and my cheese. I can't recommend this place highly enough. On this occasion, I got a Langres, some 24 month old Gruyere, a Banon which turned out to be seriously evil (a good thing!) and finally, the piece de resistance, an artisinal Roquefort which was absolutely sensational. I was also given a chocolate mousse and rice pudding with salted caramel - you can see why I like the place.

As a dessert wine I also brought along a bottle of this Samos Anthemis muscat, which is an old favourite and never fails to please.

Finally, we were treated to a glass of this exciting old Mirabelle, which made a lovely digestif.

At least my new camera took some photos in focus, which is a turn-up for the books. All in all, another wonderful dinner and thanks to ACC for hosting.

Bar Boulud, 25th July

On Wednesday evening I met old school-friend M for dinner at Bar Boulud in the Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge. I seem to be hanging out a lot in Knightsbridge lately - maybe one of these days I'll be whisked off by a plutocrat and installed in a life of luxury, you never know.

We'd planned to go for an aperitif at the Serpentine Bar and Kitchen, but it was another warm, sunny evening and the queue to get served lived up to the name of the establishment, so instead we went to Bar Boulud early and had a beer at the bar. The restaurant has its own separate entrance and I'd been under the impression it was in the basement, but actually it was more of a lower ground floor.

 

First impressions were favourable and there seemed to be a high staff-customer ratio. Although there were no seats together at the bar, three solutions appeared within seconds - someone offered to move up, some people left, and a spare bar stool was brought, so all was well and I had a good view of what appeared to be a jeroboam of rose sitting in an ice bucket ready to be served by the glass. I had a girly Liefmans strawberry (or was it cherry?) beer and M had a blond beer which appealed due to its name, Bitter and Twisted.

After that, we went into the main restaurant where although the tables were very close together, somehow the acoustics were good so that I could hear what M was saying but not what the people on either side of us were saying. Very fine bread and butter were provided and both were replenished the instant we finished, and there was no problem about having tap water which was also assidously topped up throughout the meal.

The wine list leapt into the stratosphere quickly, but there was a good range by the glass and, in the mood for red, we had three options under £30 which at least made choosing quite easy. We decided to pass on the 1990 premier cru Vosne-Romanee and instead went for a gutsy Corbieres for £26.50. 

We shared a charcuterie plate to start (£16), which included several hams and terrines, two kinds of mustard, cornichons and cocktail onions, and something that was probably remoulade which I left alone. For main course, it had to be the burgers as everything else is seriously pricey. M went for the embarrassingly-named "Piggie" which came with pulled pork, while I had the "Frenchie" which had what was described on the menu as confit pork belly, but actually looked very much like bacon. Let's just say I regretted not going for the Piggie and if I go back, that's what I'll have. We asked for the burgers to be cooked medium and in fact they were quite rare, but that didn't bother me. Both cost £12.75 and we had to order additional fries to go with them, at a toppy £4.75. Nevertheless, after coffee, the total tab was £107 including service, which I considered pretty good for such a swanky venue. I thought of our meal at Shampers wine bar last year which was a similar price but with nothing like such a sense of being looked after.

At lunch on Sunday we spent some time discussing a perennial favourite topic -why it's better to eat in than eat out, given how expensive eating out is these days and how most of the time you can cook similar food yourself, drink fantastic mature wines from your own cellar with it, and not be bothered by annoying waiters refilling other people's wine glasses but not your own, or obnoxious other customers, or noise levels meaning you can't hear your own voice...  I could go on. However, Bar Boulud has joined the select group of restaurants that are actually worth visiting, in my opinion. Thanks to G for recommending it and to M for her company on this occasion.

Lunch at mine, Sunday 22nd July

On Sunday,  ACC and Baron McG joined me and G for another epic lunch. It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago so I was in the mood to indulge!

Getting things off to a good start

The Baron kindly brought along some delicious little parmesan biscuits which he had baked that morning, based on a recipe by Simon Hopkinson. Some of them had a daring sliver of red chilli on the top. The secret ingredient was mustard powder, which I must consider adding next time I make gougeres, as the combination of cheese and mustard is one that appeals very much. To go with this we had a bottle of Krug 1989 left over from one of G's recent wine dinners. It was mature, yeasty, full-bodied champagne and very enjoyable. Obviously it costs megabucks, so not one we're likely to have again in the near future.

Next up was a bottle of Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru Les Folatieres 2007 from Bzikot. This had been sitting on my wine rack for some time waiting for a special occasion, and we had it with some smoked salmon from Hansen and Lydersen, who we had finally tracked down at Maltby Street the previous day, and some rye bread from the Nordic Bakery. The Puligny was a glorious golden colour. It took a little while to open up, was bigger than I expected and certainly ready to go.

Nom nom nom

On Friday night I'd been to the Ginger Pig and had fallen into the trap of losing all sense of perspective. This often seems to happen when I go to the Ginger Pig. Somehow, surrounded by enormous chunks of meat, one starts to think that a three rib roast is quite a normal size for four people and it's only when one finds out that it's actually five and a half kilos that one realises that perhaps it's actually quite a lot. But by then, of course, it's too late... actually that's not entirely fair as the butcher saw me wince and did ask if I wanted him to cut a bit off, but it looked so amazing that I decided to go for it as it was. We roasted it on Saturday to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's instructions and it came out looking like this. Confirmation that the bigger the piece of meat, the better the result.

Back to Sunday lunch - as it was the start of the recent heatwave, we served the beef cold along with a tomato tart from Marylebone farmers' market and some salad. The first red was our old friend Beaune Greves 1er cru 1999 from Yves Darviot, which needs to be drunk up fairly soon. This bottle was beautiful as ever. I have often raved about it in the past and it remains the pinnacle of price/quality ratio as far as I'm concerned. Just amazing.

Next up, with the cheese course, was a bottle of Vosne Romanee 1er cru Clos de Reas 1999 from Michel Gros, another old favourite and again one which did not disappoint. I read somewhere recently that ideally reds should be served at cellar temperature which is lower than room temperature, so we chilled both reds slightly, which was a good move and one to remember for future reference.

The Epoisses makes a bid for freedom!

A digression about the cheeses, which came from Pascal Beillevaire in Montpelier Street just off Knightsbridge. I've written before about how offputting I find La Fromagerie in Moxon Street, with its incredibly heavy shoulder-dislocating door to the cold cheese room and a general sense that somehow you're not worthy to be allowed in there. I don't think this is just me being paranoid as G has noticed it too. So I was expecting this Parisian cheese shop located in the area of the London mega-rich to be super-snooty.

Au contraire! When I visited on Friday evening, the assistant was friendly and quite happy for me to have a look round by myself. After I'd spent a few minutes mooching about, taking care not to swipe priceless cheeses off the shelves with my rucksack loaded with 5.5 kg of beef, I enlisted her help. We had a serious discussion regarding the components of the ideal cheeseboard - I knew I wanted some Epoisses, some Beaufort, some Bleu des Causses, and a goaty thing, but fancied one additional wild card cheese. She suggested a sheep's cheese - bien sûr! - and I got to taste a wonderful pungent and smoky example of the genre which was the missing link. I'm not sure what the name of it was but will find out next time I'm there. I also got an evil dried-up little goaty thing for G - this is chevre sec, which is sold by weight so this particular one cost about two quid. I'm now the proud owner of a Pascale Beillevaire loyalty card and received a "little present" in the form of a chocolate mousse. All in all, a delightful experience and I think it may become a weekly habit!

I failed to take any photos of pudding, but made the world famous Petits Pots (to a closely-guarded family recipe) which is also basically a chocolate mousse. To accompany this, we had this Mas Amiel 1975 provided by G. This is a sweet red wine from Maury, an area in the Roussillon, one of the few wines that goes well with chocolate. Which it certainly did!

Finally, the piece de resistance was provided by ACC - a kirsch and a poire william liqueur, both with some serious age on them.

Good example of the Inverse Law of Labels

We think the kirsch may have been made in 1950 as there's a punched out 50 on the label (just below the second M of Commerce). These two made a very enjoyable end to the occasion - another five hour special!

Maltby Street Market

Yesterday morning I got up bright and early and walked down through the deserted legal district, along the Embankment, over the Wobbly Bridge to London Bridge station. En route I took this photo of the mighty Shard towering over Borough Market.

Shard!

Every time I see the Shard I'm reminded of the time G and I were admiring the view from Primrose Hill and overheard the following conversation:

A: Is that the Shard?
B: Yes, it's the tallest building in Europe.
A: It doesn't look that big, x other skyscraper looks just as big.
B: Yes, but it's further away.

We giggled all the way home. See here for the reference.

You know you're at London Bridge station when the people handing out leaflets for nearby tourist attractions (the London Dungeon and its imitators) are sporting ghoulish white face paint with red blotches to give the appearance of some hideous disease. I particularly enjoyed the zombie who was wearing a headset for no apparent reason.

I met up with ACC and our Maltby St Market Mission was underway. First there was the small matter of finding the place. I'd looked at the map beforehand so had a rough idea of what direction we needed to go in, but it was further along Druid Street than we'd expected and an element of doubt crept in. Eventually we spotted a cheery yellow canopy in the distance which turned out to be a fruit and veg stall. We didn't let that detain us but moved straight to the St John Bakery where we got custard doughnuts - top priority. After that, I got some amazing and almost certainly underpriced beef from Jacobs Ladder biodynamic farm and some 18 month old vieux gruyere from Käseswiss although in the excitement I completely forgot to look for oatcakes.

We turned the corner and were greeted by this cheery sight.

There were lots more stalls here, including one where a man was carving ham, a Jewish deli, and a bar selling cocktails, but since it was only about 10.30, we had a coffee from Coffee, Mate? instead which is the kind of place that likes to draw a leaf in the foam of your flat white. It went down very well with the custard doughnut. Memo to self: those doughnuts are squirty! Take tissues next time.

I only had one, honest

An article by Signe Johansen in last weekend's FT and a visit from my Swedish friend has reignited my desire to eat more Scandi food and I was hoping to get some smoked salmon from Hansen & Lydersen but was unable to find them. Still, I was pretty pleased with my haul.

The market had a friendly, relaxed atmosphere and there were no tourists - quite a contrast to Borough which is unbearable these days. It seemed that it wasn't necessary to get there at the crack of dawn to avoid the crowds, and in fact it might be better to go at lunchtime when one could visit the cocktail place or the wine bar, and get lunch. And the icing on the cake is that the 188 bus runs very close which takes me straight home.

This morning, to continue the spirit of adventure, I paid a visit to the Nordic Bakery just off New Cavendish Street where I got a cinnamon bun and a loaf of rye bread so I could make smørrebrød for lunch this week. The cinnamon roll looked like the one on the front of their book.

Which brings me to a new feature, Battle of the Pastries!

Nordic Bakery Cinnamon Bun v. St John Bakery Custard Doughnut:

1. Price: cinnamon bun £2.20, custard doughnut £2.00.

2. Size: the cinnamon bun was enormous and I should probably have only eaten half, but after a short pause at the half-way mark I manfully wolfed the rest down, while the custard doughnut was just the right size for one person.

3. Special feature: the custard doughnut got points for the delicious squirty filling, while the cinnamon bun had wonderful burnt crunchy bits on the outside. 

Overall: a draw - both excellent examples of their genre, but probably not something to indulge in every day.