SPNS dinner, Tuesday 14th May

On Tuesday night it was another SPNS dinner with everyone in attendance apart from A, who has never actually attended. Hopefully he will one day!

I arrived to find the others guzzling prosecco and was informed that what appeared to be a stray glass was available for me only for T, moments later, to howl with indignation that his had disappeared - fortunately I hadn't started drinking it yet. A fresh glass was poured and all was well. This was Prosecco Extra Dry Baccharetto and was provided by P. It was generally well-received - crisp, pleasant and refreshing, a good summer aperitif. We quickly knocked it back and headed upstairs where we could have more space to ourselves. I broke the club rules by taking photos, but nobody seemed too bothered.

Next up was this Puligny-Montrachet 09 from Jean-Louis Chavy, provided by G. He was given this, so brought it along even though the cost was above that permitted by SPNS rules. Apparently the way to justify bringing something expensive to the SPNS is to pretend it was a gift - I've filed this info away for future reference. We all thought it was ok (drinkable and correct) but nobody raved about it and G said he wouldn't have paid good money for it.

On to the reds. This Chateau Plagnac Cru Bourgeois 1989 was provided by P (at what point did we all start bringing two bottles instead of one? Not that I'm complaining...) It exceeded expectations and went down very well. We all found it drinkable, with good fruit and tannin, and mature but not over the hill. A success.

This red Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Clos Saint-Jean 1983 from Ramonet came from my own stocks - it was my last bottle of this wine, which I snapped up at auction some time ago. Note the charming clingfilm cover to keep the label on! This was another risk for the SPNS as I have a track record of bring wines which are faulty or have gone off, but this time it paid off. It was fully mature, lovely old Burgundy with a wonderful finish.  "A triumph" wrote G. Hurrah!

To follow, we had this Chorey-les-Beaune Les Beaumonts 2011 from Ludovic Belin, provided by ACC. This vineyard is right by the gite where we usually stay when we go to Burgundy, so it was lovely to drink something from it. It was quite a contrast to the Chassagne, being young, vibrant and fruity - tres Chorey. T declared it the kind of Burgundy he likes to drink, which is high praise coming from him.

A quick photo to compare and contrast the Chassagne - a wonderful mature reddish brown colour - and the Chorey, bright purple.

We then moved on to this Zweigelt-Rebe 2009 from Japan, brought along by D. Unfortunately my Japanese isn't up to deciphering the label! This went down very well. Somebody has written a comment "very forward, like a keen geisha" in the book - disgraceful. G and I both thought that if we had been tasting it blind we might very well have taken it to be an Austrian wine - we've had Blauer Zweigelt before and it's quite distinctive. Kudos to the producers for getting such a good expression of the grape. Very interesting.

We then moved on to a pair of sweet vendange tardive gewurztraminers from Kuentz-Bas, Cuvee Caroline, provided by T. One was from 2001 and the other 2007.

Spot the difference. I found the 2001 big and opulent, while the 2007 bore a resemblance but wasn't quite the finished article just yet. G controversially preferred the 2007 leading some of us to speculate that he had got his glasses mixed up. There were other contradictory remarks in the book (one member thought the 2001 had a poor finish, another said it had a long finish) while T only managed "Good". I guess we were flagging by this stage!

However, there was more to come. This is a visual joke - it was the remaining half bottle of the 1976 Rieussec from the previous evening decanted into the 1983 d'Yquem bottle. We did consider pretending to the others that it was actually d'Yquem and seeing whether any of them would spot that it wasn't, but that wouldn't have been very kind. The Rieussec went down well but for me, it suffered by comparison to the d'Yquem the night before. It tasted more of honey than marmalade. It was well-balanced and long, but it somehow seemed to lack complexity.

Finally, we had this Seifried Nelson "Sweet Agnes" riesling 2011 provided by G. Hmmm. Quite a contrast. I appear to have quoted some lyrics from "Firestarter" in the book which was my way of referring to the petrol-like quality it had. ACC just wrote "Shell". It wasn't my cup of tea at all. Some of the others didn't dislike it, and to be fair, it probably suffered from comparison with the other sweet wines we'd just had - it was a mere nipper by comparison.

All in all, another great dinner and one particularly in the spirit of the SPNS in that there was a wide range of unusual things that we wouldn't normally get to drink. Looking forward to October already!

SPNS dinner, 18th Oct

Fresh as a daisy from the Perrin dinner the night before, it was straight down to the Savile Club on Thursday evening for the next gathering of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. On this occasion there were just four of us as sadly ACC had fallen by the wayside and P was AWOL. 

I took off my coat and made my way to the bar overflow area where T, D and G were cheerfully installed and appeared already to have scoffed the best part of a bottle of pink port. Being a perfect gentleman, T lost no time in pouring me a tumbler of the stuff on the rocks. I'd known in advance that he was bringing a fortified rose wine and had been intrigued but had never for one moment realised it would be a port - Offley's Rose Porto to be precise. T exhorted us to imagine that we were "somewhere south of Slough" by which I think he meant some hot, exotic country relaxing under the palm trees. It went down a treat - the ice chilled it down so it wasn't too sweet but remarkably refreshing and certainly something I'd consider buying again. Available in your local 'Trose for a bargain £9.99. Brilliant SPNS fare.

As usual, however, D out-weirded us all by bringing along a Japanese fizz with the moniker "Niagara Sparkling" which he got in Japan. Strangely this one doesn't seem to be available in my local supermarket. It had a remarkable nose - the others got lychees but for me there was a chemical note that belonged in a potting shed or garage, and it took me ages to work out what it was. We decided it wasn't nail polish remover but might be diesel or kerosene. On further reflection I have a feeling it might have been firelighters. Anyway, I found the palate more enjoyable and it reminded me of a sparkling Vouvray. Fascinating stuff.

My contibution paled by comparison. This was Mouratus, a white pinot noir from the Loire, made by J Mourat, which came from the Wine Society. It was the 2010 vintage. I've never had a still white wine made from pinot noir so thought it would be interesting. Sadly, it wasn't - it was bland and had no finish. We all agreed that it was disappointing and would have been better with bubbles. 

Then we moved on to G's red, Amorino 2005 from Podere Castorani, which he got from Avery's of Bristol. This claimed to be 13.5% alcohol but seemed to me to be closer to 14.5%. It was an "international" wine in the sense of being big and powerful but without much local character. It was approachable but I found I got rapidly diminishing returns. The comments of the others were generally favourable (apart from T's which seemed to be all about his delicious marinaded ox cheeks), but I suspect ACC would have hated it.

Finally, G had taken the liberty of bringing along some of my Pacherenc de Vic Bilh, Saint-Albert, 1999. I brought a bottle of this to the previous SPNS dinner and it had turned out to be corked. This additional bottle had been lurking in G's flat so I hadn't realised I still had any left. Fortunately this one turned out to be ok and everyone seemed to enjoy it, the consensus being that it was not too sweet. Not a "great" wine but pleasurable and excellent value, and at 50cl the perfect size to round things off.

I stole a photo of the Savile dining room as we were leaving - a remarkable setting in which to have dinner! Then we went back downstairs for grappa, coffee and further conversation. Another great evening.