Recent reds

Feeling a bit more cheerful here at AduV Towers with things starting to open up in London now and a sense that things might get back to normal soon. It was great to see ACC and the Baron in real life last Saturday after five months, and I'm looking forward to seeing other friends soon and getting back to tastings, lunches and dinners like the good old days!

Meanwhile, G has been keeping me company and we've drunk some pretty good stuff over the past few weeks. Today's report is on the reds only, in descending date order.

We recently acquired some halves of En Gregoire 2012 from Emmanuel Giboulot, and G located the 2018 vintage of the same wine in bottle, so naturally a vertical tasting ensued!

They were a fairly similar colour but the 2012 had a slightly paler rim. The 2018 had a pretty nose with exuberant ripe fruit, and was big and juicy with notes of black cherry. It came in at 13% and certainly ticked my boxes. Young, but why wait? The 2012 had more sous bois and was a little earthy - less fruity, more serious. It was only 12%. But there was a close resemblance between the two, indicating a strong sense of terroir. It was hard to say which we preferred. I think for G the 2012 was a narrow win, and for me the immediate deliciousness of the 2018 had it. 

The other night we had this Rully 1er cru Preaux from P&M Jacqueson. I had some trouble deciphering the curly font on the label! It was a pretty colour and looked young and fruity. The nose was fresh and pretty although G detected "an enticing whiff of rot", and the wine was light, succulent and delicious with stone fruit. It was quite high-toned and mouthwatering, and the word "croquant" sprang to mind - there was a kind of plum skin note. For me, it was the kind of wine that would be delicious at lunchtime with a baguette and some pate. It was perhaps a little on the frivolous side but there's nothing wrong with that. We gave it a 9. I see that we've actually had white wines from Jacqueson before (2007 vintage!) and thought they were pretty good. Definitely a domaine to look out for especially as Rully is relatively good value compared to more prestigious villages. 

There follow a trio which we had at my place where I failed to take photos. I've been getting better at making notes lately, but apparently not at remembering to take photos. 

The first was old favourite Terres Burgondes 2011 from Giboulot. This had a lovely nose of tinned strawberries and was congruent, sensual and pretty. It had some interesting notes of forest floor and wild fruit. Not too serious, obtained at an advantageous price (thanks ACC!) and very much my kind of thing. If it had been a premier cru, we'd have given it a 9. 

Back in mid-April we had some Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Morgeots 2011 from Domaine de la Choupette. This had a glorious nose of black and red cherries and was elegant with blackcurrant on the palate. It was rich upfront but lighter on the midpalate and finish. It went well with our venison fillet, and we gave it an 8. Not quite as good as the 2010, but I always love red Chassagne.

Another recent acquisition was Ladoix 2010 from Domaine Parent. This was very much in the style of the domaine and if I'd been tasting it blind, I might have thought it was a Pommard. It was powerful, polished and rich with a long finish of black cherries. "Quite a serious wine from a minor village" was G's verdict. It definitely needed some red meat to go with it. 

I did remember to take a pic of this Chambolle-Musigny Clos le Village 2010, or at least the bottle. The wine was glossy and 90% opaque with a pale rim. On the nose we got mixed forest fruits - blackcurrant, raspberry and redcurrant. G also detected a note of orange peel. On the palate, there were some chocolatey tannins, blackberry and blackcurrant. It was perhaps not altogether typical of Chambolle and reminded me more of a Morey. I gave it two and half hours in the decanter and it was drinking now but we thought it would be good for another five years. I have another five bottles so that shouldn't be a problem. 

One night at G's we had this Pommard les Croix Noires 1er cru 2009 from Domaine de Courcel. This had been decanted for three and a half hours and was a lovely garnet colour, a little brown at the rim. I found the nose a little brooding. On the palate, there were some dusty tannins which resolved to reveal some lovely ripe blackcurrant and finally some raspberries. It went well with steak, which helped to buffer the tannins. We thought this was starting to drink, but would be good for another decade, and gave it an 8 with the potential to become a 9 in time. Not a wine one would seek out in a bad vintage.

Finally, the oldest of the bunch: this Morey-Saint-Denis 1er cru Les Ruchots 1996 from Domaine Arlaud. It looked mature and had a fascinating nose of tinned strawberry, sous bois, dark chocolate and cherry. On the palate it was extraordinary, there was so much going on. An immediate 10 pointer, happy days! It had lovely berries, was very complete and harmonious, and had a long finish which changed all the time and delivered little bursts of fruit. It was magnificent wine, old school burgundy as it ought to be, not one to be rushed. G told me that 1996 was a good vintage but also quite tough. This was approaching the end of its drinking window, so I'm glad we had it when we did. One of those wines that reminds us why we love Burgundy. 

Recent drinking round up!

Using the word "recent" in a loose sense here... it's finally time to pull together all the scrappy notes that I've been accumulating over the past few months and record some drinking!

First up, Fratrie Gamay. I bought this in the serious wine shop in Beaune. It was just 12% alcohol but you'd never guess - it packed a punch. It had an amazing fruity nose and was very juicy. It went down real easy, but was definitely one for short-term drinking. There was no vintage on it but the cork said 17.02 so we guessed it was 2016. The guy in the shop told us to serve it cool, which was definitely good advice. A very vibrant, accessible wine.

Then, something a little more serious... Clos-Vougeot 1995 from Chateau de la Tour. This was a dark colour and had a rich, mature and cedary nose. It was elegant and powerful, with notes of chocolate and drinking really well now. Black forest gateau in a glass. It had a beautiful weight and an excellent finish and all in all, was top notch stuff.

One evening, G contributed a bottle of Duhart-Milon 1988 which I am informed is a 4th growth Pauillac. This had the classic cabernet sauvignon nose and was silky and ripe but not fruity. We thought it would probably have been quite unpleasant in its youth. It was almost textbook middleweight Pauillac. G described it as having "slim fetlocks" (he was pleased with that one) and it was precise and congruent but perhaps slightly old school and austere.

Back to Burgundy, a bottle of Beaune Lulune 2010 from Emmanuel Giboulot. We decanted this two hours in advance and put it in the fridge. It was a nose of poached strawberries and was incredibly smooth, vibrant, elegant and feminine. Another low alcohol wine at just 12%. It went really well with our 100 pound, sorry 100 day old chicken. For me it was a definite 10 while G considered it a high 9.

Another 2010 was a white this time, Beaune Chaume Gaufriots from Domaine Audiffred. G and I had the first bottle of this with fish fingers, and I had another one with the boys a couple of weeks ago. I honestly think this is the best white Beaune I've had since the good old days of Yves Darviot. It was particularly good in the first half hour, with a lot of tropical fruit - passion fruit, mango, pineapple. An exuberant wine, with a sort of line of acidity down the middle. My notes contain the phrase "died and went to heaven". Over time, it became more classically lemony. I believe I still have 4 bottles left - don't think they'll be hanging around for long!

In early February, G and I drank this Hosmer Cabernet France 2009 which we brought back from the Finger Lakes. This had a lovely fruity nose with rich berries and plums, and reminded us of fruit compote. It was silky, succulent and congruent, with a freshness that gave it a mouthwatering quality, and a good finish. We had it with a lamb tagine and couscous, which worked very well. It was juicy, glossy and accomplished, and not at all green. Surprisingly serious stuff and very attractive. I continue to rate this winery highly and would definitely buy this wine again.

Another evening in early Feb, G showed up with this sercial from Cossart Gordon. He thought it had spent 30 years in cask and the bottling was postwar, possibly from the 1950s. It smelled like sercial, but was sweeter than expected on the palate, and we thought it probably had a rum base. I was moved to use one of my Irish granny's phrases: "No harm in that!" It had caramelised nuts, a slightly herbaceous edge to it, and a great finish. Really lovely stuff.

On the same evening, we cracked this bottle of Beaune Greves 1er cru 2008 from Chateau de Meursault. This had been hanging around in my wardrobe for some time, in a huge and somewhat ostentatious bottle. The wine itself looked glossy and was pretty and typique, with a nice weight and the classic red Beaune perfume, and was drinking very well now. All in all, a decent 8 on the premier cru scale.

And finally, in late February, we had a bottle of Kylix Cuvee 2007 from Seneca Shore, also in the Finger Lakes. This was a dark purple colour and had amazing legs. It had a very cabernet franc nose, with menthol and blackcurrant, and was a lovely weight. G said it was frontal, a term which always makes me laugh, but I wasn't sure I agreed. The finish actually reminded me of mouthwash it was so minty. Somehow this bottle seemed lighter than previous bottles, so we wondered if it was getting to the end of its life. When we had it with food, however, in this case a beef stew, it seemed to gain weight. A pity they're not making it any more.

That brings us reasonably up to date and this week I took delivery of a couple of reds which have been in storage so will be writing about them soon...

Lunch at mine, Sunday 10th Sept

Last Sunday, I hosted lunch at my place with D and G. We kicked off with this Combe d'Eve 2010 which is a Cote de Beaune white from the biodynamic winemaker Emmanuel Giboulot. I had just got it out of storage a couple of days earlier and was eager to try it.

It was still very fresh and had excellent grip along with citrus and florality. The finish went on for minutes, and I detected notes of lemon zest and maybe even lemon syllabub, getting fancy here!

It was drinking very well now and G and I had another bottle on Tuesday so I don't think it will be hanging about for long. On Sunday we drank it as an aperitif and also with the portion of watercress soup which remained after the blender decided to shoot it all over the kitchen. However, I think in future I'll be drinking it with fish.

G's cooking, on the other hand, was impeccable and this was a stunning piece of brill, which barely fitted into the roasting tray!

With that, we had this Meursault 1990 from Abel Garnier which we first tried back at Easter. Once again, it was a specatcular deep gold colour and very gastronomic. Obviously it was fully mature, and we had a slight wobble wondering if it was all right, but we hung in there and were rewarded for our patience. As on previous occasions, it had a certain mushroomy quality, and was rich and mouthfilling.

With the cheese course, which consisted of far too much goat's cheese in my opinion, which reminds me, not sure why G is taking so long to set up his Odyssey de Chevre blog - we had this 2002 Clos Des Papes Chateauneuf from Paul Avril, provided by G who picked up a couple of bottles recently.

My god. I put my nose in the glass and made some unbecoming guttural noises much to D's amusement. It was extraordinary, drinking perfectly now, big, rich and delicious and extremely decadent. I always thought I was a Northern Rhone fan but this wine made me reassess that completely. There was some debate about whether the fruit was red or black but the balance and structure were perfect and the finish was amazing. G tells me that this vintage isn't highly regarded but as is so often the case, it seems it just needed time to come round and means bon rapport qualité prix for us!

We finished off with the most expensive strawberries in history along with this half of Aigle Blanc Vouvray 1989 which was a very enjoyable middleweight sweetie. It had notes of nectarine and apricot and D spotted some mint on the finish. G got this for a song some time ago, which was particularly pleasing!

We finished off with coffee, marc and chocolates, and looked at D's recent bin label acquisitions. I hope to see them in situ when we go to visit him in the Finger Lakes next week. Hopefully there will be a full report when we get back, bears willing...

Eurovision party, 13th May

The Eurovision Song Contest always provides a good excuse for a party with its many drinking game opportunities and this year I was joined by G and ACC. We didn't feel the need to wait for a key change to get cracking...

ACC had mentioned that he was going to bring a French pink fizz but we weren't expecting this, which looked dangerously like sparkling shiraz, my least favourite alcoholic beverage of all time. In fact it was a natural wine called Aubunite La Sorga from the Languedoc, which ACC had brought back from a recent trip to Paris. It's made from a grape called Aubun, with which I was not familiar, and was relatively low alcohol at 11%. Once again I have to confess to not making detailed tasting notes, but can confirm we did enjoy it! Très glou-glou. And what a font on the label!

Next up, to accompany some Ginger Pig pork pie and sausage roll, and a couple of token vegetables, was this Fleurie 2011 from Jean Foillard. G brought a bottle of the 2009 vintage back from Brussels of all places last year, and we really enjoyed it. It's one of these very pure Beaujolais which tick the boxes for me. So I went online and randomly found some 2011 and snaffled the lot, only five bottles but I've been working my way through them with great pleasure. As usual, it went very well with charcuterie, and had notes of black cherry. I think it took us a whole 22 minutes to get through it.

Then it was on to a bottle of Terres Burgondes 2011 from Giboulot, which is another light, pretty number with scintillating fruits. I love it, and the 2011 vintage is going down particularly well at the moment.

The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur and for me the winning song was rather dull. I prefer this sort of thing (sample lyrics "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!") and was delighted to see Ruslana perform in the interval with a song which was mysteriously similar to her 2004 winner. Altogether now: "Shi-di-ri-di-day, shi-di-ri-di-da-na!"

Recent drinking round-up, 10th October

As so often happens, various things have been drunk but not properly recorded so some catching-up is in order.

I picked up this Vieux Calvados in Magnum in Beaune last year. We were doing some shopping on the Saturday morning and I was outside the chocolate shop next door attempting to avert disaster as a bottle of marc had made a bid for freedom from its bag - memo to self: beware string handles whose knots have a tendency to come undone! - when my phone rang. It was ACC telling me to get to Magnum tout suite. Seconds later, I arrived to find a bunch of random things sitting on the counter which were clearly recent arrivals. They included some old Roulot marc and this bottle of 1945 Calvados. An offer was hastily made for the pair of them, and I became the happy owner of this rarity.

It was so rare, in fact, that no entry could be found for this vintage on Wine Searcher or anywhere else but I knew that Calvados of this age is very, very expensive and subsequent research revealed that the 1937 vintage is available for 2,500 euros! Ouch. Fortunately for me, the proprietors of Magnum had not yet gone onto the internet to research market prices and I paid less than £100. I put it aside for a special occasion but then plans for said occasion were abandoned so it was decided that it could be opened after all. Hurrah!

Of course, I failed to make notes, but it was discernibly Calvados, with appley flavours and a slightly green tinge, as opposed to some of these old spirits where the boundaries between e.g. marc and brandy start to diminish as time goes on. I was surprised by how fiery it still was. We enjoyed it but I think my yearning for old Calvados has now been sated.

A few weeks ago I placed another order with the Wine Society mostly consisting of sherry and treated myself to a 50cl bottle of this Osborne Sibarita 30 year old oloroso. I brought a bottle of this to the SPNS last year (reported here) and enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed this bottle very much too! It really is something very special - seriously intense and complex - and although it costs £21, that price is better than anywhere else, and 50cl is a convenient size. After drinking this, it's been a struggle to go back to bog-standard normal sherry.

This Cremant d'Alsace finally arrived (thanks to the Burgundy Portfolio) and G and I have drunk one bottle so far. It's made by Vignoble des 2 Lunes who are a biodynamic operation, from Pinot Auxerrois grapes. I found it fresh, clean, and elegant with hints of apples and cream. It went down very easily and made a good aperitif. The back label indicates that it is from the 2011 vintage and while I don't think there's any rush, it's good to go and I doubt whether it will improve with age.

At the other end of the scale, as it was quarter end the other night, G decided it was time for another bottle of Latour and contributed this 1968 from his stocks. I hadn't done any homework on it so it came as something of a surprise - it didn't shout Latour in the way that Latour normally does. It was very smooth with a nice viscosity but there was basically nothing going on until you got to the finish when it blossomed. It was a very nice old claret, but not what I was expecting. Latour is normally majestic, complex and cerebral and this wasn't. We thought it went better with food and that it filled out slightly towards the end - it had been decanted about half an hour beforehand. G said that 1968 was a "minor vintage" and that this was considered the best of the wines made that year. It was interesting to have it, but I don't think we'll be rushing to buy any more.

Finally, we recently received some much-awaited halves of wine from Emmanuel Giboulot and naturally a vertical tasting ensued! This was the Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits en Gregoire and the label has undergone some changes between 2009 and 2012. When comparing two wines the likelihood is that one will be go down better than the other and in this case I was surprised - I was expecting to prefer the 2009 but in fact the 2012 had it. The 2009 was quite earthy whereas the 2012 had that pure, scintillating quality that we associate with Giboulot's wines. I'll be interested to try more of both of them and see if this was due to bottle variation or if it applies more generally.

I have a short trip to Burgundy planned at the end of October to see how the 2014s are coming along. In preparation, I've been trying to improve my French using an online programme called Duolingo. This is quite fun although I'm not sure that my new vocabulary of sharks, whales, turtles, bees and monkeys is necessarily going to be much help in the cellars of the Cote d'Or. Fortunately I have a copy of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui to even up the balance! À bientôt!

Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot and lunch at Le Montrachet, Thursday 30th October

After coffee we still had time for a wander round Athenaeum, the shop on Place Carnot which sells books and all sorts of exciting wine gadgetry. ACC found a wonderful book with very detailed maps and explanations of vineyard names, while I was particularly taken with this giant glass. I found out the next day what it's for!

Then it was time to meet Bill at Place Madeleine and head on down to Domaine Giboulot. Here we were greeted by a very nice young man wearing an interesting ensemble including a floppy hat and some pale pink tracksuit bottoms. It seemed that Emmanuel wasn't there - he'd had to see a man about a tractor, or something - so this chap and another young lady, who was possibly the secretary, gave us the tasting. It would have been nice to see Emmanuel but his wines spoke for themselves.

We tasted eight altogether, all from the 2013 vintage. For me the highlights were the Terres Burgondes blanc, which is made from pinot beurot (the local name for pinot gris) - this was very attractive, easy drinking with notes of lemon and butter, and had a great balance of acidity and weight. I've been drinking the 2009 lately, and it's been going down very well. On the red side, the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits en Gregoire was amazing, with a heavenly nose and crunchy fruit, and the Côte de Beaune Les Pierres Blanches had a lovely rich nose, good weight and was just generally beautiful. As usual the domaine's trademark purity and elegance were present and correct.

Afterwards, we said goodbye to Bill and met up with Alain le taxi who took us off to Puligny yet again for an occasion I'd been looking forward to for ages - lunch at Le Montrachet! I have fond memories of the sommelière twinkling at me when we went there last year but sadly she wasn't around this time. A kir soon cheered me up and we embarked on the accomplished set lunch which is a steal at 32 euros. We enjoyed perusing the magnificent wine list (available online here), and in the end settled on a bottle of 1998 Beaune 1er cru du Chateau from Bouchard which caused the sommelier to raise an eyebrow but we stuck to our guns and didn't regret it - it was a wonderful golden colour and opened up after half an hour or so.

We were in no great rush so decided to have a comparative tasting of fine and marc from Domaine Roulot to finish - half a measure of each, but happily the free-pouring sommelier seemed to give us quite a generous glass of each both! We took it outside on to the terrace, which was warm in the afternoon sun, and had the place to ourselves. One of these days I'm going to spend a weekend here...

Sunday lunch at ACC's, 7th September

On Sunday G and I caught the trusty 68 bus southwards for an epic lunch at ACC Towers.

I failed to take a photo of the first wine we drank, a Pouilly-Fume, which made a very pleasant aperitif on a surprisingly warm September day.

"Colour is not a function of pinot noir"

We were then offered a choice of three reds. I couldn't deny that the Beaune 2008 from Domaine Giboulot was my first preference, and it was duly opened. Such a glorious wine, light and beautiful as always. I'd been under the impression for a long time that you needed to decant Giboulot's delicate biodynamic wines 90 minutes in advance, but apparently that's not the case, which is great news as it means G and I can drink them on week nights now!

Another guest, J, had brought along this bottle of 2008 Chateau Leoville Poyferre. I don't drink a lot of young claret but this was lovely and certainly seemed ready to go. A discussion of the change in claret-making techniques over the past few years followed - apparently it's much more scientific than it used to be and the wines are made to drink younger, which I guess is a good thing as you don't now have to wait 35 years for them to come round.

Back label

Spot the difference!

Next up was the bottle of 2007 red Chassagne-Montrachet from Domaine de la Choupette (not to be confused with Karl Lagerfield's cat) which I'd brought along. I got this out of storage recently and this was the second bottle I've had since then. I absolutely love it - for me, it has a very strong smell and taste of redcurrants and maybe other red fruit too, is really succulent, and all in all a great expression of Cote de Beaune style pinot noir. I always think that the wines of this domaine take a while to come round and the 2007 is drinking nicely now, at 7 years old. It was revealed that J has recently been drinking the 2011 so opinions may differ.

What's that green stuff? Answers on a postcard

G's contribution was "the most expensive raspberry tart in history" bought from Patisserie des Reves in Marylebone High Street. There's one born every minute...

With this we had a half of 1996 Moscatel Reserva from Quinta do Portal, which was well-chilled and made a very enjoyable, refreshing dessert wine.

Then, as it appeared we weren't finished yet, ACC cracked open this Cote de Brouilly from Domaine Trichard (there is some enjoyably bad translation on this website: "Discover wines of soils with the tempered character, with the aromas of fruits, and exceptional obstinacy") which I believe was a 2007. I wasn't making notes but this was decent, mature beaujolais and I'm led to believe it's rather good value! Another great lunch and thanks to ACC for his hospitality.  

Beaune Lulune 2010, Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot

A few weeks ago, I was idly surfing the Guardian website and found an article about Emmanuel Giboulot on the front page. Not often that happens! Unfortunately it wasn't good news - he was being taken to court in Dijon for failing to use a particular pesticide on his vines. The article suggested that he faced a prison sentence if convicted, but there was quite an outcry (a petition was organised which now has over 500,000 signatures) and the prosecution is now asking for a fine of 1000 euros.

I don't know the ins and outs of the argument, but it seems that this pesticide may not be very effective at killing the insect in question, and may kill other creatures which have a positive impact on the environment. It also seems that that plenty of other wine-makers don't apply the pesticide either, but pretend that they have done so in order not to get in trouble with the Ministry of Agriculture. I applaud Giboulot for standing by his principles.

His wines are very special, in my opinion, and I'm very happy that I have quite a stash of them thanks to the Burgundy Portfolio. I've had the privilege of visiting the domaine twice and attending the wonderful dinner held in London in May 2012 - more on that here. The other night G and I cracked a bottle of his Beaune Lulune 2010 and it was an absolute stunner. We last tried it in Feb 2013, when we felt it needed more time - it's drinking very nicely now but there's no rush.

As Giboulot's wines are biodynamic, they benefit from a lot of air, so we double-decanted for an hour and 45 minutes. It was quite pale for a red wine, had trademark tinned strawberries on the nose, and was very pretty on the palate, with lovely light fruit, elegance and finesse but also lots of flavour and juiciness. The character of the terroir really comes through, and we felt this was wine made from happy vines. It was scintillating - one hesitates to use the word "ethereal" but it really does apply in this case. G said it was one of the nicest things he's ever drunk, and I agree.

This isn't a premier cru, but it's a clear 10 on the premier cru scale. I think I like it even more than Yves Darviot's 1er cru Beaune Greves which is saying something. I hope Giboulot is able to make many more vintages without government interference and wish him all the best for 7th April when the verdict will be announced.

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...