Apologies for the lack of posts lately. It's taken me a while to get organised and take photos of the things I've been drinking over the past few weeks, but here they are. In no particular order, largely because I can't remember what we had when...
Savigny-les-Beaune les Fourches 2005 from Champy, en demi. This emerged from a Norfolk cellar which shall remain nameless, and I was happy to acquire it although it was a bit of a risk as I hadn't tried it beforehand, and G predicted doom. Fortunately the gamble paid off!
Maison Champy are negotiants based in Beaune and I've been there a couple of times. The last time we had an extensive tour with the delightful Sophie which was brilliant - we got to poke around in their cellars where they have stuff going back about a century - but overran by about two hours, causing us to abandon our plans of a leisurely lunch and have to eat a quiche on a park bench instead, but I won't hold that against them. It was a good quiche.
I always think Champy are very typique - they somehow always seem to capture the essence of a village. This Savigny is very good indeed - tres Savigny, smooth and velvety and elegant but with a richness. If this were a premier cru, it would be scoring an 8. I love the fact that it's in half bottles, and I love the fact that I have 24 more in bond, in two packs of 12 so I can get some out soon and the rest when I can't delay gratification any more.
Auxey-Duresses Les Clous 2007 from Sylvie Boyer. I got this as part of a mixed case of interesting whites in the £12-18 range. This was the most interesting and inevitably also the most expensive of the bunch. Very accomplished. I believe some sort of family bust-up means that she's not making wine at the moment but on the basis of this I do hope she gets back in the game soon. Have to deduct a few marks for the screwcap though - tchah!
Bourgogne Rouge La Chapelle Notre-Dame, from Domaine Nudant, 2007. I picked up a case of this last year and it's one of my house reds. It's relatively light and sometimes has a hint of apricot kernels and a slight muskiness. G is not a big fan (although there's some bottle variation and he has made favourable comments a couple of times) so I tend to neck this myself when he's away for the weekend. I've enjoyed it but don't think I'll be rushing to buy any more - plenty more bourgogne rouge in the sea, so to speak.
Cremant de Bourgogne from the Duchesse de Magenta. Sadly this was my last bottle of this wonderful cremant. I think it's blanc de blancs (aka blanketty blank) and it's much more of a champagne-style cremant than some. We were lucky to get the small allocation that we did and am not expecting any more to be available so there we are. Heigh ho.
Ah, an old friend. This is the Bourgogne Rouge '07 from Domaine Parent. G and I have been getting through this stuff like nobody's business. The 2007s were relatively light and charming, so this doesn't need decanting and leaving for an hour, which makes it convenient for weeknight drinking. Plus I have to say the label is stunningly beautiful compared to most of the monstrosities out there. Clearly this is the exception to the Inverse Law of Burgundy Labels which I will discuss in a later post. Stay tuned!
It has been drawn to my attention that I rarely (never?) talk about wines you could buy in the supermarket on this blog. That's because I don't buy much wine from supermarkets. I mainly drink Burgundy and any Burgundy in a supermarket is going to be produced in mass quantities in order to meet the demand, whereas it's the small enterprises that produce the interesting stuff. However I will from time to time buy other wine in a supermarket, and 9 times out of 10 it will be sherry when Waitrose have a special offer on. I love all sherries and in the summer, a glass of cold fino or manzanilla goes down very well.
This La Gitana from Hidalgo was on special a couple of weeks ago - a couple of quid off, so it was about £6.50, and very nice it was too, chilled, with some pistachio nuts and some almonds. NB it's important to treat sherry like a proper wine and not leave it open for weeks - drink up asap. Under no circumstances behave like an elderly aunt, put it in a wooden cabinet and wheel it out again at Christmas.
This is Chateau Tour Cormeil 2006 - a claret, gasp! It's really nice and has that blackcurranty thing going on, and everyone in the office loves this too, we had it at a Christmas party and it went down very well. Not hugely expensive by claret standards - only about £12 I think.
The other night G got back from Rutland with these two beauties from Hugenot - a Marsannay and a Gevrey-Chambertin, both 2005, so we thought it would be interesting to try them side by side. The Gevrey was powerful and muscular and beefy as expected - G had already had a bottle a while ago and had given it a good review - but the Marsannay was a revelation! The fruit jumped out of the glass at me (which is always a good thing) and it was vibrant and very juicy and delicious. I don't know much about Marsannay except that it's the most northern of the villages in the Cote de Nuits, practically at Dijon, and that I always get it confused with Maranges, which is down in the south. Need to start paying more attention.
Last but by no means least, the other night we had one of G's Alsace haul, procured after the Alsace dinner. This was the 1970 Sporen. It was an absolutely beautiful golden colour, and quite dry and refreshing. Remarkable to think that it's 40 years old. Wonderful!
