Recent drinking round-up

The Palo Cortado project has continued with this Cayetano del Pino Viejisimo which is apparently around 30 years old. This was a half bottle from the Wine Society and cost £21. It was admirable, more elegant than the Capuchino, and perhaps slightly lighter in weight. G commented that it had no volatile acidity. Price-wise it's a little more expensive than the Capuchino and I'm not sure it's better as such. I'd love to have them side by side some time!

The other night, G contributed this bottle of Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Morgeot 2011 from Domaine de la Choupette. I'm a big fan of this domaine's red wines, and this white was up there. It was pale gold in colour, and very classy with good structure, balance and acidity. It had that slightly waxy quality one sometimes finds in Chassagne and went down surprisingly quickly with our fish soup. "A disastrous combination of excellent and easy drinking" said G.

On another recent occasion, ACC came round and contributed this excellent bottle of Chambolle-Musigny 2002 from Edouard Bryczek. He had bought a case of this back in the day and recently got it out of storage. What a treat! It was textbook Chambolle drinking beautifully now, smooth and well-integrated with ripe fruit. Positively sensuous.

The Epoisses made a bid for freedom and I couldn't resist taking a photo of it climbing down the side of the cheeseboard! Anyway, this will probably be the last entry here for 2016, which has been a difficult year for many reasons. Roll on 2017. Bonne année, tout le monde!

Capuchino palo cortado

Lately I've been getting into palo cortado sherry - yet another PC Project. At a tasting at Corney and Barrow in Notting Hill a few years ago, palo cortado was memorably described as the transsexual of sherry, because it starts off as a fino and then basically becomes an oloroso (see Wikipedia for the science bit). The results are quite special.

I've mainly been drinking Williams and Humbert Dos Cortados 20 year old which is available from Waitrose at £15.99 for a half bottle, or £12 as I always wait for the intermittent 25% off deal. Last time round I also acquired some Apostoles which is from Gonzalez Byass and costs £19 for a half bottle (or £14.25). This is apparently 30 years old, and includes some pedro ximinez which makes it sweeter and in my opinion wasn't very well-integrated.

So anyway, recently I was doing a Wine Society order and decided to be self-indulgent and treat myself to this Capuchino 30 year old from Osborne. I've tried their 30 year old oloroso, Sibarita, before and enjoyed it very much. This comes in a 50 cl bottle, enough for 4 generous glasses, so much nicer than a half bottle. Credit to the WS for selling it at £22 as opposed to £31 plus from other retailers.

It was definitely a notch up from the Dos Cortados and an aperitif to be savoured. It had the sharp, bracing quality of fino, but with a richness and complexity from the oloroso side. I found the weight of it very pleasing and detected hints of coffee and walnut. The finish went on for minutes, or would have done if I hadn't been pigging pistachio nuts at the same time. I suspect this might not be everyone's cup of tea - I wouldn't give it to my mother, who is an aficionado of the Sanchez Romate mature medium sweet oloroso, for example - but for me it was a revelation. Oh dear, I seem to have acquired yet another expensive taste!

Two recent dinners

And the blog is back, by popular demand! Well, one person said he was missing it, so after a hiatus over the summer it feels like time to get back to it.

First up, a Monday evening dinner at the Hawksmoor Air Street with T, D and G. We were led for what felt like several miles through the restaurant and eventually arrived at a booth, which was very nice and made it easier to hear each other. Deafening noise is one of the major reasons why I prefer to dine at home these days, along with escalating wine prices. But corkage at the Hawksmoor is just £5 on a Monday, compared with £25 on all other days, and this price applies to bottles of every size, so it was a great opportunity to drink some magnums.

We started with 2008 Chablis 1er cru Fourchaume-Vaulorent 2008 from Domaine Nathalie & Gilles Fevre, which went down very nicely with some historic scallops. Apologies for lack of detail but I wasn't taking notes.

After that we moved on to steak, accompanied by a magnum of Beaune 1er cru Greves 2005 from Yves Darviot, which I believe belonged to me but had been sitting in G's Rutland cellar for a very long time and I had forgotten all about it. In my opinion, there is still no rush on it - these 2005 reds seem to be built to last. Am now wondering if I have any more stashed away?

With dessert, we drank this 1969 5 puttonyos Tokaji Aszu provided by D, which went particularly well with sticky toffee sauces/puddings. Afterwards we repaired to the bar for a quick post-prandial Calvados kindly supplied by T. Thanks all for a great evening.

Then, last Sunday, D came round to my place for lunch. We kicked off with a bottle of white Corton 2008 from Domaine Parent which recently came out of storage and has been providing much pleasure. It was big and rich with great acidity and a certain honeyed quality. D noted some viscosity, and the finish went on for ages. It has beens even better than the 2007 and went very nicely with our smoked salmon.

Then the main event: two Inglenook 1969s. The one on the left was the main release, whereas the one on the right was from a particular cask. Fortunately I am the proud possessor of multiple Riedel claret glasses so we were able to try them side by side, which proved to be a fascinating comparison.

The estate-bottled wine was very cabernet sauvignon, with mint leaf on the nose, and tasted very pure to me, while the cask wine had greater intensity and an extraordinary finish. At one point I glazed over for a few minutes and was unable to join in the conversation because it needed all my attention.

Both Inglenooks seemed to have a lot of menthol going on and would be great to drink if you had a cold! I was thinking about what made them different from claret and the answer seemed to be that they were lacking the woody, cedar notes that you often find in claret. This train of thought led to a suggestion... get some claret out to compare.

Fortunately I had a bottle of my old favourite, Chateau Montrose 1970, sitting on the wine rack (cue story of the Montrose Moment in Southwold on my 22nd birthday), so this was clearly the bottle to go for.

According to G, the Montrose had some merlot in it. I've just checked, and according to the chateau's website, the 1970 vintage was 65% cab sauv, 25% merlot and 10% cabernet franc. It was certainly much woodier, and held its own against the Inglenooks for the first half hour or so - at that point we thought it ranked in between the two - but then completely fell off a cliff and faded, whereas the Inglenooks kept going and didn't change much over time. It was really interesting to try the three together and thanks to D for the wonderful opportunity to drink old Californian wines which we never see in the UK.

We finished off with a glass of Apostoles, which is a 30 year old palo cortado from Gonzalez Byass, bought from Waitrose during one of their intermittent 25% off deals. This wine also has a spot of Pedro Ximenez in it which makes it slightly sweeter than, say, the Dos Cortados 20 year old palo cortado from Williams & Humbert which is super-dry and definitely an aperitif.

It was a really great lunch, and there were no hangovers the next day, which just goes to show the old stuff is the best!

Recent drinking round-up, 2nd August

No particular theme today, just a recap of what we have been drinking over the past couple of weeks.

This was a 2013 Beaujolais "Champ Blanc" made by Julien Merle, which G picked up in Triovino in Lyon for around 19 euros. It's a natural wine and we served it slightly chilled. I found it delicious and pure with vibrant fruit, while G described it as "essence of Gamay". At 12.5% we could be confident there'd be no hangover the next day either.

Last Sunday, ACC joined us for dinner and we were treated to some leftovers of this Chablis 2012 Grand Cru Les Preuses, from Domaine Nathalie and Gilles Fevre, Obviously this is very young, but it was already drinking nicely, probably because it had been open for a little while. I was struck by how elegant and pure it was. The use of oak is judicious at this domaine.

Then, I was excited to drink this white which I'd been saving up for a suitable occasion - a Bourgogne Blanc 2008 from Domaine Roulot. We don't see much Roulot in the UK and I'd never had a white from this domaine before. This bottle cost 39 euros from Antic Wines in Lyon. It didn't disappoint - it was like a baby Meursault with richness but also a lively streak of acidity and an edge which kept it interesting. It was beautifully balanced and drinking very well now. Those 2008 whites are so good.

With the cheeseboard we had this Bourgogne Rouge 1993 from Domaine Bernard Delagrange, which I believe ACC had picked up in the bargain bucket at Magnum in Beaune. This had survived remarkably well and went down a treat.

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending a wine tasting hosted by the Burgundy Portfolio at the Gallery Magda Danysz on Charlotte Street. This was very entertaining as we were given a tour of the remarkable space, which included a secret cinema hidden away downstairs, and were served a different wine in each part of the gallery. The wines were generally old favourites, but the white Pernand-Vergelesses from Pascal Clement was showing particularly well on this occasion.

On Friday, G and I tried out this Greek red, which was part of a recent order from the Wine Society. It was described in their notes as being like a Cote de Nuits burgundy, and I could see where they were coming from, as it had dark red berry fruits. I quite enjoyed it, but at 14% alcohol it was on the heavy side. G was not so keen and refused to drink it, but relented the following evening and helped me polish off the remainder. The fact that it was better on night 2 suggests that it's probably too young, but at £19.50 a pop I'm unlikely to rush out and buy any more with a view to keeping it for 3 years.

As an aside, I'm slightly miffed with the Wine Soc at the moment, because they seem to have discontinued the Norman Hardie Canadian pinot noir which I had from them some time ago. I didn't write about it on here at the time, as I was planning to get some more and take it to an SPNS dinner and didn't want to spoil the surprise, but I thought it was excellent, and now I can't get hold of any more. Grrr! However, what the Wine Society does do very well is sherry, and I ordered a little mixed 6 pack last week.

We opened this Cayetano del Pino Palo Cortado last night and I was hugely impressed with it. It's made by Sanchez Romate who always seem to do a good job. It smelled almost sweet on the nose, but it's actually dry, nutty and complex. At £14.50 a bottle it's a snip, and I'll be back for more in due course.

Also in the picture is the first course of G's "Superfood Supper" which he treated me to last night. I usually do the cooking so this was a nice change.

The second course involved mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes, and we opened my penultimate bottle of Meursault 2008 from Vincent Perrin.

This has been a spectacular wine, and I've enjoyed it very much. It's drinking beautifully at the moment and is everything you want in a Meursault.

The main course was a delightful crab and dill concoction, along with avocado. We used to eat a lot of crab on toast, but since the grill has now packed up due to too many vast hunks of beef being roasted in the oven, and in an attempt to lower the carb-count, this was an excellent alternative.

Next up, an assiette de fruits. Super-fruits, in fact.

Finally, the best super-food of all - cheese! G had been to La Fromagerie and got some Roquefort, Comte, a Banon, a Charollais and an Ami du Chambertin to go alongside the dregs of a Pecorino and a Valency from the 'Trose. There was so much that two cheeseboards had to be pressed into action. I hasten to add that we only had very small amounts of each, served with some Peter's Yard artisinal sourdough crispbread things, which have been the breakout hit of the summer.

To accompany this, we had a half bottle of Coufis Vin Doux from Chapoutier, which had the vintage (2008) on the cork. I really enjoyed this - it wasn't too sweet, and had lovely apricot flavours. Looking it up on the Chapoutier website, I'm not at all surprised to see that it's made from the viognier grape. I'm not sure why it's not allowed to be called a Rhone wine - perhaps it's from the wrong side of the tracks or something. This too came from Triovino and G thinks it cost about 18 euros. I'd certainly have it again, and find myself fervently wishing that Triovino had a branch in London.

That brings us all up to date. It's already beginning to feel slightly autumnal here and I've pencilled in a trip to Burgundy in November. I've been hearing good things about the wines of the 2014 vintage so am looking forward to trying them myself!

Dinner at A de V Towers, 15th March

Last Thursday, T and G came round to mine for dinner and we had a very enjoyable evening. 

T kindly brought along a bottle of Palo Cortado. I attended a tasting once where Palo Cortado was memorably described as "the transsexual of sherry". Wikipedia explains, rather more prosaically: "Palo Cortado is a rare variety of sherry that is initially aged under flor to become a fino or amontillado, but inexplicably loses its veil of flor and begins ageing oxidatively as an oloroso."

It's not a style you see very often and this one was made for Waitrose by Lustau. It was enjoyably piquant and nutty at the same time. We failed to do it justice by having it alongside La Guita Manzanilla - the two did not go together. I'd been to Selfridges the day before and got some of their excellent mixed nuts but T knowledgeably informed me that the finest cashew nuts in the world are served in a hotel in an obscure part of Sri Lanka. Selfridges will have to raise their game!

Next up was this bottle of Vosne Romanee 1er cru les Petits Monts 2004 from Mongeard-Mugneret which we had with some slow-cooked leg of lamb and potato gratin. We had high hopes for this wine which cost a whopping 65 euros. I wasn't previously familiar with the domaine but they seem very serious and are sold by Berry Bros.

Sadly, I found it disappointing. Normally I love Vosne-Romanee but this didn't hit the spot. It was a plummy, murky colour which T described as "grey". I got baked fruits on the nose and the palate was smooth and integrated. It was decent mature burgundy but lacking any kind of wow factor. We gave it an 8.

After that our spirits were restored by T's claret jelly which was a great success and possibly the highlight of the entire evening.

Finally, G assembled an assiette de chocolat on my new rectangular white plates bought specially for this purpose so that we no longer have to eat it off the table. This consists of different things from Michel Cluizel - a piece of coffee-flavoured chocolate, some chocolate-covered coffee beans, a piece of chocolate with orange peel in it, some chocolate cocoa nib things, a piece of special single plantation chocolate, and finally a couple of chocolate-covered almonds. For some reason, it is eaten from right to left. I think T was possibly rather perplexed at G demonstrating his OCD tendencies (it's essential that everyone must have the same number of pieces) but the calvados soon took away any concerns. Thanks to both for the pleasure of your company.