Swiss Pinot Noir Society, 10th October 2022

I hadn't realised it had been quite so long since I updated the blog! A lot going on as I head towards the end of the year. I should have more time on my hands soon, so will try to do a better job in 2023... Also, this week I had some very fine wine delivered out of storage as I can't take it to the US with me, so I should have some pretty decent drinking over the next few months. 

The SPNS met on 10th October and there were six of us present - G, D, T, P and H and myself. Apologies were received from ACC. 

We kicked off with this sparkling blush wine from Ovens Farm in Lincolnshire brought by P and H. This was generally well-received with everyone commenting on the strawberries and in some cases icing sugar - it was perhaps on the sweeter side. Several of us thought it would be excellent as a summer picnic wine.

It appears that we didn't make notes on this elderly Moet, possibly because it had turned into sherry. Interesting!

G had brought along this St-Aubin 1er cru Sous Roche Dumay 2019 from Domaine Gerard Thomas. This was a little on the oaky side for most of us although T noted that it went well with the slightly spicy scallops. G awarded it a low 8. My view was that I was glad we were sharing it between six rather than two people.

D's contribution was this 2014 riesling from Domaine LeSeurre in the Finger Lakes. It was an incredibly pale colour, and light, fresh and pure on the palate. I got a hint of lychee. Others detected floral notes. It went down very well.

T brought along this 2019 "No.3" from Schlossgut Bachtobel - an actual Swiss pinot noir! This had lot of red berry fruit and I found it relatively light and fruity while others thought it was quite meaty. We all enjoyed it.

My own contribution was this 2009 Corton Les Perrieres from La Maison Romane. This was my last bottle and it needed knocking on my head. P and H had provided some partridges for the chef to cook for us, and it was a wonderful accompaniment, with all those wild elements that I really enjoy.

  

And finally, G provided this Coteaux de Layon 2013 from Chateau de la Roulerie to go with the dessert course. This was a beautiful golden colour and on the palate I got candied fruits and possibly pineapple. By this stage of the evening, everyone's comments in the (new) Book were becoming even more impossible to decipher but I think most of us enjoyed it.

Thanks to all for another great SPNS dinner. Another one took place last Friday which I'll write up soon!

Lunch at my place, 15th May

I have a blogging backlog to get through (shocking! tragic!) but am hoping to do it this week - stay tuned.

Two Sundays ago I invited G, ACC and Baron McG round for lunch. We started with kir royales / bellinis made with Cremant de Bougogne from Dufouleur and Chambord or Creme de Peche (I have a feeling G and I rudely helped ourselves to most of the Chambord before the others arrived) served with some gougeres fresh from the oven. That recipe alone makes Michel Roux's Eggs book well worth the price of admission.

Next up was a bottle of Meursault 1er cru Charmes 2005 from Moret-Nomine. I'd only tasted his wines very young before at one of ACC's "try before you buy" tastings last year, so when I found this on the Wine Society list I couldn't resist, and had been looking out for an opportunity to crack it, as I thought it would be a special occasion kind of wine.

I wasn't disappointed. We decanted it for about half an hour, and it had a lovely golden colour. On the nose it was rich and big and on the palate it had an unctuous mouthfeel and was fat and buttery but with the acidity to balance it. My notes read "Wonderful!" but I didn't quite think it merited a 10, so it got a 9 in the end. It did go very well with the smoked sea trout we had as a starter.

To continue the Meursault theme, after that we had a bottle of the 2007 red Meursault 1er cru Les Cras from Domaine Latour-Labille, provided by G. This was decanted for 2 hours. It had a dark, plummy colour and the nose was wonderful - sweet, heady and with jammy berry fruit. On the palate I've made the articulate tasting note "this is the bollocks". Excellent and accomplished, as it was last time we had it which I blogged about here. We had this with cold beef from the Ginger Pig which I'd roasted the night before.

With the cheese course, we had this Beaune Clos du Roi 2002 from Lois Dufouleur, provided by the Baron. He told us that he bought this at the St Vincent festival and that it had been in his cellar for 3 years so we were privileged to get to drink it!

It had about an hour in the decanter. The colour was dark and serieux, and the nose had that classic beautiful Beaune perfume or "steamy farmyard" according to the Baron. On the palate it was lovely, perfectly balanced and, dare I say it, haunting. It was drinking perfectly now and went very well with the cheese. G said "the only criticism I have of this wine is" (dramatic pause) "that it's not in magnum".

And finally, with our rhubarb crumble we had this Coteaux du Layon 2003 from Domaine de Pierre Blanche, provided by ACC. It was a beautiful golden colour and was luscious, sweet and herbaceous. I wasn't making proper notes by this stage, as we were singing along to various Pet Shop Boys classics, mis-remembering lyrics and competing to see who could do the worst impression of Chris Lowe's monologue on Paninaro. After that we inflicted some Red Biddy on the Baron, but hopefully we're still on speaking terms!

Dinner at ACC Towers

Last night we went round to ACC's for dinner. I took two bottles of Ladoix, a red and a white, both from Capitain-Gagnerot, which I brought back from Burgundy in January. Ladoix is one of those Burgundies you don't see much of in the UK, which may well be due to pronunciation problems - not many restaurants are going to risk putting it on their list. But Ladoix is the next village along from Aloxe-Corton, and white Ladoix in particular can be very refined and something of a little secret to those in the know.

ACC did the honours with the corkscrew and noted the interesting cork substitute, a strange plastic number. Apparently Olivier Leflaive use something similar. I brought them both home to take a photo. I love the fact that they use different colours for the red and the white!


We kicked off with the white, a premier cru Les Hautes Mourottes 2005. There wasn't much happening on the nose and on the palate it was quite full with some honey and nuttiness, but after that I struggled to find anything much to say about it. G thought it was lacking in acidity. All in all, somewhat disappointing at 27 euros. We gave it a 7 in the end.

Next up was the red, 1er cru Bois Roussot 2006. This had what ACC described as a "rustic" nose, and he was quite correct - it had cheerful red fruits but not a great deal of subtlety. The same went for the palate. I rather liked it, and thought it went well with the coarse pate and brioche we had as a starter, but it was simply not the quality you'd expect from premier cru Burgundy, and again at 27 euros deeply disappointing. Another 7. Still it was good to get a couple of obscure vineyards ticked off and I'll be deeply suspicious of that particular shop in future.


ACC then produced a village Mercurey 1988 from Jean Henry. It's always very exciting to drink something this old, and it was lovely, mature, raisiny burgundy. We suspected that some gamay might have joined the pinot noir in the mix, purely by accident of course. Henry makes some beaujolais too so it's easy to see how this could happen, yes. It accompanied a slow-cooked beef and portobello mushroom dish which was very fine indeed, as were the roast potatoes and garlic, and broccoli with toasted almonds. Blogtastic indeed!


With pudding, which was pears in amaretto and ice cream, we had a Coteaux du Layon 2003. This did not smell particularly sweet on the nose, and on the palate was very well-balanced with good acidity. It was an excellent combination.


In the middle of proceedings we pored over the latest copy of Bourgogne Aujourdhui which ACC had brought back from his most recent trip, and in particular a map of the vineyard Clos de Vougeot showing who owns which vines. Fascinating stuff and a reminder of the size of the Burgundian holdings - in some cases the map literally showed someone owning a single row of vines - compared to the way thing work in Bordeaux. Give me the peasant farmer over the international multi-conglomerate any day.


Finally, the long-anticipated "green stuff" we had been promised, which turned out to be this remarkable bottle of something called Genepi des Alpes. We think it dated back to the 60s, with a terrible label depicting a quaint mountain scene. The contents were very sweet and herbaceous and reminiscent of yellow chartreuse. This isn't normally my kind of thing, but even I was able to enjoy it. We discussed the father of a friend who has a "Licence to Distill" and apparently makes wine out of edelweiss flowers. I'd like to try that some time. It also emerged that Anne Parent makes a marc de bourgogne so this is something we must definitely get hold of!

On the way home, what appeared to be a Bananarama tribute band got on our bus, but it may just have been a hallucination resulting from the liqueur. Fab evening, ACC.