SPNS dinner, Tuesday 14th May

On Tuesday night it was another SPNS dinner with everyone in attendance apart from A, who has never actually attended. Hopefully he will one day!

I arrived to find the others guzzling prosecco and was informed that what appeared to be a stray glass was available for me only for T, moments later, to howl with indignation that his had disappeared - fortunately I hadn't started drinking it yet. A fresh glass was poured and all was well. This was Prosecco Extra Dry Baccharetto and was provided by P. It was generally well-received - crisp, pleasant and refreshing, a good summer aperitif. We quickly knocked it back and headed upstairs where we could have more space to ourselves. I broke the club rules by taking photos, but nobody seemed too bothered.

Next up was this Puligny-Montrachet 09 from Jean-Louis Chavy, provided by G. He was given this, so brought it along even though the cost was above that permitted by SPNS rules. Apparently the way to justify bringing something expensive to the SPNS is to pretend it was a gift - I've filed this info away for future reference. We all thought it was ok (drinkable and correct) but nobody raved about it and G said he wouldn't have paid good money for it.

On to the reds. This Chateau Plagnac Cru Bourgeois 1989 was provided by P (at what point did we all start bringing two bottles instead of one? Not that I'm complaining...) It exceeded expectations and went down very well. We all found it drinkable, with good fruit and tannin, and mature but not over the hill. A success.

This red Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Clos Saint-Jean 1983 from Ramonet came from my own stocks - it was my last bottle of this wine, which I snapped up at auction some time ago. Note the charming clingfilm cover to keep the label on! This was another risk for the SPNS as I have a track record of bring wines which are faulty or have gone off, but this time it paid off. It was fully mature, lovely old Burgundy with a wonderful finish.  "A triumph" wrote G. Hurrah!

To follow, we had this Chorey-les-Beaune Les Beaumonts 2011 from Ludovic Belin, provided by ACC. This vineyard is right by the gite where we usually stay when we go to Burgundy, so it was lovely to drink something from it. It was quite a contrast to the Chassagne, being young, vibrant and fruity - tres Chorey. T declared it the kind of Burgundy he likes to drink, which is high praise coming from him.

A quick photo to compare and contrast the Chassagne - a wonderful mature reddish brown colour - and the Chorey, bright purple.

We then moved on to this Zweigelt-Rebe 2009 from Japan, brought along by D. Unfortunately my Japanese isn't up to deciphering the label! This went down very well. Somebody has written a comment "very forward, like a keen geisha" in the book - disgraceful. G and I both thought that if we had been tasting it blind we might very well have taken it to be an Austrian wine - we've had Blauer Zweigelt before and it's quite distinctive. Kudos to the producers for getting such a good expression of the grape. Very interesting.

We then moved on to a pair of sweet vendange tardive gewurztraminers from Kuentz-Bas, Cuvee Caroline, provided by T. One was from 2001 and the other 2007.

Spot the difference. I found the 2001 big and opulent, while the 2007 bore a resemblance but wasn't quite the finished article just yet. G controversially preferred the 2007 leading some of us to speculate that he had got his glasses mixed up. There were other contradictory remarks in the book (one member thought the 2001 had a poor finish, another said it had a long finish) while T only managed "Good". I guess we were flagging by this stage!

However, there was more to come. This is a visual joke - it was the remaining half bottle of the 1976 Rieussec from the previous evening decanted into the 1983 d'Yquem bottle. We did consider pretending to the others that it was actually d'Yquem and seeing whether any of them would spot that it wasn't, but that wouldn't have been very kind. The Rieussec went down well but for me, it suffered by comparison to the d'Yquem the night before. It tasted more of honey than marmalade. It was well-balanced and long, but it somehow seemed to lack complexity.

Finally, we had this Seifried Nelson "Sweet Agnes" riesling 2011 provided by G. Hmmm. Quite a contrast. I appear to have quoted some lyrics from "Firestarter" in the book which was my way of referring to the petrol-like quality it had. ACC just wrote "Shell". It wasn't my cup of tea at all. Some of the others didn't dislike it, and to be fair, it probably suffered from comparison with the other sweet wines we'd just had - it was a mere nipper by comparison.

All in all, another great dinner and one particularly in the spirit of the SPNS in that there was a wide range of unusual things that we wouldn't normally get to drink. Looking forward to October already!

Quiet Monday night in

On Monday night, D came round for dinner and brought a splendid selection of wines with him. I think this may be the most decadent Monday evening I've ever experienced. Sensitive readers may wish to look away now.

We started with a bottle of Chablis 1er cru Montee de Tonnere 2004 from Raveneau. We shared a bottle of this with ACC a few months ago and I promptly bought the rest. As G hadn't yet turned up, I had to do the honours and chip off the wax seal, while D admired my "sabre" technique. Possible sarcasm there, I think.

I'd put a spare bottle in the fridge in case of any problems but had forgotten that the wax seal is reckoned to have protective properties and all was well. The chablis was on excellent form, crisp and drinking perfectly now. We had it with some organic smoked salmon from Northern Ireland by way of Selfridges food hall, and rye bread from the Nordic Bakery, which was very successful.

Next up, a half bottle of 1983 Chateau d'Yquem provided by D. This was only the second time I've had d'Yquem and it was absolutely stunning with intense Seville orange marmalade characteristics. As with all the best Sauternes, it wasn't too sweet and had good acidity, creating perfect balance. Above all, it was very elegant. I adored the slightly bitter edge on the finish and had fantasies of making some kind of breakfast martini with it (which would be sacrilege, of course). We had it with some duck pate which was an inspired choice on D's part.

Next was this bottle of Latour 1975. How on earth did D know about our sneaky Latour habit? G and I hadn't had this vintage before so it was great to try it. As usual, it looked wonderful, dark and glossy. It was quite dry, savoury and downright delicious, still all there. Apparently 1975 was a light vintage that faded - that was emphatically not the case here, and it was still going strong after 90 minutes. The label claimed that it was 11.5% alcohol - it might say that, I couldn't possibly comment.

Alongside the Latour, we had this 1973 cabernet sauvignon from Martha's Vineyard, which I have to confess I was not familiar with until this evening. As the Bordeaux glasses had been used for the Latour, it had to go in the Burgundy glasses, which failed to disguise the extraordinary cabernet sauvignon characteristics of the wine. I've never come across anything like it. D mentioned eucalyptus and there was also prominent mint and blackcurrant leaf. It would be just the job if you were suffering from a cold. Again, this wine did not seem in the least bit old (of course 40 isn't at all old really) and the finish was sensational.

I took a couple of close-ups of the label since it is such a joy - banging on about Heitz Wine Cellar with the Martha's Vineyard bit hidden away in a corner. It claims to be 13% alcohol, which is probably accurate.

Note that this was bottled in 1977 and had been in D's cellar pretty much ever since. G and I are painfully aware that 1973 was a terrible vintage in Europe so it was a real pleasure to drink something from our year that was so delicious. Enormous thanks to D for sharing all of these with us.

As we'd polished off the d'Yquem already, we had nothing to go with pudding. Disaster! But as luck would have it, I recently acquired some Rieussec 1976 which had just arrived and was in G's flat, so I dashed downstairs to get a bottle. It was the most amazing colour.

We took the rest of the bottle to the SPNS dinner on Tuesday. To be continued...

Bourgogne Rouge from Perrin and Roulot

A quick post today to keep things ticking over. Recently G and I have mostly been drinking things which I've already written about, so there hasn't been a lot to say. However, this week we had two bourgognes which were both blogtastic.

I was able to get my case of this 2009 from Vincent Perrin out of storage, and was looking forward to trying it. I've tasted his bourgogne rouge at the domaine on several occasions and have always liked it but considered it quite light, so was interested to find out what it would be like 4 years on. It was dark, glossy and inviting-looking, with almost a heady nose. On the palate we found it elegant and succulent, and it had a great finish. It was bigger than I was expecting and seemed to have filled out over time, in a good way. We thought it was exceptional for a BR. I had a sneaky second bottle on Thursday/Friday and it occurred to me that it reminded me quite a lot of Emmanuel Giboulot's Terres Burgondes - praise indeed.

The second BR we drank was this 2008 from Domaine Roulot. If memory serves, this came from ACC's private collection and I'm delighted to be in possession of one more bottle which will be saved for a special occasion. Back in 2011 we had some 1999 Bourgogne Rouge from Roulot which I wrote about here. The label has changed since then and become even classier - it's one of the most stylish I've ever seen. Fortunately the Inverse Law doesn't apply in this case, as it was absolutely amazing. It had the most seductive nose, black cherries and plums on the palate, and was very soft with "resolved tannins" (G's phrase). Just delicious. We thought it if had been a premier cru, it would have scored a 9.

The moral of the story seems to be that it's all about the producer, and in the right hands even a humble bourgogne can be exceptional.