SPNS dinner, 13th May

On a Tuesday evening a couple of weeks ago, we gathered in the Savile bar for the next Swiss Pinot Noir Society evening. Present and correct were D, P, G, myself and a special guest, none other than Baron McG himself. Sadly ACC and T were otherwise engaged. Miss it, miss out, as ACC is fond of saying...

We commenced with this bottle of Champagne Moutard provided by P - cue lots of inevitable jokes about mustard. This was well-received with the general verdict being that it was pleasingly mature, elegant and well-rounded. It's available for £20.99 from Naked Wines and at that price I consider it to be very good value for what it is, although it may also have benefited from a little extra time in P's cellar.

We went upstairs to the dining room and as there is often a lull in proceedings at this stage, I produced a Tio Pepe Fino "en Rama" to keep us going until the starters arrived. This is a special release, and it's extra fresh and unfiltered. It was bottled in April and you're supposed to drink it as soon as possible after release, certainly within 6 months. I'd had it about a week and if anyone had been snoozing at this stage, it would certainly have woken them up - it was sharp and zingy. I got mine from the Wine Society who sell it for £14.50 a bottle, but there are other stockists such as Adnams. I may just have to order some more while it's still available...

Then, with our starters, we moved on to G's contribution, this dry white from Madeira, Barbusano Verdelho 2011. G told us how previously he had believed there was no good table wine from Madeira but then had come across this in a restaurant and been pleasantly surprised. It was a refreshing, relatively light white wine, crisp, with good acidity. It went down well and made an enjoyable change from the sort of white wine I usually drink.

With our main course, we knocked my second and last magnum of Echezeaux 1971 on the head. This was made by Prosper Maufoux and we had the first one at a dinner with ACC and the Baron back in December, which I blogged about here. I was hoping very much that this one would turn out to be as good, as I have a history of bringing corked bottles to SPNS. It wasn't just as good, it was better!

It had a lovely fragrance and sweet, dark fruit. It was fully mature, dangerously drinkable, and generally delicious. We had no trouble getting through it. The only dilemma was what to eat with it since for some reason there was no red meat on the menu that evening! P and I ended up having a full English breakfast while D had tuna and G and the Baron had veal chops. I think we were all happy with our choices!

Finally, D's contribution was this 1969 Moscatel de Setubal which is a Portuguese dessert wine. I have to confess I'd never heard of it until now! It was grapey, with good acidity. D detected spice and honey, while the Baron declared that it was amazing with his sticky toffee pudding. All in all, an excellent way to round off the meal. Thanks to everyone for another excellent evening!

Lunch at mine, 11th May

And so normal service tentatively resumes.

I arrived back in London after a weekend away a couple of weeks ago, very much looking forward to having lunch with G and D who was over for one of his biannual visits. I wasn't disappointed.

We kicked off with a bottle of Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru Folatieres 2008 from Domaine Bzikot, provided by G. This continues to be a great example of the genre and is drinking perfectly now. We had a bottle back in March when G voiced doubts, but he seems to be converted now.

Then it was on to the main event. D had informed us that he'd be bringing "a couple of reds". It turned out that he meant two different vintages of Chateau Lafite. I couldn't believe it!

In particular, a bottle of 1966 and a bottle of 1975. It would have been a privilege to drink either, let alone both!

We started with the 1975 which was drinking extremely well. It was very smooth and the tannins had softened. The finish was amazing and I got some heat which I eventually worked out reminded me of black pepper. There were also notes of liquorice, chocolate and leather. It was supple and complex, not majestic like Latour, but more feminine.

The 1966 had a more classic "claretty" nose - that cedar, lead pencil, cigar box thing going on. Again it was very smooth and was more classic all round. G thought it was richer than the 1975 and to me it felt like there was more cabernet sauvignon in the mix. Again, it had a great structure and finish. We loved the $29.95 price tag. Those were the days...

Here you can see the difference in the colour - the 1975 is on the right and the 1966 on the left.

If we had to choose between them, I have to admit the 1966 was my favourite, but it has a price differential to match. It was great to be able to compare them and both went very nicely with G's shepherd's pie.

With our cheese course, we had a bottle of 6 puttonyos Tokaji from 1996. This had a heady nose of dried apricots and figs, and extraordinary exotic, tropical fruits on the palate - pineapple and mango. It had a lovely gloopy mouthfeel. I enjoyed it very much.

Finally, we had some of G's latest acquisition, some old navy rum in a terrible wicker basket! My shoes are included in the photo to show the scale of the thing.

This rum dates back to the 1950s and has acquired the smooth characteristics of an old spirit, but is nevertheless immediately identifiable as rum. Like whisky, it benefits from the addition of a little water. An animated conversation ensued about the possibility of doing an old spirits tasting, which is a great idea.

Lunch lasted 6 hours, a new record, I think. Thanks very much to D for providing such amazing goodies from his cellar, and to G for the others and for doing the cooking.

Normal service will be resumed shortly

Apologies for the blogging hiatus. My father, who had been seriously ill for several months, has died, which has been rather devastating. He had been suffering from stomach cancer for several months.

Dad was a gentle, kind, cerebral man who loved cats, books, music, churches, history and nature. I'm grateful to him for many things including the encouragement he gave me in my enthusiasm for wine. He signed me up for the Wine Society when I was 18 and enjoyed coming to the occasional wine tasting in London.

It became a tradition that I'd get him a bottle of 1968 Bual for Christmas and he'd save it up as a solitary treat for the nights my mother was out singing at her choir - nobody else got a drop of it!

I'm glad that he was able to come to my 40th birthday celebration in July last year, and that he didn't tell me he was ill then, even though he already was. Instead, he told me how much he'd enjoyed it.

We would often discuss Jancis's latest column in the FT and I think he hoped I'd become the next Jancis. I don't think that's going to happen, but at least the blog is a nod in that direction.

After his memorial service on Saturday, we shall be having Chablis 1er cru Vaulorent 2010 from Nathalie Fevre and Oroncio Star Terre Syrah made by Oronce de Belair of la Maison Romane. Both supplied by the Burgundy Portfolio, bien sur. I hope they go down well.