Summer drinking

Today je vous presente general highlights from the last few weeks rather than anything particularly systematic. On most of the occasions below, notes weren't taken so this is mainly a photographic record of Nice Things I Have Drunk Lately

I was delighted to return to the Savile Club for a very welcome and long overdue dinner with T and G. G and I walked there and it was good to see Oxford Street buzzing with activity on a Friday night, complete with a lunatic-with-a-microphone at Oxford Circus offering up some entertainingly ludicrous theories on the causes of Covid-19. 

   

This English pink fizz provided by T got things off to a good start. The vineyard is in West Sussex and I believe it was the 2014 vintage, which is a blend dominated by pinot noir.

G brought along this 2008 rose from Chateau Musar which he had been saving for a very long time to drink with T, connoisseur of pink wines. Apparently T's previously experiences with it had been disappointing, but this time it delivered the goods. 

My contribution was this 2012 Barolo which I brought back from a wine shop in Turin a few years ago. 

 

And with dessert, a particularly unusual additional wine from G - a half bottle of Romanian "Cotnari". We had a similar half a while back with D (see here) although I can see that the labels are different, possibly reflecting different grapes. On that occasion, it was sweet, unctuous and fascinating. This one was very interesting and although we'd expected it to be sweet, had become almost dry over time, a phenomenon which G referred to as "swallowing its sugar". Great to get a chance to try it. 

G and I drank this 1976 Vouvray from Domaine de L'Epinay a few nights ago. It was part of the interesting mixed case I got at auction some time ago, none of which have yet let me down. It was a wonderful amber colour and very concentrated with honey, grapes, lime blossom and beeswax. Once again it had a dry finish and high residual acidity. We had it with a new "ethical foie gras" from Waitrose and brioche toast, which worked very well, but it would probably have gone with other things too. Fully mature but not over the hill, it went down very easily. We finished it off with some berries and cream, which brought out an interesting note of amaretti biscuits!

I'll do some more premier cru project reports in due course, but while I remember, G and I drank this Beaune 1er cru Clos des Feves Monopole 2012 from Domaine Chanson the other night, and had an unusual divergence of opinion on it. It had a wonderful exuberant perfumed nose, very Beaune, and for me continued to deliver on the palate with wild berries, a hint of sousbois, and a heady icing-sugar sweetness. For me it was complex, fruity and autumnal, a nice medium weight and provided a lot of sensual pleasure. It was close to a 10 for me (and the same when I polished the rest off the following evening), but for G it was apparently a mid-7. We're usually much closer in our scores, so this is a bit of a mystery. I may have to get another bottle so we can investigate further, and if G still doesn't think much of it I guess I'll just have to drink it...

Finally, last night I made my way over to Shoreditch, braving the assorted stag and hen parties which were out in force, and met up with ACC for dinner at Rochelle Canteen. I hadn't been there for some time, and they've added a greenhouse type section with good ventilation so we were able to sit "outside". ACC brought along this Volnay 1er cru Carelle sous la Chapelle from Perrin, with the vintage hand-written on the back as 2012. This was lovely stuff, fully mature and elegant. 

The John Dory which we had to share was phenomenal, as was my duck terrine and the malted chocolate chip ice cream! It was great to see Rochelle continuing to thrive, and definitely worth the trip east.

So that's July almost in the bag, and on Saturday I'm off to Iceland for a few days with D which can't come a moment too soon. I suspect this trip won't be particularly wine-related, but have spotted some crowberry liqueur on a restaurant menu so may be unable to resist!