Lunch at mine, 13th May

Last Sunday, I was joined by G, D and ACC for lunch at A du V Towers.

We commenced with some pork scratchings and this bottle of Meursault 1er cru Sous le Dos D'Ane 2002 from Domaine Leflaive, provided by G who is trying to breathe new life into the Premier Cru Project. It was a beautiful pale gold colour and had good legs. I'd like to think I would have identified it as Domaine Leflaive from 20 paces. I'd probably have thought it was Puligny though. It was restrained and elegant with a hint of mushrooms, and was drinking perfectly now. G explained at length that the Sous le Dos D'Ane vineyard is in Blagny, but it's only called Blagny if it's a red wine. We gave it 9 points.

Next up, with our starter of smoked mackerel pate on toast, was this Vougeot 1er cru Le Clos Blanc de Vougeot Monopole 2011 from Domaine de la Vougeraie. We suspected it might not be 100% chardonnay and that there might be some pinot blanc in there. It had a lovely weight and G referred to it having "nice shoulders" while ACC described it as racy. I noticed that it strangely seemed to have evaporated in my glass - not sure how that happened. We gave it a 10, which means Vougeot keeps its top spot with the highest average score for a village. 

ACC had brought along this 2014 Beaune Vieilles Vignes from Domaine de la Roseraie, which although very young was starting to drink. As usual with this domaine, it was a serious wine demanding concentration! It was pretty yet had substance and was very smooth, classic red Beaune. Personally I would come back to it in five years.

I was fairly happy with the roast beef which is just as well as I've been eating it all week!

D had brought along a Adelsheim Oregon Pinot Noir Calkins Lane Vineyard ‎2004 which sadly turned out to be corked. I think this is the first corked bottle we've ever had from D, which is a remarkable record, and what an irony that it was this one and not one of his much older vintages.

Fortunately I had a wardrobe full of alternatives so I wheeled out this Pommard la Croix Blanche 2009 from Domaine Parent. I got this out of storage a few months ago and the verdict was that it wasn't quite ready back then, but this time I think it was. It was tres Pommard, powerful and rich, with good length. G described it as impeccable, and ACC told us that the lieu-dit is next to premier cru vineyards, which explains a lot.

This Epoisses wasn't quite ripe enough for my liking. Never mind. The Picos de Europa was pretty stunning, a new discovery made by G. It's going to be hard to go back to Roquefort now...

A brace of digestifs was consumed with abandon. The fine is made from aligote from Pierre Fenal's parcel (i.e. Maison en Belles Lies) and in my opinion these are up there with the Roulot equivalents.

And then just in case we hadn't had enough to drink, G supplied this Exshaw 1973 cognac to round things off. All in all, a very fine luncheon!

Sunday lunch in Brixton, 12th Sept

Last Sunday G and I went round to ACC's pad in Brixton for lunch. It was an absolutely beautiful autumn day, and there were lots of goodies on the menu!

We kicked off with a comparison of two whites, my Bouzereau Meursault 2002 and an Auxey-Duresses 1995 from Domaine Veronique de MacMahon provided by ACC. The Bouzereau was its usual self and I have blogged about it before so won't go over it again. The Auxey was fascinating. It had a nose of lemon and honey. I think if I'd been tasting it blind I would have mistaken it for a riesling, as it had a core of lime juice acidity. Very vibrant and we all liked it. It made the Meursault seem quite fat by comparison. Check out the classy wax seal!

Then we had a comparison of two reds: a Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Abbaye de Morgeot 2006 from the Marquis de MacMahon provided by ACC versus an Echezeaux (grand cru) 1997 from Denis Thomas which I brought along.

The Chassagne was lovely - a gorgeous ruby colour. Very pretty and scintillating. It was classic Chassagne and reminded me why this is my favourite style of red burgundy, perfumed and elegant. We gave it a 9 for premier cru project purposes. Which, consulting my giant spreadsheet just now, is remarkably consistent as we had a half of the 2001 a couple of years ago and gave it an 9. Pleasing.

The Echezaux was rather a mystery as I picked it up for a bargain basement price at a recent auction. We weren't familiar with the producer but made the assumption that you don't get to produce grand cru burgundy unless you have some idea what you're doing (with perhaps one notable exception ahem) and it didn't disappoint. It was browner than the Chassagne, not surprising given its age, and more meaty on the nose. Rich, serious, delicious, intense, and mellow. That's probably enough adjectives. ACC liked the label and in particular the way the E of Echezeaux is in red. That's very classic, apparently.

Then we moved on to the hard stuff and in particular this old Bisquit cognac. At this point I was starting to flag and my handwriting becomes completely indecipherable except for "PRINCE BERNARD" which I clearly thought was an important point to note. Also "1956". Presumably the label detectives thought it was made then? It was very mellow and there was no fieriness left in it, which worked for me.

The food was great as always as ACC is very talented in that department - the smoked haddock and lentil terrine and tarte au praline were particular highlights. Thanks very much to ACC and we shall have a rematch in due course (better expand my terrine repertoire quick)!