Sunday lunch at ACC's, 7th September

On Sunday G and I caught the trusty 68 bus southwards for an epic lunch at ACC Towers.

I failed to take a photo of the first wine we drank, a Pouilly-Fume, which made a very pleasant aperitif on a surprisingly warm September day.

"Colour is not a function of pinot noir"

We were then offered a choice of three reds. I couldn't deny that the Beaune 2008 from Domaine Giboulot was my first preference, and it was duly opened. Such a glorious wine, light and beautiful as always. I'd been under the impression for a long time that you needed to decant Giboulot's delicate biodynamic wines 90 minutes in advance, but apparently that's not the case, which is great news as it means G and I can drink them on week nights now!

Another guest, J, had brought along this bottle of 2008 Chateau Leoville Poyferre. I don't drink a lot of young claret but this was lovely and certainly seemed ready to go. A discussion of the change in claret-making techniques over the past few years followed - apparently it's much more scientific than it used to be and the wines are made to drink younger, which I guess is a good thing as you don't now have to wait 35 years for them to come round.

Back label

Spot the difference!

Next up was the bottle of 2007 red Chassagne-Montrachet from Domaine de la Choupette (not to be confused with Karl Lagerfield's cat) which I'd brought along. I got this out of storage recently and this was the second bottle I've had since then. I absolutely love it - for me, it has a very strong smell and taste of redcurrants and maybe other red fruit too, is really succulent, and all in all a great expression of Cote de Beaune style pinot noir. I always think that the wines of this domaine take a while to come round and the 2007 is drinking nicely now, at 7 years old. It was revealed that J has recently been drinking the 2011 so opinions may differ.

What's that green stuff? Answers on a postcard

G's contribution was "the most expensive raspberry tart in history" bought from Patisserie des Reves in Marylebone High Street. There's one born every minute...

With this we had a half of 1996 Moscatel Reserva from Quinta do Portal, which was well-chilled and made a very enjoyable, refreshing dessert wine.

Then, as it appeared we weren't finished yet, ACC cracked open this Cote de Brouilly from Domaine Trichard (there is some enjoyably bad translation on this website: "Discover wines of soils with the tempered character, with the aromas of fruits, and exceptional obstinacy") which I believe was a 2007. I wasn't making notes but this was decent, mature beaujolais and I'm led to believe it's rather good value! Another great lunch and thanks to ACC for his hospitality.