Sunday night at mine

D came round on Sunday night for another evening of fine wine.

We started with this Pouilly-Fume from Oroncio aka La Maison Romane. This benefited from half an hour in decanter beforehand and showed as well as ever. We had it with some smoked trout which G had got from Borough Market and the challenge was not to guzzle it all while G carried out a lengthy dissection in order to avoid any Queen Mother-style fishbone incidents.

Then, it was on to the reds...

In the blue corner was this Opus One 1985 brought by D.

In the red corner, this bottle of Chateau Latour 1979 provided by G.

The Opus One is on the left in the photo above, and the Latour is on the right. The OO was slightly paler in colour and was drinking very well. It had a lovely silky texture, ripe plummy fruit, and I got a hint of pontefract cake. It was relatively easy-going and approachable but possibly started to fade towards the end.

After the 1968 Latour which we had fairly recently, the 1979 was a return to form. It was far more typical: big, majestic stuff, with the classic cigar box nose and formidable intensity. Apparently 1979 was not well-received when it first came out and one can understand why - this must have been a monster difficult wine in its youth. At 36 it was drinking very nicely.

I wouldn't say there was necessarily a clear winner, but it was particularly exciting to drink the Opus One as we wouldn't be able to find that over here.

With the cheese, we moved on to this Harveys Oloroso, bottled in 1953. G got this (not to be confused with Harveys Bristol Cream) at a recent auction and we weren't sure if it would be all right; fortunately it turned to be fine. It was quite dry on the nose but opened up on the palate and was well-rounded with notes of walnut. It went down remarkably quickly, always a good sign. Thanks to D and G for a great evening!

Recent drinking round-up, 10th October

As so often happens, various things have been drunk but not properly recorded so some catching-up is in order.

I picked up this Vieux Calvados in Magnum in Beaune last year. We were doing some shopping on the Saturday morning and I was outside the chocolate shop next door attempting to avert disaster as a bottle of marc had made a bid for freedom from its bag - memo to self: beware string handles whose knots have a tendency to come undone! - when my phone rang. It was ACC telling me to get to Magnum tout suite. Seconds later, I arrived to find a bunch of random things sitting on the counter which were clearly recent arrivals. They included some old Roulot marc and this bottle of 1945 Calvados. An offer was hastily made for the pair of them, and I became the happy owner of this rarity.

It was so rare, in fact, that no entry could be found for this vintage on Wine Searcher or anywhere else but I knew that Calvados of this age is very, very expensive and subsequent research revealed that the 1937 vintage is available for 2,500 euros! Ouch. Fortunately for me, the proprietors of Magnum had not yet gone onto the internet to research market prices and I paid less than £100. I put it aside for a special occasion but then plans for said occasion were abandoned so it was decided that it could be opened after all. Hurrah!

Of course, I failed to make notes, but it was discernibly Calvados, with appley flavours and a slightly green tinge, as opposed to some of these old spirits where the boundaries between e.g. marc and brandy start to diminish as time goes on. I was surprised by how fiery it still was. We enjoyed it but I think my yearning for old Calvados has now been sated.

A few weeks ago I placed another order with the Wine Society mostly consisting of sherry and treated myself to a 50cl bottle of this Osborne Sibarita 30 year old oloroso. I brought a bottle of this to the SPNS last year (reported here) and enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed this bottle very much too! It really is something very special - seriously intense and complex - and although it costs £21, that price is better than anywhere else, and 50cl is a convenient size. After drinking this, it's been a struggle to go back to bog-standard normal sherry.

This Cremant d'Alsace finally arrived (thanks to the Burgundy Portfolio) and G and I have drunk one bottle so far. It's made by Vignoble des 2 Lunes who are a biodynamic operation, from Pinot Auxerrois grapes. I found it fresh, clean, and elegant with hints of apples and cream. It went down very easily and made a good aperitif. The back label indicates that it is from the 2011 vintage and while I don't think there's any rush, it's good to go and I doubt whether it will improve with age.

At the other end of the scale, as it was quarter end the other night, G decided it was time for another bottle of Latour and contributed this 1968 from his stocks. I hadn't done any homework on it so it came as something of a surprise - it didn't shout Latour in the way that Latour normally does. It was very smooth with a nice viscosity but there was basically nothing going on until you got to the finish when it blossomed. It was a very nice old claret, but not what I was expecting. Latour is normally majestic, complex and cerebral and this wasn't. We thought it went better with food and that it filled out slightly towards the end - it had been decanted about half an hour beforehand. G said that 1968 was a "minor vintage" and that this was considered the best of the wines made that year. It was interesting to have it, but I don't think we'll be rushing to buy any more.

Finally, we recently received some much-awaited halves of wine from Emmanuel Giboulot and naturally a vertical tasting ensued! This was the Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes de Nuits en Gregoire and the label has undergone some changes between 2009 and 2012. When comparing two wines the likelihood is that one will be go down better than the other and in this case I was surprised - I was expecting to prefer the 2009 but in fact the 2012 had it. The 2009 was quite earthy whereas the 2012 had that pure, scintillating quality that we associate with Giboulot's wines. I'll be interested to try more of both of them and see if this was due to bottle variation or if it applies more generally.

I have a short trip to Burgundy planned at the end of October to see how the 2014s are coming along. In preparation, I've been trying to improve my French using an online programme called Duolingo. This is quite fun although I'm not sure that my new vocabulary of sharks, whales, turtles, bees and monkeys is necessarily going to be much help in the cellars of the Cote d'Or. Fortunately I have a copy of Bourgogne Aujourd'hui to even up the balance! À bientôt!

SPNS dinner, Tues 14th October

On Tuesday night, once again we gathered at the Savile Club for the next instalment of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. To recap the rules, everyone is supposed to bring along a bottle which is not massively expensive but interesting.

I found the group sitting in the courtyard necking this Paul Pothelet champagne, provided by P. It wasn't familiar to any of us, but was apparently a grower champagne which had been bought in France after some sort of accident involving knocking over boxes in the shop (!) The consensus was that it made a good aperitif - zingy, fresh, light, floral, citrussy and generally gluggable.

Since there were seven of us present on this occasion, the fizz didn't last long so we moved on to my contribution, this Osborne Sibarita 30 year old oloroso, which I got from the Wine Society. Earlier on, G and I had debated whether this should be served as an aperitif or with cheese - in the end I think it was both!

It had an intensely nutty nose and was very dry with a great finish. Generally it went down pretty well, with the notable exception of T who decided it wasn't his thing at all - never mind eh... The chemist present detected tones of liquorice and acetone and there were comments that it would have benefited from some nibbles. It would probably have been perfect with a pecan nut or two, so I must file that idea away for future reference because I expect to order some more in due course. The WS also sell a 30 year old Palo Cortado from the same producer which may be the next thing on my hit list.

Then we moved upstairs where a host of goodies was waiting for us. With our starters we had this 2009 Bernkasteler Doctor Spatlese riesling from Wegeler provided by G, which he picked up at Frankfurt airport. For me this brought back happy memories of the Bernkastler Bratenhofchen which was an early purchase of mine, about 15 years ago, made by Deinhard (NB not to be confused with Die Hard).

The Bernkasteler Doctor vineyard is in the Mosel valley and is reckoned to be one of the best vineyards in Germany This wine was medium-sweet and I think everyone liked it. G got pears and apricots on the nose, while T's comments are hard to decipher even at this relatively early stage in the evening but seem very favourable. It went down easily and would have had a considerable future if we hadn't drunk it already. Memo to G: next time you're in Frankfurt airport, fill your boots!

Alongside this, we also drank this Chateau Ksara Sunset rose 2011, from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, provided by T who describes it as his favourite affordable pink and I could see why. It was aromatic - T said lavender, D got flower petals - very interesting and quite different from a normal rose. Good stuff, with a long finish.

With our main courses we had this Cote de Brouilly 2011 from Domaine du Chateau de la Valette also provided by P. This was considered good, with intense black and red fruit, but some felt that it might improve with age. 

We also had a red wine that I failed to take a photo of - sorry! This was from South Africa, La Vierge pinot noir 2011 provided by ACC. The failure to take a pic is particularly annoying as it had a striking label. I have found it on the internet instead:

ACC thought it was fantastic for a New World wine, and I don't think I'd have guessed it was New World if I'd been tasting it blind. It had good pinot style and reminded me of a Cote de Beaune burgundy. But it seems that once the bottle went round the table it received mixed reviews and there was a feeling that it, too, was perhaps on the young side. We like 'em old and mellow at the SPNS...

And that was what exactly we got with the last wine of the evening, this 1966 Noval tawny port bottled in 1984. It went down very well with the group, with descriptions of molasses and dried figs - it was sweet and smooth. G was particularly inspired at this stage and has written "Harris tweed with leather patches".

So there you have it, for those who read this blog to find out what they thought about things. We ended up sitting in the courtyard again with the aid of the snazzy heater activated by a red button on the wall, and the great snuff horn was brought out, before sadly being knocked over. I did take a photo of the carnage but it wouldn't be seemly to put it on a respectable blog like this. Shortly after that, we were marched inside to avoid further rowdiness, which was probably just as well.

This evening was particularly in the spirit of the SPNS, I think. Thanks everyone!

A brace of old sherries

Last night, my French lesson aka Spiral iplayer catch-up viewing ("Monsieur le Juge" etc.) was interrupted when G appeared clinking a Waitrose bag. Apparently there was a problem. It turned out that he had acquired some old sherry at a recent auction, which he had just collected, and the corks were on their last legs, so some urgent decanting into smaller bottles was required. And obviously some tasting was in order.

We started with this "Very Choice Sherry of Great Age and Quality, Alonso El Sabio" which as you can see from the label was bottled by Berry Bros. It's not clear when it was bottled or what age it is. A quick Google has revealed that Christies sold a bottle of 1973 solera back in 1992 but I don't think this is the same stuff. It had a lovely soft texture, and was quite dry with what G called a "concentrated vinosity". I got burnt walnuts and espresso on the palate and found it quite bitter on the finish, which was very long. G thought it was 19th century wine.

The second was this "Very Old Oloroso Sherry" bottled in 1971. This was distinctly sweeter and we could taste the Pedro Ximinez coming through. It was very mellow, smooth and had some toffee and chocolate as well as dried fruit. All in all, it was rich, dark nectar. We sat back and sipped it very slowly, feeling it doing us good. G thought this was probably late 19th / early 20th century wine. These kinds of sherry don't exist any more, I'm told. An unexpected treat for a Wednesday evening!

Williams & Humbert 12 year old Oloroso

As I'm currently without a freezer, I find I'm increasingly turning to sherry as an aperitif since it doesn't require the use of ice cubes. I spotted this half bottle from Williams & Humbert in Waitrose the other day and succumbed yesterday. From memory it was around £8 but strangely it's not on their website.

It's a pale brown colour and in the dry style of oloroso. It very much reminded me of a Sercial madeira, quite sharp and nutty, with an excellent finish, and it went very well with some mixed nuts. Last night I served it unchilled, but amazingly we managed not to drink it all so there's a little bit left for this evening which I've put in the fridge. I'll be interested to see how that affects it.

Although this is quite expensive by sherry standards, G and I both felt it was actually worth it. I shan't be buying it often but it's nice to have it as an easy-to-get-hold-of option when I haven't been organised enough to lay in stocks from my usual sources. If only there were a wine merchant which did mixed cases of half bottles of sherry...

And now for something a little bit different

A few weeks ago I was placing an order from the Wine Society, the core items of which consisted of Blackwoods vintage gin (not for me for once!) and the very fine Viejo Oloroso Dulce, pictured, which continues to be the single best reason for being a member of the WS, in my opinion. When it's cold outside a glass of this really hits the spot. It's not in the league of vintage Madeira, but at £10.95 a bottle, it's excellent value for money.

To top up the order to the free delivery level (a mere £75, favourable compared to many other wine merchants) I added a couple of things that had caught my eye.

First, this Ramisco 2005 from Colares in Portugal. Apparently this area is on the southwestern Atlantic coast, with vineyards protected from the ocean winds by sand dunes. The region is known for its deep colored, full bodied red wines with high levels of tannin. We thought it was fruity, approachable, soft and mature, so clearly the age had mellowed those fearsome tannins! Furthermore, it claimed to be only 12.5% in alcohol which is good news in my book. I wouldn't have guessed it was so low. This was classy booze and I would get some more, except the WS seems to have sold out now as I can no longer find it on their website. Nor can I remember how much it was... oops. Somewhere between £15 and £20 I think, and worth it.

Secondly, the other night we had this La Grenouillère Negrette, Vin de Pays de Vendée, 2009. This was £11.95 and from the Loire, a region whose reds I often find rather thin, green and stemmy (Chinon in particular), but this did not fall into that category. We enjoyed it but found it hard to think of anything much to say about it. It was a juicy red and went down nicely, but didn't have any particular wow factor so I doubt whether I'll be buying it again.

And finally, this 1985 Bonnezeaux from Domaine la Croix de Mission which G picked up at a recent auction. This was excellent. It was a beautiful golden colour, floral on the nose and medium sweet with good acidity on the palate. It reminded G of Alsace and me of Vouvray. We had it with lemon tart which was a great combo. He got a case of it and at the time I wondered if we really needed a case of sweet wine, but actually this was a fantastic buy and I'm looking forward to drinking more in the near future (hint, hint)!