Recent drinking round-up

Things have been hectic at A de V Towers of late but today I have a chance to do a catch-up report on what drinking has been going down...

This Santenay from Lucien Muzard & Fils disappointingly turned out to have a fault. It had a lot of volatile alcohol on the nose, on the palate there was a strange graininess and the finish was bitter. We felt it was not as it should be, so that was 19 euros down the sink. It was one of the ones I brought back from the shop in Santenay. C'est la vie.

More pleasingly I can report that this Pommard Vieilles Vignes from Latour-Labille was a stunner. From G's cellar - he wisely picked up a case. It wasn't very Pommard in character which I suppose is a criticism, but if I'd been guessing blind I think I would have thought it was a Chambolle, which is definitely praise. It was a vibrant purple colour and G described the nose as super-charged beaujolais with violet and cinnamon. On the palate it was pretty, elegant, had lovely fruit. I detected victoria plums while G got chocolate orange peel. There was a lot going on! It was drinking now but there's no rush.

Also from G's cellar, a Gevrey-Chambertin 2005 from Huguenot. This had a very distinct nose of pear drops and tasted of liquorice root but was surprisingly easy drinking for a Gevrey (which I am coming to realise I don't like very much except in winter with hearty red meat). It was smooth and remarkably light for a wine from 2005. It had an excellent finish, and went very well with my slow-cooked ragu sauce. Again, drinking but will keep.

I picked up a case of this 2000 Beaune 1er cru Clos du Roi from Domaine Chanson at auction. It's very old school red Burgundy with a hefty dose of the sugar bag. We got stewed plums on the palate. I quite like it, but it's relatively rustic. It wasn't expensive by premier cru standards so I shan't feel guilty necking it on a weeknight as autumn draws in. Originally we gave it an 8 but I suspect it may end up being downgraded to a 7 - the jury is still out.

I brought back this Rully 1er cru Clos St Jacques 2007 from Domaine de la Folie from the shop in Meursault back in January. It was a pale gold colour and had lemon and butter on the nose. It was quite light and refreshing on the palate, with good acidity, and had an excellent finish. We toyed with giving it a 9 but settled for a respectable 8. At around 18 euros it was good value.

Thought I'd better mention this since it's become staple drink of choice over the past couple of weeks - halves of La Goya manzanilla from Corney and Barrow. Argh! It's not on their website any more! I hope this is a temporary blip as I was just about to order some more. It's around £4.50 a half, a snip. Delicious cold from the fridge and best to drink it all in one go if possible as it deteriorates overnight.

And finally, what have we here? This morning I was cleaning my flat and took the rubbish down to the bin room where there's a little shelf where occasionally people leave stuff which other people can then take if they want (usually knackered house plants etc.) This morning I found two bottles of 1982 Chambertin grand cru "Couvent de la Visitation" 1982 from Patriarche sitting there, alongside a half-drunk bottle of Crofts ruby port. I wasn't tempted by the port but swiped the Chambertin and am very curious about it. I wonder if it was an unwanted present. Anyway, very nice of whoever to leave it in the bin room for me to find! The levels don't look too bad for such an old wine and the labels are quite pristine as you can see. It also has a terrible drawing on it of a sort of courtyard thing, which according to the Inverse Law of Labels bodes well. I think I shall try one with G and see how we get on - I shall report back. If all goes well, the other could be a perfect candidate for a Swiss Pinot Noir Society dinner...

Recent drinking round-up!

The other day I indulged in a bottle of this Hidalgo Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana, which I got from Waitrose for the princely sum of what I remember being £11.99 although according to their website it's a mere £11.39. Said website (here) also describes this as "a light and fresh Manzanilla" which is absolute garbage. Were they talking about a different wine?

This wine is aged in oak casks for 12 years which is what makes it a pasada, as opposed to the normal "light and fresh" style of manzanilla which should be drunk young. It costs significantly more than your bog standard Manzanilla, but it's worth it. Powerful and pungent, a glass of this straight from the fridge after a hard day at work really hits the spot. The Wine Society have it for £9.95 - fair play to the WS, their sherry is excellent value. Majestic have also been known to stock it in the past.

Rully 1er cru Les Cloux 2007, Paul Jacqueson. I've blogged about Jacqueson before, who is one of the best winemakers in the Cote Chalonnaise. Previously we had a white Rully from him and gave it a high 8. This was a red, with a lovely light pinot colour, and blackberry and black cherry on the nose. On the palate, it was silky and succulent and had bags of flavour congruent with the nose. Once again we toyed with giving it a 9 but in the end decided it was a high 8. Good value though, because it was either 17 or 19 euros (I suspect the latter) from the shop in Meursault.

A couple of weeks ago we had this Marsannay 2005, Montagne, from Huguenot. I didn't make notes but it was very enjoyable and drinking well now. There are no premier cru vineyards in Marsannay but this was a reminder to self that this village, which is right up the top of the Cote de Nuits near Dijon, produces some very pleasing and relatively good value wines.

Last night I stuck a bottle of our old friend, the Dufouleur Cremant de Bourgogne, in the fridge as an aperitif. We're now on the 2007 vintage and it remains very consistent with a florality and hints of elderflower. Dangerously drinkable.

Last week I treated myself to a bottle of Latour-Labille Bourgogne Rouge from 2005. This wine tends to be very light and in some years I find it's not my cup of tea, but 2005 was a big vintage and one that suits the style very well.

And finally, the jewel in the crown, a red Meursault 1er cru Les Cras 2007 from Latour-Labille. I got to taste the 2008 when I visited the domaine in January, and it was the highlight of the tasting. This was the first bottle from G's case of the 2007 which we have tried and although expectations were high, we weren't disappointed.

We gave it two hours in the decanter and when we poured it into our glasses, it had an amazing dark purple colour, I was surprised by how dark the colour was. On the nose it had wonderful dark fruit and a lovely perfume. G detected parma violets. I'm not altogether sure what parma violets smell like but I think I got the general gist. On the palate, it had a lovely mouthfeel, rich fruit, balance and poise. The finish went on for several minutes. We sat there using words like "remarkable" and "sublime" and there was no doubt that it was a 10. Hurrah!

Although it's drinking now, there's no rush as it has years in it and I hurriedly attempted to stomp on G's suggestion that he share some with a certain bunch of elderly claret-drinkers, by reminding him of my trump card, the Corton from Anne Parent...

In other news, the Wine Society produced their 2009 burgundy offer. "Three for the price of six" was how G described it, spot on. The Domaine Leflaive Bourgogne Blanc is £60 for three bottles, en primeur. Sod that for a game of soldiers.

Also, I have been giving some thought to this blog and have decided that I may broaden it out to include food and drink more generally. But I promise to save the cute kitten pictures for Facebook. Stay tuned!

Recent drinking round-up 2

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. It's taken me a while to get organised and take photos of the things I've been drinking over the past few weeks, but here they are. In no particular order, largely because I can't remember what we had when...

Savigny-les-Beaune les Fourches 2005 from Champy, en demi. This emerged from a Norfolk cellar which shall remain nameless, and I was happy to acquire it although it was a bit of a risk as I hadn't tried it beforehand, and G predicted doom. Fortunately the gamble paid off!

Maison Champy are negotiants based in Beaune and I've been there a couple of times. The last time we had an extensive tour with the delightful Sophie which was brilliant - we got to poke around in their cellars where they have stuff going back about a century - but overran by about two hours, causing us to abandon our plans of a leisurely lunch and have to eat a quiche on a park bench instead, but I won't hold that against them. It was a good quiche.

I always think Champy are very typique - they somehow always seem to capture the essence of a village. This Savigny is very good indeed - tres Savigny, smooth and velvety and elegant but with a richness. If this were a premier cru, it would be scoring an 8. I love the fact that it's in half bottles, and I love the fact that I have 24 more in bond, in two packs of 12 so I can get some out soon and the rest when I can't delay gratification any more.

Auxey-Duresses Les Clous 2007 from Sylvie Boyer. I got this as part of a mixed case of interesting whites in the £12-18 range. This was the most interesting and inevitably also the most expensive of the bunch. Very accomplished. I believe some sort of family bust-up means that she's not making wine at the moment but on the basis of this I do hope she gets back in the game soon. Have to deduct a few marks for the screwcap though - tchah!

Bourgogne Rouge La Chapelle Notre-Dame, from Domaine Nudant, 2007. I picked up a case of this last year and it's one of my house reds. It's relatively light and sometimes has a hint of apricot kernels and a slight muskiness. G is not a big fan (although there's some bottle variation and he has made favourable comments a couple of times) so I tend to neck this myself when he's away for the weekend. I've enjoyed it but don't think I'll be rushing to buy any more - plenty more bourgogne rouge in the sea, so to speak.

Cremant de Bourgogne from the Duchesse de Magenta. Sadly this was my last bottle of this wonderful cremant. I think it's blanc de blancs (aka blanketty blank) and it's much more of a champagne-style cremant than some. We were lucky to get the small allocation that we did and am not expecting any more to be available so there we are. Heigh ho.

Ah, an old friend. This is the Bourgogne Rouge '07 from Domaine Parent. G and I have been getting through this stuff like nobody's business. The 2007s were relatively light and charming, so this doesn't need decanting and leaving for an hour, which makes it convenient for weeknight drinking. Plus I have to say the label is stunningly beautiful compared to most of the monstrosities out there. Clearly this is the exception to the Inverse Law of Burgundy Labels which I will discuss in a later post. Stay tuned!

It has been drawn to my attention that I rarely (never?) talk about wines you could buy in the supermarket on this blog. That's because I don't buy much wine from supermarkets. I mainly drink Burgundy and any Burgundy in a supermarket is going to be produced in mass quantities in order to meet the demand, whereas it's the small enterprises that produce the interesting stuff. However I will from time to time buy other wine in a supermarket, and 9 times out of 10 it will be sherry when Waitrose have a special offer on. I love all sherries and in the summer, a glass of cold fino or manzanilla goes down very well.

This La Gitana from Hidalgo was on special a couple of weeks ago - a couple of quid off, so it was about £6.50, and very nice it was too, chilled, with some pistachio nuts and some almonds. NB it's important to treat sherry like a proper wine and not leave it open for weeks - drink up asap. Under no circumstances behave like an elderly aunt, put it in a wooden cabinet and wheel it out again at Christmas.

This is Chateau Tour Cormeil 2006 - a claret, gasp! It's really nice and has that blackcurranty thing going on, and everyone in the office loves this too, we had it at a Christmas party and it went down very well. Not hugely expensive by claret standards - only about £12 I think.

The other night G got back from Rutland with these two beauties from Hugenot - a Marsannay and a Gevrey-Chambertin, both 2005, so we thought it would be interesting to try them side by side. The Gevrey was powerful and muscular and beefy as expected - G had already had a bottle a while ago and had given it a good review - but the Marsannay was a revelation! The fruit jumped out of the glass at me (which is always a good thing) and it was vibrant and very juicy and delicious. I don't know much about Marsannay except that it's the most northern of the villages in the Cote de Nuits, practically at Dijon, and that I always get it confused with Maranges, which is down in the south. Need to start paying more attention.

Last but by no means least, the other night we had one of G's Alsace haul, procured after the Alsace dinner. This was the 1970 Sporen. It was an absolutely beautiful golden colour, and quite dry and refreshing. Remarkable to think that it's 40 years old. Wonderful!