Sunday evening at mine

On Sunday night, G and I were joined for dinner by P making a rare guest appearance. Being his usual incorrigible self, he had disregarded instructions to bring one bottle maximum, and arrived with two which he got at a recent auction. Oh well, what can one do...

We began proceedings with a glass of Pol Roger Pure, the low dosage version, which made an excellent aperitif alongside some Roka Cheese Crispies.

Then it was on to the main event, this Pommard which I am reliably informed was from the 1970 vintage. The label refers to Geisweiler & Fils, negotiants in Nuits St Georges, who I suspect are no longer going. The wine had been bottled in the UK and not moved basically for 45 years, and the level was impressive for such an old wine.

We thought it was very Pommard, smooth, powerful and rich, with considerable heft. A herbaceous, minty note was detected along with liquorice and a hint of the sugar bag. It was amazing that it had survived so well and we thought it must have been a total monster in its youth. It went down very easily and accompanied our roast chicken perfectly.

With our cheese course, we cracked on with this bonus bottle which was a 1967 St Estephe bottled by the same people in the UK. Again, the level was excellent. It refers to "Grand Vin de Bordeaux" on the label which according to G meant that it was own-labelled wine from one of the big estates. This was splendid old school claret, still drinking well, with lovely woody notes. Having drunk the 1970 Montrose a couple of weeks earlier, we thought there was a very real possibility that this wine came from the same chateau.

It's always really interesting to try these old wines, and I was delighted that they had survived so well. They also have the advantage of not carrying any hangover-inducing particles. Many thanks to P for sharing these treasures with us!