Chateau Latour, 1958

Last night it was time for a bottle of Chateau Latour, a much-anticipated quarterly indulgence, and the 1958 was stood up in preparation. A decent level, considering its age.

G successfully got the cork out intact - now that's what I call a cork!

Food was prepared - wing rib from Turner & George who deliver on a Saturday morning, very convenient - and some roast potatoes, along with reading material in the form of the Weekend FT magazine, the New Yorker and Lucky Peach. 

As for the wine, it was the usual very dark colour, with a pale rim. We detected plum crumble and cigar box on the nose. On the palate, it had a wonderful softness, and was almost as caressing as cough mixture. It was smooth, intense and seamless, and relatively fruity. We thought it wasn't as majestic as Latour usually is, but this isn't necessarily a criticism - it went down very easily. "Good quaffing Latour" said G while I said "Gosh that's delicious" or words to that effect. I thought it was really excellent, fully mature claret, but not one of the greats. 

And finally, the cheeseboard. I walked over to Beillevaire in Montpelier Street to get something worthy of the occasion. Here we have some 2 year old Gruyere, some Bleu de Bocage which I'd not encountered before - it's a pasteurised blue goats cheese from the Loire which had a slightly weird grainy texture but was otherwise very nice, a Couronne Lochoise (the doughnut-shaped goaty one) which was quite fresh and lemony, and the finest Epoisses in London. Having bought a Berthaud Epoisses in Waitrose last week, which disappointed me every night I wheeled it out, this was the real deal, and memo to self, it's completely worth the 50% mark-up. To round off, we had some old Dutch gouda from Selfridges food hall, which reminds me that we must do an order from the cheese shop in the Nine Streets, Amsterdam soon. Brokkel de brokkel.

And so the first quarter of 2014 draws to a close. Fortunately there are some fun things ahead, including a dinner with the fabulous Nathalie Fevre next week which I'm looking forward to immensely.