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!