SPNS, 15th May

On Monday night, it was a double bill - first the spring/summer tasting of the Burgundy Portfolio, held in the delightfully-named Dragon Hall, and then off to the Savile for the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. I had to be careful not to overdo it on the former especially as I had a six hour meeting the following day... but was impressed by the range on display which included some lively new additions from autres regions.

After the usual impossibility of finding a black cab in the rain, we eventually made it to the Savile and went straight upstairs to the dining room where a chilled bottle of Etoile was waiting for us, provided by D.

This is a non-vintage fizz made by Chandon in the Napa Valley. For me, it was elegant and relatively light with nice toasty notes and a great finish. Others detected baked apples and butterscotch. G, who has drunk far more champagne than me (she says bitterly), said it reminded him of Krug. A very enjoyable aperitif.

Then it was on to an Austrian rose wine made from pinot noir rose, from Weingut Schlossberg, provided by T. Notes on this were sparse but favourable, the general verdict being that it was a very pleasant, crisp light pink and good summer drinking.

With our main courses, we moved on to a pair of clarets. First was this Chateau Charlemagne 1995 Canon Fronsac from P, who bought it at a very favourable price back in the day. It was fully mature but not over the hill, with resolved tannins and good fruit, and despite quibbling in certain parts about the authenticity of the crown on the label, everyone rated it very highly.

I provided this somewhat mysterious "Pauillac" 2012 which refused to be photographed properly. This came from the Wine Society who state that it is from "one of the area's best-known properties in the heart of the commune". This divided the company with T saying it was wasted on him whereas everyone else seemed to enjoy the big, rich, powerful style. I wonder if it would be worth tucking some away for the future. Distinctly reminiscent of Latour and a fraction of the cost. I'll say no more!

It's always a joy to see a bottle looking like this once the contents are emptied. This was a 1962 South Coast rose muscat from from Massandra in the Crimea. A possible homage to the Ukraine's hosting of Eurovision perhaps? It was provided by G, another auction acquisition.

As is often the case with muscat, one was reminded of Turkish Delight, but for once I didn't find that offputting. It was a beautiful tawny colour, concentrated and luscious, but with good acidity to balance it. Some detected ripe figs, and it certainly went very well with my glazed pear dessert. A very special wine. Thanks everyone for another fascinating evening!

Eurovision party, 13th May

The Eurovision Song Contest always provides a good excuse for a party with its many drinking game opportunities and this year I was joined by G and ACC. We didn't feel the need to wait for a key change to get cracking...

ACC had mentioned that he was going to bring a French pink fizz but we weren't expecting this, which looked dangerously like sparkling shiraz, my least favourite alcoholic beverage of all time. In fact it was a natural wine called Aubunite La Sorga from the Languedoc, which ACC had brought back from a recent trip to Paris. It's made from a grape called Aubun, with which I was not familiar, and was relatively low alcohol at 11%. Once again I have to confess to not making detailed tasting notes, but can confirm we did enjoy it! Très glou-glou. And what a font on the label!

Next up, to accompany some Ginger Pig pork pie and sausage roll, and a couple of token vegetables, was this Fleurie 2011 from Jean Foillard. G brought a bottle of the 2009 vintage back from Brussels of all places last year, and we really enjoyed it. It's one of these very pure Beaujolais which tick the boxes for me. So I went online and randomly found some 2011 and snaffled the lot, only five bottles but I've been working my way through them with great pleasure. As usual, it went very well with charcuterie, and had notes of black cherry. I think it took us a whole 22 minutes to get through it.

Then it was on to a bottle of Terres Burgondes 2011 from Giboulot, which is another light, pretty number with scintillating fruits. I love it, and the 2011 vintage is going down particularly well at the moment.

The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur and for me the winning song was rather dull. I prefer this sort of thing (sample lyrics "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!") and was delighted to see Ruslana perform in the interval with a song which was mysteriously similar to her 2004 winner. Altogether now: "Shi-di-ri-di-day, shi-di-ri-di-da-na!"

Tasting of German wines, 26th April

G kindly invited me to a tasting of German wines in Southwark a few days ago. I accidentally took the long way round out of Waterloo Station and then discovered that my knowledge of the area wasn't as good as I thought it was, but eventually made it to the designated meeting point only about a minute late.

The tasting began with five white Rieslings from the Saar and Mosel, all from the 2014 vintage. They were medium sweet or perhaps off-dry, only about 7.5% alcohol, and with lovely tropical flavours (we seem to be finding passionfruit in everything we drink at the moment!), peach and lime marmalade.

Comments were made about how you could drink these wines at breakfast, or mid-morning, at lunchtime, or in the afternoon in the garden (for those lucky enough to possess such a thing). They were very approachable even so young, with a certain freshness and good acidity, and wonderful length. My favourite was the Erdener Herzlei Spätlese from Weingut Dr Hermann in the Mosel, which positively demanded an apricot tart. It was extraordinary to find that they cost between £7 and £14 at the cellar door, although that was a couple of years ago and G referred to the prices on the tasting sheet as "charmingly inaccurate".

We then moved on to four red wines, all Spätburgunder i.e. Pinot Noir. Unfortunately the photos came out somewhat blurred so I won't post them here but the wines looked beautiful in the glass, a translucent red, and I detected notes of cherry on the nose. Unfortunately on the palate they were not my kind of thing, and I wasn't alone in this. There was a particular unpleasant bitter quality on the finish which reminded me (sensitive readers should look away now) of bile. I didn't say this out loud, but everyone around us poured them away, self included. I had hoped that the first wine was a duffer and I think everyone kept trying to convince themselves that each one was better than the last ("Oh, this is not too bad" said someone about the third) but in my opinion they were all equally awful. Oh well! At least now I know to avoid them in future.

Fortunately we didn't end the evening on a sour note, as the chap who had organised the tasting produced this 1990 Trierer Deutschherrenberg Auslese from the Mosel as the final wine. This was more like it! It was a beautiful golden colour and was absolutely delicious, with floral notes along with the classic petrol of Riesling, and honey. It had great acidity and balance, and a splendid finish, and reminded me of the days when G and I used to drink Bernkastler Bratenhofchen in the late 90s. Wonderful stuff and very generous of the organiser to share it with us. I may not share his taste in reds, but this reminded me how much I love this style of white, and I'll be looking out for it in future.