Dinner at A de V Towers, 15th March

Last Thursday, T and G came round to mine for dinner and we had a very enjoyable evening. 

T kindly brought along a bottle of Palo Cortado. I attended a tasting once where Palo Cortado was memorably described as "the transsexual of sherry". Wikipedia explains, rather more prosaically: "Palo Cortado is a rare variety of sherry that is initially aged under flor to become a fino or amontillado, but inexplicably loses its veil of flor and begins ageing oxidatively as an oloroso."

It's not a style you see very often and this one was made for Waitrose by Lustau. It was enjoyably piquant and nutty at the same time. We failed to do it justice by having it alongside La Guita Manzanilla - the two did not go together. I'd been to Selfridges the day before and got some of their excellent mixed nuts but T knowledgeably informed me that the finest cashew nuts in the world are served in a hotel in an obscure part of Sri Lanka. Selfridges will have to raise their game!

Next up was this bottle of Vosne Romanee 1er cru les Petits Monts 2004 from Mongeard-Mugneret which we had with some slow-cooked leg of lamb and potato gratin. We had high hopes for this wine which cost a whopping 65 euros. I wasn't previously familiar with the domaine but they seem very serious and are sold by Berry Bros.

Sadly, I found it disappointing. Normally I love Vosne-Romanee but this didn't hit the spot. It was a plummy, murky colour which T described as "grey". I got baked fruits on the nose and the palate was smooth and integrated. It was decent mature burgundy but lacking any kind of wow factor. We gave it an 8.

After that our spirits were restored by T's claret jelly which was a great success and possibly the highlight of the entire evening.

Finally, G assembled an assiette de chocolat on my new rectangular white plates bought specially for this purpose so that we no longer have to eat it off the table. This consists of different things from Michel Cluizel - a piece of coffee-flavoured chocolate, some chocolate-covered coffee beans, a piece of chocolate with orange peel in it, some chocolate cocoa nib things, a piece of special single plantation chocolate, and finally a couple of chocolate-covered almonds. For some reason, it is eaten from right to left. I think T was possibly rather perplexed at G demonstrating his OCD tendencies (it's essential that everyone must have the same number of pieces) but the calvados soon took away any concerns. Thanks to both for the pleasure of your company.