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.
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