Dinner at T's, 19th Aug

On Friday night, G and I had the honour of an invitation to T's place in the Barbican to help him out with some items that needed drinking up.

It was a beautiful evening, sunny and warm. I met G outside his office and we wended our way past vast throngs of people clutching pints outside pubs before entering the concrete jungle that is the Barbican. We navigated to T's flat relatively successfully by our standards and found a range of enticing nibbles had been laid out along with a decanter of D'Oliveira's Sercial 1937.

This was a stunning bottle of madeira. It had a sharp, walnutty edge to it, and an overall intensity of flavour that went on for several minutes.

We stood on the balcony which had a great view of the terraces of the Barbican Centre. Fountains were playing on the lakes and there was a spectacular sunset with pink-tinged clouds. T couldn't have picked a better evening.

With dinner, we drank some white and pink Vina Tondonia from 2000 (the white is called Vina Gravonia). I think it's fair to say that the general consensus was that while the white was good and very interesting, the pink is unique and unlike anything else, and generally pretty damned wonderful. I have blogged about it before here.

After dinner came the coup de resistance, a bottle of 1945 Martinez port which T acquired in mysterious circumstances back in the 1960s and had somehow managed to resist drinking ever since. I think G had dropped hints that it probably did need drinking soon...

What I found surprising was how light it was. One tends to expect port to be raisiny and heavy, but this had flavours of caramel and was quite floral - G detected violets. It was very mellow and smooth and appeared not to have suffered from its occasional relocations.

I had to admit, sheepishly, that I'd never heard of Martinez - they're not one of the well-known port shippers like Croft or Taylors. It turns out that in 1960 they were sold to Harvey's of Bristol. However, apparently in 2006, Martinez was bought by the Symingtons who are planning to revitalise it as a brand. We shall see.

At the very end of the evening, T wheeled out this rather fine Cognac from Frapin which I could only manage a small glass of (lightweight) but it was very good, particularly with a salted caramel or seven from the Artisan du Chocolat. How did T know that I have recently developed an addiction to these, as well as to rillettes, which was served earlier in the evening? Spooky!

It was a wonderful evening and it a real privilege to get to drink both the Sercial and the port. Thanks!

SPNS summer dinner, 8th July

A de V has been on an extended break but is now back with a vengeance and with some catching up to do!

Back in July, G organised a Swiss Pinot Noir Society dinner which was held at the Perseverance on Shroton Street just round the corner from Marylebone Station. We'd heard good things about this place from ACC and also the Dos Hermanos blog, and it was felt that a change from the Savile was in order.

It took me longer to walk there than I'd expected, so I was a little hot and bothered when I arrived, but things rapidly improved as I joined ACC and T in the downstairs bar and ordered a Prosecco cocktail from the blackboard of tempting goodies. We also got a bowl of hand-made crinkle-cut crisps, which were excellent. Eventually G turned up which completed the quartet for the evening, as sadly our fellow-members P and D were unable to attend on this occasion.

Suitably restored, we went upstairs to the dining room, which is a beautiful room with lovely Georgian windows facing south down towards the Marylebone Road.

Proceedings commenced with my contribution, a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Rose 1985. I'd been saving this up for a special occasion, and since it was my birthday 3 days later this felt like a good time. I got it at an auction, so there was an element of doubt about whether it would be ok or not. It was!

It was a beautiful dark salmon colour, with slow bubbles. Mature and wonderful. Everybody liked it.


Next up was G's bottle, a 1983 gewurztraminer from Rolly Gassman, which was also well-received. It was medium-sweet and aromatic with lychees and rose on the nose. T also detected citrus peel and ACC noted that it was not "too grandmother's handbag", always a good thing.

Third was ACC's offering, a 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet from Ramonet. I was very excited about this as a) I love red Chassagne, b) I love 2007 and c) I love Ramonet! I raved about it in the Book - wonderful colour, beautiful perfume, lovely mouthfeel, quite velvety. Very sensuous and an excellent expression of pinot noir. T agreed - lovely Burgundy, ACC wrote something boastful which I can't read (except to tell that it's boastful) and G was the sole voice of dissent saying it was "good, but no more than usually sensational". Some people are hard to please. Just look at it!

A quick honorable mention of the food at this point, which was excellent - the menu tends towards the meaty and offally which works for me, and is of the school of proper ingredients not messed about. For my main course I had calves liver which came with potatoes and sage. Mmmm. I'm amazed that I managed to take the time to take a photo of it instead of digging straight in!

Finally, we had Trevor's wine which had a very unusual label. The photo has come out rather blurred, but even in focus it was hard to work out what this was. It described itself as a Vin de France by Pascal Simonutti, who is based in the Loire Valley.

G detected rancio on the nose and found it an acquired taste. Was it really good or really terrible, he asked tactfully? My response was "Jesus Christ!" It was a brown murky colour and I found that it smelled of old socks and/or potting shed - T suggested turps. The palate was consistent with the nose i.e. horrible. All in all, very interesting, but not my cup of tea.

Moving swiftly on, this was an excellent dinner and I have already been back to the Perseverance where I had another wonderful meal and some very keen value vieille prune. This is the sort of pub I wish was just round the corner.