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!

Strange times

Well, life has been very different for the past 8 weeks and there are no signs of anything changing very much soon, here in London at least.

The biggest disappointment is that we've had to cancel our wedding, which was supposed to be happening in September. The logistics now make it impossible to go ahead in the way we had intended, but we'll find some other way to do it sooner or later. I was looking forward to having a great celebration but ultimately I care more about being married to D than I do about the wedding day itself. No Bridezillas here 😉 No more counting days till my next trip to Pennsylvania either, as it's unclear when that will be. It's not the best time to be in a long-distance relationship, but we just have to be patient and WhatsApp helps a lot.

I probably spend far too much time at the moment reading about R0 numbers, quarantine restrictions, the future of the aviation industry and when exactly is Iceland going to reopen. A pagan Icelandic wedding sounds quite appealing although not if sheeps heads are involved.

There are plenty of things to be grateful for: family and friends seem to be managing all right, work has been keeping me busy (busier than usual in fact, in a good way - doing my bit to help the NHS) and the weather has been good so I've been able to get out for a walk most days and alleviate the cabin fever. My kettlebell has never seen so much action!

And I'm very fortunate to be well-stocked on the wine front. There have been some new arrivals lower down the scale, as well as some older stuff coming to light from the bottom of the wardrobe, such as this Barolo Broglio 2012 from Schiavenza. This is one of two Barolos which I brought back from a trip to Turin in October 2017, so we decided it had bided its time for long enough.

I shared it with G in a suitably socially-distanced way, of course. It was a lovely dark colour, and had what G described as a "big ass nose" of hedgerow fruits. We'd probably have thought it was American if we'd been tasting it blind, not least because it came in at a whopping 15% alcohol. It was big, powerful and polished with well-integrated tannins. Cherry stones, mint, cocoa and liquorice were all mentioned. We felt it had aged as much as it needed to, but I think I'll keep the other one (same year, different producer) for a future group event, as it was so big that one glass would be enough. Not that that stopped us drinking the whole bottle, of course!

Inevitably I couldn't remember how much I paid for it, but think it was in the 40-50 euro range, and Wine Searcher tells me that the going rate is now £47 although this particular vintage is not available from any UK stockists. I think that's fair value for money when compared to some other flashy red wines. This would be a real dinner party pleaser, and might go very well with a cheese course. Now we just need to be allowed to have dinner parties again...

SPNS dinner, 13th May

On Friday it was time for the next instalment of the Chronicles of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society, and for once we had a full turnout!

I found the others picnicking on quails eggs from P's estate and after some confusion with ice cubes, we commenced with this Gaillac "Gouleyant" from Georges Vigoroux which is made from Loin de l'Oeil and Sauvignon, also provided by P. I certainly hadn't come across Loin de l'Oeil before - apparently it is native to the Gaillac region. It wasn't particularly cold so the ice cubes did in fact come in handy. For me, it was an agreeable, refreshing aperitif and G described it as pleasant quaffing wine. Good with quails eggs.

Then we moved upstairs to the dining room and cracked on with my contribution, this Chablis 1er cru Vaulorent 2008 from Domaine Nathalie et Gilles Fevre. I was gushing about this domaine in my post yesterday and this wine was absolutely top-notch. It had a lovely weight and was big and rich by Chablis standards. This was my last bottle but apparently G still has some magnums... there is probably no rush, to be honest. 2008 Chablis 1er cru Vaulorent from N&G Fevre - #nuffsaid read the comment from the Twitter-loving ACC. Absolutely.

We moved on to a pair of pinot noirs. First, this Spatburgunder 2012 Weiler Schlipf from Schneider, contributed by T. This had an interesting nose which for me had earthy and animal elements. It was pretty and definitely a food wine. There was some debate as to whether it was a typical pinot - T compared it to a Gevrey-Chambertin but I couldn't see much resemblance myself!

This Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits 2013 from Domaine Felettig, on the other hand, was definitely very Burgundian. It was brought along by ACC. This was already drinking well and reminded me of a baby Chambolle. I found it relatively light, soft and elegant although G described it as rich and powerful! The comments in the book were universally positive and I think we all thought this was our kind of wine.

Next up was this Barolo 1986 from Bruno Giacosa which G got at auction. As with all these things, there was some uncertainty as to whether it would have survived, since the provenance was unknown.

The waitress did a great job of getting the cork out in one piece and it turned out that we needn't have worried - it was fine. The nose was certainly mature and I found it quite sweet, but on the palate it was integrated and supple, and it had a wonderful finish. It was a treat to drink this mature Barolo.

With pudding, we had a 1973 Tokaji 5 puttonyos brought along by D. This was old school, fruity tokaji, with dried fruit and figs going on. I think D made the right choice of sticky toffee pudding to go with it, but it did go well with my frangipane tart too. G made a reference to filthy wine-making but the results were delightful.

I was amused by the back label.

Finally, I'd brought along this 1998 Eiswein which T had left behind last time from Weingut Hafner in Austria, made from pinot noir grapes. After a quick bath in the ice bucket we opened it. For me this had notes of apricot and G described it as pleasant, lightweight Eiswein. I think we all liked it, but it suffered from being served after the Tokaji.

As usual, we repaired to the garden where the heaters took the chill off a surprisingly cold evening, and conversation continued until various cars arrived to whisk people off into the night. Another very enjoyable evening, thanks everyone!

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!