A sherry and a Beaujolais

This time of year is always a challenge blog-wise as one is attempting to recalibrate one's vinous intake after December. This week I've actually been below the government's drinking guidelines!

Fortunately there are a couple of random things which G and I drank in December which have been sitting on the back burner waiting to be written up. This Fino Una Palma from Gonzalez Byass came as part of a Wine Society mixed case of sherry - as I'm always saying, the main reason for being a member of the WS is access to its great range of advantageously-priced sherries.

This was the 2015 bottling, and en rama apparently means raw so it is not clarified or filtered. It's 6 year old fino and supposed to be drunk within 6 months - not a problem at AduV Towers. It had that bracing, tangy, salty fresh thing and was a fantastic sharpener. We didn't drink it all on day 1, but when I had another glass on day 2 it had definitely gone downhill. The bottle is 50cl, so it might be a good one to drink with friends in future.

Four years ago I was given the Dos Palmas and the Cuatro Palmas by my father, both of which were great in their own way and I wrote about them here. After that, I'd intended to get the Una and the Tres to complete the set, but never did, so it was nice to finally get to try the Una. I'm not sure exactly how much it cost, being part of the mixed case, but it's available for around £11 here (which seems to be a special offer), while the Dos Palmas is now about £17.

Also before Christmas, G visited Brussels and brought back this 2009 Fleurie made by Jean Foillard. I wasn't familiar with this producer but it turns out that his wines are very natural: no synthetic herbicides or pesticides, rigorous sorting, minimal/no sulphur, no filtration. This came in an enormous, weighty bottle exuding class. It was a deep purple colour, and was vibrant, with lovely intense sweet red and black berry fruit. "Gosh" said G. We had it with goose rillettes, which was a great combination, and it also went very well with cheese. We thought that if we'd been tasting it blind and someone had told us it was Morey St-Denis, we'd have believed them. It's expensive by Beaujolais standards, but it's worth it.

Next week sees the flurry of 2014 Burgundy en primeur tastings but as usual there's only one in my calendar - the Burgundy Portfolio tasting on Thursday on 14th. I had favourable impressions of the vintage from my trip in October, so am looking forward to tasting them again and getting some of them stashed away in my cellar!

New Year's Eve 2015

Bonne année tout le monde!

The new year got off to a good start on Thursday night with yet another decadent dinner at my place. ACC, Baron McG and G were all present and correct. Baron McG showed up in some rather shocking Robocop-style flashing electric blue glasses which caused quite a stir. A nice glass of Castelnau 2002 calmed us down (the same fizz as last year in fact, and still doing the business) along with some delicious parmesan biscuits made by the Baron himself.

ACC contributed this "mystery wine" and we were required to guess what it might be. It had no label and all we had was bottle shape to go on. Our initial guesses of Alsace and Germany were incorrect so given that he runs a company called the Burgundy Portfolio it seemed possible that it came from Burgundy, except it was apparently a sweet wine, and Burgundy doesn't do sweet wines apart from Ratafia... bingo!

I've always been a bit hazy about what exactly Ratafia is and have a tendency to confuse it with Prunelle, but I now know that it is in fact a mixture of marc and grape juice, a bit like Pineau des Charentes. This particular Ratafia came from the private cellar of one of the growers in ACC's portfolio.

It was dangerously drinkable, well-chilled, and slipped down very easily indeed - it felt like drinking grape juice but was probably about 15% alcohol! We had it with our starter of pate and toast which it accompanied very well. G unchivalrously recounted a story of an encounter between me and a bottle of Pineau des Charentes many years ago. That sort of thing doesn't happen these days but left alone with a bottle of this Ratafia it very well might.

With our roast beef we had this bottle of 1967 Latour, contributed by G. The level was good as you can see from the photo. As usual, it was unmistakably Latour, with the classic cedar, mint etc. yet the tannins had softened over the years and it was relatively mellow.

With the cheese course we moved on to this Domaine de Trevaillon 1989 also contributed by G. This is a 50/50 mix of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. It seemed big and powerful coming after the Latour but was very drinkable.

These "Elizabethan" chocs from Bendicks which the Baron brought along also went down a treat! This photo must have been taken before we got down to the second level.

Then it was on to the marc. This bottle was my primary find in Burgundy in October and came from Mon Millesime. I didn't know what Fauchon was but apparently it's the French equivalent of Fortnums. Sold!

The fossilised cork also appealed to me, although it did cause problems by falling into the bottle and the marc had to be decanted into a different bottle. We noticed that the bottle had a huge punt, and G got down the old Marquis D'Angerville bottle to compare. A distinct similarity there.

This suggests that it was probably bottled in the 1950s and we think the marc itself probably dated back to the 1930s.

It was lovely stuff, smooth and mellow, without much fieriness, but with a great finish. The sort of marc that makes me do an impression of my Irish grandmother, put on an Ulster accent and say "No harm in that" or possibly "Get outside of that".

On the same trip I also brought back this bottle of Fine de Bourgogne (very similar to marc) which I found in the shop that used to be Magnum. With a label like that, I just had to have it. Let's see the full horror in close-up.

I suspect this dated back to the 70s, based on no evidence whatsoever. It was surprisingly good and not particularly expensive. I was very pleased with the marc/fine discoveries this year and am almost inspired to set up a separate blog called Marc Quest, but along with G's long-awaited Odyssey de Chevre I suspect this will never actually happen.

Some fell by the wayside as the evening wore on, while others watched the fireworks on TV and then pondered the mystery of why Bryan Adams had been chosen to play in concert afterwards. We'll probably never know. That was the winter of 15.

Thanks everyone for a great evening and am looking forward to further vinous discoveries in 2016!