Sunday lunch, 1st May

Yesterday I ventured south of the river for lunch with G and H at their new house. Also present were ACC and the Baron. I attempted to make a few notes but this will be mostly a review in pictures. 

G gave a tour of the house accompanied by this 2009 Moet and Chandon which was pleasingly mature.

ACC had brought along this intriguing looking white. I was paying insufficient attention when the Baron translated this for us, so have no idea what it is called. 

We were told it was a combination of two grapes from Burgundy, which turned out to be chardonnay and melon de bourgogne. It was certainly unusual, very aromatic with quite a grapey nose, and quite dry on the palate. It went well with the very pungent smoked trout starter. I also approved of the alcohol level. 

I had brought along two bottles of red which needed drinking up with good company. First was this Beaune 1er cru Les Epenottes 2009 from Domaine Parent. It looked beautiful in the glass, lovely and glossy, and was fully mature. I found it quite savoury and it almost reminded me of a claret, with some woody notes which others attributed to new oak. G gave it a solid 9 points. 

This Corton Perrieres grand cru 2009 from La Maison Romane went down even better as far as I was concerned. It had beautiful summer berries on the nose along with a slightly wild quality, and was drinking perfectly now.

Then G produced this 1973 Beaune 1er cru Les Greves from Yves Darviots, a real blast from the past as we used to stay at this domaine back in the day. It had survived remarkably well, especially considering that the vintage isn't well-regarded (for wine at least). It was perfumed, piquant, delicate and delicious, a real treat. In a crowded field, for me this was the top wine of the day. 

We finished off with a half of Suduiraut 2001, which went very nicely with a raspberry and almond tart. 

It was also a pleasure to see Benjy again, settling well into his new home and keeping an eye on things from his chair. 

Thanks to all for a most enjoyable lunch!

Some more recent Cote de Beaune reds!

And we're back! Happy new year. It was nice to celebrate Christmas with my mother, as opposed to the solitary 2020 version, and January has been pretty good too. My friend J from Grand Rapids was unexpectedly in London on New Year's Day and I was delighted to meet up even if only for an hour in Fortnums ice cream bar, where we got the new year off in style with a bottle of Billecart Salmon rose while her son enjoyed a design-your-own ice cream sundae. 

I also had a lovely meal at Bocca di Lupo with ACC and the Baron in the first week of January. I brought along a bottle of Meursault from Perrin, while ACC brought a Beaune from Domaine de la Roseraie and the Baron brought a bottle of La Dernier Goutte from Perrin. All three were excellent and the food at Bocca was great as ever, not to mention the celebrity-spotting opportunities. 

Anyway, down to business... some recent reds from the Cote de Beaune, all of which were kindly provided by G. 

This 2015 Monthelie from Domaine Roulot was, let's just say, not one of the highlights of the month. I usually love wines from this domaine, but this one was challenging, with lots of unresolved tannin and definitely still in its sulky adolescence phase. Just bad timing I suspect. G replaced it with some Warre 1970 which was absolutely wonderful.

And then on to the premier crus. First, this Beaune Bressandes 2018 from Henri Germain et Fils. This was quite a dark colour and looked glossy. I decanted it an hour in advance. It had a lovely nose with interesting dark fruit, and was silky but somewhat croquant. Loganberries were mentioned. There was  a lot of tannin, like 100% cocoa chocolate. We decided it needed another 15 years and gave it an 8. 

I have to admit I never get particularly excited at the prospect of a bottle of Savigny-les-Beaune, but this 1er cru Les Hauts Jarrons 2014 from Domaine de Bellene confounded my expectations. If I'd been drinking it blind, I wouldn't have guessed it was a Savigny as it didn't have the typical savoury notes, but was perfumed with sweet fruit, and surprisingly light with some cherries on the finish. It reminded me more of a Chorey or even a red Auxey. It was charming and we gave it a high 8. G told me that this domaine is the personal estate of Nicolas Potel and I see his wines are sold by BBR.

And finally, the other night we had this Volnay 1er cru Clos de la Rougeotte 2005 from Domaine Henri Boillot. This was fantastic. It had lovely fruit - blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants - and also some interesting other, wilder flavours. "It's got really exciting undergrowth" commented G. It was drinking perfectly now, and we felt it was as good as Volnay as you could hope for. Dix points! 

Recent Cote de Beaune reds

Moving swiftly on to recent C de B reds...

This was a Beaune 1er cru Teurons 2015 from Domaine Chanson. It was a very dark colour and came across as rich, ripe and somewhat international. I did enjoy the blackberry fruit, which became more prominent when we moved on to the cheese course, and there was some dark chocolate, but the unresolved tannins led us to believe it might be better in 10 years. We gave it an 8, with the potential to become a 9 in the future.

We had another Beaune recently which was very different - G provided this 1er cru Les Blanches Fleurs 1991 from Tollot-Beaut at a recent Sunday lunch. It had that nose of elderly Burgundy with some sweetness and sous-bois. On the palate, it was congruent and silky with lovely red berry fruit. G told us that 1991 was a very good vintage, but overshadowed by 1990. This wine was probably quite challenging in its youth. We gave it a 9.

At the same lunch, we also had a Volnay 1er cru Santenots-du-Milieu 1996 from Domaine des Comtes Lafon. I always associate this domaine with Caveau des Arches as we've had so many of their wines there, . This was a darker colour and I found the nose very exciting - not exactly feral, but with a lot of animal notes. Half an hour in, it because more fragrant. As I was distracted by lively conversation I failed to make detailed notes but summarised it as "this is really serious, classy stuff" (unfortunately it also comes with a serious price tag so thanks again to G for forking out for it). We gave it a 9. I see we actually had the 2011 vintage three years ago, which I reported on here.

Later in the week we had another Volnay, this time 1er cru Mitans 2015 from Vincent Perrin. It was dark and glossy in the glass with an enticing nose of blackcurrant and blackcurrant leaf, according to G. It was powerful and intense with hedgerow fruits and later on, a black cherry note. It was meaty, complex and satisfying. We felt there was no rush on it and it would last a further 15 years, but if drinking now, then a 3 hour decant would be wise. We gave it an 8 with the potential to go higher. 

And finally, on Wednesday, sadly a bottle of my Cacheux 2005 Vosne turned out to be incorrect, so we had this Mercurey 1er cru La Chassiere 2016 from Vincent & Jean-Pierre Charton instead. I always think of Mercury as croquant and this was no exception. It was quite tart. G developed a theory that we've been drinking them either 3 years too young or 3 years too old, and that they should be drunk either young and fruity or older when the structure has had a chance to develop. I guess we hit this one in its sulky adolescence phase. Initially, we thought it would be a 7, but it improved over time, becoming lusher and rounder and ended up a low 8, suggesting it has a future. Mercurey is a village to watch, with climate change working in its favour, and prices still quite reasonable by Burgundy standards - this one came in at less than £30. 

That brings me to the end of my recent wine notes. I'm off to see Maman A du V next week (rules permitting) and have a nice bottle of port to drink while I'm there... happy Christmas everyone!

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!

Fascinating and delicious

I'm glad to say that things gradually improving here. I've been out for a couple of very welcome meals and hosted my first indoor lunch party for a very long time. Now I'm just waiting for the USA to open up so I can get over to Pennsylvania and see my beloved. But in the meantime, a lot of fine wine is getting drunk so time for another update. Reds this week, whites next week. 

This Beaujolais le Ronsay 2019 from Jean-Paul Brun was one of those low-sulphite numbers that I adore. It had a glorious nose of cherries and marzipan, and was fresh and fruity, despite being served slightly too cold (tsk, G). It was crying out for a baguette and a bit of pate. I'm informed that it cost less than £15. If I was still buying wine, I'd be stocking up!

This Givry 1er cru la Grande Berge 2015 from Domaine Ragot also went down very well. It was glossy, with a pleasing garnet colour, and the nose was absolutely gorgeous - summer fruit compote or even a fruit tart, as there was hint of creme patissiere. It was more serious on the palate, succulent with hints of cigar box and blackcurrant on the finish. As G said, "the nose is glorious, the palate merely excellent." We wondered if it needed more time, but I'd be a little anxious about the nose losing its freshness if one kept it too long. We gave it a 9. I think Givry is definitely a village to watch as this wine was quite a steal for what it was.

These days I don't always bother making notes on wines which I've reported on before, but this Chassagne 1er cru Morgeot 2010 from Domaine de la Choupette continues to provide a lot of pleasure. We detected various colours of currant on the nose - not sure I knew pink currants were even a thing -  and it had an enticing juicy sharpness. The notes of redcurrant made it an excellent pairing with venison and the finish was also wonderful, with a peacock's tail burst of black cherry and even a little chocolate. "Not for amateurs" said G. It's been a consistent 9.

I didn't get a photo of this one, but one night last week as we watched the rain pouring down on the Scottish football fans outside (which didn't stop the chanting, sadly), G poured me a mystery glass of something which I promptly misidentified as a gamay, as it was very purple. It turned out to be a Beaune 1er cru Cent Vignes 2017 from Jane Eyre. It was exuberant and lively, very fruity and a little frivolous. I found it slightly croquant and G detected a rather agricultural stemmy quality. Anyway, he told me it cost £58, which is rather a lot when you can get Coteaux Bourguignons for a third of the price. Apparently Jane is quite a cult producer, hence the ambitious price tag. We gave it an 8 but wouldn't be rushing back to buy more. 

Prices aren't what they used to be!

Earlier in the week, we succumbed to this Trefethen Napa Valley pinot noir from 1983, which had been lurking in my cupboard for a long time, part of the excellent lot I got at auction a couple of years ago. The cork initially looked good but then crumbled spectacularly. The wine itself looked mature, with a lot of brett on the nose initially which fortunately blew off, and a generous hand with the sugar bag. Or maybe they didn't need the sugar bag in California. Anyway, it was silky, with lovely autumnal fruit and was described as "fascinating and delicious" hence the title of this blog post. We would have thought it was from Burgundy if we hadn't known it was Californian. A real pleasure to drink.

Then on Thursday, G raised the bar yet again by producing this Chambolle-Musigny 1er cru Les Sentiers 2012 from Domaine Arlaud. I had a good feeling about this one.

While he was doing stuff in the kitchen, I swirled it around my glass and started chortling at the sight of these impressive legs. What a wonderful glossy wine. The nose elicited groans of ecstasy - it was absolutely divine with sweet, heady fruit. "Oooh that's absolutely fooking gorgeous" said G in a camp northern accent. On the palate, it was congruent, silky and complex with mouthwatering fruit. Griotte cherries, loganberry, plum skin and dark chocolate were all mentioned. It was very sensual and typique, seriously sexy pinot noir. 2012 can be a little on the burly side, but this was not. Top notch Chambolle from an excellent producer. We thought it was at the beginning of its drinking window and if we were lucky enough to find another bottle there would be no rush, but no particular need to wait either. There was some debate as to whether it was a 10 but in the end we settled on a high 9. The kind of wine that reminds us why we drink Burgundy.

Action shot!

And finally, a real rarity. I was joined for lunch by G, ACC and the Baron a couple of weeks ago and G produced this magnum of Clos de Vougeot from Jean-Jacques Confuron which he got at auction. The vintage was unknown, and we had hoped that it would be revealed on the cork but it was not to be.

It was plummy in colour with a light rim and great legs, and looked pristine. For me, it was very old school - fragant, rich and powerful with incredible length. It didn't have a huge amount of fruit, but ACC said that Clos de Vougeot often has mocha chocolate, which was certainly the case here. We thought it was at least 35 years old and apparently most of the other wines in the lot were from 1978 so there's a very good chance that this was too, but we'll never know. There was no problem getting through the magnum between the four of us - what a treat! Thanks G.

Magnums and more

Second blog post in a month shocker! I'm now trying harder to make sure I have a notebook to hand when drinking the good stuff. 

A couple of weeks ago we opened this magnum of Auxey Duresses 2005 from Michel Prunier, which had been lying in my wardrobe for a very long time. I bought several of these and last drank it in 2013 - we decided to give the others some time to come round. Our view was that it is now drinking. It was on the rustic side, old school Burgundy. It reminded G of wines from Doudet-Naudin, and if you told me it was from the 1960s I'd have believed you. I think a couple more of these are residing in Middle England somewhere so it may be one to run by the SPNS in due course... 

A few nights later we had this Savigny les Beaune 1er cru Les Marconnets 2015 from Domaine de la Vougeraie. This was an attractive glossy ruby colour. It had black fruit on the nose, not a typical Savigny nose. It seemed quite big to me but G detected a certain stemmy quality. This went away when we drank it with the lamb tagine and our view was that improved over time. I wondered if it was a bit young, but for me it was lacking in fruit and I'm not sure it would ever really improve. We gave it a 7 on the premier cru scale so a little disappointing to be honest. 

Things improved when G wheeled out this half bottle of Gould Campbell 1980. He has shared a lot of port with me over the past few months which I've enjoyed very much but failed to report on. This was very interesting with fig on the nose, panforte and even milk chocolate - very high quality milk chocolate, G said. The texture was wonderful, lots of glycerine, and there was a hint of Turkish Delight on the finish. It needed no more time and was now a "pop and pour". 

Last weekend we were extremely decadent and ordered a takeaway from Otto's which I have written about before here. To begin with, we drank this Rully 1er cru Montpalais 2016 from Jean-Baptiste Ponsot. This was a beautiful golden colour and had a very attractive nose of unwaxed lemons. It was rounded and creamy in the mouth with a burst of acidity at the end, almost salty. We thought it would be excellent with fish and chips. G declared that marginal villages make great wine in hot vintages, something to bear in mind for future reference. We gave this a 9.

The first course of the very complicated Otto's offering was brioche with duck liver on the left and morels in a sauce on the right. The toaster was brought down from its place above the kitchen cabinets and dusted off for the occasion, and fortunately G alerted me to the fact that the brioche would toast very quickly and we timed it to perfection. The duck liver may be the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, and I plan to attempt to replicate it in the near future - we think port, brandy and butter were all involved. It's hard to believe Otto's doesn't have a Michelin star.

The second course involved duck breast, the famous sauce and some pommes souffles - a miserly portion as we were splitting it over 2 days.

The intention was to have this Beaune 1er cru Cent-Vignes 2005 from Albert Morot alongside. Like the Auxey discussed above, I'd come to realise that 2005 is taking forever to come round, so this had been stashed away in the come-back-to-it-later branch of the cellar. What can I say. It would certainly have been undrinkable young. It reeked to high heaven with famyard aromas and sousbois and there was something weirdly pungent about it. G charitably looked for positives but even he was eventually defeated and agreed it was getting worse with time, so down the sink it went. We gave it a 5 on the premier cru project scale, a disappointing result, as I did enjoy some of the wines from this domaine when I visited it in 2007. 

Next, we opened my last bottle of Santenay Comme Dessus 2010 from Domaine de la Choupette, but something wasn't quite right about it either - it had a stemmy quality reminding me of bad cabernet franc, and a bitter finish. I'm pretty familiar with this wine and it's usually very pleasurable, so something wasn't right. Down the sink it went. 

The pressure was on! Fortunately a bottle of Audiffred Bourgogne Rouge 2016 was on form with the usual exotic fruits on the nose, and went down very well. 

The following night, we had this Beaune 1er cru Greves 2013 from Domaine de la Vougeraie. This was more typical Beaune, medium weight, supple and elegant with nice acidity and complexity. It went very well with the remains of the duck, although I wondered if a big Cote de Nuits red might have gone even better. The nose took a while to open up, and after 2 hours in the decanter it brightened up with notes of black fruit, red fruit and clafoutis. It had a burst of sweetness at the end. Originally we gave it a medium 8 but it was upgraded to a high 8 as time went on. 

Finally, I've been drinking this magnum of Beaujolais Villages 2016 from Maison en Belles Lies for the past few days - not really the ideal size for solitary lockdown drinking but what's a girl to do. It has lots of fruit and is very gluggable, and it's been reminding me of the Coteaux Bourguigons from Romain Chapuis with its slightly feral quality. High praise indeed as that's one of my favourite wines. 

And so on we go... at least there are daffodils outside, the magnolia trees have their buds and I'm looking forward to resuming tastings and dinners soon!

Lunch at the Baron's, 2nd November

Once again, I see that it has been a shockingly long time since I updated the blog, what with all the gallivanting that has been going on. The road trip to Maine back via the Finger Lakes was great fun, and thanks to D for his tip on the wine store in Ithaca, which had a remarkable collection. I also went to Sicily for a few days with my mother and enjoyed plenty of Aperol Spritzes in the sun. That seems a long time ago now as I sit here typing with the rain beating down outside. I plan a few more posts before the end of the year, as there is some recent drinking to be reported and a flurry of vinous-related social events lined up in the near future.

Anyway, last Saturday the Baron kindly invited us round to lunch at his place and, glass of Pol Roger in hand, we enjoyed a viewing of the newly-installed penthouse suite. With our smoked salmon, there was vodka from Uzbekistan and Russia. I'm not a vodka expert by any means but these were very interesting and definitely not something you'd find in Waitrose!

G contributed this 1973 Chablis 1er cru Fourchaumes from Lamblin & Fils which amazingly seemed to have survived very well.

It was an absolutely beautiful golden colour and very buttery. We concluded that a lot of sulphur must have been used to preserve it. It was made in the days when such things were built to last. Definitely the best dry white from 1973 that we can recall tasting.

I loved the label, with the lobsters and the rams, and we admired the colour of the bottle which ACC tells me is called "feuille morte".

Moving on to the main course, an amazingly silky "oxtail and other beef" stew, the Baron indulged us with a bottle of 2002 Beaune 1er cru Greves from Yves Darviot. This had a very farmyardy nose and needed a bit of time. It's fully mature now and went down very easily.

ACC brought along another 1973, this time a Cotes du Rhone from a negociant based in Rully. We were amused that it hadn't been passed off as a Burgundy. This was at the agricultural end of the scale and I detected a hint of the sugar bag. It had sweet fruit and was easy drinking.

My contribution was this 1978 Romeira, a random Portuguese red picked up at auction. G had suggested that it would make a good cheese wine, and indeed it was big, gutsy and powerful with a great finish.

Epoisses!

Finally, we had a bonus white which G brought along - this 2014 Hermann J Wiemer Late Harvest Riesling from the Finger Lakes.

This was medium-sweet, an old-fashioned style, and some described it as appley. It was the perfect complement to a fruit tart. At a mere 8.5% alcohol, it had good acidity and an amazing finish. The sort of wine that when I drink it, I always wonder why I don't drink wines like that more often...

Thanks very much to the Baron for hosting and to everyone for their contributions!