Stuff out of storage

One of the drawbacks of living in a postage stamp-sized studio flat boutique penthouse in zone 1 is that there's not much space for one's personal wine cellar. Some get round this by storing their wine at the rural parental residence, but I find it easier to use the storage facility at Locke-King Vaults. My wine lives in a WWII air raid shelter until I decide that the joyous day has come and it can be taken out of storage.

It all runs very smoothly right up to the point where the delivery man encounters the porter of my building who 99.9% of the time makes a giant fuss about doing his job i.e. taking in parcels. Fortunately, last Friday I had a random day off work so when the porter decided to ring me at 7.45 a.m. I was able to don a hasty dressing gown and take delivery of my three boxes.

First up was a case of this Morgon 2009 from Domaine Boulon. 2009 was a very good year for Beaujolais and this certainly hit the spot. Drinking now but with no rush, it was top notch Morgon and went very well with our Breakfast Pig sausages from Turner and George. It will see me comfortably through the winter, and at £90 in bond equates to a fully-paid up bottle price of £11.40 plus storage and delivery costs, making it excellent value. I'm looking forward to trying the very special Cuvee Pauline from the same producer, but based on this, I should probably wait a couple of years.

Then there was a six-pack of this white St-Aubin 1er cru Les Frionnes from Latour-Labille. This cost £120 for six, so worked out at £26.40 a bottle all paid up, not including storage and delivery. It was pale gold in colour and looked very nice in the glass. I got lemon and vanilla on the nose and G found that it reminded him of Leflaive Bourgogne Blanc, praise indeed. On the palate it was precise and classy, with enough grip to work well with G's signature lamb biryani. Again it was drinking now but there's no rush, although I doubt it will hang around. All in all, I was delighted with it and we thought it was probably about as good a St-Aubin as you're likely to find. We gave it a 9 on the Premier Cru Project scale.

The third wine was this Volnay 2005 from Comte Armand which I'd been looking forward to getting my hands on. I believe this came from Berry Bros back in the day. I bought a case, but on the stock sheet it turned out to be two six-packs, so I was able to get one of them out and leave the other in. We decanted it for 2 hours. It certainly looked the part, both the bottle and the wine which was a dark purple colour and very glossy. On the palate, it was very polished and we thought it was competing in the premier cru league. My case cost £180 in bond making it £20.40 a bottle all paid-up (excluding storage and delivery) but this was certainly £30 if not £40 wine.

However, if I'm honest, I found it a little on the "international" side rather than reflecting Burgundian terroir. Perhaps I've been spoiled by drinking far more expressive Volnays from Vincent Perrin. I found this wine quite hard-going, one of those wines where one glass would be enough. Still, we heroically persisted, and as we approached the end of the bottle it seemed to improve, and developed notes of black cherry. Perhaps it just went better with cheese. I think I'll tuck it away for a while and give it 3 hours in the decanter in future. At least the other six pack is still in storage and it can stay there for a few more years!