SPNS dinner, 20th October

On Tuesday, it was over to the Savile Club for the next Swiss Pinot Noir Society event. Thanks to the trusty Victoria and Central Lines, I arrived at 7.30 on the dot to find no sign of the other participants. A tour of the sandpit, the bar and the garden revealed no fellow Society members and I was starting to wonder if I had the right day when fortunately P and D appeared - P having been on a similar tour of the building looking for the rest of us. G showed up shortly afterwards and as ACC and T had sent their apologies, proceedings could now commence!

We kicked off with this champagne from Morel Pere & Fils provided by P (NB that website may cause vertigo). None of the rest of us were familiar with it, but it turned out to be quite a hit.

It could only be described as effervescent, although "wild bubbles" was also used. It was generally regarded as very pleasant and well-balanced with some maturity and yeasty notes, and seemed like a steal when P told us what he paid for it.

We went upstairs for dinner and this Meursault-Genevrieres 1er cru 2006 from Michel Bouzereau et Fils was my contribution for the evening - the third of the trio I got at auction. I was delighted to get them, as am a big fan of this domaine, and once again this was top stuff.

It looked wonderful in the glass and was lovely, mature Meursault, not too fleshy but still typique. Another example of how producer trumps vintage when it comes to Burgundy. We thought it was impeccable and G and I agreed that it merited a 10 on the Premier Cru Project scale.

Then it was on to G's offering - a magnum of Chateau La Lagune (probably) 1985. The reason for the doubt over the vintage was that the label had torn off. It was hoped that the cork would reveal all, but sadly this was not to be. However, apparently this magnum came from a case of magnums of 1985 so it seems highly likely that it was also from 1985.

This was proper, mature claret with the classic cedary / cigar box nose - described as "school desk" by one participant. I wonder if Baron McG had been there whether he would have said "library book". It was generally enjoyed by all but there was a lot of it given there were only four of us, and it possibly started to go downhill towards the end.

A brief digression: I had this stuff on my Welsh Rarebit - had never heard of it until a recent episode of Jay Rayner's excellent radio programme the Kitchen Cabinet. Apparently it's a great source of local pride for the citizens of Sheffield. It was certainly good with Welsh Rarebit.

To finish, D had brought along this bottle of 1976 Tokaji Essencia. This was amazing. It had a heady, slightly volatile nose reminding some of pedro ximinez and others (me) of Turkish delight. Raisins, figs, prunes and toffee were all present and correct, and it was the perfect complement to our dessert of figs in a red wine sauce. It was very sweet - diabetes in a glass! - but there was no doubt that this was something very special indeed, and it walloped the competition to win the Wine of the Evening award. But there were no duffers on this occasion. Thanks to everyone for your contributions - another splendid evening.