Bony dinner, 25th Feb

On Wednesday G and I braved the Piccadilly Line to Knightsbridge to Chabrot Bistrot des Amis for an evening with Fabienne Bony, the winemaker at Domaine J-P Bony based in Nuits-St-Georges.

Proceedings commenced with a glass (or two) of Cremant de Bourgogne, which is primarily made from pinot noir, although she's thinking about doing some chardonnay next year. This made a very enjoyable aperitif.

Then we sat down and had some Nuits-St-Georges "Les Damodes" 2012 with our starter of pork terrine. I was reminded of my first encounter with this wine at the City tasting a couple of years ago, when we tried the 2010 vintage and it was the smash hit of the evening. On this occasion Fabienne thought it was served rather too warm, and I agreed, but nevertheless it showed well with an enticing fruity nose, good acidity and general succulence. Damodes is on the north side of the village, towards Vosne-Romanee, and most of the vineyard is premier cru. Fabienne's part isn't premier cru, but as far as quality is concerned, it could be.

With our main course of duck with honey on a bed of Puy lentils (which was delicious) we had the jewel in the crown, Nuits-St-Georges Les Pruliers 2010. Fabienne approved of the duck combo as she and her husband often drink these wines with duck. Pruliers is a premier cru, in the middle of a group of premier cru vineyards further south. For me, this had a massive hit of blackcurrants and was very smooth, really great. I sometimes find NSG hard work, but these wines are much more approachable and enjoyable to drink than most! They are in a softer, more charming style with plenty of finesse, rather than tannic monsters.

With the cheese, a Rocamadour supplied by my favourite cheese shop down the road, we had some Passetoutgrains 2009. This was very different from the NSGs, as you'd expect, and there was some controversy at the decision to drink this with the cheese, but I think it was absolutely correct - the "farmyard aromas" worked very well with the chevre, and this was packed with flavour. It's unusual for a Passetoutgrains in that it's 1/3 gamay and 2/3 pinot noir - the proportions are usually reversed. I thought it was fantastic and excellent value at £13.50 a bottle if memory serves - my order sheet was rapidly completed and handed to ACC...

Finally, dessert was a glass of cremant de bourgogne rose with little pieces of fruit floating in it. My phone had died at this stage but J kindly let my take this photo with his. By this stage I'd already eaten the floating fruit. It made for a very pleasant, refreshing end to the meal.

Thanks to Fabienne and to ACC of the Burgundy Portfolio for organising this event, and to Chabrot for the excellent food. Finally, for those curious about the Slovenian accordion music channel, G wasn't making it up - you can find it here. I don't think it's actually 24 hours a day as it doesn't seem to be working at the moment but hopefully it will be back in action this evening...