Dinner at G's, 17th March

A couple of weeks ago, G hosted dinner at his flat and we were joined by D who showed up with a suitcase full of wine-related treasures.

We started with my penultimate bottle of Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Morgeot from Domaine de la Choupette alongside the first asparagus of 2019 and some fine prosciutto. The Chassagne was a light straw colour and drinking perfectly now. It has been classy, elegant and stylish with deft use of oak, and has a lovely weight. D found it creamy and I got lemon zest - so basically a lemon syllabub in a glass.

Then it was on to a pair of elderly clarets, Lafite 58 and Leoville-Las Cases 1961, provided by G. Possibly not the fairest comparison given the vintages.

The Lafite was significantly paler than the Leoville and was old but drinkable. It had gone a little soft in its old age and I found it somewhat dried out. D said it had fruit but no acid. We drank both of the wines over 45 minutes and it did improve with time, but the Leoville was definitely more my cup of tea. "That's good" said everyone with a sigh of relief. It had all the flavours I'm looking for in a claret - cedar, tobacco, coffee, leather. Proper old school claret at 58 years old. G told me he knew why I liked it. Apparently Leoville-Las Cases is separated from Chateau Latour by a small stream. Wikipedia confirms this - the Juillac tributary to be precise - not that I doubted G for a moment. A discussion of the great claret vintages followed and for the record, D says that 59 is better than 61 so I think some 59 Latour needs to be added to my bucket list...

I amused myself reading Andre Simon's "Wine and Spirits: The Connoisseur's Textbook" which had some unexpected information in it, including the fact that California has a border with Canada. Who knew!

Meanwhile, G produced this unexpected half of sweet wine. It was called Cotnari and was basically the Romanian equivalent of Tokaji. The vintage was 1984 and it was 12% alcohol.

The wine itself was almost exactly the same colour as G's new table. It had a heady nose - I got a big hit of unsulphured dried apricots while D got figs. Orange peel and tinned peaches were also mentioned. The palate was congruent and the wine was very unctuous with lots of glycerin. It was remarkable stuff and really rather excellent. Apparently this has never been on sale in the UK and the label was in French. The score for Roumanie was definitely douze points and I believe G has another half bottle stashed away somewhere for a future occasion!

Finally, D had brought over a lovely half bottle of Dow's 1977 which we had with our cheese. This was a lovely ruby colour, sweet and rich, with figs, prunes and sultanas and an amazing finish. "The 77s are finally ready" said G, and D agreed - it had all come together perfectly and we got it at the right moment. It was impeccable vintage port, and particularly great with a piece of Stichelton. Thanks very much to both of you. If only all Sunday evenings could be like that!

Weekend in the country

A couple of weeks ago, D and I caught the train from Kings Cross to an undisclosed location in middle England where G's parents' house is located. We arrived in the early afternoon feeling quite ravenous but things looked up when G presented us with a glass of excellent, very dry pre-war sherry.

I was then called upon to assist with the double magnum of Rully 1959 which G bought at auction in a moment of madness some time ago.

There was some debate as to whether it was red or white. I believe the auctioneers had described it as red, but looking at the colour, that seemed unlikely. We all tasted it and agreed it was very interesting and then the rest may or may not have been used for cooking.

Fortunately G had put a reserve white aside to accompany our wild smoked salmon for lunch. This in fact belonged to me, as I have a stash in the cellar which is out of sight, out of mind, thereby providing me with the pleasure of rediscovering it from time to time. The white wine in question was a Puligny Montrachet 1er cru Les Perrieres 2011 from Domaine Bzikot, which was bought from the wine shop in Puligny back in the day. This was rich and full and went very well with the food. Pity it was only a bottle and not a double magnum.

After lunch, we went for a walk into the nearby village and then returned to the house where the local felines were circling ready for their evening meal.

It was the first beautiful day of the year, and we sat outside and drank this bottle of Dom Perignon 2002, which was drinking perfectly now and went very nicely with a cheese straw.

With our dinner, an admirable cassoulet made by G's father, we had this bottle of Chapelle-Chambertin 2005 from Bouchard, which apparently I got in a mystery mixed bag from the Wine Society some time ago. Before tasting it, I had my doubts, as I have yet to drink a 2005 red Burgundy which I considered to be ready, but this proved to be the exception. It was muscular and rich and it was actually drinking. Our favourite wine merchant subsequently told us that Bouchard's style is more forward than others, so we shouldn't extrapolate from this.

Alongside the Chapelle-Chambertin, we had this 1934 Mazis-Chambertin Maison Jules Regnier, which G got at auction. This was quite remarkable, really lovely old burgundy, with a glorious nose, lovely texture and long finish. We drank it over about 45 minutes and it showed no sign of fading. Then we drank the dregs too, it was that good.

We rounded off the evening with a glass of  Dow 1963 which was in impeccable condition unlike some G has recently had. It was middleweight and not too sweet. "An old lady, but an attractive one" said G, sounding like a dreadful gold-digger.

On Sunday morning, after a breakfast of bacon sandwiches and coffee, we walked to Hambleton bakery which passed a pleasant hour, although I was gutted that the woman in front of us in the queue snaffled the last sausage roll. If only we'd walked a little faster... One could not however argue with the pricing of the coconut macaroons - 30p each - and they made a very fine accompaniment to a mid-morning glass of madeira.

On our return it was time for an inspection of the cellar...

G still hasn't worked out what to do with this magnum of Kummel! I suggested serving it like aquavit with some smoked salmon. Other suggestions welcome.

For lunch, we had an amazing roast capon which I imagine will feed G's father for the rest of the year, along with this bottle of 1983 Chateau Latour. It was the second bottle of the pair which I bought in December, and this one seemed weightier than the first, although that could be because it was drunk by itself rather than alongside a vibrant young Californian cabernet sauvignon.

The final line-up - spot the odd one out!

All in all, this was a fascinating weekend and we ate and drank very well indeed. Thanks to G's father for hosting, to to D for his congenial company and above all to G for organising everything and sharing these extraordinary wines with us.

Saturday lunch, 23rd Oct

Last Saturday ACC and the Baron came round to my place for lunch and we jumped at the opportunity to open a couple of magnums, as not even G and I tend to consider a magnum a suitable bottle size for two...

First up, a magnum of champagne provided by G. This came from the Wine Society and was their Cuvee Millenaire made by Alfred Gratien from the 1995 vintage. This isn't something that they particularly draw your attention to in their list and we'd never noticed it before or never realised it was actually from the 1995 vintage, so a good spot by G.

I think it's fair to say that we adored it. It was fully mature, rich and briochey. We had it as an aperitif with some luque olives and also with the first course, some smoked sea trout which G had kindly procured from Borough Market.

I have to admit I was struggling slightly by the end of my third glass. I realise it isn't like me at all to say this but perhaps one can have too much of a good thing. However, I've ordered another magnum with a view to stashing it away for two and a half years as this would be just the thing for a major celebration. I notice that the Wine Soc think this will be over the hill by 2011 but I beg to disagree.

The main course was my famous beef carbonnade with Guinness and prunes which I'd made the night before and has never been known to let me down. It was even better than usual, she says modestly, which I attribute to the exellent stewing beef from the Ginger Pig. With this we had a magnum of bourgogne rouge from the Marquis de Mac Mahon. I picked up three of these in a recent bin end sale and when they arrived, they looked absolutely spectacular in a lovely wooden box which I intend to add to my wooden box collection.

It was from the 2007 vintage and therefore fairly light. The consensus was that it was still a bit young. Another one to keep for a couple of years then... this major celebration is looking promising already!

I hasten to add that we didn't drink all of the magnum, and moved on to the next wine which was a Volnay 2008 from Perrin provided by the Baron. We visited this domaine back in January which I blogged about here and I don't think we'll ever forget the charming hospitality of Vincent and that he let us sit in his warm kitchen on a freezing cold day. After that trip, the Baron bought some of this village Volnay while I opted for the white St Romain which is still in bond. Although young, the Volnay was delicious and in a relatively light and fruity style, but also very smooth. A reminder to me to seriously consider the Perrin Volnays in the 2009 vintage.

Finally, we had a vertical of Dow's port provided by ACC - the 1994 vintage in a half bottle against the 2004 late bottled vintage in a 50cl bottle. It was no surprise that the 1994 carried the day being both more mature and more complex, but they were both very good. As you can probably tell, I wasn't making tasting notes by this stage so apologies for my vague comments.

We had the port with some cheeses from the French cheese stall at Borough, including a fabulous Epoisses, in honour of the Baron whose full title is Baron McG of Croque-Epoisses. I do hope I get to try a croque-epoisses one day. I'm pleased to report that my hardcore home-made oatcakes went down well.

Needless to say, we finished off with coffee and Felettig marc, and finished off the bottle so I'm now anxiously awaiting further supplies - prunelle is no substitute! Lunch lasted five and a half hours which may be a record. A really enjoyable occasion.