Hugel dinner

On Thursday night it was back to the Savile to meet G and some friends of his, one of whom has an extensive collection of old wines from the Alsace. I've been meaning to learn more about Alsace wines so this was very exciting. I walked through Fitzrovia and Mayfair in the rain and turned up dishevelled, cold and wet, so it was great to walk into the bar and find a glass waiting for me.

The wines were all from Hugel and we tasted 11 of them going back to 1967. They looked amazing in their tall green bottles with the distinctive yellow label of Hugel. We kicked off with a Sporen 1970, made from a mixture of grapes, which was a lovely golden colour, quite dry but very Alsace in style and made a fantastic aperitif but I also thought it would go well with food.

Then we had a half of Muscat 1979 Cuvee Tradition, which J told me is one up from the standard cuvee. This was a paler golden colour and very dry. I'd normally expect a muscat to be quite grapey, but this wasn't. G described it as "dangerously drinkable" and certainly to come home after a hard day's toil and find one of these in the fridge would be very welcome.

The Gewurz 1973 was an amber colour and slightly murky so we had our suspicions even before tasting it - and yes, it was seriously maderised, but some around the table found that quite attractive. Fortunately the Gewurz 1973 Selection Personelle (which J told me later became Cuvee Tradition) en demi was on song. It was a pale gold colour and was quite fat and mellow with a good finish. J described it as being "in good shape for a 36 year old". Ahem. I described this as being the best so far in my opinion. Not that I was biased in any way due to the vintage...

Then we had the same wine from 1976, an excellent year in Alsace, which was fragrant, full and big with no hint of the scent of "granny's handbag" as ACC likes to describe it, that rather heady turkish-delight type perfume that gewurztraminer often has. This was even better than the 1973. And then we had the Gewurz 1976 Reserve Personelle which was a step up from the Cuvee Tradition. This was magnificent, a real showstopper and the wine of the evening - it was big and rich and would go brilliantly with pate and brioche.

The wines we tasted towards the end of the evening were sadly less reliable - the Gewurz 1983 Reserve Personelle was maderised, the Tokay d'Alsace Cuvee Tradition 1981 was corked and the Riesling Reserve Exceptionelle Auslese 1967 was "not correct" - again I think it was maderised judging from the colour. These things are to be expected when one is tasting such old wine, and I found it interesting to taste them anyway (well, all right, maybe not the corked one).

We rounded off the evening with coffee and calvados and rattled back to Bloomsbury feeling educated about old Alsace and very grateful to J for giving us the opportunity to drink such amazing rarities.

Brown Beauty sherry

On Wednesday night G and I had both had rather trying days at work, so I popped downstairs with my trusty bottle of Lamb's Navy Rum (arrr), but it turned out that he had something rather more exciting in mind, as he produced this extraordinary little quarter-bottle of old sherry which could well be pre-war. I couldn't possibly divulge where it came from but it cost around £15 which seems an absolute bargain for something so old and obscure.

I was greatly amused by the dreadful label, and the bit in grey where it says "A Velvet-Nosed Thoroughbred". The sherry itself was brown as promised, and only slightly murky, with a sediment which G told me is called "bees-wing" or something like that, i.e. fragile little flakes, rather than gunge.

It was medium-sweet, presumably an oloroso, and very smooth, and went down an absolute treat. G thinks it would have died after half an hour as old sherry goes downhill very quickly, but it didn't get the chance as we guzzled it pretty damned quick. One for the bottle collection, I think.

Savagnin 2004

We drank this bottle of Savagnin 2004 from the Jura on Sunday night. It went very well with G's signature lamb biryani, an excellent curry wine. It was a glorious golden colour, and very dry yet rich - it sees about 18 months in oak. Reminded us of an old Meursault. At £22 from the Wine Society, not cheap, but it was rather lovely and had a few more years in it.

Leacock dinner, 21st Jan

G's Madeira Dinner, now in its 5th year, has become something of an institution, and every year I look forward to it immensely. Not only do we drink some fascinating and historic wines, but it's a great chance to catch up with old friends. This year the focus was on the wines of Leacock, many of which came up at auction at Christies in December.


Shortly after 7pm the crowds began to assemble in the ballroom at the Savile. We soon discovered that there had been an accident earlier in the day resulting in the breakage of half the Club's port glasses. Undaunted, we commenced the tasting, with the 1930(?) Verdelho (G's dad made off with my notes, so I'll have to check!) which G bought vast quantities of and which I must confess I've never liked. The most interesting thing about it is the shape of the bottle it comes in, which is attractively bulbous.

Then we had a couple of sercials, which were on the dry side. P described one of them as soapy, which was accurate, although it wasn't quite as soapy as the famous cheese we had from the cheese shop in Beaune which smelt of Dettol. After that it was the jewel in the crown, the "very old" Verdelho. G thinks this was from the 1880s but one of the pleasures of these kinds of things is the mystery and the fact that we'll never really know. This was much sweeter and richer than I'd have expected from a Verdelho and later on G pointed out that back in those days, the Madeirans could make sweet or dry wine from any of the grape varieties, so you could have a sweet Verdelho or a dry Malvasia, it was all a question of at what point you stopped the fermentation. This wine cheered everyone up, even T - a tricky customer to please - and after that the evening really got going.

For dinner we had a chicken consomme with two more Sercial style wines, including "WW" which stands for Waterloo Wine and which G confidently told us was the last bottle in existence. Then we had steak and truffled mashed potatoes with a somewhat disappointing cru bourgeois claret, then cheese, and then tarte tatin with two sweeter wines - a Bual 1966 which I really loved (it had a particularly gooey mouthfeel, like drinking a soothing cough mixture) and the Malvasia which was drier than expected. This had been bottled in the most extraordinary wonky bottle which I was able to rescue at the end of the evening.


G made an excellent speech and was then given a ceremonial green stripy dressing-gown type thing and a bottle burka by SM who'd flown in from Afghanistan specially for the occasion. A memorable evening!

Volnay and Beaune, 5th Jan

At 12.20 we emerged from Domaine Parent and set off along the road to Volnay, only about a mile away from Pommard. We were walking along a nice little road with vineyards on either side, but it was bloody freezing and we were looking forward to arriving at our lunch destination which according to the Michelin guide had a "warming fire" in the winter. But there was no sign of it, so after a while we looked at the map and worked out that it was on the main road, the N74, further down the slope. This necessitated a hasty shortcut through some frozen vineyards but eventually we made it, had a great 4 course lunch for 19 euros, and harmony was restored.

Then it was back up the slope to Volnay to visit Vincent Perrin, a recent discovery of ACC's. He earned a place in our good books right away when he suggested having the tasting in his kitchen rather than in the cellar, as it was so cold. This offer was gratefully received, and we sat round the kitchen table and worked our way through his wines.

First up was a St-Romain blanc 2008 which had a very floral and peachy nose, and lime on the palate. It was very zingy, not what I expect from a chardonnay, but I think it could be an amazing wine for the summer and I can't imagine anyone not liking it.

Then we had the Bourgogne Rouge 2008 which Vincent told us came from vineyards near the N74 so it was nice to think perhaps we'd walked through them earlier. This had a dark purple colour, a vibrant cherry nose and was light and refreshing if rather acidic due to its youth - the sort of wine I regard as a picnic or lunchtime wine, which is a style I enjoy very much.

After that we went on to try his 2008 Volnays, which were elegant and well-balanced, and supple as Volnay should be. I was particularly impressed with the Volnay les Gigottes 1er cru Monopole which had an enticing, jammy nose and was richer than the others - ACC thinks it will need 5 years to come round. We also tried a Pommard village-level wine, les Chanlins, which is made from a vineyard on the border with Volnay and seemed to have the best of both worlds - tannin and structure but also smoothness. I'll definitely be looking out for these wines in future.

After this we spent a few minutes hanging out in the square in Volnay waiting for the taxi, and enjoying the smell of the smoke from the burning of the old vines, before heading back to Beaune for shopping and an appointment at Maison Fatien Pere et Fils, where Charlie gave us a whirlwind tasting of 19 wines in an hour. My notes on most of them were articulate things like "wow!" "stunning!" "fabulous!" but sadly they have price levels to match and we can't get hold of them over here so I'm not going to spend too much time dwelling on that.

There followed a restorative cardinale (like a kir but with red wine) in the cafe on Place Carnot, where AM and I compared the decanter brushes we had bought in Athenaeum, much to the amusement of a man at the next table, and then it was time for dinner at my favourite restaurant in Beaune, Caves Madeleine. We had, as always, the 14 euro menu for 2 courses, and kicked off with a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau 2009 which was lovely, light and fruity - hadn't had Beaujolais Nouveau for years! - with the starter (the herring and potato, of course) and then a bottle of Crozes-Hermitage carefully chosen by Lolo with the main course (the escalope of turkey with a mushroom sauce, of course). As always the atmosphere at Caves was great, everybody was having a good time and the lighting level was quite low which gave it an enjoyably conspiratorial feel.

Then it was back to the gite - transported by Julien the taxi driver, who seemed to pop up everywhere and whom we were getting to know quite well by this stage - for a final glass of ACC's famous walnut liqueur before bed.

Domaine Parent, 5th Jan

On the Tuesday morning we had a 10 a.m. appointment at Domaine Parent in Pommard. This was my third visit to the domaine and each time it has been a highlight of the trip.

Anne Parent is very eloquent and always gives a good talk about how she sees the vintage. Everyone has been raving about the 2009s but Anne said they wouldn't be as big as 2005. In her opinion, while everyone could make a good 2005 - "a good vintage for bad wine-makers" - the same would not be true of 2009, which was 70% nature and 30% wine-making. You can see I was writing this all down!

We began by tasting some cask samples of the 2009 vintage, which had only been in barrel for 4 months. The white Corton (grand cru) was heaven in a glass on the nose, but still undergoing malolactic fermentation. Anne said it's important to have a long, slow malolactic fermentation as it takes time to fix the good elements of the wine - the colour, finesse, elegance etc. "It is a young baby and it takes time to grow."

Then we tasted some of her red Pommards including - Croix Blanche, les Argillieres 1er cru and the jewel in the crown, les Epenots 1er cru, effectively the grand cru of Pommard. My notes on this were: "beautiful colour, lovely perfume, complexity, v. distinguished, wow! this needs to be kept a while." Can't wait to get my hands on some.

We moved on to taste some 2008s, beginning with the Bourgogne Rouge which had lovely strawberry fruit on the nose. Anne puts it in 4 different barrels made by different coopers, and then blends them together. There's very much a spirit of experimentation - she loves to play around with things. I won't list out all my tasting notes but on the whole I was impressed by the 2008s which were powerful, elegant and complex wines. Anne strives for balance above all. Les Epenots stood out - Anne described it as majestic and noble, and it was impossible to disagree. We also had the red Corton les Renardes grand cru which was wonderful. She told us how she had a special cuve tailor-made for this wine.

Then the wine I'd been looking forward to most of all - the white Corton 2008. When ACC and I visited Anne back in September 2008, we'd tasted the 2007 vintage and it completely knocked me for six. This time, again, the nose was heavenly and it had a lovely weight and balance. Very long, very fine, not fat but rich. Again, Anne vinifies it in several different barrels and combines them. The wine from the second barrel she described as having bacon on the nose, and as soon as she said that one could immediately see what she meant, but it had a lovely mouthfeel. This is no.1 on my list for buying when the 2008s come out en primeur. Must remember to open a packet of Frazzles to go with it.

An honourable mention has to go to the Ladoixs (? not sure what the plural is!) that we tasted, a lesser-known appellation near Corton. Next to the Pommards these wines were relatively light and charming, and as Anne said, don't need to go with a specific food, whereas it's impossible to imagine drinking the Pommards without some serious red meat.

After that, we tasted some of the 2007s from bottle. I was particularly struck by the les Argillieres which Anne compared to a grand Echezaux, and told us about her friend who makes a Nuits St Georges les Argillieres - they get together from time to time to compare them. Apparently Argillieres means there is a lot of clay in the soil, which gives the wine finesse and elegance. More generally, Anne said that wines from the north of Pommard have finesse and elegance, while wines from the south have body and structure.

Les Epenots 2007 was also a stunner but will take time to come round. Anne said "you need to deserve it" and explained that it is a sophisticated, complex and intellectual wine - the haute couture of Pommard! I also adored the Corton les Renardes 2007 - the lightness and charm of the vintage seemed to suit it well. I have to admit I didn't spit the last mouthful out, it was just too good!

Overall we tasted 22 wines over the course of two and a half hours, an unexpected marathon. It was incredibly generous of Anne to spend so much time with us and as always her enthusiasm was infectious and we came away uplifted and thrilled to have tried these magnificent wines.

Domaine Dussort, 4th Jan

We had an excellent lunch at le Chevreuil in Meursault, but failed to have the house speciality, hot terrine, so I guess we'll have to go back another time for that. The highlight for me was when I heard a miaow indicating that the hotel cat had wandered into the restaurant. The owner tried to sweep it out again but I was able to entice it to come over to say hello first.

After that, we searched in vain for a boulangerie that might be open, but even the supermarket in the square was pretending to be closed, so we made our way empty-handed down the slope to Domaine Sylvain Dussort. I'd managed to lose my pen, so was unable to take proper notes, but I can record that this was my second visit to the domain, and we tasted the range of 2008 wines ranging from Bourgogne Blanc Cuvee des Ormes to the Meursault le Limozin, which is a highly-regarded lieu-dit. They're all good wines and very good value compared to the better-known producers of Meursault.

Domaine Bzikot, 4th Jan

Our first appointment of the week was at Domaine Bzikot in Puligny. The domaine makes 50,000 bottles a year, and first came to our attention when G and I found a bottle of its Puligny-Montracher 1er cru Hameau de Blagny 1982 in Mon Millesime back in 2008. I note from the trusty premier cru spreadsheet that it was made by Stanislas Bzikot - Sylvain's grandfather?

Sylvain welcomed us into a little ante-room full of boxes with just enough room for us to taste, and produced a number of 2008s in bottle. We started with the Bourgogne Blanc, which had a floral nose and was charming. Then moved up to the Puligny Villages, which had a nice mouthfeel but I found hard to assess at this stage. After that we had another Puligny, La Rousselle which is a lieu-dit i.e. a named vineyard, just under Les Referts which is a premier cru vineyard, and it was a step up from the village-level wine. But the jewel in the crown of the whites was the Puligny 1er cru Les Folatieres, which was as lovely as the 2007. It had a slightly cabbagey nose, and was big and delicious with a great finish.

Then we tried the 2007 Bourgogne Rouge. I hadn't realised the domaine made red wines. This was a light colour and had a lovely fruity nose but I found it a bit dull on the palate. The 2008 red Auxey-Duresses was more my cup of tea - a darker colour and with brambles and loganberries on the palate. Finally, we had the 2008 Volnay, which had an enticing nose. It was a bit early to say but I thought it would be worth coming back to in 2-3 years.

Overall, a fun tasting, and Sylvain was very charming. Domaine Bzikot has been a great discovery and the wines rewarding at all levels.

We'd originally been intending to walk from Puligny to Meursault, a distance of about 3 miles, but it was bitterly cold so we decided to get a taxi instead. To kill some time we repaired to the bar on the village green which produced a mean kir for me and ACC and a Suze for AM. I sniffed the Suze with some trepidation and wasn't disappointed - an acquired taste, je pense! Then it was back to wait for the taxi by this terrible statue.

Ermitage de Corton, 3rd Jan

On Sunday morning we pottered about at the gite, watched some bad French TV and caught up on all the reading material and newspapers we'd brought with us. Then it was time to venture out for lunch at the Ermitage de Corton, a 4 star hotel on the main road.

None of us had been to this place before and there was some discussion about the best route to take - walking along the main road with lorries juddering past is not the most pleasant experience, so we opted for the back route, without knowing if it would actually get us there or not. This gave us an opportunity to admire the Christmas decorations of Chorey and in particular, the Santa Claus figures who seemed determined to break and enter each house in a different way. At one house, a red-clad figure was was hammering at a window, at another there was one abseiling down a front door, etc.

After about a 10 minute walk, a building which we thought was the hotel came into view and we made our way down the unpromising-looking cul de sac towards it. Fortunately there was a back gate which opened, and we crossed the lawn rather furtively as we were still not absolutely sure this was the right place. We went up some steps at the side and discovered the sweeping gravel-covered drive and the main entrance, so all was well.

We were shown into a large dining room in which only one table was occupied. It felt very 70s and there was some tinny bad music playing softly in the background. But the food was great. We went for the 46 euro menu which was three courses plus cheese. To start with AM had pike and pancetta while ACC and I went for poached duck liver with truffles. Then for mains we had young partridge, with a lovely sauce. The cheese trolley was magnificent, and had a great variety of local and other French cheeses, including AM's favourite, Epoisses, and a rather fabulous Delice de Pommard, a mild soft cheese covered in mustard seeds. For pud we had some sort of chocolate thing (I really should have taken notes at the time!) which I don't think was quite as good as the assiette from Ciboulette the night before.

The main topic of conversation during lunch was whether our waiter was English or not. He spoke to us sometimes in English and had a distinctly northern accent, not something you expect from your average Frenchman. He also had his fringe combed forward in the style that was fashionable a few years ago. We came to the conclusion that he must have spent a year or two in Manchester.

As regards wine, ACC had established that the Ermitage did corkage for 10 euros a bottle, so the previous night we'd bought a couple of things in Mon Millesime: a 1992 white Beaune, which was a fabulous golden colour, and really rather wonderful, and a 1990 Volnay Clos des Chenes. It was fantastic to drink mature burgundy in such a setting without having to pay ridiculous prices, and they decanted them for us and, when asked, left them on the table so we could serve ourselves - thereby avoiding the vexed issue of the selective refill which is guaranteed to wind me up!

Afterwards, we walked back to the gite along the main road which took about 15 minutes. Staying in Chorey one has to get a taxi to go anywhere, so this place was a real discovery close to home.

Le Ciboulette, Beaune, 2nd Jan

Although this was my seventh trip to Beaune, I hadn't been to Le Ciboulette before as other things always seemed to intervene, but I'd heard good reports.

After leaving our bags at the gite in Chorey and paying our statutory visit to the Mon Millesime wine shop (speciality: older vintages), AM, ACC and I spent some time walking round Beaune in the freezing cold looking for somewhere to have an aperitif. Memo to self: everything is shut in the first week of Jan, or if it isn't shut, it's full. There was no room even at the less enticing bars on Place Carnot. Eventually we gave up the search and although our table at Ciboulette was booked for 8.00 we turned up at 7.30. There was no problem at all about that as they only have one sitting.

We had a table in the corner by the small bar with a good view of the bottles of marc, prunelle etc. A small lamp on our table reminded me of being in someone's living room. The atmosphere was very cheery with a background hum of contented diners, and the woman who runs the place had that perfect combination of friendliness and efficiency.

Some things that can best be described as black pudding sausage rolls arrived as an amuse-gueule and were gobbled down in a matter of seconds. After that, I had the house terrine which came with a lovely apricot and pistachio chutney, and a slow-cooked pork dish. The food was good but not fancy. For pudding there was almost disaster as AM, ordering for all three of us, requested the "assiette de..." and the waitress completed the sentence for him: "fromage". No! We wanted the assiette de chocolat! Fortunately this misunderstanding was quickly corrected amidst much laughter, the crisis was averted and the assiette de chocolat was superb - a white chocolate mousse, a dark chocolate ice cream, and two other things of a dark chocolatey nature. Mmmm. The three courses cost in the region of 20 euros, so this was an absolute steal.

To drink we had a white Fixin, from a village in the Cotes de Nuits not known for its white wines but this was lovely, and then a 2006 Bourgogne Rouge from Alain Burguet called "Les Pince Vin" which was extremely good - much better than you'd expect from a typical wine at this level. We rounded off with a coffee which was on the house, before repairing to the gite to try the walnut liqueur which ACC had brought back from Bergerac and which AM claimed tasted of curry, but I digress. All in all, I thought Ciboulette was a charming restaurant and I shall insist on going there again next time I'm in Beaune!

Le Train Bleu, Paris, 2nd Jan

Le Train Bleu is a very grand restaurant to be found in the somewhat unlikely location of the Gare de Lyon, Paris. On Saturday, travelling down to Burgundy, AM and I went there for lunch. Having braved the subterranean dystopia of the RER system, we lugged our suitcases up the imposing staircase and through the revolving door. We were shown to the cloakroom where we handed in our bags and coats and tried to keep out of the way of waiters pounding down the red carpet at high speed carrying trays on their shoulders. It felt like being on the hard shoulder of the M1.

Eventually we were shown to our table, which had a gap of approximately 2 inches between it and its neighbour. I had to squeeze through this narrow aperture and nearly sent the other table's carafe of water flying. Once seated, however, things calmed down and we were able to take in the grandeur of our surroundings. It's a very impressive room, full of over-the-top decorations, enormous chandeliers, big windows offering views over the station and the concourse outside, and lots of drapery.

As we only had an hour before the TGV, we opted for just a main course. AM had grilled sea bass with a risotto pancake (not actually anything like a pancake, more a normal cake) and artichoke, while I had roast leg of lamb with a potato gratin made with Fourme d'Ambert, a blue cheese. This and a half bottle of Cotes de Rhone set us back 40 euros each.

There was a real sense of occasion at le Train Bleu, with the food being brought to the table covered with a big silver lid which was then dramatically whisked off. Further preparation - deboning and carving respectively - was done at the table. My lamb was good but the potato gratin was the star of the show, while AM seemed happy with his sea bass.

I did have a couple of gripes - we weren't offered any bread, unlike the tables on either side of us, and at the end it took a while to get the waiter's attention and get the bill. For somewhere so full of bustle, I found this quite surprising. And when we did eventually leave, there was nobody anywhere near the door to say goodbye to. I don't know if these blips in service were because we were 15 minutes later than our reservation, because we were only having one course, because we were English or if I was just being paranoid, which is entirely possible. All in all, I'm glad we went, but I shan't be going back in a hurry. Next time, I'll go for a club sandwich in the Big Ben Bar, and see if the cat's still there.