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!