SPNS, 8th June

D was in town recently, so we took the opportunity to have another SPNS dinner. There were four of us on this occasion - me, G, D and ACC. 

It was lovely to walk through central London seeing so much life everywhere. It really feels like things have returned to normal at last and everyone's getting on with their lives.

We began with a bottle of Delamotte 2002 which I had thought was my penultimate bottle, but then G informed me that there are a couple left in his Rutland cellar, hurrah! It was lovely, rich and yeasty mature champagne and I plan to polish the rest off fairly soon as it feels like it's at that point.

The Savile were very busy that evening but we had our usual table in the corner and got cracking on the white.

As the Book was used up at the last meeting and G hadn't got round to getting a new one yet, notes were not made and I'm therefore relying on my hazy memory.

Anyway, ACC brought along this white, Clos du Rouge Gorge 2019, which was generally regarded as a food wine. Further research indicates that it's from Roussillon and the grape is Maccabeu. I seem to recall I got melon on the nose, and then there was some discussion of the precise type of melon, during which G mentioned a melon I'd never heard of. 

 

My second contribution was this Vosne-Romanee 1er cru 2012 from Felettig, which has been wonderful - relatively light and pretty for Vosne, as one would expect from a Chambolle-based producer.

G brought along this Les Rouges 1998 from Domaine Jean Grivot which was fascinating and complex. Obviously it had a lot more age on it than the Felettig, but it was drinking beautifully. 

It's not every night you get to drink two premier cru Vosnes...

Finally, D brought along this "Zinfandel Dessert Wine" 2016, Il Padrone from Oak Farm, California. This is a fortified Zin and apparently to be found in the port section of the wine shop. I really enjoyed it, although I'd like to think I wouldn't have confused it with port. Many of the Zinfandels I've tried in the past have been pretty high in alcohol, so at 18% this wasn't that much higher than them. Fascinating stuff and, as usual, I felt fine the next day!

In other news, I attended a rum tasting with the Baron last week which was fun and educational, so will write about that soon. Next week I'm off to the US and will raid the booze store for some bargains, and we're also heading up to Grand Rapids to visit J, which promises to be an epic weekend. Her collection of grower champagne may take a hit, but I also have a few things stashed away that have been waiting for the right moment!

Picnic in the park, 2nd August

And so the summer continues... Still no light on the horizon as far as big life plans go, but I'm now resigned to things going on like this for some time. Meanwhile, as my wedding has been postponed and plans for a big (by my standards) celebration have flown out of the window, there is wine to be drunk! I was delighted to be joined by ACC, G and the Baron for a picnic in the local square yesterday. 

   

Proceedings commenced with a bottle of Delamotte 2002, which is a blanc de blancs and from an excellent vintage. G explained that he had brought it to my attention a few months ago, and then I'd gone and bought a whole case. Well, obvs. There was some debate about how long it will last but in my view there's no great rush so the odd bottle here and there over the next 2-3 years will go down very nicely. 

ACC pointed out this comet motif on the foil. We wondered if this was a reference to Hale-Bopp, but Google tells me that was in 1997. It seems there was a comet called Ikeya-Zhang in 2002, which completely passed me by at the time, but seems like a cheery thing to have on a bottle of champagne and one can only hope the stars will align again soon. 

I made some cheese straws to go with the fizz, which were somewhat lacking in appearance but still tasted pretty good, made with the Cornish Vintage Quartz cheddar from Waitrose. This cheese is rated strength 7 on a scale of 1-6, and in my experience under no circumstances should be eaten after 3 pm as it has a tendency to cause nightmares. Which is a shame, as it's very delicious.  

Next up was this bottle of Corton Charlemagne 2013 from Maison en Belles Lies. For me, this is absolutely wonderful stuff, the epitome of Chardonnay, drinking very well now. Apparently there is still some available from the Burgundy Portfolio - I highly recommend grabbing a bottle or two! We had it with a chicken, apricot and pistachio terrine which worked very well. 

Moving swiftly on, this red Corton Les Renardes 2008 from Domaine Parent was also exemplary. Normally I'd have decanted it, served in proper Riedel red burgundy glasses etc, but as this was a picnic, it had to be served as it came. I had chilled it, which possibly brought out higher acidity, and it was a wonderful example of pinot.

It was an absolutely beautiful colour too.

And then, dessert! I failed to take a photo of the meringues I made, which incorporated pistachios and chocolate chips, based on Nigella's "forgotten cookies" recipe, although Nigella sadly let me down by pretending these would cook properly in a switched-off oven.  

With these, we had two half bottles of Suduiraut 2001, apparently one of the best ever Sauternes vintages. The first half was wonderful, lots of citrus and marmalade, but the second half was even better! It was a slightly darker colour, more gloopy and ACC detected butterscotch. Interesting that there should be so much variation between bottles from the same case. I'm glad we drank them in that order. We finished off with a spot of Epoisses which happened to be hanging around in my fridge *innocent look*

It was very enjoyable to have this get-together after recent months of doom and gloom. Thanks to the boys for your company and giving me an excuse to drink these beauties!

SPNS dinner, 6th December

I see that another month has passed without any blog posts, largely because I was away from London for 3 weekends in a row. There's a lot to catch up on.

Last night was the December gathering of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. G and I arrived fashionably late (by two minutes) having braved Oxford Street which was full of people not looking where they were going, while Wannabe by the Spice Girls blared out of Top Shop. Tate Britain is clearly bang on trend with its post-apocalyptic Christmas decorations.

Meanwhile at the Savile Club someone was having a 40th birthday party and the far more melodious sound of a saxophone and double bass greeted us as we walked into the bar. I produced the first wine of the evening, this Delamotte Blancs de Blancs 2002 and the day immediately improved.

This was generally well-received - it was great fizz from a great vintage, fully mature, with some nice autolytic qualities (thanks ACC) otherwise known as the smell of digestive biscuits. It was yeasty, toasty and creamy and we all agreed it would be even better served with some canapes. That wish may be fulfilled next September as I have the remainder of the case set aside for a certain  big day!

We moved upstairs to the dining room and got cracking on this Puligny 1998 from Etienne Sauzet while we perused the menu. This was provided by P who got it at auction. Despite its lack of provenance, it was a beautiful golden colour and again fully mature, quite unctuous (or gooey, to use T's word of choice) and buttery on the palate, with a good finish. I had planned to save some to go with my starter but in the end that proved unnecessary, as T had brought along a rose.

This was Mun, Rosato Marche le Calcinara 2018 from Italy. It was a pleasing deep pink colour, bright and fresh, with red fruits and almost bracing acidity. P got raspberry sorbet on the finish. Perhaps not the most serious wine ever, but enjoyable easy drinking.

With our mains, we had two reds. In the blue corner was this Moulin-a-Vent 1999 from Domaine des Grandes Vignes, provided by ACC. This had a truly remarkable nose! Funky seemed the most polite best word to describe it. T absolutely loved it. It was certainly still alive and kicking, and P went to town on the descriptions - elderberry, liquorice, chestnuts and rose hips all receiving a mention. A fascinating wine with lots to talk about!

In the red corner was something far more traditional, this Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1987 from Robert Mondavi, provided by G. This was a very dark colour, and had a lovely cedary nose. It was fully mature, archetypal cab sauv, probably quite high in alcohol, and nicely mellow now. It reminded me of a good claret and I liked it a lot.

No risk of getting these two mixed up

G had to commandeer a pink corkscrew to keep things moving along

The last wine of the evening, contributed by D, was this 1971 German beerenauslese. I nobly volunteered to write down its name and will attempt to reproduce it here: Hallgartener Jungfer from Weingut Georgshof. It was a remarkable dark amber colour, almost the same colour as the bottle, and for me, relatively dry for a sweet wine. I found it quite grapey while D detected honey. It was 11% alcohol and everyone's notes are enthusiastic. It disappeared remarkably rapidly!

P went off to get some cheese (a remarkable truffled number) and while he was gone, the thought of opening his reserve bottle of white occurred to some people who shall not be named. P was happy to go along with the plan, but sadly the wine itself, a Verget Puligny 2000, turned out to be over the hill, although T said it went quite well with his potted trout savoury.

After that, it was agreed that a bottle of Smith Woodhouse 1980 would be in order to go with the cheese. We'd given up making notes by this stage but G has helpfully supplied some for me. It had a restrained nose but delivered on the palate and was full, thick, sweet, plummy and really quite long. Given that it was "popped and poured", it showed very well and would have been even better with some time in the decanter. I've been feeling fine today - just goes to show it's worth drinking the good stuff. Thanks everyone for another very enjoyable evening!