SPNS dinner, 13th May

Last Friday saw the return of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. It was a glorious evening and we sat outside in the courtyard of the Savile where T instigated proceedings by producing a pink fizz and challenging the rest of us to guess what it was. The last time T produced a bottle of pink fizz, it was from Bulgaria and tasted like paracetamol. This time, fortunately, it did not.

We came up with a wide range of possibilities but it hadn't occurred to any of us that it might actually be, in fact, Swiss Pinot Noir. It was Mauler Tradition Rose to be precise but sadly I do not have a photo of the bottle as we left it downstairs. Apparently it also included cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, if I have deciphered the spidery handwriting in the Book correctly. Comments ranged from "Taste of strawberries and complex from all the different grapes" to "Great mouthwash". I felt the latter was harsh. It was a perfectly agreeable aperitif and the fact that we all necked a second bottle without any complaints confirms that.

Then it was upstairs for dinner where I produced a bottle of Domaine Leflaive Bourgogne Blanc 2007. This particular bottle did not show as well as it usually does and left some of us slightly disappointed. I also wonder if failure to decant and the use of extremely small wine glasses (as opposed to my usual Riedels ahem), may have made an impact. Oh well!

Next up was a Californian Mountain Barbera 1968 from Louis M Martin provided by D. I found this big and powerful with dried fruits. It had survived very well considering it was 43 years old. G thought it was "genuinely unusual and excellent" and the other comments in the book were also favourable. At the end of the evening I sneakily took some photos on my phone and it's the one on the right.

Then we had a Confradeiro Douro Riserva 2000 from Sandeman, provided by G. This was a lovely drop too - again big, fruity and rich. I felt it was a crowd-pleaser. T described it as thick and gooey which I believe are terms of high praise coming from him. Some felt it was still on the young side.

After that, D kindly produced a second bottle, but this time something very different: a Sheldrake Point 2007 Barrel Reserve Finger Lakes Cabernet Franc. I'm not a particular fan of cabernet franc but this made me reconsider - it was harmonious and drinkable, a lovely wine. P thought it was the most exciting wine of the evening (so far) and T who was clearly incoherent by this stage simply said "Words fail me. Fantastic!"

We moved on to a sweet wine but somehow the Savile had managed to lose P's bottle (hope it turns up again!) so he opted for a Chateau Doisy-Vedrines 1996 from the wine list. G detected lemon and pineapple on the nose and I think the general verdict was that this was decent sauternes but didn't offer any surprises. Apparently it went well with P's treacle tart!

And finally, it was on to the wine I had been looking forward to for several months, ACC's "Yates's Red Biddy". Some stragglers had fallen by the wayside by this point or been nobbled by an extremely boring man with a repetitive anecdote. How they missed out... In fact this was not wine but was described on the bottle as "Australian Red Wine Blended with Grape Brandy".

G said it was the second worst wine ever produced for an SPNS dinner, after the Israeli pomegranate wine we had some while back, while ACC opined that it was best of show and possibly even better than Lafite or Latour! I wrote "Sensational! Remarkable! Wow!" which I felt tactfully failed to answer the question of whether it was good or bad. Shortly afterwards everyone made their excuses so I was left to take the bottle home with me to inflict on Baron McG on Sunday... Strangely, there is still some left!

All in all, a great evening and a wonderful range of wines.