Big Ben and dinner at mine, Saturday 12th Oct

Last Saturday was one of those days that doesn't come along too often.

In the morning, ACC, Baron McG and I had a private tour of Big Ben, thanks to my sister-in-law. She's friends with Paul Roberson, the Clockmaker at the Palace of Westminster (there's an interview with him here) and he kindly took us up the Elizabeth Tower. This was my second time seeing Big Ben in action for the midday bongs but was even better than the first, since there were just six of us, Paul had some wonderful stories and jokes, and we were granted access to some parts that the main tours don't get to see! As this is a wine blog, I'll restrict myself to three photos.

Inside the clock dial

Big Ben lui-meme

View south down the river

After the tour, we had a breather in the room with the clock mechanism. I produced a bottle of Pol Roger, Paul revealed his stash of glasses, and my brother produced mini-cheddars and TUC cheesy biscuits much to everyone's delight, and we toasted the experience. Magic. Then we descended the steep spiral staircase - at this point it was probably just as well we'd only had a glass of fizz each - and went for lunch at the Green Man and French Horn on St Martin's Lane. It specialises in food and wine from the Loire region and we were favourably impressed, especially since the set menu is excellent value.

There was just time for me to brave the hordes on the tube and nip over to Knightsbridge to pick up some cheeses from my favourite cheese shop. I see their website is charmingly translated and the English headline is "Federateur of gouts and of human passions". Should I mention this next time I'm there? More importantly, I got an update on the Mont d'Or situation: it will be a couple of weeks yet before the good stuff gets going...

Then it was back to AdeV Towers to prepare for dinner with D and G.

G had also been busy and had spent an hour at Borough Market hunting down the stall with the Irish wild smoked sea trout. We drank the last of my Chablis 1er cru Montmains 2008 from La Maison Romane with it. It took a few minutes to open up, as it had been in the fridge all day, but once it did, it was perfect.

There followed a pair of half-bottles of 1966 claret brought by D, which we drank with slow-cooked lamb and gratin dauphinois. The Haut-Brion was a lovely colour and very glossy, with liquorice, sous-bois and mushrooms on the nose. On the palate it was very smooth, rich and intense - delicious. G described it as an intellectual wine. The price tag of $14.95 made us groan with envy; I think it had been in D's cellar some time!

The second half was Mouton-Rothschild which D told us had cost $5 - those were the days! It was still a second-growth in 1966 before being promoted to first-growth status in 1973. This had cocoa on the nose and again it was quite earthy and very serious. G, who has drunk far more Mouton than I have, said it was discernibly Mouton. It was drinking very well now and I thought it was very charming indeed. D pointed out that lamb was a very suitable match for it, which was a lucky coincidence!

Next up we had some poached pears with this German wine provided by G - a 1989 Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Auslese which was just 8% alcohol.

Apologies for the wobbly photo but this shows what a wonderful colour it was. It was aromatic and sweet but with sufficient acidity to be very drinkable. "Dessert by itself" said D, but it did actually work really well with the poached pears and I think we'll be revisiting this combo soon.

Finally, with the cheese course, we had this half of Graham's 1977 brought by D.

This was quite a light colour and elegant. We thought it was ready to go in half, whereas in bottle that may not be the case.

Hilarious back label telling you how to open the bottle

All in all, this was a great evening - thanks D for sharing your gems with us and I hope we did them justice!

Best of the Best tasting, 3rd Dec

For several years now my friend ACC has been holding a Christmas wine tasting which is always a major highlight of the year. We have a champagne, white burgundy, red burgundy, claret, sauternes and port, and throughout the year I know he spends a lot of time thinking ahead to this one and sourcing goodies for it.

Last night eight of us braved the icy pavements of Battersea to join him for this annual event and it proved to be a fascinating evening. Although I did take photos at the end they have come out very badly and I promise that one of my new year's resolutions is going to be reading the camera manual so that they're focused in future! (Obviously it had nothing to do with having too much to drink.)

First up, as an aperitif, was a magnum of Pol Roger 1990. This was fine, mature champagne. It was a golden colour and had yeastiness on the nose and richness on the palate. ACC said that 1990 was a difficult vintage for Pol as some of their grapes ripened faster than others. I thought this was the kind of champagne that makes you realise it's actually a proper wine but it didn't particularly set my world on fire, if I'm honest.

The second wine was a Chevalier-Montrachet "La Cabotte" Grand Cru 2000 from Bouchard. Grand cru is the top echelon of Burgundy and I don't get to drink it very often so this was exciting. It looked nice, and was a pale gold colour. The nose reminded me of the sort of big full-on Meursault that I like, and had a slight cabbageyness to it. But on the palate, I found it rather unbalanced and it had a sharpness as I was swallowing it that I didn't enjoy. Others observed that it didn't have the finish you'd expect at this level. Possibly it was too cold - the room where we were tasting was quite cold as it was -3C outside, and possibly it was just too young - there was some discussion of when it would be drinking, and whether it would improve over the next 2-3 years. I hope so. This wine goes for around £200 so while it was great to get to try it, there's no way I'd actually ever buy it.

Then we moved on to the reds. First a 1988 Clos-Vougeot from Capitain Gagnerot, another grand cru. My first impression of this wine was very favourable - it was a beautiful mahogany colour, had a rich, sweet nose with a pleasant "hint of the farmyard", and had chocolate and red fruits on the palate - I wrote down that it was (expletive deleted) delicious! Then the finish hit me, and I found it rather bitter. I tried to convince myself that it wasn't an unpleasant kind of bitterness but had to concede defeat. When we came back to taste it again later, the nose had become quite vegetal and it was fading fast. ACC circulated the copy of Bougougne Aujourd'hui with the map of Clos-Vougeot showing how it's carved up between the different growers and arguably the section owned by Capitain Gagnerot isn't one of the best. Still, this wine apparently goes for £100-150 so it's not exactly cheap.

The fourth wine of the evening was a 1990 Mouton Rothschild. Mouton's labels are always very artistic and in this vintage the label was by Francis Bacon. I was looking forward to this wine, and ACC told us that Robert Parker doesn't like it, which I think raised everyone's expectations around the table as Parker tends to like obvious, big, alcoholic wines at the expense of subtlety and elegance.

Again it was a beautiful dark red colour and very clear and scintillating in the glass. The nose was a delicious cabernet sauvignon nose, all cedar and lead pencils. So it was looking good - but then on the palate, there was just nothing going on of any interest. I charitably described it as "restrained" which in this case was a euphemism for dull. It did have a very good finish. But given the price of this wine (around £300), I think most of us found it disappointing.

Last year, in contrast, we had some Chateau Latour 1997 which was my wine of the evening. My tasting notes read "It does bring a smile to my face." Now, of course, I regret not buying any!

Fortunately things immediately improved with the sauternes. This was a 1975 Chateau Pajot, Enclave d'Yquem. ACC said that this vineyard is within the Yquem vineyard itself but is owned by someone else. It's extremely obscure and production is tiny, and 1975 was a great sauternes vintage. I liked it very much. It wasn't too sweet (for a sweet wine) and was very elegant, with a lot of citrus, marmaladey notes. I thought it was absolute nectar and it was my wine of the evening.

Finally, we had some 1966 Quinta do Noval vintage port. This had a very intense nose, with figs and dates both mentioned. It was a fine, classic port with a slight spiritiness. G described it as a "complete" port and it was his wine of the evening. If I hadn't been drinking my beloved Smith Woodhouse 1970 earlier in the day, I might have agreed...

All in all, a very interesting tasting and as is often the case, it was great to try some things one would normally never get one's paws on. On this occasion the most expensive wines didn't deliver. This has often been the case in the past too - at the top level there may sometimes be a step up in quality but the step up in price is exponential. Unless I win the lottery (unlikely as I don't play it) I'll stick to wines further down the scale and feel pleased that I'm getting good value for money.

One photo that did turn out all right - a genuine Tommy Seaward I spotted in the corner of the office. It reminds me of strawberry bootlaces and I love it!