Two very special sherries from Gonzalez Byass

I was delighted to be given these two sherries as a Christmas present from my father - thanks Dad! They are very rare special edition wines from Gonzalez Byass, and came from the Wine Society. The WS have now sold out but I see that some other wine merchants, such as Berry Bros, are selling them too.

Apparently the palma is a chalk mark added to each sherry cask. The more strokes, the older and more mature the sherry. I had the Dos Palmas and the Cuatro Palmas - the number of strokes is shown on the round label on the bottles. The bottles are 50cl and the clear glass works really well, showing off the beautiful colours of the sherry inside. The label has the bottling date printed on it and they are supposed to be drunk within 6 months of bottling, not that that was ever likely to be a problem round these parts.

The Dos Palmas is around 8 years old. According to the Gonazalez Byass website, it's made from casks that still contain a film of flor. I had some at home with my parents, and some with G. It's definitely the best fino I've had. It was a lovely golden colour and tasted very sharp, fresh, pungent and bracing, like a walk by the sea on a cold day. A brilliant aperitif which went extremely well with a dish of olives. "Genuinely excellent" said G.

It was fascinating to try the Cuatro Palmas, which comes from just 6 casks and is around 45 years old. Apparently technically it's an amontillado rather than a fino, as the flor has started to die off. This was a beautiful amber colour and reminded me of a Sercial Madeira. Again, it was bone dry, but much more nutty and richer on the palate, with a lingering finish.

We had some on Thursday just after the Dos Palmas, and finished it off yesterday when we thought it showed better. Was this a) because it improved overnight, b) because it suffered from being tasted after the Dos Palmas or c) because we had it with some mixed nuts, which complemented it perfectly? We'll probably never know, as I'm unlikely to drink it again. It was wonderful, but the Dos Palmas definitely had the edge in terms of value for money, being about 1/3 of the price. These were both really interesting wines and now I'll have to consider whether to attempt to get hold of Una and Tres Palmas in due course, to collect the set!

William Pickering 20 year old tawny port

Around this time last year I found myself getting interested in tawny port and wrote this piece about Quinta Santa Eufemia 20 year old which G brought back from Portugal. This year sadly he has not provided any such goodies, except the benefit of his advice that Berry Bros' William Pickering 20 year old was worth a look. I therefore took the plunge and ordered a bottle.


The William Pickering is made by Quinta do Noval, and coincidentally just before placing my order from BBR, I had succumbed to a bottle of the Quinta do Noval 10 year old tawny which Waitrose had on special offer, so it was down from about £18 to about £15. I didn't directly compare the two, but I did have them on subsequent evenings and can confirm that the William Pickering was streets ahead of the 10 year old. It had delicious and complex dried fruits, but was not too sweet, and I found it very much to my taste. Just the ticket on a cold December evening. G commented that it is "laughably underpriced" and I have to agree it is a bargain at £26.95 or a mere £24.25 if you buy six.

By comparison, Taylors 20 year old is going for around £35 a bottle or £22.80 on the Waitrose website which looks deeply suspicious to me - maybe it's a half bottle and they just haven't said so.

Three meals out...

I’ve been eating out a lot lately and was interested to read John Lanchester’s article in the Guardian last week about how the London restaurant trade seems to be a self-contained bubble, and it’s still really hard to get into the good places. This is certainly my own experience.

First up, the Riding House Café. A bit of a misnomer in my view, as it’s not exactly a café, but we’ll put that to one side. This place was very buzzy on a Saturday night, and the tangerine seats were certainly lively. I was impressed by the large windows which look as though they may date back to the 1930s and give the place a very open feeling. They do “small plates” instead of starters – I think the idea is to share, but I selfishly kept all mine to myself, as it was very small. I actually mistook it for a small bowl of relish to accompany the main event, before realising it was the actual starter. The food was very good but the pre-prandial martini was a little on the watery side. A return visit would be in order for further exploration, and it has the advantage of being in Fitzrovia i.e. within walking distance for me.


Second, Chabrot, Bistrot d'Amis. This is a French place in Knightsbridge and wasn't previously on my radar, but we went there to celebrate a historic birthday last Sunday. I memorised where it was, rather than bringing a map, and envisaged Knightsbridge Green as a leafy, green square, but after wandering round the area for 20 minutes we eventually came to a seedy alley bearing that name. Perhaps it was a combination of drizzle and building works that made it so unappealing. There was nothing seedy about the restaurant itself though. We were in the upstairs room which had a long table with a cheery red and white tablecloth. ACC provided the wines en magnum and O has kindly allowed me to use her photo of them – much more arty than my efforts! The Y was particularly exciting. This is the incredibly rare dry white wine made by Chateau d’Yquem. It smelled like a sweet wine but was dry on the palate and very complex and fascinating, a real treat.

And finally, to the Hawksmoor Guildhall which is the latest in what seems to be becoming a chain. It’s quite similar to the Hawksmoor Seven Dials as it’s in a basement – you go down the stairs to a bar and beyond that is a very large and noisy room full of City types scoffing steaks. On a Monday night they charge £5 corkage so we took them up on that offer, as I'd say 99% of the other people there were doing, and a very good deal it was too. We had a large piece of beef to share and I was finally able to work out the difference between the triple-cooked chips and the beef dripping chips, as we had a horizontal tasting! The former are chip-shaped while the latter are more like mini roast potatoes. Both are excellent in their own way but the consensus was that the beef dripping chips have the edge. Essential info to be stored away for future reference. The marmalade pudding also deserves a mention, and went very well with T’s Chateau Guiraud.

I guess the diet starts on Monday!

And now for something a little bit different

A few weeks ago I was placing an order from the Wine Society, the core items of which consisted of Blackwoods vintage gin (not for me for once!) and the very fine Viejo Oloroso Dulce, pictured, which continues to be the single best reason for being a member of the WS, in my opinion. When it's cold outside a glass of this really hits the spot. It's not in the league of vintage Madeira, but at £10.95 a bottle, it's excellent value for money.

To top up the order to the free delivery level (a mere £75, favourable compared to many other wine merchants) I added a couple of things that had caught my eye.

First, this Ramisco 2005 from Colares in Portugal. Apparently this area is on the southwestern Atlantic coast, with vineyards protected from the ocean winds by sand dunes. The region is known for its deep colored, full bodied red wines with high levels of tannin. We thought it was fruity, approachable, soft and mature, so clearly the age had mellowed those fearsome tannins! Furthermore, it claimed to be only 12.5% in alcohol which is good news in my book. I wouldn't have guessed it was so low. This was classy booze and I would get some more, except the WS seems to have sold out now as I can no longer find it on their website. Nor can I remember how much it was... oops. Somewhere between £15 and £20 I think, and worth it.

Secondly, the other night we had this La Grenouillère Negrette, Vin de Pays de Vendée, 2009. This was £11.95 and from the Loire, a region whose reds I often find rather thin, green and stemmy (Chinon in particular), but this did not fall into that category. We enjoyed it but found it hard to think of anything much to say about it. It was a juicy red and went down nicely, but didn't have any particular wow factor so I doubt whether I'll be buying it again.

And finally, this 1985 Bonnezeaux from Domaine la Croix de Mission which G picked up at a recent auction. This was excellent. It was a beautiful golden colour, floral on the nose and medium sweet with good acidity on the palate. It reminded G of Alsace and me of Vouvray. We had it with lemon tart which was a great combo. He got a case of it and at the time I wondered if we really needed a case of sweet wine, but actually this was a fantastic buy and I'm looking forward to drinking more in the near future (hint, hint)!