1973 dinner, 21st October

A couple of weeks ago, at the inaugural tasting of the Burgundy Portfolio, a chance conversation revealed that four of us present were born in 1973, and a plan to have a dinner featuring 1973 wines was immediately hatched. Obviously this was an opportunity not to be missed, and so it was that last Friday G and I found ourselves at E's flat where we immediately made the acquaintance of Pinot, a beautiful Bengal cat!

To begin with, E offered us an intriguing-sounding German fizz made from pinot noir by a professor whose name I instantly forgot. I have subsequently learned that it was a Spätburgunder made by Dr Randolf Kauer. It was seriously bubbly and very different from champagne but very enjoyable and refreshing. We had it with some lovely smoked salmon crostini which amazingly, Pinot showed no interest in whatsover. It emerged that he had been fed prawns and rare beef beforehand, a wise precaution on E's part. Also, I mustn't forget to mention the Alsatian cheese and onion tart which N made, which went down very well indeed.

I should point out that 1973 is a notoriously rubbish vintage for wine so it was important to have low expectations. Actually, I have just checked an online vintage chart which suggests that it's not universally bad - white burgundy, Alsace and Champagne all get 8s - but also Ds, i.e. danger that they may be past it.

Which brings us to the first 1973 wine of the evening, an Alsace "Pinot" provided by N, made by Gustave Lorentz, who are still going and have been since 1836 according to their website. There are several types of pinot, both feline and vinous, and these days they are more specific in calling it pinot gris (but they still have the fabulous Gothic script). Sadly, it turned out to be over the hill. It's hard to describe but it was just sort of washed-out and not what you'd expect it to be. A shame, but maybe not a total surprise.

My fingers were firmly crossed when it came to my turn, especially after my disastrous offering the previous evening. I have to confess that I did not have any 1973 in my cellar beforehand, so when this dinner was arranged I went online and got a bottle of Chateauneuf from Chateau de la Gardine from Underwoods, with whom I was not previously familiar, but G told me they were kosher and they seem to have some interesting weird stuff. I was rather thrilled when the bottle arrived, because it was the most amazing strange bulbous shape! I've never seen anything like it.

It turned out to be surprisingly good, to my relief. It reminded us all of old burgundy, which lends credence to the view that back in those days, a lot of burgundy had more than a dollop of Rhone added to it. So that was a good thing.

Time for another photo of Pinot.

With dinner, we drank two premier cru burgundies from 2002 - a Nuits St Georges Les Vaucrains 2002 from Bertrand Ambroise and a Gevrey-Chambertin Estournelles Saint-Jacques from Frédéric Esmonin. They were both at the beginning of their drinking windows and the Gevrey needed time to open up, but were hearty and complex red wines.

Then we moved on to E's 1973, a half bottle of Kreuznacher St Martin Eiswein Trockenbeerenauslese made by Paul Anheuser, who are in the Nahe region of Germany. I have to say this was the wine of the evening. It was amazing, with a concentrated mouth-filling sweetness, but not in the least bit cloying. It's very unusual to get such an old eiswein so this was very exciting.

To round off, we had G's contribution, which was a 1937 Sercial madeira from D'Oliveiras. Bit of a transposition error going on here! I had the privilege to drink this relatively recently when I found it quite sharp and walnutty. Maybe drinking at the end, as opposed to the beginning of the evening made a difference, but this time I found it a bit sweeter. It was still incredibly fine and long.

So here's the final line-up of 1973s and the 1937...

and a final photo of Pinot!

Thanks very much to E for an excellent evening!

SPNS dinner, 20th October

Last Thursday evening saw the Swiss Pinot Noir Society back in its usual venue, the Savile Club in Brook Street. I arrived lugging an unsuitable-for-Mayfair rucksack containing three bottles and the Book, as for some reason I was the designated beast of burden for the day (I can only assume G didn't trust himself to leave his bottles alone during the day).

T and D were waiting in the little room outside the bar, and greeted me with enthusiasm, but this may have been because ACC was in tow with a bottle of cold fizz. We had planned to drink this blind but somehow there was a mix-up with the arrangements - G was not aware of the plan and therefore inadvertently cheated. The rest of us didn't know what it was, however, and when invited to guess the grape I said chardonnay which was correct! It was in fact a blanc de blancs cremant from Domaine Felettig. I found it biscuitty, while D said "yeasty, soft and good". Everyone liked it and a case was swiftly ordered for A de V Towers.

Then we went upstairs for dinner where D provided the first wine was a chardonnay from Hanzell Vineyards in the Sonoma Valley, vintage (wait for it) 1967! Who would have thought such a thing existed, let alone would be pleasurable to drink? It was fascinating, a medium brown colour. I thought it was like a fino sherry on the nose and it had an amazing finish. I'd never have guessed it was a chardonnay.

Next up was another chardonnay, also provided by D, but this time a mere whippersnapper from 2005. Adelsheim Caitlin's Reserve from Willamette Valley in Oregon. This was a much paler colour than the previous wine and reminded some of us of a Meursault, some of a Chassagne. It was very well-balanced, big, fat and generally lovely. D continues to give us the most amazing US wines which we just can't get over here, and I'm very grateful to get the chance to drink them!

I have to apologise for the lack of proper photographic evidence of these wines - it's not quite the done thing to take loads of photos in the middle of a dinner at the Savile, so G took this line-up shot at the end. D's bottles are the two in the middle.

At this point we moved on to reds, beginning with a red Chassagne-Montrachet Les Chaumes 2004 from Domaine Morey-Coffinet provided by T. This went down very well. It had a lovely perfume and for me was quite savoury on the palate, while D detected raspberries. It was generally thought that it was good now, but might be even better in future.

Then it was time for my wine, the long-awaited Chambertin grand cru 1982 from Patriarche which I found in the bin room as described here. I found two bottles in the bin room, one pristine and one with a slightly sticky label. Both had excellent levels. G and I tried the one with the sticky label on an earlier occasion to see how it was, and it was very good, so I saved the second one for this evening. Inevitably, the little bugger was corked. Grrrr. I will try to do better next time...

Moving swiftly on, we had a bottle of G's trusty Moulin a Vent 1976 shipped and bottled by Berry Bros, which he picked up at a recent auction for a song. This has been a lovely wine, with a big raisiny nose. It has clearly been chaptalised but we agreed there's nothing wrong with that. It is smooth and still going strong 35 years on.

The last proper bottle of the evening was also provided by G, and was a 1926 Solera Tarragona Garnacha from De Muller. This was a bit of an unknown quantity beforehand, but turned out to be a lovely sweet wine, with an unctuous mouthfeel and dried prunes and figs on the palate. T was the only one of the group who didn't like it, saying it reminded him of "chicken ruined by tarragon". Tchah!

T got his own back by wheeling out a bottle of elderflower wine from Lurgashall Winery. He'd been threatening to inflict this on us all day and it seemed there was no escape. We drank it outside on the terrace at the end of the evening. No notes were made at this late stage of the evening but it reminded me of the time I used to be quite keen on Lurgashalls' mead, which in my defence was about 20 years ago. The elderflower wine wasn't everyone's cup of tea but was greatly improved by the addition of gin. I don't think it was quite as nasty as either the Israeli pomegranate wine or the Red Biddy so the search continues for something truly revolting to trump them.

All in all, another excellent evening and some really interesting wines - thanks to all.

Italy, home again, and an exciting new venture

A couple of weeks ago I went on a jaunt to Italy for a week, on a conservation holiday organised by BTCV. We stayed in a cottage in the grounds of Villa Piancini near Spoleto in Umbria, a beautiful spot, and inbetween the hedge-trimming, digging and wheelbarrowing I was looking forward to getting a chance to try the local vino.

In the cottage we mainly drank Montepulciano out of enormous demijohns, which served its purpose, but on our last night we were taken into Spoleto for dinner and a look round a delicatessen. This proved to be a treasure trove of Umbrian delights, including some very ancient-looking cheese, and a tasting of various types of truffle (including the rare white truffle) pastes and mushroom paste which were sensational. They had lots of exciting-looking wines too, and I was keen to go back afterwards and buy some, but sadly the opportunity had passed, damn it. The restaurant across the road reminded me of old favourite Caves Madeleine in Beaune, as they had wine on shelves on the walls behind us and several times we had to pull our chairs in so that a bottle could be reached. We sat at a long table and seemingly never-ending plates of salami, cheese and bruschetta were wheeled out, along with delightful red wine jelly and white wine jelly. To drink, we had a white which was very nice but I failed to make a note of its name, and then a Montefalco made by Scacciadiavoli which was sensational - powerful and subtle and reminding me of good claret. It was a really enjoyable, convivial evening.

I therefore picked up a bottle of Montefalco while at Rome airport to try at home. We had it the other night, and while it wasn't quite as good as I remembered the Scacciadiavoli version, it did share some characteristics, particularly a sort of tobacco/tarry thing going on. Very different from Burgundy, a bit of a monster at 14%, but good with red meat.

I'm still kicking myself for not getting some Tignanello grappa while I had the chance. There's only one thing for it - I'll have to go back.

Back to Burgundy: one night last week G kindly contributed a bottle of Nuits St Georges Les Chaliots 2007 from Felettig. This had the most wonderful nose - I wrote "heaven in a glass". Black cherries and dark chocolate. On the palate it was a little chewy and savoury, G said sinewy. There seemed to be a bit of a mismatch with the nose and we decided it needed more time to knit together. It did get better over time, which would suggest that 90 min in the decanter might have helped, but the conclusion was that we needed to leave it for 3 years. I'm quite surprised, as most of the 2007s are drinking now, but I'm sure this will be worth the wait.

And finally, an exciting new venture - ACC has set up a new company called the Burgundy Portfolio! I was delighted to attend his inaugural tasting last week and it was good to see some familiar faces and some wines from new producers. Highlights for me were the Bourgogne Blanc from Domaine Terres de Velle, the 2004 Pierre Jamain Blancs de Blancs vintage champagne, the 2009 Bourgogne Grande Ordinaire from Domaine Guy Castagnier and the Chambolle-Musigny 1er cru Les Combottes from Felettig which is an old friend.

But the jewel in the crown was the 2008 Beaune from Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot. Once again this showed Giboulot's deft hand and it was a beautiful, delicate, soft and ethereal wine. Everything I'm looking for in a Cote de Beaune red. It was fabulous and I immediately snapped up a case and raved about it to anyone who would listen. At £25.65 (a special offer for those attending the tasting) I thought this was very reasonable value. I wish the Burgundy Portfolio all the best and am looking forward to the next tasting in a couple of week's time!