Sunday lunch at ACC's, 7th September

On Sunday G and I caught the trusty 68 bus southwards for an epic lunch at ACC Towers.

I failed to take a photo of the first wine we drank, a Pouilly-Fume, which made a very pleasant aperitif on a surprisingly warm September day.

"Colour is not a function of pinot noir"

We were then offered a choice of three reds. I couldn't deny that the Beaune 2008 from Domaine Giboulot was my first preference, and it was duly opened. Such a glorious wine, light and beautiful as always. I'd been under the impression for a long time that you needed to decant Giboulot's delicate biodynamic wines 90 minutes in advance, but apparently that's not the case, which is great news as it means G and I can drink them on week nights now!

Another guest, J, had brought along this bottle of 2008 Chateau Leoville Poyferre. I don't drink a lot of young claret but this was lovely and certainly seemed ready to go. A discussion of the change in claret-making techniques over the past few years followed - apparently it's much more scientific than it used to be and the wines are made to drink younger, which I guess is a good thing as you don't now have to wait 35 years for them to come round.

Back label

Spot the difference!

Next up was the bottle of 2007 red Chassagne-Montrachet from Domaine de la Choupette (not to be confused with Karl Lagerfield's cat) which I'd brought along. I got this out of storage recently and this was the second bottle I've had since then. I absolutely love it - for me, it has a very strong smell and taste of redcurrants and maybe other red fruit too, is really succulent, and all in all a great expression of Cote de Beaune style pinot noir. I always think that the wines of this domaine take a while to come round and the 2007 is drinking nicely now, at 7 years old. It was revealed that J has recently been drinking the 2011 so opinions may differ.

What's that green stuff? Answers on a postcard

G's contribution was "the most expensive raspberry tart in history" bought from Patisserie des Reves in Marylebone High Street. There's one born every minute...

With this we had a half of 1996 Moscatel Reserva from Quinta do Portal, which was well-chilled and made a very enjoyable, refreshing dessert wine.

Then, as it appeared we weren't finished yet, ACC cracked open this Cote de Brouilly from Domaine Trichard (there is some enjoyably bad translation on this website: "Discover wines of soils with the tempered character, with the aromas of fruits, and exceptional obstinacy") which I believe was a 2007. I wasn't making notes but this was decent, mature beaujolais and I'm led to believe it's rather good value! Another great lunch and thanks to ACC for his hospitality.  

SPNS dinner, 13th May

On a Tuesday evening a couple of weeks ago, we gathered in the Savile bar for the next Swiss Pinot Noir Society evening. Present and correct were D, P, G, myself and a special guest, none other than Baron McG himself. Sadly ACC and T were otherwise engaged. Miss it, miss out, as ACC is fond of saying...

We commenced with this bottle of Champagne Moutard provided by P - cue lots of inevitable jokes about mustard. This was well-received with the general verdict being that it was pleasingly mature, elegant and well-rounded. It's available for £20.99 from Naked Wines and at that price I consider it to be very good value for what it is, although it may also have benefited from a little extra time in P's cellar.

We went upstairs to the dining room and as there is often a lull in proceedings at this stage, I produced a Tio Pepe Fino "en Rama" to keep us going until the starters arrived. This is a special release, and it's extra fresh and unfiltered. It was bottled in April and you're supposed to drink it as soon as possible after release, certainly within 6 months. I'd had it about a week and if anyone had been snoozing at this stage, it would certainly have woken them up - it was sharp and zingy. I got mine from the Wine Society who sell it for £14.50 a bottle, but there are other stockists such as Adnams. I may just have to order some more while it's still available...

Then, with our starters, we moved on to G's contribution, this dry white from Madeira, Barbusano Verdelho 2011. G told us how previously he had believed there was no good table wine from Madeira but then had come across this in a restaurant and been pleasantly surprised. It was a refreshing, relatively light white wine, crisp, with good acidity. It went down well and made an enjoyable change from the sort of white wine I usually drink.

With our main course, we knocked my second and last magnum of Echezeaux 1971 on the head. This was made by Prosper Maufoux and we had the first one at a dinner with ACC and the Baron back in December, which I blogged about here. I was hoping very much that this one would turn out to be as good, as I have a history of bringing corked bottles to SPNS. It wasn't just as good, it was better!

It had a lovely fragrance and sweet, dark fruit. It was fully mature, dangerously drinkable, and generally delicious. We had no trouble getting through it. The only dilemma was what to eat with it since for some reason there was no red meat on the menu that evening! P and I ended up having a full English breakfast while D had tuna and G and the Baron had veal chops. I think we were all happy with our choices!

Finally, D's contribution was this 1969 Moscatel de Setubal which is a Portuguese dessert wine. I have to confess I'd never heard of it until now! It was grapey, with good acidity. D detected spice and honey, while the Baron declared that it was amazing with his sticky toffee pudding. All in all, an excellent way to round off the meal. Thanks to everyone for another excellent evening!

Meeting of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society, 14th May

On Friday it was the much-anticipated third meeting of the Society. Some complex bottle-swapping and book-collecting arrangements were effected and I joined ACC for a quick G&T at the Carlton beforehand, causing much outrage among the staff at my attempt to a) keep my wine with me and b) keep my coat with me. A portrait of Michael Howard smirked at the proceedings, but sadly no members of the Cabinet were present for me to pelt with mini-Cheddars.

Then it was off to our venue for the evening, the Savile in Brook Street where we met the other members of the Society - G, T, P and D. I was unable to take any photos as cameras are banned, but that's probably just as well as it would have been disruptive and I might have missed out on a refill while I was faffing about.

The idea behind the Society is that each member brings a bottle which is supposed to be in some way obscure or interesting. One is not supposed to spend mega-bucks, although some members have shamelessly infringed this rule in the past and surprisingly the rest of us were not minded to kick them out.

Sitting in the bar, we kicked off with my contribution, a 2002 blancs-de-blancs champagne from Jean Comyn who is a fairly obscure producer and therefore just about fitted the bill. Comments were recorded in the book and on the whole were favourable although the general opinion was that it would be better in 5 years' time. It would be one to tuck away for a while, if I still had any.

Then we went upstairs to the dining room where we had two bottles of Vina Tondonia 1998 rose provided by T.

This was a revelation - we all sat there saying we'd never had any pink wine like it. It was remarkably dry and fully mature, and altogether rather serious for a pink. Everyone found it interesting and I get the impression from the book that most of us liked it, although I can't read ACC's scribble even at this early stage in the evening.

Next up we had two reds side by side: G's Barbaresco 1982 from Bruno Gracosa and D's Seneca Shore Merlot Kylix Cuvee 2001 from New York. This was a fascinating comparison. The Barbaresco was much paler than the merlot, and quite a shock to the system on the palate - very dry and mature. The merlot was full and rich and something of a crowd-pleaser. P and T were vocal in its praise, and disparaging of the Barbaresco ("would remove paint from a wall or two" was one comment) but ACC described the merlot as "frontal" which sounds vaguely rude but he's right - it had an upfront immediate charm but not much of a finish.

We had a quick claret from the club's list to go with the savoury, which was fine but overshadowed by its eminent predecessors.

With pudding, we had a bottle of 1997 Chateau Guiraud, a Sauternes which ACC had procured for a bargain price from a branch of Somerfield. It still had a gaudy price label on it. This was very enjoyable sauternes and comments in the book are positive (T: "Brill!" I can't believe T actually wrote that!) and only G sounding a note of doubt - "not complex".

Finally, we moved on to the star wine of the evening, P's Moscatel 1900. This was a dark brown colour, and stunning. It had a serious intensity and wonderful balance, and the finish went on forever. I was fascinated trying this serious madeira after all the other not-at-all-shabby wines we had drunk, to find how comprehensively it beat the competition. Everyone raved about it in the book apart from ACC who had fallen asleep by this stage (it had been a long day, apparently). "Heavenly", "nectar" and "double plus good" were all used.

P was awarded the prize for wine of the evening, and T was awarded the prize for the wine most in the spirit of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society, both well-deserved accolades. Bring on the next meeting!