Stuff out of storage and recent drinking roundup

April was a challenging month for a variety of reasons, but now we're into May, the weather has suddenly improved and there are several wine-related occasions on the horizon which I'm looking forward to. But first, a quick catch up of what has been going down lately.

This Saint-Aubin 1er cru les Combes from Thomas Morey came from the shop in Puligny-Montrachet in September 2013. I have fond memories of glasses of Bourgogne Blanc from Domaine Bzikot being served at 3 euros a pop in the same shop. It was a pale golden colour and lively on the palate - lemony, floral, elegant and refreshing, with good acidity. G commented that "a judicious dollop of oak" had been applied. It went down well and we awarded it an 8 on the premier cru project scale. Looking at the spreadsheet, it seems as though it was quite typique.

I'd been looking forward to drinking this white Corton grand cru 2007 from Domaine Parent for years now and finally the moment arrived! We decanted it half an hour beforehand. It was a nice golden colour with an opulent nose and lots of vanilla. On the palate, it was rich and massive but well-integrated and had a lovely weight. There was perhaps a mushroom thing going on. It was great with crab and avocado, and positively regal, but not a monster - no supercharged vanilla ice cream here. G thought the power was starting to come through about 45 minutes in, which suggests decanting for longer next time. A lovely wine, and I can't wait to drink some more of it and also to compare it with the 2008.

This Pernand-Vergelesses 2010 Les Belles Filles from Domaine Ludovic Belin also came out of storage recently. It was a glossy purple colour with great legs and a fruity nose. I thought it was blackcurrant, but G who knows his currants better than I do identified it as whitecurrant. The palate was congruent, light and fruity, and it was drinking nicely now. A pretty wine and a useful mid-range addition to the wine rack.

G and I drank my penultimate bottle of this Pommard 1er cru Largilliere 2008 from La Maison Romane on Wednesday night - I was feeling self-indulgent! I stuck it in the fridge for half an hour or so beforehand. As before, it had a heady nose of sweet red berries and was like drinking summer pudding. It's certainly not your average Pommard. Pure and delicious, this is one of my favourite wines ever and the word "transcendental" springs to mind. It was an instant 10, as always, and I'm very happy that I have one more bottle left, thanks to the Burgundy Portfolio.

Last Saturday, G and I joined ACC at a certain chicken-related establishment in South Kensington for a boozy bank holiday weekend lunch. ACC brought along a bottle of 2011 Chassagne Montrachet from Domaine Bouard-Bonnefoy comme aperitif, and I brought along a bottle of 2006 Meursault 1er cru Gouttes D'Or from Domaine Moret-Nomine. These were both excellent examples of their type.

For reds, we had this old Saint-Amour which ACC had picked up on a recent trip to Paris. This bore little resemblance to Beaujolais, shall we say. A hefty dollop of syrah had clearly been added to the mix, and very nice it was too.

We also felt it was time for another bottle of Latour - not much left now - so I brought along the 1963. The label had fallen off, but there was nothing wrong with the bottle itself. Fine luncheon claret.

On Wednesday G and I drank some of this Old Amontillado Sherry from Sandeman which he told me is an 80s bottling and the wine itself probably 20 years old at that point on average. I enjoyed it - it was a beautiful dark amber colour with burnt caramel on the nose, and medium on the palate. We had failed to chill it, which was an error. It's in the fridge now and I'm looking forward to having another glass this evening.

Finally, a brace of Marcs de Bourgogne, from an unexpected source in the UK. One is from Jacoulot, the other from J Boulay. The Jacoulot is the best of the two in my opinion, with more complexity than the other, which is lighter. I've been very happy with both of them although I understand that new stocks from Felettig are about to arrive next week so that should keep me going for a bit!

Friday night at mine

On Friday night, ACC joined G and me for dinner. I finished work, ran round the 'Trose, put on my AduV Party Mix, whipped up a batch of gougeres and made some pesto for the first time in my life. G rocked up and got the cremant on the go just as ACC knocked on the door. Perfect!

Still life with decanter brush

With our main course of salmon with the afore-mentioned pesto, we had a bottle of 2006 Meursault 1er cru Gouttes D'Or from Moret-Nomine. I've already written about this but this bottle was the equal of the first, like Meursault squared, heavyweight, nutty and powerful. Pretty to look at, too.

With our cheese course, ACC produced this fine bottle of Maranges from Maison en Belles Lies. I tend to think of Maranges as quite rustic and thought this would go very well with sausages, but it is at the more charming end of the spectrum as one would expect from biodynamic wine-maker Pierre Fenals.

In other news, I have continued my Duolingo French training and am now allegedly 47% fluent, a figure that would make anyone who has heard me trying to speak French chortle, I suspect. Fortunately we have now moved on from obscure animals and it is becoming more like a work of hardboiled detective fiction with sentences such as "She drinks, so I drink" and "If he talks, we talk". I wonder if there is much call for private investigators in Beaune?

Recent drinking round-up, 5th Sept

It has been a quiet August on the drinking front, as G was away for two weeks and I managed a record-breaking 11 days on the wagon in his absence, With our livers now squeaky clean and raring to process some alcohol, I arranged for some wine to come out of storage.

Last Saturday I took this bottle of Oroncio Pouilly-Fume Les Palefreniers 2008 over to ACC's for lunch. It went down well. It's quite unusual, a sauvignon blanc given the full Burgundy treatment, and is rich and grapefruity and generally rather wonderful and delicious. I ordered it nearly 3 years ago at the Maison Romane dinner (here) and am very happy with it!

Then, on Sunday evening, to celebrate G's successful trip away, we had this 2008 Vosne-Romanee Aux Reas from Alain Guyard. I bought a case of this some time ago and noticed it was in two six-packs so thought it was time to see how it was getting on, and indeed I think it's starting to drink now. It was perhaps on the light side for a Vosne but none the worse for that.

As it was a bank holiday Monday, I made a terrine and we pushed the boat out with a bottle of 2006 Meursault 1er cru Gouttes d'Or from Moret-Nomine. I snapped this up in a recent bin-end sale from the Burgundy Portfolio and had slightly wondered if it might be over the hill, but no, it was fabulous! Big, rich and nutty, all the things I like about Meursault. It's certainly drinking now but there is no particular rush and I'm sure getting through the other 5 bottles won't pose any sort of problem.

Then, on Thursday, a last-minute arrangement was made for ACC to join us for dinner with a selection of goodies which had been presented to a certain restaurant earlier in the day. Who were we to turn down such an invitation? This proved a fascinating tasting as it enabled us to see how certain things are getting on and generally congratulate ourselves on previous purchases.

Starting with the whites, we tried a 2014 Bourgogne Blanc from Domaine Celine & Frederic Gueguen, who are based in Chablis. Although this wasn't a Chablis, G and I both thought it shared a similarity in style. It was quite brisk, with good minerality, and made a refreshing aperitif. although perhaps on the young side. While on the subject of Chablis, it was terrible to hear about the hailstorm which hit many of the vineyards a few days ago, just before the harvest, and our thoughts go out to the growers affected.

We moved on to the 2010 Meursault from Vincent Perrin, which is always an enjoyable drop, with good typicity. G and I are more familiar with the 2008 vintage which we think may be slightly heftier, but then 2008 was a great vintage for white burgundy. Guess they can't be like that all the time.

Then came a real show-stopper, this 2011 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru En Remilly from Domaine Bouard-Bonnefoy. Comparisons were made to Batard-Montrachet. It had benefited from judicious use of oak and just generally came across as expensive and ambitious with a lovely weight and richness. I'm delighted to see that I have some of the 2012 in my cellar! We thought the 2011 was drinking now but might benefit from another year, which suggests that waiting five years is the way forward for these wines.

Of the reds, first we tried a 2011 Monthelie 1er cru Les Riottes from Florent Garaudet, which was very pure with juicy, clean fruit and showed that these wines need time to open up and reach their full potential. Then a 2010 Beaune 1er cru Les Reversees from Jean-Claude Rateau, which was a lovely, elegant expression of Beaune, but might be even better in a couple of years' time.

Finally, we tried this 2011 Morey-St-Denis from Domaine Audiffred. This was astonishing, with a nose of passionfruit, blackcurrant and possibly even mango. Normally I associate Morey with black forest gateau, but this was more like a tropical fruit pavlova. It was quite remarkable and we loved it.

Fascinating stuff and merci to ACC for sharing them with us!

Lunch at my place, 15th May

I have a blogging backlog to get through (shocking! tragic!) but am hoping to do it this week - stay tuned.

Two Sundays ago I invited G, ACC and Baron McG round for lunch. We started with kir royales / bellinis made with Cremant de Bougogne from Dufouleur and Chambord or Creme de Peche (I have a feeling G and I rudely helped ourselves to most of the Chambord before the others arrived) served with some gougeres fresh from the oven. That recipe alone makes Michel Roux's Eggs book well worth the price of admission.

Next up was a bottle of Meursault 1er cru Charmes 2005 from Moret-Nomine. I'd only tasted his wines very young before at one of ACC's "try before you buy" tastings last year, so when I found this on the Wine Society list I couldn't resist, and had been looking out for an opportunity to crack it, as I thought it would be a special occasion kind of wine.

I wasn't disappointed. We decanted it for about half an hour, and it had a lovely golden colour. On the nose it was rich and big and on the palate it had an unctuous mouthfeel and was fat and buttery but with the acidity to balance it. My notes read "Wonderful!" but I didn't quite think it merited a 10, so it got a 9 in the end. It did go very well with the smoked sea trout we had as a starter.

To continue the Meursault theme, after that we had a bottle of the 2007 red Meursault 1er cru Les Cras from Domaine Latour-Labille, provided by G. This was decanted for 2 hours. It had a dark, plummy colour and the nose was wonderful - sweet, heady and with jammy berry fruit. On the palate I've made the articulate tasting note "this is the bollocks". Excellent and accomplished, as it was last time we had it which I blogged about here. We had this with cold beef from the Ginger Pig which I'd roasted the night before.

With the cheese course, we had this Beaune Clos du Roi 2002 from Lois Dufouleur, provided by the Baron. He told us that he bought this at the St Vincent festival and that it had been in his cellar for 3 years so we were privileged to get to drink it!

It had about an hour in the decanter. The colour was dark and serieux, and the nose had that classic beautiful Beaune perfume or "steamy farmyard" according to the Baron. On the palate it was lovely, perfectly balanced and, dare I say it, haunting. It was drinking perfectly now and went very well with the cheese. G said "the only criticism I have of this wine is" (dramatic pause) "that it's not in magnum".

And finally, with our rhubarb crumble we had this Coteaux du Layon 2003 from Domaine de Pierre Blanche, provided by ACC. It was a beautiful golden colour and was luscious, sweet and herbaceous. I wasn't making proper notes by this stage, as we were singing along to various Pet Shop Boys classics, mis-remembering lyrics and competing to see who could do the worst impression of Chris Lowe's monologue on Paninaro. After that we inflicted some Red Biddy on the Baron, but hopefully we're still on speaking terms!