Dinner at mine, 22nd Feb

Last week, we had an email from P saying that he'd acquired a useful haul at a recent auction and were we interested in any of it. But of course! And so plans were made for dinner on Monday.

We began with some Palo Cortado as an aperitif, which I've written about before - the Cayetano Del Pino from the Wine Society, which I think is great stuff for £14.50 a bottle. G had found a saucisson with hazelnuts in the Ginger Pig, which accompanied it very well.

Then it was on to the main event - this Chateau Brane-Cantenac 1975. This had an interesting, pungent nose, and G referred to "tertiary flavours" which I think may have been a euphemism for something. It was on the elderly side but had a great finish, and improved with food, so the moral of the story was that it needed a half-hour decant.

With the cheese course, we moved on to this Barolo 1967 from Cantine Villadoria, which came in a bottle that looked like some kind of archaeological relic, complete with little candle attached to the side. Thoughts of the Crossrail excavations sprang to mind.

This turned out to still be drinking and was surprisingly nice! It was old skool, and must have been a total bastard in its youth, but a massive whack of the sugar bag (G thought cane sugar, specifically) meant that it had some sweet fruit in the middle before drying out on the finish. It went well with the cheese and was fascinating to drink. Thanks P for sharing these with us!