My contribution was this Cremant de Bourgogne Blanc de Noirs from Domaine Felettig, which was bought several years ago and had been languishing at the bottom of the wine rack as we had thought it would be interesting to try a bottle with some age on it. G bravely went first and gave a grimace, which I think created an expectation among the group that it was going to be terrible, but actually it wasn't at all. It was definitely on the elderly side with yeastiness and biscuity notes. Some detected a weird finish but overall it was considered drinkable and actually improved as time went on, although of course by that stage we had inevitably drunk it all.
P brought along a 1992 sauvignon blanc from Cloudy Bay which apparently he bought en primeur at the height of the hype. It was remarkably youthful and zingy with the classic elderflower nose, while D detected green olives. G said it was a marvellous survival and I would never have predicted that it would be so youthful. It was very kind of P to share his last bottle with us.
T contributed this Vina Tondonia rose 2008. It was a beautiful colour and had a lovely floral, herbaceous nose. D described it as bright and alive and P found it vibrant and great with goat's cheese, while T thought it was still a bit young. ACC wrote something in the book which apparently I'm not meant to quote but since I can't read his handwriting anyway there's no danger there. I found this wine full of character. T says it's still the world's best rose and he's the expert so I wouldn't dream of disagreeing
ACC had brought along this Pur Jus 2016 from Chateau Landra in the Ventoux and described it as pure and juicy, ha ha. It had what T described as a full bouquet, quite earthy, and on the palate was very fruity and powerful. It's a low sulphur wine and I found it dangerously drinkable but noticed it was 14% so have to be careful with that! It went well with food and T particularly enjoyed it, I think.
D had brought along something very unusual, a 1999 Small Berry Mourvedre from Cline Cellars in Sonoma. This was another 14% wine but less of a surprise in this case! ACC told me that mourvedre is a Rhone grape so it was very interesting to try this alongside the Ventoux. It was a very dark colour and hard to believe it was 20 years old, it seemed so youthful. It was complex and powerful with lots of mint and fruit.
Finally, G stole the show with this magnum of Harvey's Bristol Cream bottled in 1977 to celebrate Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee. This was a dark brown murky colour and quite sweet. I got notes of butterscotch and it went really well with my millionaire's pudding. G described it as coherent, old school sherry, really very pleasant and good fun. We all enjoyed it and polished off the magnum with no difficulty whatsoever. As ACC put it, God Save the Queen!
All in all, it was another very interesting and enjoyable evening and thanks everyone for your contributions and notes in the Book.
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