Meanwhile, last Thursday was Wine Out Thursday! I really should have got it out on Wednesday as that's a much more pleasing acronym. I went down to collect my parcels to find a gentleman eyeing them greedily. It turned out to be G, who was just back from Sicily, and kindly helped me carry them back to the penthouse suite. We then proceeded to drink three bottles over the course of five days.
First up was this Santenay Comme Dessus 2009 from Domaine de la Choupette. This was my second six pack, as the first came out just over a year ago and was reported on here. I had actually drunk the last of that batch while G was away, and enjoyed it very much. I failed to make notes this time, but can confirm that it continues to be delicious and wonderful and at approximately twenty quid a bottle (excluding storage) is about a good a bottle of Santenay as one could ask for. Those were the days!
We noted that it was good with burgers! Just for the comedy value, "good with burgers" was a catchphrase with us back when I was doing my DPhil in Oxford 21 years ago, as can be seen from the tasting note above from the archives, regarding what I believe was Carruades de Lafite 1989. It cost around £11 then, and we still weren't particularly impressed with it. That's going for £210 now. How one wishes for a time machine sometimes...
The second red was consumed on Sunday night with a roast chicken from Farmdrop. I'm not sure if I've mentioned Farmdrop here before, but I will now, as it has become a very useful addition to the repertoire when I'm feeling too lazy to walk to Marylebone, and also now sells some wines from the Burgundy Portfolio including my beloved Grenat. I was really looking forward to this Beaune 1er cru Les Reversees 2010 from Jean Claude Rateau, he of the magnificent moustache. More on that here. This came in at about £35 a bottle.
I did take notes this time, hurrah! I decanted it an hour ahead and popped it in the fridge, as I'm increasingly feeling that these reds are best served cellar cool. When served, I got very little on the nose initially. G was more charitable and talked about yellow/red cherries. My view at that stage was that it was middleweight, silky and very serious, with a great finish. But, given that it's biodynamic, I guess I'd been hoping for something more scintillating, more like the wines from Emmanuel Giboulot.
Things got better. After two hours in the decanter, it really opened up and developed some rich, dark flavours with chocolate, morello cherry and maybe some plum. My notes say that it was bursting with fruit, which suggests it needs a longer decant in future and also that there's no rush to drink it. We gave it a temporary score of 8 but think it could go higher in due course.
And last night we had this Vosne-Romanee Aux Reas 2009 from Alain Guyard, which came in at about £40 a bottle, still a steal compared to what it would cost now. I remember the tasting where we tried this initially, or it may have been the 2008 as it appears to be pre-blog. I've probably told this story before, but I said to my sister-in-law that I appeared to be acquiring a Vosne-Romanee habit. She replied me too! Another friend then chimed in, is there a methodone equivalent? Sadly, I don't believe there is.
This was given an hour in the decanter but only 45 minutes in the fridge, so as not to numb it too much. It had a lovely dark colour, and was very glossy with great legs. We got a big hit of blackcurrant and lots of fruit. G mentioned the peacock's tail and there was certainly a burst of flavour - it was juicy and succulent, although still packed a tannic punch. G described the blackcurrants very carefully: big, lush, fresh blackcurrants, not horrid little things like you find in the supermarket freezer. I thought of D, who would say it had good acid. It was ready but there's no rush to drink it, and it went very well with rack of kid, again procured from Farmdrop. I've had worse Tuesday evenings!
