Dinner at the Savile, 9th May

On Wednesday, it was over to the Savile Club yet again - oh, the suffering! This was a gathering arranged at short notice with the excuse that D was over in Blighty yet again, and the usual SPNS rules had been relaxed. Our instructions were to "bring a bottle of something interesting, ideally something that has been sitting on the rack looking at you mournfully for a while, waiting for an occasion that has never yet quite arisen."

Formal tasting notes weren't taken, so this will be a mostly photographic blog post...

I arrived to find everyone else guzzling fizz provided by G - this 2006 Champagne Corbon which was a blanc de blancs. I found it a little on the sharp side, one might almost say bracing. Apparently this is a characteristic of the vintage. Lively debate ensued as to whether it would improve with time. Personally I'm not convinced.

ACC had brought this intriguing Anjou Blanc which didn't have a vintage on it but was clearly very old. As usual, the Inverse Law of Wine Labels came into play - what a monstrosity! - and the wine itself was very interesting and aromatic.

Sadly P's red turned out to be massively corked and I can practically still smell the whiff of mouldy socks that circulated round the room when it was opened. But fortunately ACC had brought a reserve white which was wheeled out instead. This was a white from Domaine Manzone, not to be confused with Boyzone (sorry), made from the clairette grape. It was rich and one of those southern French whites which I think would be great served really cold on a really hot day, or might go well with fish and chips. One did wonder if one glass might be enough though.

My contribution was this 2004 Heitz Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, which I bought from the booze shop in Pennsylvania on my first trip there in November last year. It had been sitting on the rack waiting for the right occasion so this seemed like a good chance to drink it. I was very happy with it - it was very smooth and polished with that classic hint of mint, or even eucalyptus according to D. It's going to be tempting to buy some more in due course now that trips to Pennsylvania are a happy fixture in my life...

This was my main course, a picanha steak. It was fantastic!

D had brought along this Coteaux de L'Aubance 1996 from Bablut, which was from the Loire. I've never heard of this appellation before but it was a very impressive dessert wine with great balance and an amazing finish - we're talking minutes.

Finally, a bottle of Chateau Musar 2006 was provided by P to go with the savoury, which was very enjoyable as usual. All in all, it was a really fun evening and it was nice to try some unusual wines. Thanks everyone!

SPNS dinner, 18th May

Last weekend was one of those weekends where, after what seems like months of doing nothing in particular, suddenly there's a whirlwind of activity.

First up was the Swiss Pinot Noir Society which met at the Savile Club on 18th May. There were seven of us this time, as P's wife joined us, so we tasted more wines than usual, but had less of each.

We started with an Austrian sparkling red from P, called Strohmeier Rot Sekt. I have to hand it to P that he does come up with the strangest wines very much in the spirit of the Society! Unfortunately, red sparklers are not my bag and I only managed a couple of small sips before bailing out. The other verdicts were marginally more favourable but the similarity to fizzy Ribena was remarked upon and most found it interesting but not something they'd be particularly keen to have again. At least "undissolved paracetamol" was not mentioned this time!

Moving swiftly on, P presented a 2011 pedro ximinez from Chile. I wasn't the only one who had no idea that pedro ximinez came in a different style from the extraordinary sweet and gloopy sherry. For me, this was aromatic and went down a treat after the first wine (= it was cold and white!) but I suspect it was the sort of thing that would get boring after the first glass. D made an unusually sharp comment: "like a weak sauvignon blanc" and generally it was regarded as a little superficial but not bad. T said "This is fun; in the founding spirit of the SPNS". When P revealed that it cost less than £4 we were all pleasantly surprised.

We moved upstairs at this point to have dinner and it was on to the serious wines of the evening. First up was a Nuits St Georges 1er Cru Clos de la Marechale 2005 from Jacques-Frederic Mugnier, provided by ACC. I wasn't familiar with this producer but we could immediately tell that this was serious stuff, very classy, rich and quite heavy, with a great finish. Everyone rated it very highly and G and I both gave it a 10 - hurrah! The only debate was over whether it would improve with more time. P said it was infanticide to drink it now but my end of the table disagreed, feeling it was on the plateau and wouldn't get worse with age but wouldn't get better either. Quite honestly, I don't see how it could. Have just done some homework on Mugnier and see that a certain wine merchant has the 2008 for £69 - ouch. Thanks to ACC for sharing this with us!

Then there was a rose provided by T, from the Loire, called Les Nuages 2009. G and I both found peaches going on in this, and D got strawberries. It was unexpectedly fruity which led us to speculate that perhaps it wasn't actually pinot noir. P wrote something provocative in the book about rose wines being girly and pointless. He's entitled to his opinion but I don't agree.

Not very Chassagne

After that it was on to the reds, starting with my Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru La Maltroie 1999 from Domaine Amiot. I got three bottles of this at auction and this was the last one. It was generally well-received but once again didn't seem very typical of Chassagne, being big and rich and with black fruit. Still only an 8.

Blockbuster!

D provided us with yet another rarity from the US, this time a 1996 Napa Valley Zinfandel called Edizione Pennino from Niebaum-Coppola. This reduced the usually loquacious T to a monosyllable - "Wow!" I found it lovely, soft and mature with big blackberry fruit. G said "an honour and a pleasure to drink" which sums it up very well. When are we going to raid D's cellar in the US?

Sadly, the Inverse Law of Labels did not apply in this case

Then we had G's wine, Smerenie 2009 from Romania.This claimed to be a mixture of shiraz, (syrah surely?), pinot noir and dornfelder. Perhaps the New World-isation of the grape name was a sign of things to come, as this was your typical "international" wine, completely failing to display any sense of terroir. It was also incredibly alcoholic and basically a headache in a glass. G wrote his comment in the book first and seemed to like it at that stage, but I think we all started to get diminishing returns quite quickly.

P provided a third wine, the hilariously-named "Rikiki - Elixir des Anges" which was apparently a 15% Julienas. Was this actually from Beaujolais? Once again, it was seriously weird, but interesting. "What the hell is that? Late harvest gamay? WTF?" wrote G. Some detected prunes and fruit jelly while I found it like Ribena with apple. We all thought it got better with time and chilling, and when T tried it with his blue cheese, that was declared to be a good combination. So, it grew on us, but whether it could ever be described as the elixir of angels is, frankly, debatable.

Finally, I'd brought along a bottle of Pacherenc de Vic Bilh but sadly this turned out to be corked, so it was just as well I'd brought the Chassagne too. I've noticed that the corked rate seems to be high for me at SPNS dinners - is it sod's law or just that I'm taking more risks than I usually would, in a hopeless attempt to beat D who always wins? Either way, memo to self to bring 2 bottles in future.

A mixed bag

My prizes of the evening: best white goes to ACC for the Nuits St Georges, best red goes to D (of course) for the Napa Valley Zin, and most in the spirit of SPNS goes to P for his trio of curiosities. A bientôt!