Big Ben and dinner at mine, Saturday 12th Oct

Last Saturday was one of those days that doesn't come along too often.

In the morning, ACC, Baron McG and I had a private tour of Big Ben, thanks to my sister-in-law. She's friends with Paul Roberson, the Clockmaker at the Palace of Westminster (there's an interview with him here) and he kindly took us up the Elizabeth Tower. This was my second time seeing Big Ben in action for the midday bongs but was even better than the first, since there were just six of us, Paul had some wonderful stories and jokes, and we were granted access to some parts that the main tours don't get to see! As this is a wine blog, I'll restrict myself to three photos.

Inside the clock dial

Big Ben lui-meme

View south down the river

After the tour, we had a breather in the room with the clock mechanism. I produced a bottle of Pol Roger, Paul revealed his stash of glasses, and my brother produced mini-cheddars and TUC cheesy biscuits much to everyone's delight, and we toasted the experience. Magic. Then we descended the steep spiral staircase - at this point it was probably just as well we'd only had a glass of fizz each - and went for lunch at the Green Man and French Horn on St Martin's Lane. It specialises in food and wine from the Loire region and we were favourably impressed, especially since the set menu is excellent value.

There was just time for me to brave the hordes on the tube and nip over to Knightsbridge to pick up some cheeses from my favourite cheese shop. I see their website is charmingly translated and the English headline is "Federateur of gouts and of human passions". Should I mention this next time I'm there? More importantly, I got an update on the Mont d'Or situation: it will be a couple of weeks yet before the good stuff gets going...

Then it was back to AdeV Towers to prepare for dinner with D and G.

G had also been busy and had spent an hour at Borough Market hunting down the stall with the Irish wild smoked sea trout. We drank the last of my Chablis 1er cru Montmains 2008 from La Maison Romane with it. It took a few minutes to open up, as it had been in the fridge all day, but once it did, it was perfect.

There followed a pair of half-bottles of 1966 claret brought by D, which we drank with slow-cooked lamb and gratin dauphinois. The Haut-Brion was a lovely colour and very glossy, with liquorice, sous-bois and mushrooms on the nose. On the palate it was very smooth, rich and intense - delicious. G described it as an intellectual wine. The price tag of $14.95 made us groan with envy; I think it had been in D's cellar some time!

The second half was Mouton-Rothschild which D told us had cost $5 - those were the days! It was still a second-growth in 1966 before being promoted to first-growth status in 1973. This had cocoa on the nose and again it was quite earthy and very serious. G, who has drunk far more Mouton than I have, said it was discernibly Mouton. It was drinking very well now and I thought it was very charming indeed. D pointed out that lamb was a very suitable match for it, which was a lucky coincidence!

Next up we had some poached pears with this German wine provided by G - a 1989 Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Auslese which was just 8% alcohol.

Apologies for the wobbly photo but this shows what a wonderful colour it was. It was aromatic and sweet but with sufficient acidity to be very drinkable. "Dessert by itself" said D, but it did actually work really well with the poached pears and I think we'll be revisiting this combo soon.

Finally, with the cheese course, we had this half of Graham's 1977 brought by D.

This was quite a light colour and elegant. We thought it was ready to go in half, whereas in bottle that may not be the case.

Hilarious back label telling you how to open the bottle

All in all, this was a great evening - thanks D for sharing your gems with us and I hope we did them justice!