Recent drinking round-up

I thought it was time for a brief recap of some things we've had to drink recently.

Manzanilla Torrebreva, Bodegas Los Infantes de Orleans Borbon

I'm always a sucker for a half bottle of sherry. so when one of G's colleagues told him about this manzanilla which we'd never heard of, I decided to take a punt on a case of 12 halves. We weren't disappointed. It's lovely fresh, sharp manzanilla with a bit more bite than some, and cost £6.95 per half from this place. But I see that it's described as a bin end on their website so may not be available for much longer.

La Cote de Vaux, Beaujolais 2013

It's in a claret bottle but it's actually a Beaujolais! With a heroic label showing the wine-maker, Jérôme Balmet, surrounded by wine-making equipment. This appeared at a Burgundy Portfolio tasting a few months ago and the Baron and I decided to split a case between us. He kindly brought my half of the case round a few weeks ago and I got round to trying it last week. I'm really happy with it - it's light, fruity beaujolais, as opposed to the meatier style I often drink, and is only 12% alcohol. When I bought it, I expected to keep it a while but actually it's drinking really well now. I think it will be just the thing for spring. It costs £140 for a case in bond, so not breaking the bank either.

Bourgogne Blanc, Domaine Bavard 2010

Another bottle-related conundrum... This is one of the wines I got out of storage recently and I was expecting it to be a bourgogne blanc, but when I saw it I immediately started thinking I must have got confused. Was it actually a bourgogne rouge? The label just says Bourgogne! I opened it to have a look and in fact it is bourgogne blanc after all. The bottle is just very, very dark - I assume this is some sort of UV filtered-glass. It's a richer style than some bourgogne blancs I've been drinking (i.e. Domaine Joly) and reminded us of a baby Chassagne-Montrachet. G commented on the mushroomy thing it had going on. It's drinking very nicely now, and went well with our soupe de poissons, which has become a weekly fixture at A du V Towers.

I've actually started stockpiling this stuff in case my local supermarket discontinues it (again).

Pommard Vieilles Vignes 2007, Domaine Latour-Labille

Part of G's haul from the 2007 vintage, we had this with a rack of lamb last night and it was smashing. It's quite delicate for a Pommard, made by Latour-Labille (now Domaine Vincent Latour) based in Meursault. It has a lot of style and finesse and is very enjoyable to drink - it has really hit its stride now. I see that we last had it in September last year and loved it then too. Seven years seems to be the magic number for this village Pommard.

Finally, I enjoyed reading an interview with Isabelle Legeron this week about natural wines, and the comments make interesting reading too. I think a lot of rubbish is talked about these wines, and it doesn't help that the terminology is so woolly. In my opinion, it's a mistake to generalise about them - some are great while others which I've tried didn't appeal to me. But my favourite wine-makers use a sparing hand with the sulphur, and anything that is made in small quantities by people taking lots of care and effort and allowing the wines to express their terroir seems like a good thing to me.