Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot dinner, 19th May

The sports fans were certainly out in force last Saturday. Having encountered the boisterous Blackpool fans on the way to the vegetarian cookery class in the morning, it was my turn to meet the West Ham fans on the walk over to Marylebone for dinner. They surged past us in a flood of blue and burgundy stripes but seemed calm and I had no idea that their team had in fact won until someone told me afterwards. Occasionally they were intermingled with someone wearing a blazer and an MCC tie who we assumed had been to Lords for the cricket. It wasn't too difficult to tell the difference between the football fans and the cricket fans!

The occasion was a dinner organised by ACC under the auspices of the Burgundy Portfolio to taste the wines of Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot, one of my favourite producers. G and I arrived at the Perseverance and made our way upstairs where ACC greeted us with a glass of 2011 Terres Burgondes blanc. This was clearly very young and later it emerged that it had been in bottle for just two and a half months. It had high acidity and apparently was made from pinot beurot, not chardonnay. A few minutes later, to great excitement, a plate of gougeres emerged from the kitchen! These disappeared in approximately 0.003 seconds but it was early in the evening so my reactions were still lightning speed and I was able to get a photo in. 

Gougeres! But not as big as mine...

Eventually, after what sounded like a gruelling journey, Emmanuel himself turned up and we sat down to dinner. With the starter of rabbit and hazelnut terrine, we had the 2010 Cote de Beaune Combe D'Eve. This is made from chardonnay grapes, and was more my kind of thing! It had a lovely, rich nose and was big and complex yet still with the trademark Giboulot elegance. It's not cheap but it is seriously good white burgundy.

Although I've visited the domaine twice, the proceedings have been in French and I'm sure I've missed quite a lot of what Emmanuel said, but what has always come across has been his passion for winemaking and also his friendliness and warmth. This time we were fortunate to have both ACC and O to translate. Emmanuel explained that all of his wines are biodynamic (and there was some discussion of what that means exactly, which I won't go into here) and that he doesn't try to do the same thing every year, but aims to express the character of the vintage. 2010 was a challenging year - but this wine definitely delivered. I was delighted to discover I'd already got some on order, she says in a self-congratulatory tone.

Next up were some reds which accompanied a dish of roast charolais beef, baby onions, mushrooms, greens and dijon cream. Compliments to the chef on the beef which was fantastic. First we had the 2008 Terres Burgondes rouge and the 2010 Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits "Sous le Mont". I bought a case of the 2008 Terres Burgondes which arrived a while back. G and I have probably had about half of it now, and discovered there is some variation in it - sometimes it's fresh and fruity, other times more earthy. This time I thought it had lively cherry fruit. Emmanuel apparently hadn't tried it for a while and said he liked its tartness.

I was very impressed with the Hautes-Cotes de Nuits which had been in bottle since September. I didn't make proper notes, but it seemed softer and perhaps more approachable than the Terres Burgondes, and I snaffled a case to tuck away.

Extremely runny Epoisses

The cheese course consisted of some excellently runny Epoisses. It was so good that Baron McG of Croque-Epoisses wondered afterwards whether there might be some more to be found somewhere (he has a separate Epoisses stomach and is used to putting away at least half a cheese in one go) but we decided not to attempt to raid the kitchen on this occasion. There was also a lengthy conversation about the meaning of "affine" and whether it means "maturing" or "washing" in marc de bourgogne in the case of Epoisses. One person said that it's "when it's so old that it goes runny" which seems quite plausible.
 
With the Epoisses we had the 2010 Beaune Lulune and the 2008 Beaune. Apparently the Lulune is up a hill and there was something about a Roman village fountain that was apparently highly significant but I missed why exactly. Anyway, it all sounds very romantic! This wine was light, delicate and pure and probably needed a few years. As for the 2008 Beaune, I have several bottles of it on the rack here at A de V Towers and it has been giving us a great deal of pleasure. It's a treat and definitely a wine to save for the weekend when we can give it a full couple of hours in decanter. 

I enjoyed the evening very much and it was great to have the man himself there to talk us through his wines. Thanks to ACC for organising it. Blogtastique!