A sherry and a Beaujolais

This time of year is always a challenge blog-wise as one is attempting to recalibrate one's vinous intake after December. This week I've actually been below the government's drinking guidelines!

Fortunately there are a couple of random things which G and I drank in December which have been sitting on the back burner waiting to be written up. This Fino Una Palma from Gonzalez Byass came as part of a Wine Society mixed case of sherry - as I'm always saying, the main reason for being a member of the WS is access to its great range of advantageously-priced sherries.

This was the 2015 bottling, and en rama apparently means raw so it is not clarified or filtered. It's 6 year old fino and supposed to be drunk within 6 months - not a problem at AduV Towers. It had that bracing, tangy, salty fresh thing and was a fantastic sharpener. We didn't drink it all on day 1, but when I had another glass on day 2 it had definitely gone downhill. The bottle is 50cl, so it might be a good one to drink with friends in future.

Four years ago I was given the Dos Palmas and the Cuatro Palmas by my father, both of which were great in their own way and I wrote about them here. After that, I'd intended to get the Una and the Tres to complete the set, but never did, so it was nice to finally get to try the Una. I'm not sure exactly how much it cost, being part of the mixed case, but it's available for around £11 here (which seems to be a special offer), while the Dos Palmas is now about £17.

Also before Christmas, G visited Brussels and brought back this 2009 Fleurie made by Jean Foillard. I wasn't familiar with this producer but it turns out that his wines are very natural: no synthetic herbicides or pesticides, rigorous sorting, minimal/no sulphur, no filtration. This came in an enormous, weighty bottle exuding class. It was a deep purple colour, and was vibrant, with lovely intense sweet red and black berry fruit. "Gosh" said G. We had it with goose rillettes, which was a great combination, and it also went very well with cheese. We thought that if we'd been tasting it blind and someone had told us it was Morey St-Denis, we'd have believed them. It's expensive by Beaujolais standards, but it's worth it.

Next week sees the flurry of 2014 Burgundy en primeur tastings but as usual there's only one in my calendar - the Burgundy Portfolio tasting on Thursday on 14th. I had favourable impressions of the vintage from my trip in October, so am looking forward to tasting them again and getting some of them stashed away in my cellar!

New Year's Eve 2015

Bonne année tout le monde!

The new year got off to a good start on Thursday night with yet another decadent dinner at my place. ACC, Baron McG and G were all present and correct. Baron McG showed up in some rather shocking Robocop-style flashing electric blue glasses which caused quite a stir. A nice glass of Castelnau 2002 calmed us down (the same fizz as last year in fact, and still doing the business) along with some delicious parmesan biscuits made by the Baron himself.

ACC contributed this "mystery wine" and we were required to guess what it might be. It had no label and all we had was bottle shape to go on. Our initial guesses of Alsace and Germany were incorrect so given that he runs a company called the Burgundy Portfolio it seemed possible that it came from Burgundy, except it was apparently a sweet wine, and Burgundy doesn't do sweet wines apart from Ratafia... bingo!

I've always been a bit hazy about what exactly Ratafia is and have a tendency to confuse it with Prunelle, but I now know that it is in fact a mixture of marc and grape juice, a bit like Pineau des Charentes. This particular Ratafia came from the private cellar of one of the growers in ACC's portfolio.

It was dangerously drinkable, well-chilled, and slipped down very easily indeed - it felt like drinking grape juice but was probably about 15% alcohol! We had it with our starter of pate and toast which it accompanied very well. G unchivalrously recounted a story of an encounter between me and a bottle of Pineau des Charentes many years ago. That sort of thing doesn't happen these days but left alone with a bottle of this Ratafia it very well might.

With our roast beef we had this bottle of 1967 Latour, contributed by G. The level was good as you can see from the photo. As usual, it was unmistakably Latour, with the classic cedar, mint etc. yet the tannins had softened over the years and it was relatively mellow.

With the cheese course we moved on to this Domaine de Trevaillon 1989 also contributed by G. This is a 50/50 mix of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. It seemed big and powerful coming after the Latour but was very drinkable.

These "Elizabethan" chocs from Bendicks which the Baron brought along also went down a treat! This photo must have been taken before we got down to the second level.

Then it was on to the marc. This bottle was my primary find in Burgundy in October and came from Mon Millesime. I didn't know what Fauchon was but apparently it's the French equivalent of Fortnums. Sold!

The fossilised cork also appealed to me, although it did cause problems by falling into the bottle and the marc had to be decanted into a different bottle. We noticed that the bottle had a huge punt, and G got down the old Marquis D'Angerville bottle to compare. A distinct similarity there.

This suggests that it was probably bottled in the 1950s and we think the marc itself probably dated back to the 1930s.

It was lovely stuff, smooth and mellow, without much fieriness, but with a great finish. The sort of marc that makes me do an impression of my Irish grandmother, put on an Ulster accent and say "No harm in that" or possibly "Get outside of that".

On the same trip I also brought back this bottle of Fine de Bourgogne (very similar to marc) which I found in the shop that used to be Magnum. With a label like that, I just had to have it. Let's see the full horror in close-up.

I suspect this dated back to the 70s, based on no evidence whatsoever. It was surprisingly good and not particularly expensive. I was very pleased with the marc/fine discoveries this year and am almost inspired to set up a separate blog called Marc Quest, but along with G's long-awaited Odyssey de Chevre I suspect this will never actually happen.

Some fell by the wayside as the evening wore on, while others watched the fireworks on TV and then pondered the mystery of why Bryan Adams had been chosen to play in concert afterwards. We'll probably never know. That was the winter of 15.

Thanks everyone for a great evening and am looking forward to further vinous discoveries in 2016!

Lunch at Le Verre Volé, 31st October

On Saturday morning we were up early. ACC dealt with the gite owner while I dragged the suitcases down the alleyway - Monsieur Parize wasn't taking any risks with his people carrier - and had some weather chat in French. Fortunately by this stage I'd remembered the word for fog (memo to self: brouillard), and confidently told M. Parize that the fog was never like this in London. I was subsequently proved completely wrong when I got home and the next few days were incredibly foggy!

We arrived at the station in plenty of time so had some croissants and a coffee in the cafe nearby. There was some excitement when it appeared that our train didn't exist, but it turned out that actually the display was showing the wrong destination and all was well although it was running a bit late - they still seemed to be having trouble on the line. We were on the slow train which I'd booked, controversially, but I actually thought it worked well as it avoided having to change at Dijon and was emptier and more relaxed than the TGV.

We arrived at the Gare de Bercy, which is very close to the Gare de Lyon, only about half an hour late, and hopped in a taxi to our lunch destination, Le Verre Volé. This turned out to be a biodynamic wine shop / bistrot, with tables crammed in. In some ways being late was quite good as it was emptying out slightly when we arrived.

It reminded me of Caves Madeleine under the old regime where the wine is displayed on shelves around the room. I'm not sure if it's still the same as I haven't been back to Caves since it changed hands, although Lolo was complimentary about it in this month's issue of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui .

To drink, we went for this Cote de Brouilly from Laurence and Remi Dufaitre which was really excellent. It went very well with my hearty main course, and it was hard to believe that you could pack so much flavour into a wine that was just 12% alcohol.

We had a cheese plate between us to finish. The yellow stuff in the middle is butter!

It was a very enjoyable lunch, and then we went round the corner and along the Canal Saint-Martin to Chez Prune for a post-prandial Ricard. I hadn't been to Chez Prune before either, but it turned out to be a lively bar with a funky decor and was good for people-watching. Then it was time to head over to the Gare du Nord. We'd planned to get a taxi but inevitably there were none to be found, and it soon turned out that there was some sort of demo going on which meant the main road was closed.

Inevitably at this point ACC's suitcase started making a worrying squeaking noise. It wouldn't be a trip to Burgundy without something like this happening. Anyway, all was well, I believe the suitcase survived and I was in plenty of time to catch my train, while ACC had other things to do in Paris so we said goodbye at this point. It had been another action-packed trip and I came away very much looking forward to getting some 2014s in my cellar. Many thanks to ACC for organising everything.

This will be the last post of the year so Happy Christmas everyone, and thanks for reading. We have a fun New Year's Eve planned including a mystery bottle (exciting!) so I'll be back in 2016 to report back on that.

Dinner at Le Cheval Noir, 30th October

On Friday afternoon there was some downtime for me while ACC visited another potential new grower, and then we wandered round town, including a useful visit to the shop that used to be called Magnum. We went to the locals' bar for an aperitif and then walked round the ring road past a shop selling waters of the world (I wonder how long that will last) to Le Cheval Noir.

Here they have a selection of menus and we went for the Menu Tendance for 31 euros which turned out to be on the hearty side...

First, an amuse guele.

Oeufs en meurette.

To drink, we had this Givry 1er cru from Domaine Joblot.

This blurry photo is meant to depict the beef bourguignon which came with pasta.

Finally, a really great creme brulee flavoured with "l'anis de Flavigny" which research tells me are aniseed balls. This was a great flavour combination.

As usual, the atmosphere was peaceful, maybe even hushed. It's run by a husband and wife team - he cooks, she oversees the dining room - and it always feels to me as though it ought to have a star, but perhaps the fact that it doesn't means the price is keener. My only regret was that having had a big lunch I wasn't able to do justice to it all!

Lunch at Le Montrachet, 30th October

No visit to Burgundy is complete without a visit to Le Montrachet and on Friday a table had been booked for lunch. I was very much looking forward to it!

We'll be taking a left then...

To start, we had this mushroom vol-au-vent, but to call it that doesn't do it justice - there was bacon and chicken liver in there too.

Salmon with potatoes.

Cheeses from the state-of-the-art cheese trolley (this was quite amazing - made of wood, it unfolded to reveal a wonderful selection), including some seriously good Epoisses.

This was a sort of praline concoction with different flavoured fillings, "comme un eclair" - they do like their visual jokes at Le M!

To drink, we had some Chablis 1er cru Montee de Tonnere 2011 from Raveneau, which I seem to recall cost less than it would have done retail in the UK.

As always, the service was impeccable and the atmosphere in the dining room very calm and content. I'd love to stay there some time and go for dinner!

Domaine Joly, 30th October

On Friday morning there was time for breakfast before heading over to Puligny-Montrachet. It was a grey, foggy morning, and I spent an hour walking round the village adding to my collection of Route des Grands Crus photos while ACC visited a potential new grower.

We had a coffee in the little cafe on the main square, and then it was time to head over to Domaine Joly. This was my second visit to the domaine, which makes four wines, all white. We met Sylvie as we were walking up the road - there weren't many people about that morning!

The tasting began with the Aligote which I found enjoyably zingy with a nice weight. Next to it, the Bourgogne Blanc seemed softer but with the acidity to balance this out. The Puligny-Montrachet les Tremblots seemed quite approachable already, with a nice texture and great finish. It made me wonder if the 2014s might be drinking sooner than some other vintages.

Then we moved on to the Puligny-Montrachet les Charmes which isn't a premier cru but is certainly at that level. They made three barrels of this, and the barrels were of different ages (2010, 2012 and 2014) with each contributing different qualities to the mix. I was very impressed with the Charmes, which had a lovely nose, richness and complexity and is very elegant. We tasted some back vintages which confirmed the consistency of the house style and I'll be very tempted come January. Merci to Sylvie for another Puligny masterclass!

Hanging out in Beaune, and dinner at La Ciboulette, 29th October

And so, we resume the story of October's trip to Burgundy, which at this rate might just be finished by Christmas...

Back in Beaune, there was time to do some shopping and there was one shop high on my agenda - Mon Millesime. It was great to see Philippe and have a wander round and, as always, there were some enticing goodies.

I picked up a bottle of Marc de Bougogne with a spectacular fossilised cork and label that made it look as if it dated back to about 600 BC - more about this another time!

Then we headed off to Casino to pick up essential supplies. I loved this Big Ben box of After Eights which brought back happy memories.

After that, it was time for an aperitif at Le Bout du Monde, the wine bar run by Fabienne Escoffier. Once again I had inexplicably failed to pack a lumberjack shirt but we were allowed in anyway. Their selection of wine is phenomenal.

ACC, however, was in the mood for something other than vino so he went for a G&T and then a super-alcoholic Belgian beer, while I had a kir and then a very fine glass of 1er cru Saint Aubin.

Once again, the place was buzzing and full of sophisticated people and it's a great addition to the Beaune wine bar scene. I was sorry that we didn't get a chance to visit La Dilettante this time round, but it was closed, something to do with half-term, whatever that is.

Then it was off to La Ciboulette for dinner. ACC is quite a regular and had been here just the other night which was handy as he was able to recommend a few things such as this lovely terrine with pistachios.

They now do wines by the glass and we had a white and a red but I can't remember what they were - next year I won't assume that I will write everything up within 3 days and will make better notes!

I do remember my main course, the slow-cooked joue de porc. Very nice food on a cold evening.

Wines lined up on the counter

For pudding, the assiette du chocolat, bien sûr.

Since I hadn't drunk a 13% beer earlier, I indulged in some armagnac and was able to have a comparison of the 1982 and the 1992 en magnum.

It was a great meal and the bill came to 82 euros, or 60 quid, for the pair of us. You can't argue with that! If only there was somewhere like La Ciboulette in London...