Lunch at ACC's, 20th June

Yesterday G and I made our way to the wilds of south-west London for lunch chez ACC. Our journey was made more complicated than usual owing to various transport connections being disrupted by some march, which meant I managed to forget not only my umbrella but also my camera. Fortunately I didn't forget my phone, or the bottle of wine I was bringing, or the latest edition of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui which gave its best chablis award to Domaine Nathalie & Gilles Fevre.

We arrived, somewhat damp and grumpy, but our spirits were soon restored as ACC put on a semi-vertical tasting of two whites from the Vondeling estate in South Africa. I say semi-vertical because one was from 2006 and one was 2008 and they were a mixture of chardonnay, viognier and chenin blanc but in the case of the 2008, there was some grenache blanc in there too.

It was very interesting to try these, especially as they had some age on them. The 2006 was elegant but I preferred the 2008 which was fuller and reminded me of a Volnay. They weren't massively alcoholic either - 13% and 13.5%. Certainly the best South African whites I've tasted.

To eat, we had some pate to start and then ACC served this roast chicken which was very fine...

... as was the stuffing, served in a Le Creuset aubergine dish shaped like an aubergine! I'm quite jealous.

My contribution was this bourgogne rouge 2000 from Leroy, which was one of my finds in Antic Wines in Lyon.

I enjoyed this very much - very 2000 said ACC - and particularly towards the end as it opened out it had a lovely sweetness and red berry fruit reminiscent of summer pudding.

G provided the cheese board, which came from La Fromagerie. His ability to open the incredibly heavy door to their cheese room is greater than mine. The Langres in particular was wonderful and can be seen oozing all over the cheeseboard here - clearly it was necessary to eat it all immediately.

With the cheese, ACC served this fantastic 1990 Jurancon, which I understand he got from Philippe at Mon Millesime in Beaune. It was absolutely lovely, with caramelised pineapple flavours, and it was not too sweet by any means. A real treat.

Merci beaucoup to ACC and I look forward to the re-match at my place in a couple of week's time!

Swiss Pinot Noir Society dinner, 18th Oct

Last night it was off to the Savile for the next instalment in the proceedings of the Society. Sadly ACC and T were unable to join us, so it was just G, P, D and me, but that was just about a quorum. Club rules prevent photography (that didn't stop the people at the table next to us but we were much better behaved than them) so I've shamelessly nicked photos from other places.

We began with G's champagne, Leclerc Mondet 2000. We've had a fair amount of this over the years and I expressed the view that "it has never failed to disappoint" which others were quicker than me to work out was a triple negative and thus the opposite of what I meant, oops. We all agreed that it was a very good, mature champagne. There was some speculation as to the mixture of grapes, with the view expressed that there was a relatively high percentage of pinot noir in there. How vintage champagne should be.

Next up we had P's Volgar sauvignon blanc 2007 from Italy. I hope I've deciphered P's handwriting correctly, and that it is called Volgar. This was a revelation. It had a very vibrant sauvignon nose, but was quite creamy on the palate, and the finish went on for ages. Everybody liked it.

After that, we moved on to a Penns Woods cabernet reserve 2005 from D. A whopping 14% according to the label but US labels are notoriously inaccurate and we thought it might be even higher. This was like a young, serious claret. I'd never come across a wine from Pennsylvania before and according to D, they have trouble getting the cabernet to ripen but in 2005 they were lucky. We suspected there might be some merlot in there too but I see the website says it's 100% cabernet sauvignon! Very good indeed.

Also provided by D, the oldest wine of the evening, a 1968 Freemark Abbey Napa Valley pinot noir. This had the enjoyably precise figure of 12.9% alcohol on the label. It reminded me of an old Burgundy and reminded G of old Alsace pinot noir, with a very sweet, jammy, tinned strawberry kind of nose. P detected rosewater. I would say it was reaching the end of its life but it was a real treat. I love drinking wine that's older than me!

After that, with the cheese course, we had my contribution: a vin jaune from the Jura, Chateau-Chalon 2000 from Domaine Berthet-Bondet. This came in a strange-shaped bottle which only held 620 ml. I got it from the Wine Society and followed their instructions to open it 24 hours in advance and serve cool. It reminded everyone of fino sherry - the best word I could find to describe it was "pungent". Interesting and austere, but I'm not sure it was actually very likable. I almost wonder if it would have been better as an aperitif, but think I will be sticking to sherry in future. Still, live and learn...

And finally, with pud, we had the 1982 Rivesaltes which I have blogged about before. G and I both felt it wasn't quite up to scratch compared to the other wines we'd had over the course of the evening, but P and D said nice things about it in the Book - "pleasantly medicinal" (no semi-dissolved paracetamol on this occasion), "long sweet finish". All in all, an evening of fascinating wine.

Savagnin 2004

We drank this bottle of Savagnin 2004 from the Jura on Sunday night. It went very well with G's signature lamb biryani, an excellent curry wine. It was a glorious golden colour, and very dry yet rich - it sees about 18 months in oak. Reminded us of an old Meursault. At £22 from the Wine Society, not cheap, but it was rather lovely and had a few more years in it.