Best of the Best, 19th December

A few years ago, ACC's Christmas wine tasting became an annual highlight, and many rare and wonderful wines were consumed. It's quite an eye-opener to go back and look at the gems we drank and laugh at the prices back then.

This year N kindly offered to host an informal gathering and six of us got together at his house, each contributing a top bottle from his or her cellar. This promised to be a very interesting occasion and I stayed sober at my office Christmas lunch the day before - the sacrifice! - to ensure that I was in tip-top condition and fully able to appreciate what was on offer.

G provided the first wine, a Salon 1996 champagne. This wasn't the sort of meal where one made detailed tasting notes so I'm working from memory. It had come on a long way from the previous time we tried it in around 2008 when notoriously we failed to identify it in a blind tasting line-up of about 15 various fizzes. This time it was mature and wonderful.

H provided the still white, this Chateau-Grillet 2008 from the Rhone. I wasn't previously familiar with this wine but found it fascinating, unusual and delicious. It seemed ready to drink and I'd never have guessed it was only 4 years old. Memo to self: look into white Rhone, as I have very happy memories of Mule Blanche which we used to drink at the Elizabeth restaurant in Oxford.

ACC provided the first of the reds - a 1959 Santenay 1er Cru Comme from Domaine des Hautes-Cornieres. This was a revelation. Before it was opened I wondered if it might be over the hill but it confirmed that 1959 was one of the great vintages for Burgundy. It had so much going on - it was a lively colour and had a nose of tinned strawberries - but faded within the hour as you'd expect. So, that was the summer of '59, a song by Bruce Springsteen according to ACC. Hmm.

I provided the second red of the evening - a 1969 Chateau Latour. Latour is my favourite claret - I love its rich and powerful cabernet sauvignon style - but I might not have chosen this vintage had I read Michael Broadbent who apparently says it's terrible. Fortunately it seems that he tasted it some time ago, and as with the 1978 clarets, it may have been awful 20 years ago but now it's drinking well and the verdict was positive. Phew! Sometimes it pays not to do your homework.

An extra photo to show the dreadful glue-banding on the label.

The sweet wine was provided by O (as were some cakes from Ladurée which went down a treat). This was a Chateau Rieussec 1998. It was a beautiful golden colour, extraordinarily botrytised and quite shockingly sweet. Nectar but type II diabetes in a bottle. One small glass only. Well, maybe one and a half...

The last wine of the evening was provided by N and was a 1966 Taylors port. He told us that this was laid down by his grandfather and hadn't moved until it was brought down to London for this tasting. So this was about as perfect a bottle of port as you could get. It was very fine and classic and G considered it his wine of the evening. I didn't have a wine of the evening, as I found it too difficult to compare such different things, and they were all excellent examples of their type.

Here's a photo of the cork which was in excellent condition.

And finally, the complete line-up. What a great range of lovely things. Thanks to everyone involved and particularly to N for hosting. We must do it again next year!

Lunch at A de V Towers, 18th November

Last Sunday, ACC and G came round to my place for lunch. We kicked off with a terrine of lapin from Beillevaire, apparently made by the people who provide their eggs, which are truly excellent. I didn't take a photo of the terrine as it wasn't very photogenic, but it tasted all right and went well with toasted date and walnut bread. To drink, G provided this Riesling Auslese 2005 which one knew would be good just by looking at the terrible label. It was a lovely colour, quite sweet and grapey, tingly and delicious and with a great finish.

Next was a real treat, a Chablis 1er cru 2004 Montee de Tonnere from Domaine Francois Raveneau, provided by ACC. When he gave it to me on arrival the only part of the bottle visible was a yellow wax capsule which was highly promising. I was delighted when I saw what it was.  I've only had Raveneau once before but it immediately went into the pantheon of great Burgundy producers whose names begin with R. It seemed very dry after the Riesling and was tres Chablis, with that classic mineral quality, an amazing purity and no oak. There was some discussion about the wax seal - apparently wines age more slowly under wax as no oxygen can get in.

To go with this, G constructed a very fine chicken salad. Move over, Ottolenghi!

For the cheese course, we had a baked Vacherin Mont d'Or also from Beillevaire, served with a baguette. When buying it, I checked with Cheese Girl whether it was acceptable to bake it and she confirmed that indeed it was, and that the shop had recently had a baked Vacherin night and they nearly managed to set fire to the place. Sounds like a good evening. This is what it looked like before it went in the oven.

Alongside this we drank a Beaune 1er cru 2005 Les Tuvilains from Bertrand Ambroise. I bought this several years ago and it had been stashed away in G's cellar at the parental home for a while. It was big, fruity and quite sweet - not very Beaune at all and lacking elegance. Ambroise is based in Nuits-St-Georges so this probably had something to do with it. We did enjoy it, but it was marked down for not being typique and scored an 8.

Coffee was served and we got down to planning future events and our trip to Burgundy for New Year. I'm really looking forward to it!

Bits and pieces, 17th November

Random recent drinking round-up...

First, this 2007 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clavoillon from Domaine Leflaive. Hilariously tasteful music on their website by the way! I found it in Adnams on Store Street and it had been reduced from *consults hazy memory* approx £68 to approx £57. Still an expensive bottle but I do like their Bourgogne Blanc very much and decided to find out whether this was worth the premium. It had a lovely texture and was scintillating, quite rich for a Puligny, all round classy booze. But we felt it only rated a 9, and that it was arguably about 25% better than the Bourgogne. We're on the exponential curve of quality v. price. I'm glad I tried it but won't be rushing to get any more.

Last night I cracked a bottle of red Chassagne-Montrachet 2008 from Domaine de la Choupette. I have a case of this sitting in the corner of my flat and last time we tried it, about a year ago, it was disappointing. I should really have paid more attention when we visited the domaine back in January last year, as we were told very clearly that these wines take 4-5 years to come round, which indeed turns out to be the case.

I decanted it for about an hour and a half before serving and the nose boded well. It was absolutely lovely - soft and elegant with black cherry flavours - and went down a treat with our Ginger Pig sausages. This domaine is now a firm favourite and I can't wait to try their white Chassagne in due course. They will be at the Burgundy Portfolio 2011 en primeur tasting on 8th January which should be great.

For the cheese course, we had Battle of the Enormous Cheeses - another wonderful Pouligny St Pierre from Beillevaire in Montpelier Street, and a huge hunk of parmesan which I got from "Save a Cheese". This is what happens when I listen to too many Monocle podcasts. It's a cheese rescued from the earthquake-stricken warehouses of the Emilia-Romana region of Italy. A little rough around the edges but tastes amazing.

And finally, a new range of goodies. I was fortunate enough to infiltrate a special shopping evening at Fortnums on Thursday and came away with some Elvas plums and some Pruneaux d'Agen Fourrés. And earlier in the week, my brother and sister-in-law very kindly gave me some dark Swiss pralines as a present for feeding their cats while they were away at the weekend.  Here you can see G has constructed a lovely assiette consisting of an Elvas plum, a prune, a praline and another prune. We subsequently scoffed another praline each as they were so damn good. Somehow I doubt whether any of the boxes will last till Christmas.

La Maison Romane dinner, 1st November

This dinner, arranged by ACC of the Burgundy Portfolio, was held a week ago last Thursday at the Cavalry and Guards club on Piccadilly.

I identified the building by the gaggle of tall young men in black tie hanging around outside and made my way up the impressive staircase behind some of the same chaps - fortunately they were going to a different event otherwise I'd have been seriously underdressed! As it was, I committed a major faux pas by not leaving my coat downstairs, and probably won't be allowed back.

It's a very posh club, and we had a private room where a table was laid for 14. There was a distinct horse motif to the room which was no coincidence. La Maison Romane is based in Vosne-Romanee and run by Oronce de Beler whose USP that he uses a horse, Prosper, to plough various vineyards and then receives payment in kind in the form of grapes. There's a certain secrecy as to whose vineyards these grapes are from but anyone who takes the trouble to get a horse in is someone who goes beyond the usual attention to detail in their winemaking, so this is good stuff.

The above photo is from la Maison Romane's website and stealing from the blurb for the dinner, a quote from Oronce: “Our vigneron-suppliers deal freely with their vines, but all chemical treatments are excluded as we prefer maintaining the vineyards by horse-pulled ploughing. Our chosen vineyards are mostly biodynamic, too. All the grapes are hand-picked and thanks to a contract with the vigneron-suppliers, we harvest the very same rows of vines that we work on throughout the year. The whole bunch (including mature stems) is then sorted by hand again in the fermenting room so that only the finest grapes are pressed. The wines are then aged in old Tronçay forest oak barrels for between 15 and 19 months. The wines develop according to the lunar cycle and are then hand-bottled by gravity. All these methods allow us to get the very best final product.”

En aperitif, I was given a glass of lovely-looking golden liquid which got my senses tingling right away. It was rich and intriguing yet bone dry on the finish. I assumed it was something from the Cote d'Or so was taken aback to find that it was actually a Pouilly-Fume 2008 from the Loire. Really quite remarkable.

After that, we sat down for the meal and I was lucky enough to be seated next to Paul who works at the domaine with Oronce and was there to talk us through the wines. So I was able to get the low-down straight from the horse's mouth, groan. His English was excellent which was a relief as I had things I wanted to ask - most of all, what does the horse do that a tractor doesn't? He told me that the horse doesn't compress the soil and so leaves more air in it for the various micro-organisms to thrive. Also, the chap behind the horse, who controls the plough, can see what he's doing much better than someone in a tractor could.

With the starter, a wild mushroom parfait, we had some 2008 Chablis 1er cru les Montmains and some 2010 Macon Rouge. The 2010 vintage of the Chablis was the big star of the Burgundy Portfolio's January en primeur tasting, and I treated myself to a case which is still in bond waiting for me to get my greedy paws on it. The 2008 was reassuringly good. It was difficult to make tasting notes so apologies if my comments are on the vague side, but this was tres Chablis and went down a storm.

It was also difficult to take photos, since one wished to be civilised and not sit there snapping away like an irritating bloggeuse, so G surreptitiously took some at the end which is why all the bottles appear to be levitating.

Paul described the red Macon as being halfway between a Beaujolais and a Burgundy. It's made from gamay, but had greater depth than your average Beaujolais. G and I had a red Macon quite recently which didn't wow us and I felt that this wine was overshadowed by the rest on offer.

With the main course, a partridge wellington, we had two reds side by side: the Pommard 1er cru L'Argillieres 2008, and the Corton Grand Cru Les Perrieres 2009. The Pommard was full of expressive terroir and I found it powerful and earthy. Paul thought it was showing particularly well.

The Corton took things to another level. It had what can only be described as an unusual nose - definitely not for the faint-hearted with a whiff of the farmyard, sous-bois and something a bit animal going on. On the palate, it was silky and complex - a wine to drink slowly and take seriously. I was advised by ACC to buy some back when it was en primeur and am delighted that I did. I won't rush to get it out though - it was drinking but will probably improve over the next few years.

Finally, with the cheese course, we had the two Star Terre (starter = entry level, ho ho) wines - a syrah and a grenache. In the past I've loved the syrah and not really liked the grenache, no disrespect to the domaine but just a grape preference. On this occasion it appeared to be the other way round which was perplexing but the mystery was solved when we found that our waiter had poured them the wrong way round. Whether this was true for everyone present I'm not sure. There was less to choose between them than there has been in the past, and some present - not naming names - decided to make their own mixed Rhone by combining the two. Disgraceful behaviour!

Paul mentioned in passing that the Scandinavians are very fond of the domaine's white wines, while the Italians and Spanish go for the red. Further questioning revealed that the Chablis is on the wine list at Noma, while some of the reds are on the wine list at a top Spanish restaurant whose name I didn't catch.This is a cult domaine and the stuff isn't cheap, but it's a privilege to drink it. An amazing evening!

SPNS dinner, 18th Oct

Fresh as a daisy from the Perrin dinner the night before, it was straight down to the Savile Club on Thursday evening for the next gathering of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. On this occasion there were just four of us as sadly ACC had fallen by the wayside and P was AWOL. 

I took off my coat and made my way to the bar overflow area where T, D and G were cheerfully installed and appeared already to have scoffed the best part of a bottle of pink port. Being a perfect gentleman, T lost no time in pouring me a tumbler of the stuff on the rocks. I'd known in advance that he was bringing a fortified rose wine and had been intrigued but had never for one moment realised it would be a port - Offley's Rose Porto to be precise. T exhorted us to imagine that we were "somewhere south of Slough" by which I think he meant some hot, exotic country relaxing under the palm trees. It went down a treat - the ice chilled it down so it wasn't too sweet but remarkably refreshing and certainly something I'd consider buying again. Available in your local 'Trose for a bargain £9.99. Brilliant SPNS fare.

As usual, however, D out-weirded us all by bringing along a Japanese fizz with the moniker "Niagara Sparkling" which he got in Japan. Strangely this one doesn't seem to be available in my local supermarket. It had a remarkable nose - the others got lychees but for me there was a chemical note that belonged in a potting shed or garage, and it took me ages to work out what it was. We decided it wasn't nail polish remover but might be diesel or kerosene. On further reflection I have a feeling it might have been firelighters. Anyway, I found the palate more enjoyable and it reminded me of a sparkling Vouvray. Fascinating stuff.

My contibution paled by comparison. This was Mouratus, a white pinot noir from the Loire, made by J Mourat, which came from the Wine Society. It was the 2010 vintage. I've never had a still white wine made from pinot noir so thought it would be interesting. Sadly, it wasn't - it was bland and had no finish. We all agreed that it was disappointing and would have been better with bubbles. 

Then we moved on to G's red, Amorino 2005 from Podere Castorani, which he got from Avery's of Bristol. This claimed to be 13.5% alcohol but seemed to me to be closer to 14.5%. It was an "international" wine in the sense of being big and powerful but without much local character. It was approachable but I found I got rapidly diminishing returns. The comments of the others were generally favourable (apart from T's which seemed to be all about his delicious marinaded ox cheeks), but I suspect ACC would have hated it.

Finally, G had taken the liberty of bringing along some of my Pacherenc de Vic Bilh, Saint-Albert, 1999. I brought a bottle of this to the previous SPNS dinner and it had turned out to be corked. This additional bottle had been lurking in G's flat so I hadn't realised I still had any left. Fortunately this one turned out to be ok and everyone seemed to enjoy it, the consensus being that it was not too sweet. Not a "great" wine but pleasurable and excellent value, and at 50cl the perfect size to round things off.

I stole a photo of the Savile dining room as we were leaving - a remarkable setting in which to have dinner! Then we went back downstairs for grappa, coffee and further conversation. Another great evening.

Domaine Marie-Christine & Vincent Perrin dinner, 17th Oct

Last Wednesday I attended this dinner held at the Perseverance just off Lisson Grove, held under the auspices of the Burgundy Portfolio. Also there were my brother and sister-in-law, G, Baron McG and a number of other familiar faces. ACC was our host and Vincent Perrin himself was there to talk about the wines.

I've visited this domaine twice, in January 2010 (notes here) and in January 2011 (notes here) and have always liked the house style which is elegant and allows the terroir to express itself.

We started with a glass of the white Saint-Romain "Combe Bazin" from 2010 which was very enjoyable and still had that floral quality which I liked about the 2008.

Some gougeres appeared but didn't hang around for long. Top marks to my sister-in-law for comparing them unfavourably with mine, admittedly mainly on grounds of size.

Then we sat down and got on with the main business of the evening. With a starter of wood pigeon and chicken liver terrine, we had two village Volnays - the 2010 Cuvee Marie and the 1999.

There was a clear colour differentiation - assuming I had my glasses the right way round, the 2010 is on the left and the 1999 on the right. I found the 2010 hard to judge at this stage as it's still very young. The 1999 had, as you'd expect, much softer tannins, a velvety textrure and a hint of tinned strawberries. The second bottle of it (there were 14 of us so two bottles of each wine were consumed) seemed to have dried figs and raisins on the nose and was very ripe, suggesting a certain amount of bottle variation.

The next pair of wines, drunk with the main course, were this 2008 Volnay 1er cru La Carelle Sous la Chapelle and a 1998 Volnay 1er cru Les Gigottes, which is a monopole ("not to be confused with a monopoly" said ACC) and therefore of great interest from the perspective of the Premier Cru Project.

The Carelle was very smooth and those at my end of the table detected redcurrants. But for me, the Gigottes was the winner of this bout with its cedary nose and black fruit flavours that reminded me of the kind of claret I love - hopefully I won't be excommunicated from future Burgundy Portfolio events for saying that. I succumbed to temptation and ordered some the next day.

Notice also the change in label style. 1445 refers to the date when the Perrin family began making wine in Volnay. Vincent is clearly a moderniser with his new bold typeface.

I really do enjoy the food at the Perseverance and this evening was no exception - the main course was roast venison with red cabbage, parsnips, port and juniper.

Finally, with the cheese course, we compared a 1999 Volnay 1er Cru les Gigottes (monopole) with a 1999 Pommard "Chanlains". I found this Gigottes quite intense and brooding and on balance felt that I preferred the 1998. The Pommard had notes of liquorice, dried currants and fruit cake. G really liked it and went for some, while I already have some of the 2010 tucked away so it will be interesting to compare them in due course.

The cheese course consisted of an extraordinary chunk of ripe Stinking Bishop servied with oatcakes and chutney. Baron McG, connoisseur du fromage, commented that Stinking Bishop must be "twinned with Epoisses". There was certainly quite a resemblance, no bad thing.

All in all, a good time was had and it was fascinating to compare the young and the old and drink them as they're intended to be drunk, i.e. with robust food. Thanks to ACC for organising and to Vincent Perrin for making these lovely wines.

Miscellaneous autumnal ramblings

No particular theme this week but another catch-up on bits and pieces.

New sherry alert! I came across this in Waitrose and it immediately jumped out at me due to the resemblance to the wonderful sherries Dad gave me for Christmas last year (see here). It's made by Gonzalez-Byass and is called Delicado. It's a limited edition fino and someone more conscientious than me has reviewed it properly here. It's £13.99 for a 50cl bottle which is an excellent size in my opinion, allowing generous portions for two over two evenings. Quite expensive for a fino but we felt this was worth it so I'll be back for more in due course if it's still there.

While on the subject of aperitifs, at long last the Ali Boit Boit et les 40 Buveurs has shipped, just in time for winter! Never mind - we didn't have much of a summer anyway. This is a wine I first tried back at the beginning of the year. It's made by Agnes Paquet (NB viticultrice) and is a sparkler, a 50/50 mixture of Aligote and Chardonnay. There's some technical stuff on her website here about how exactly it's made, and I'm not sure if it's technically a cremant de bourgogne or not, but the take-home point is that it's just 8% alcohol. I don't think I would have guessed this if I didn't know already, but it certainly is quite light in style and I'm very happy with it. The fact that it comes with a crown cap makes it even more perfect for quaffing on a park bench.

We've continued to drink up G's haul of old Hugels and very pleasant they have been too.

This Bourgogne Rouge 1998 from Domaine Maume, which is based in Gevrey-Chambertin, also arrived and was fascinating. It was lighter and more acidic than I expected, almost piquant. Looking forward to drinking the rest of it.

After my disastrous adventures in cider the other week, I read an article in the Grauniad about perry which encouraged me to try the stuff. We had Henry Westons 2010 vintage against Waitrose 2011 vintage. Both were dry and relatively strong but the Henry Westons beat the Waitrose in my opinion. The Henry Weston cider wasn't bad either, so now I know what to go for in future.

Adventures in cooking: I found that the East London Steak Co, which I use as an occasional alternative to the Ginger Pig, sell legs of mutton, so I got some and did it in the slow cooker.

G made his "signature" biryani with the leftovers, which was excellent, as the mutton was less fatty than lamb.

Last week my boss brought back some quinces from his country estate so after several days had passed with me looking at them and them looking at me, eventually I found a Nigel Slater recipe (here) and after reading his column out loud in a fey voice as per tradition, we cooked them. They were amazing. I shall now have to drop some hints that I'd like some more...

Today I attempted to make granola cupcakes. These consist of flaked almonds, dessicated coconut, chopped up unsulphured dried apricots, butter and honey. Unfortunately they fell apart as I took them out of the tin so it's back to the drawing board - but they taste bloody delicious.

Normal service will be resumed this week as I have two dinners out in a row - a Vincent Perrin tasting and the next SPNS dinner. Tickets have also been booked for the New Year outing to Burgundy. So lots to look forward to!

Embarras de Sauternes luncheon, Sun 30 Sept

Last Sunday, G and I travelled to Windsor to visit T in his new abode and help him and a couple of other friends drink some of his stash of Sauternes. The goodies that awaited us more than made up for the complicated journey to get there - it's not often you get to drink five Sauternes at a sitting! G made notes which meant I didn't. Now I have nothing to refer to except my memory and the photos I took, so details may be a little sketchy.

First up was this Chateau de Fargues 2003 en demi. I've rated this chateau in the past and I remember a tasting I attended in Oxford years ago where we drank Yquem against Fargues and I came away with the distinct impression that I preferred the Fargues, particularly considering the price differential. As a welcoming drink it was very enjoyable but on further reflection we felt that it was a little low in acidity. 2003 was a very hot year so perhaps this had something to do with it. T has quite a stash of the stuff so maybe it should be tucked away for a bit to see if it gets better with age.

Next was this Chateau Lafaurie-Peyraguey 1996 which I'd never heard of, and I don't think I was the only one. We speculated that the difficult-to-pronounce name might be the reason it's not well-known in the UK. It was distinctly darker in colour than the other wines but I think the general consensus was that it was not one of the top-end Sauternes.

After that we had this Chateau Myrat 2007. Again I wasn't familiar with this chateau. I enjoyed it but the feeling was that this wasn't great Sauternes, by which I mean that both of these two were lacking complexity and also had relatively short finishes.

We got on to the good stuff at last with this Chateau Rieussec 2000. This was proper Sauternes with botrytis flavours - really lovely.

And finally, Chateau Guiraud 2002. Again this was clearly the real deal and T's favourite of the tasting. I'll beg to differ and go for the Rieussec instead. Arguably they were neck and neck, both fantastic.

To go with the Sauternes, T provided a wonderful buffet of epic proportions and G and I brought along a magnum of Yves Darviot's Beaune Greves 2005 which sadly didn't show very well. I have a number of theories as to why this could have been but probably drinking it in the middle of a sweet wine tasting was never going to do it any favours. Never mind, I shall look forward to drinking the rest in due course.

The leisurely afternoon was rounded off by listening to some Flanders and Swann classics. They don't make 'em like that any more. Then we suddenly realised it was past 8.00 and time to get back to the metropolis, and thus a new record for a six and a half hour lunch was set. Thanks very much to T for his hospitality and giving us this opportunity to drink such amazing wines - quite an experience!