Caveau des Arches, 28th Oct

I'm just back from Burgundy and am pleased to report the 2014 vintage is shaping up very nicely!

I headed out on Wednesday morning taking the usual route i.e. Eurostar to the Gare du Nord, then the delightful RER (platform 44) to the Gare de Lyon, the TGV down to Dijon and then the local train to Beaune. All went according to plan, but I was supposed to meet ACC at Beaune station and found his train from Beaujolais was running late. There was a lot of tutting on the part of the Beaunois at the news of the delay, and I wondered what they would make of the London Midland service.

ACC eventually arrived just a few minutes late and we found Julien le taxi waiting outside who whisked us off to the gite in his lovely car. This was the gite that we stayed in two years ago (the famous socks-on-the-washing-line incident) and this time I didn't venture into the cellar at all, way too spooky especially at Halloween.

I sensed that ACC was feeling thirsty so without further ado we headed into the town centre to buy essential provisions (coffee and loo roll, which we carted about in a transparent plastic bag all evening) and for dinner. We had a quick look round Magnum, which is under new ownership and is no longer called Magnum but something else which appears to have been instantly forgettable. They had some items of interest but seemed to be about to close and we decided to return later in the week.

Then it was off to what I think of as the "locals' bar" for an aperitif. I'm sure this bar would welcome tourists but it's not touristy in the way that the bars on Place Carnot are. I had my first kir of the trip and ACC had a beer, and we got a little bowl of crisps to go with our drinks.

It was now time for dinner and we walked the short distance to Caveau des Arches where we had a table in the "prison" (am not sure if it actually used to be a prison or if that is ACC having a laugh) - it's a little room with just two tables.

We had the three course Menu Bourguignon at 25 euros. To start, we had some jambon persille with a mustard cream, and to drink we had a bottle of this Macon-Milly-Lamartine 2013 from Les Heritiers du Comte Lafon which was superb.

For our main course, we couldn't resist the chicken in an Epoisses sauce, which came with some pasta.

With our pudding/cheese, we had a cheeky half of 2013 Auxey-Duresses from Agnes Paquet which I enjoyed very much. It was delicious, fruity, approachable Auxey.

The assiette du fromages consisted of three cheeses: something fairly dull whose name I didn't catch, some Delice du Pommard and a very fine runny piece of Epoisses.

The couple at the other table in the little room had cheese from the trolley which looked very good. We got a shock when an enormous dog emerged from under their table at the end of the meal. It was like a golden labrador but about four times the size - how it had been under there all along without me noticing was something of a mystery. It regarded us suspiciously for a few minutes and then went and drank some water very noisily ("bonne degustation" quipped ACC).

We went on to have a digestif. Marc from Domaine de la Romanee Conti was available in a 2 cl measure for 25 euros but I didn't feel it was necessary to push the boat out to this extent, so settled for the Chateau de Meursault version instead, twice the amount for 7.50 euros. This suited me very well, while ACC was feeling adventurous and went for something called Manzana which a liqueur served on ice. It was actually surprisingly nice! We thought it was pear liqueur but when we saw similar stuff in the supermarket later, it was described as apple, so now I'm not completely sure, or it may have been something completely different altogether. Clearly another trip to Caveau des Arches is required to clear the matter up. The bill for both of us came to a whisker under a hundred quid, which I think was very reasonable considering what we ate and drank. It was a good start to the trip.

The Burgundy Portfolio 2010 en primeur tasting

On Tuesday night I attended this wine-tasting which was held in a convenient location close to Green Park tube. This was particularly exciting since some winemakers had come over to show their wines in person. It had been going since lunchtime and I got there at about 6.30 to find a buzzy, cheerful room and lots of people enjoying themselves. Many leading wine critics of their generation were there - OBL, Baron McG, Oz Clarke. Rumour had it that Jancis herself had whizzed round earlier and I was later presented with photographic confirmation. Excellent!

At the first table, HPK was presiding over a mixed bag of white wines. Two particularly stood out for me. First, the Chablis premier cru Montmains from La Maison Romane, of Prosper the horse fame. This had a really enticing nose and was the first big tick of the evening. The second was the "Ali Boit Boit et les 40 Buveurs" (ho ho!) produced by Agnes Paquet, who I note refers to herself as a "viticultrice" on her website, fab. I love her wines generally and this was something very different - a Prosecco-style fizz in a bottle with a crown cap, 50/50 chardonnay and aligote, and just 8% alcohol. Someone I spoke to said it reminded them of cider and I could see why - it was very effervescent and medium-dry. Just the thing to drink cold at lunchtime in the park on a hot summer's day, and good value too.

I was very happy to see Vincent Perrin - I've never forgotten time he prevented us from getting hypothermia by letting us sit in his kitchen - and apparently he'd flown in from Guadeloupe especially. I tasted my way through the range of five wines he was showing. The Bourgougne Rouge was  its usual light style - I scribbled "very fresh lunchtime style" which I see is exactly the same as I've always said about it, and am  glad I bought a case of the 2009 last year. Then there were three Volnays in ascending order, from a village wine "En Vaut", to the premier cru Sous la Carelle de la Chapelle, up to the monopole premier cru Les Gigottes. Again, these were elegant and stylish but difficult hard to taste now as they need time. I asked Vincent how long he would keep them for and he said 3-4 years. Then finally I tried the Pommard Chanlins which is a village wine. This vineyard is on the border with Volnay and right next to a premier cru vineyard (Rugiens). It was a much darker colour than the Volnays, and generally richer and bigger, but still elegant. In the past, I've tended to taste Perrin's wines just after tasting the monster Pommards made by Anne Parent. His is rather lighter in style than hers, but this year, I couldn't resist going for some.

At the next table was recent discovery Ludovic Belin with a range of wines mainly from Pernand-Vergelesses and Corton. I hadn't tried any of his wines before. First up was the Pernand-Vergelesses "Belles Filles" Blanc. It was slightly awkward asking Ludovic, a cheeky-looking young chap, for some of this, but fortunately I was in conversation with someone who spoke French so I was able to tag along behind her. My record-keeping at this stage of the evening was not all that it could have been, and I appear to have placed both a tick and a question mark next to this one. I think this means that my initial impression was favourable, but then when I came on to the next one, I thought that was even better. This was the Pernand-Vergelesses premier cru Sous Fretilles. The quality here was excellent and what was perhaps most surprising was that it was already very nice to drink and one wouldn't have to stash it away for too many years. Then there was the white grand cru Corton - lovely to try but sadly out of my price range this year.

On to the reds... first was the red Pernand-Vergelesses "Belles Filles" which had a wonderful nose of cherry stones and at £100 for 6, was very good value, given that some Bourgognes are now creeping up to £160 for 12 en primeur! There was also a premier cru Savigny-les-Beaune Les Lavieres which I think may have been the best Savigny I've ever tried, and the grand cru Corton-Renardes which again was lovely, and I'm still thinking about possibly getting some - at £220 for 6, again this seems like exceptional value.

Finally I moved round to ACC's table where he was presenting a variety of reds. As usual the Santenay and Chassagnes from Domaine de la Choupette went down very well, and Anne Parent's Ladoix and Pommard 1er cru Chaponnieres also stood out for me. I have to admit I was flagging by this stage, as there were about 40 wines altogether and I'm not used to tasting so many at once! Lightweight, etc.etc. ACC will probably be too modest to report this on his own excellent blog, but just before leaving, Oz Clarke said that he was "nibbling round the edges and there's some good stuff at the edges". An excellent summary of what the Burgundy Portfolio is all about - finding people making stuff in tiny quantities, so often nobody has heard of them, but which is still high quality.

I only realised at the end of the evening that these wines were all from the Cote de Beaune, which I suppose confirms that I'm a Cote de Beaune girl at heart - I love the purity and elegance, although I do also love the bigger dark fruits of the wines from the Cote de Nuits. With brilliant timing, the full en primeur offer has just appeared here on the Burgundy Portfolio website, so I can spend the rest of the day pondering what else to go for this year.

Finally (fanfare please) this is my 100th post on this blog! Thanks to my readers, whoever you are. I know some of you but am often intrigued to see that someone in e.g. Russia has been having a look! As long as the Chinese don't find out about Burgundy, we should be ok... On to the next 100 and there's lots to look forward to with the annual Madeira dinner, lunch at mine, and a Swiss Pinot Noir Society dinner all coming up in the next few days. So much for "Janupause"!

Bruno Desaunay-Bissey

On Thursday I was very excited to get the chance to go to an impromptu tasting down in Battersea organised by ACC to try some wines from a producer he has recently found.

I somehow braved the new door entry system and found the new office which was just as full of enticing goodies as the old one used to be, if not more so (marc so he he).

We kicked off with a glass of cremant from Agnes Paquet which was perfectly nice but for me, less interesting than the Dufouleur vintage cremant, of which I'm eagerly awaiting a new delivery of the 2007 and will then blog up.

Then it was onto the reds, which were from Bruno Desaunay-Bissey who is based in Flagey-Echezaux. Flagey is in the heart of the Cote de Nuits, between Vougeot and Vosne-Romanee. The bottles we tried were all from the 2008 vintage.

First we had a village Chambolle-Musigny, which had a vibrant nose and was quite light, soft and elegant on the palate. We thought it would be drinking in about 2 years, so one wouldn't need to wait too long. A bit of a crowd-pleaser I would say. Am seriously considering treating myself to a 6 pack.

Consulting the excellent maps in Coates, I see that Combe d'Orveau, the vineyard, is right on the Flagey border, and part of the vineyard is classified as premier cru, although not this particular part. I smuggled the rest of the bottle home with me so here's a photo, showing a traditional style label. Also, it's only 12.5% alcohol which is a plus point as far as I'm concerned.

After that there were two premier cru Vosne-Romanees, one was Les Rouges and the other I can't remember as I've somehow managed to lose my tasting notes, duh! Was it Les Beaux Monts? Les Rouges had a lot of red fruit although as ACC said this might be purely suggestive as a result of the name - he got raspberry, while N and I got redcurrant. The other one was more typique, with darker fruits and more power and richness, and would probably need 4 years or so to come round.

Finally we moved on to a pair of grand crus, a real treat for me as I very rarely get to drink anything at this level. We had an Echezeaux and a Grand-Echezeaux. N turned to vintage car analogies at this point and suggested (I hope I got this right) that the Echezeaux was like an old Bentley while the Grand-Echezeaux was like something sleeker. Certainly it was a delight to drink, with all the qualities of elegance, finesse, and structure in place, and while I'm wary of acquiring a Grand-Echezeaux habit, it's very tempting to get a bottle, tuck it away in a safe place and come back to it in 10 years. This is the highest level of red burgundy, and the price seemed very reasonable considering that. All in all, an excellent addition to the EPW portfolio of producers.