A sherry and a Beaujolais

This time of year is always a challenge blog-wise as one is attempting to recalibrate one's vinous intake after December. This week I've actually been below the government's drinking guidelines!

Fortunately there are a couple of random things which G and I drank in December which have been sitting on the back burner waiting to be written up. This Fino Una Palma from Gonzalez Byass came as part of a Wine Society mixed case of sherry - as I'm always saying, the main reason for being a member of the WS is access to its great range of advantageously-priced sherries.

This was the 2015 bottling, and en rama apparently means raw so it is not clarified or filtered. It's 6 year old fino and supposed to be drunk within 6 months - not a problem at AduV Towers. It had that bracing, tangy, salty fresh thing and was a fantastic sharpener. We didn't drink it all on day 1, but when I had another glass on day 2 it had definitely gone downhill. The bottle is 50cl, so it might be a good one to drink with friends in future.

Four years ago I was given the Dos Palmas and the Cuatro Palmas by my father, both of which were great in their own way and I wrote about them here. After that, I'd intended to get the Una and the Tres to complete the set, but never did, so it was nice to finally get to try the Una. I'm not sure exactly how much it cost, being part of the mixed case, but it's available for around £11 here (which seems to be a special offer), while the Dos Palmas is now about £17.

Also before Christmas, G visited Brussels and brought back this 2009 Fleurie made by Jean Foillard. I wasn't familiar with this producer but it turns out that his wines are very natural: no synthetic herbicides or pesticides, rigorous sorting, minimal/no sulphur, no filtration. This came in an enormous, weighty bottle exuding class. It was a deep purple colour, and was vibrant, with lovely intense sweet red and black berry fruit. "Gosh" said G. We had it with goose rillettes, which was a great combination, and it also went very well with cheese. We thought that if we'd been tasting it blind and someone had told us it was Morey St-Denis, we'd have believed them. It's expensive by Beaujolais standards, but it's worth it.

Next week sees the flurry of 2014 Burgundy en primeur tastings but as usual there's only one in my calendar - the Burgundy Portfolio tasting on Thursday on 14th. I had favourable impressions of the vintage from my trip in October, so am looking forward to tasting them again and getting some of them stashed away in my cellar!

SPNS dinner, 13th May

On a Tuesday evening a couple of weeks ago, we gathered in the Savile bar for the next Swiss Pinot Noir Society evening. Present and correct were D, P, G, myself and a special guest, none other than Baron McG himself. Sadly ACC and T were otherwise engaged. Miss it, miss out, as ACC is fond of saying...

We commenced with this bottle of Champagne Moutard provided by P - cue lots of inevitable jokes about mustard. This was well-received with the general verdict being that it was pleasingly mature, elegant and well-rounded. It's available for £20.99 from Naked Wines and at that price I consider it to be very good value for what it is, although it may also have benefited from a little extra time in P's cellar.

We went upstairs to the dining room and as there is often a lull in proceedings at this stage, I produced a Tio Pepe Fino "en Rama" to keep us going until the starters arrived. This is a special release, and it's extra fresh and unfiltered. It was bottled in April and you're supposed to drink it as soon as possible after release, certainly within 6 months. I'd had it about a week and if anyone had been snoozing at this stage, it would certainly have woken them up - it was sharp and zingy. I got mine from the Wine Society who sell it for £14.50 a bottle, but there are other stockists such as Adnams. I may just have to order some more while it's still available...

Then, with our starters, we moved on to G's contribution, this dry white from Madeira, Barbusano Verdelho 2011. G told us how previously he had believed there was no good table wine from Madeira but then had come across this in a restaurant and been pleasantly surprised. It was a refreshing, relatively light white wine, crisp, with good acidity. It went down well and made an enjoyable change from the sort of white wine I usually drink.

With our main course, we knocked my second and last magnum of Echezeaux 1971 on the head. This was made by Prosper Maufoux and we had the first one at a dinner with ACC and the Baron back in December, which I blogged about here. I was hoping very much that this one would turn out to be as good, as I have a history of bringing corked bottles to SPNS. It wasn't just as good, it was better!

It had a lovely fragrance and sweet, dark fruit. It was fully mature, dangerously drinkable, and generally delicious. We had no trouble getting through it. The only dilemma was what to eat with it since for some reason there was no red meat on the menu that evening! P and I ended up having a full English breakfast while D had tuna and G and the Baron had veal chops. I think we were all happy with our choices!

Finally, D's contribution was this 1969 Moscatel de Setubal which is a Portuguese dessert wine. I have to confess I'd never heard of it until now! It was grapey, with good acidity. D detected spice and honey, while the Baron declared that it was amazing with his sticky toffee pudding. All in all, an excellent way to round off the meal. Thanks to everyone for another excellent evening!

Recent drinking roundup - omnibus edition!

The bookshelf has been covered in empty bottles for some weeks waiting for a catch up session. When next door's builders drilled a hole into my flat and had to come round to repair the damage, I had to hide them all in the cupboard to avoid giving the wrong impression, so perhaps it's time to get on with it. In order of aperitif to digestif...

Fino Perdido from Sanchez Romate, which the Wine Society are selling for £7.50. It's a complete steal at that price and is going on my "buy some of this every time I buy stuff from the WS" list.

Lilbert-Fils blanketty blank champagne, £32 from the Wine Society. Just my kind of thing, light, fresh, elegant. Would have again.

Chablis 1er cru Vaulorent, Brocard, 2008. I'm trying to eat more fish, which means drinking more white, and for complicated reasons I don't have much in stock at the moment so placed a mixed order with the Wine Society. This Chablis cost £20 a bottle. We thought it was a good example of the genre, with crisp minerality and a great finish. It seemed good value and was drinking well now, but wasn't in quite the same league as the Fourchaume-Vaulorent made by Nathalie and Gilles Fevre.

Terrenus 2011, £10.95 from the WS. I seem to have thrown away the bottle, but this was a Portuguese white. It was light and fresh and clearly had Vinho Verde in its family tree. We thought it would be a nice wine to have in summer with fish and garlic.

Tahbilk Marsanne 2010 from Australia, £9.95 from the WS. G had wanted to try this for some time and compared to bourgogne blanc it's keenly priced. I didn't make tasting notes but it was crisp and dry and we found it interesting enough to drink the whole bottle. Not sure I'll be rushing to have it again.

Thymiopoulos Naoussa, 2011. This was a Greek red from the WS, which cost £10.50. It was billed as being Burgundy in style, and for once this description was actually correct. I was impressed from the first sip and would certainly buy it again. If you didn't know it was Greek, you wouldn't guess.

Beaune Lulune 2010 from longstanding favourite biodynamic producer Emmanuel Giboulot, via the Burgundy Portfolio. G has bought a quantity of this and we thought we'd see how it was getting on. It had a divine tinned strawberry nose, classic Beaune. On the palate it was elegant, precise and pretty. We felt it would improve with age, so the rest is being tucked away for a while.

Moulin a Vent, Cuvee d'Exception, 2009, Trichard. I bought this at a Burgundy Portfolio tasting about a year ago, and it had really come on. It was a dark colour and was rich and intense with black cherry fruit. Quite monster for a beaujolais and I thought it would appeal even to someone who thinks they don't like gamay (tchah). It was drinking well now but might well improve. I've succumbed to two magnums of the stuff so guess I'll get a chance to find out!

L'Etrange, Maison en Belles Lies, 2010. This also came from the Burgundy Portfolio and was one of G's recent purchases. It's a mixture of gamay and pinot noir, but while I'm not always mad about passetoutgrains, I really enjoyed this.

Nuits St Georges les Plantes au Baron, R Dubois et Fils, 2005. I'm not altogether sure where this came from, but it's quite likely that I bought it in France some time ago thinking it was a premier cru. We found it lacking in fruit and rustic but gluggable. The final verdict was "nothing to write home about".

Griotte-Chambertin 1996, Grand Cru, Domaine des Chezeaux. This was a bottle that G had left over from a wine dinner. He told me to lower my expectations beforehand. It was dark and glossy to look at, and on the nose had black fruit, game and leather. It tasted savoury and earthy, and was smooth and well-integrated, but short on fruit and reminded us of a premier cru Gevrey rather than a grand cru. It definitely needed red meat, and we gave it an 8.

Several years ago we had a 1993 from this domaine which was lovely, so this was disappointing. We subsequently discovered by reading Coates that they get their grapes from two different growers, one of which is significantly better than the other, but there's no way of knowing which it's going to be as it's not on the label. This isn't very helpful and would make me wary of buying their wine again.

Happy days - a bottle of Coche-Dury! We'd spot that dreadful label at 100 paces. This was an Auxey-Duresses 2007 and G picked it up in a wine shop in Paris for 68 euros. We drank it with some roast beef. It looked lovely, with silky legs, and on the nose had sweet fruit and ripe raspberries. On the palate I noted it was (expletive deleted) delicious while G said it was clean as a whistle. It had a beautiful sweetness, and was supple and effortless. The finish went on for minutes. An absolute stunner, 10 points on the premier cru scale.

At the time, I attributed this wine's loveliness to the fact that it was made by Coche-Dury, but I've subsequently come to realise that it was also partly the Auxey style which I like very much. Shall certainly be looking out for some more! But probably not from Hedonism Wines, where it costs £126. Ouch.

Delaforce vintage port 1977. I wasn't familiar with Delaforce, but the opportunity came up to buy some of this at what seemed a very good price for vintage port of this age, so we grabbed some. It was complex, not too sweet, with notes of pontefract cake. It had a great finish and was still drinking after 4 days (amazing it lasted that long!) which suggests it still has life left in it. We concluded that while it wasn't first rate port, it was very good, and good value.

And finally, since G has still failed to start his cheese blog, I'm required to cover this topic too. I can't really complain as these are three cheeses which he brought back from the shop in the Nine Streets in Amsterdam. The one in the middle was my favourite, a 4 year old Gouda. They sell cheese online at "E-cheese". I think we may be paying that site a visit soon...

Miscellaneous autumnal ramblings

No particular theme this week but another catch-up on bits and pieces.

New sherry alert! I came across this in Waitrose and it immediately jumped out at me due to the resemblance to the wonderful sherries Dad gave me for Christmas last year (see here). It's made by Gonzalez-Byass and is called Delicado. It's a limited edition fino and someone more conscientious than me has reviewed it properly here. It's £13.99 for a 50cl bottle which is an excellent size in my opinion, allowing generous portions for two over two evenings. Quite expensive for a fino but we felt this was worth it so I'll be back for more in due course if it's still there.

While on the subject of aperitifs, at long last the Ali Boit Boit et les 40 Buveurs has shipped, just in time for winter! Never mind - we didn't have much of a summer anyway. This is a wine I first tried back at the beginning of the year. It's made by Agnes Paquet (NB viticultrice) and is a sparkler, a 50/50 mixture of Aligote and Chardonnay. There's some technical stuff on her website here about how exactly it's made, and I'm not sure if it's technically a cremant de bourgogne or not, but the take-home point is that it's just 8% alcohol. I don't think I would have guessed this if I didn't know already, but it certainly is quite light in style and I'm very happy with it. The fact that it comes with a crown cap makes it even more perfect for quaffing on a park bench.

We've continued to drink up G's haul of old Hugels and very pleasant they have been too.

This Bourgogne Rouge 1998 from Domaine Maume, which is based in Gevrey-Chambertin, also arrived and was fascinating. It was lighter and more acidic than I expected, almost piquant. Looking forward to drinking the rest of it.

After my disastrous adventures in cider the other week, I read an article in the Grauniad about perry which encouraged me to try the stuff. We had Henry Westons 2010 vintage against Waitrose 2011 vintage. Both were dry and relatively strong but the Henry Westons beat the Waitrose in my opinion. The Henry Weston cider wasn't bad either, so now I know what to go for in future.

Adventures in cooking: I found that the East London Steak Co, which I use as an occasional alternative to the Ginger Pig, sell legs of mutton, so I got some and did it in the slow cooker.

G made his "signature" biryani with the leftovers, which was excellent, as the mutton was less fatty than lamb.

Last week my boss brought back some quinces from his country estate so after several days had passed with me looking at them and them looking at me, eventually I found a Nigel Slater recipe (here) and after reading his column out loud in a fey voice as per tradition, we cooked them. They were amazing. I shall now have to drop some hints that I'd like some more...

Today I attempted to make granola cupcakes. These consist of flaked almonds, dessicated coconut, chopped up unsulphured dried apricots, butter and honey. Unfortunately they fell apart as I took them out of the tin so it's back to the drawing board - but they taste bloody delicious.

Normal service will be resumed this week as I have two dinners out in a row - a Vincent Perrin tasting and the next SPNS dinner. Tickets have also been booked for the New Year outing to Burgundy. So lots to look forward to!

Two very special sherries from Gonzalez Byass

I was delighted to be given these two sherries as a Christmas present from my father - thanks Dad! They are very rare special edition wines from Gonzalez Byass, and came from the Wine Society. The WS have now sold out but I see that some other wine merchants, such as Berry Bros, are selling them too.

Apparently the palma is a chalk mark added to each sherry cask. The more strokes, the older and more mature the sherry. I had the Dos Palmas and the Cuatro Palmas - the number of strokes is shown on the round label on the bottles. The bottles are 50cl and the clear glass works really well, showing off the beautiful colours of the sherry inside. The label has the bottling date printed on it and they are supposed to be drunk within 6 months of bottling, not that that was ever likely to be a problem round these parts.

The Dos Palmas is around 8 years old. According to the Gonazalez Byass website, it's made from casks that still contain a film of flor. I had some at home with my parents, and some with G. It's definitely the best fino I've had. It was a lovely golden colour and tasted very sharp, fresh, pungent and bracing, like a walk by the sea on a cold day. A brilliant aperitif which went extremely well with a dish of olives. "Genuinely excellent" said G.

It was fascinating to try the Cuatro Palmas, which comes from just 6 casks and is around 45 years old. Apparently technically it's an amontillado rather than a fino, as the flor has started to die off. This was a beautiful amber colour and reminded me of a Sercial Madeira. Again, it was bone dry, but much more nutty and richer on the palate, with a lingering finish.

We had some on Thursday just after the Dos Palmas, and finished it off yesterday when we thought it showed better. Was this a) because it improved overnight, b) because it suffered from being tasted after the Dos Palmas or c) because we had it with some mixed nuts, which complemented it perfectly? We'll probably never know, as I'm unlikely to drink it again. It was wonderful, but the Dos Palmas definitely had the edge in terms of value for money, being about 1/3 of the price. These were both really interesting wines and now I'll have to consider whether to attempt to get hold of Una and Tres Palmas in due course, to collect the set!

Recent drinking round-up!

In no particular order...


I recently got some wine out of storage including this white St Romain 2008 from Vincent Perrin. I bought a case after tasting it at the domaine in January 2010 which I blogged about here. I was interested to see that my case was actually 2 boxes of 6. Still, je ne regrette buying 12! It was exactly how I remembered, with a fruity, floral quality that a lot of chardonnay doesn't have. Refreshing and zingy.

Also coming out of storage was this old friend, Yves Darviot's Beaune Greves 2002 (and magnums of 2005, which are waiting for a special occasion...). This is one of my desert island wines and it was great to try this vintage at last. It didn't disappoint.

This was a Cote de Brouilly which ACC brought round one night. Cuvee Zacharie, by Chateau Thivin. I foolishly chucked the bottle without noting the year, but it gets points just for that label, what a horror! It was fruity and rich, and quite gamey. Serious beaujolais.

Thanks are also due to ACC for bringing me back this bottle of marc from his travels. I can only apologise that it did not last long enough for him to try it... Made at Domaine Morot, it was enjoyable, with a good nuts-and-raisins thing going on, but I have to say it was no match for the Felettig which remains the gold standard of all things marc.

A double-bill of Odoul-Coquard... first the 2008 Bourgogne Rouge which is really quite delicious. G bought it, not me, and I'm kicking myself. Shall be looking out for it in 2010. And then the 2007 Vosne-Romanee which I was expecting to be good. It had lovely sweet, warm fruit on the nose, blackcurrants and chocolate, and on the palate was very soft and supple, quite light for a Vosne. "Lovely", "beautiful" and "pretty" were all used to describe it. This is only a village wine, but we decided that if it had been a premier cru, it would have scored a 9. Praise indeed. We felt it was drinking now but had a good future ahead of it too, no rush.

A double-bill of Alsace wines from Hugel, both en demi. 1973 Gewurtz and 1979 Muscat. You would not have guessed they were that age. Still absolutely singing.

And finally, this little number which I picked up in Selfridges on Friday: Gutierrez Colosia Fino. This is also a half bottle and wasn't cheap at £11.90 but I fancied trying it to see if it was worth it. It does seem I paid through the nose (Selfridges' pricing policy: think of a number and double it) as these people have it for £8.75 a half. Also, I had been suffering due to the lack of La Goya which spookily became unavailable from Corneys just after I bought a case. Have just checked and see that it's back, hurrah!, but seems to have gone up to £6.29 a half - even at that price, it's worth it. Anyway, the Gutierrez stuff was a fantastic pale colour, and clean as a whistle. It really was very good and went very well with the excellent nuts from the Middle Eastern counter but I don't think I'll be rushing to buy it again.