Vosne 1er cru vertical!

Yesterday I invited a select group round for Sunday lunch with the aim of drinking two of my vinous treasures recently out of storage. Yes, it was time for a vertical tasting of the legendary Vosne Romanee 1er cru Reignots from Domaine Audiffred! The two vintages in question were 2010 and 2016, and I'd like to think we're probably the only people in the world who have ever carried out this comparison as these wines are so rare and quantities very limited.

G and I had polished off a bottle of Vosne Champs Perdrix 2016 also from Audiffred on Wednesday night, so that was still fresh in our minds. I'm a big fan of the Champs Perdrix which isn't a premier cru but feels like one, and this was no exception. It was a light to medium weight with a lovely perfume, beautiful autumnal fruit and sous bois, and some chocolatey tannins on the finish. It reminded us a little of Morey St Denis, never a bad thing.

On to the Reignots... this was famously the wine which ACC could smell from across the cellar the first time he visited Domaine Audiffred, and fortunately for us he was able to persuade Henri to supply some in very limited quantities. 

We tried the 2016 first. It was a significant step up from the Champs Perdrix. I'd opened it three hours earlier and gave it an hour in the fridge. Again it was medium weight but this wine was absolutely bursting with fruit and we went through all the different colours of currants - black, red and white. It was supremely elegant, with a wonderful finish. We felt it was at the beginning of its drinking window.

The 2010 was even better. The cork was very crumbly so I had to decant it. It was more savoury, and both beetroot and "high quality saddle" were mentioned, but not in a bad way - it was very complex. It had a wonderful core of acidity and every sip was a pleasure. There was no doubt that this wine deserved 10 points on the premier cru scale, while the 2016 was perhaps a high nine. The 2010 was drinking very well now but I don't think there would be any rush, not that I have any more. 

We also had a bottle of Don Zoilo 15 year old amontillado from Williams and Humbert, which came from the Wine Society. This was good stuff and very nutty and intense. It definitely needed food. Fortunately I had a mixed charcuterie board from the Dorset Meat Co and the amontillado went particularly well with the spicy chorizo. 

Finally, we knocked my last bottle of Smith Woodhouse 1994 on the head. This has always been lovely stuff with its notes of pontefract cake, and this bottle was no exception. 

In other news, last week G kindly invited me to attend the Lay & Wheeler 2021 en primeur tasting at Glaziers Hall over by London Bridge. It was an interesting event, especially as I haven't been to an en primeur tasting since January 2020, and am not very familiar with Lay & Wheeler's range of producers. It was noticeable that many of the wines we particularly enjoyed had no price listed but were either sold out or you were asked to register your interest. I gather from Jancis's article in the FT that the 2021 vintage was very challenging and quantities small. 

For me, the highlights were:

• the white premier cru Chassagne-Montrachets from Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard and Domaine Bruno Colin
• the Macon and Pouilly-Loche from Marcel Couturier which seemed to be exceptionally good value
• the reds from Domaine Comte Armand, which took me back to happy evenings at Caveau des Arches 
• the reds from Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg, although I suspect these are way outside my price range!
• the Vosne Romanee 1er cru Clos des Reas from Domaine Michel Gros, an old favourite
• and above all, the premier cru Nuits-St-Georges from Domaine d'Arlot which had a wild quality to them that I found very exciting. 

It was a pleasure to try these wines, even though my Burgundy buying days are coming to an end now, and thanks to G for inviting me!

Swiss Pinot Noir Society, 17th March 2022

On Thursday night, it was over to the Savile Club for an SPNS dinner. Five of us were present - me, G, ACC, D and P - sadly T was unable to join us on this occasion.

We kicked off with this champagne from Paul Bara, a special cuvee from 2012, provided by G. The bottle was an interesting shape, kind of squat, but my picture didn't come out very well. G told us that a group of growers had clubbed together to buy these bottles and that they all had to agree on anything bottled in them. It was my kind of champagne - mature, rich and yeasty, and drinking beautifully now. A great start to the evening. 

The Savile staff politely asked us if we'd be willing to go upstairs to the restaurant a little earlier than usual, as they had a big St Patrick's Day dinner going on and wanted to stagger the orders. We ascended the swooping staircase up to the ballroom, and were seated at our usual table. The restaurant itself was less busy than usual, which was rather nice as it made hearing each other easier.

P had brought along this white, bottled in a very modern-style bottle which led some to suspect it might be vodka. It was in fact Berton Vineyards Winemaker's Reserve Aranel Riverina 2019, from Australia. It was a very pale colour, aromatic, reminding me of lychees, others of melon. It was light, floral and clean, and went down very easily. I imagine it would be a refreshing wine to drink in the summer. 

My own contribution was this Meritage 2017 from Thirsty Owl in the Finger Lakes, which I bought back in 2019 and which had been hanging around at D's house for the last couple of years. I wasn't sure if it would have survived, but was relieved to discover that it was fine. Meritage is a Bordeaux blend and there was more than a hint of cabernet franc in this. It was exuberant and fruity and relatively young. I hope to revisit to the Finger Lakes soon and this is the kind of thing I'll be buying for my cellar.

D had also brought along a red from the US - a Haywood Estate Rocky Terrace Zinfandel 1996 from Sonoma. What a treat! It was big, rich and delicious with lovely dark fruit, and was drinking very nicely now. D told us it had been in his cellar since around 1999 and I continue to be very grateful for his ability to delay gratification and for sharing these treasures with us. We didn't have a formal discussion but G and I both considered this to be the wine of the evening. 

P had brought along another red, this Lestoa Rot 2003 from Strohmeier who are based in Austria. This was unusual - a very dark colour, showing no signs of age, and D described it as astringent which I think summed it up nicely. There was some debate about whether it had high tannin or high acid. According to P, it worked well with wild boar sausage. To be fair, having it after the Zin probably didn't do it any favours. 

Finally, ACC had brought along this Croft LBV 2013. He was a little disconcerted to discover that G and I had attended a 1985 tasting the previous evening, but it's only fair to judge everything within its own category, and this was lovely stuff, fruity and approachable, and a great way to round off the evening. Thanks to all for a very interesting range of wines!

1985 port dinner

It's been a busy few weeks, including another very enjoyable trip to Pennsylvania. No hiking this time due to the weather, but D and I did a lot of running around including attending a "cash bash" in aid of the animal shelter, a trip to the granite depot to look at granite for our new kitchen, and a visit to the Pittsburgh auto show which was fun. 

My London social life resumed this week with an invitation to the 1985 port horizontal hosted by the Port Forum.    

A sight for sore eyes!

G had organised it, and I believe we ended up tasting 16 ports between 12 of us. The jugs of water were relegated to a side table to pack them all in.

My general impression was that 1985 was a good year, and many of these were drinking very nicely now. A few were getting a little elderly, and a few still had a lot of life in them. There was some significant colour variation and it turned out that a dark colour was a good sign. 

My top three were Ramos Pinto, Martinez and Fonseca. I believe the Fonseca was port of the evening on points, and was something of a crowd pleaser. It had an intense black cherry nose and no sign of age. It's widely available and has years left in it.

The Ramos Pinto was really interesting. I hadn't heard of this port house before. It was brought along by someone who lives in Lisbon, who described them as very reliable. This was very much my cup of tea, with a lot of pontefract cake action and what G described as blackstrap molasses. 

The Martinez reminded me of black forest gateau, almost the Morey St Denis of the port world, and was drinking perfectly now. It brought a smile to my face.

Honourable mentions go to the Gould Campbell, the Smith Woodhouse, the Warre, the Graham and the Offley. One surprise of the evening was on the tasting mat as TTD. It turned out to be Sainsbury's Taste the Difference, which was light and pretty, and reminded me of a tawny. It received no points from anyone but we did enjoy it. As with the Eurovision Song Contest, the scoring system does tend to concentrate the points for the winners.

For once, there was nothing truly undrinkable as such. In my view the worst wine of the evening was the Rebello Valente which smelled distinctly of varnish, as if there'd been an accident in the woodshed, although strangely some chaps down the other end of the table gave it a few points. The Dow was also not a great bottle, and apparently there's a lot of bottle variation with this one. And the Pocas was a bit unusual, not unpleasant but more like a sherry, with some citrus marmalade. 

All in all, a fun and educational evening, and thanks to G for inviting me.

 

Frappato lunch and 1980 port horizontal

Just a brief one today to record a couple of tastings earlier in the month. 

At the start of October, I was invited by G to a lunch involving copious amounts of Frappato, from Sicily. He had visited a couple of years ago and come across the wines of Ariana Occhipinti, then acquired three different cuvees. Notes were not taken, so what follows will be brief!

We started with the "bog standard" version from 2018 which was pretty good. Having never encountered frappato before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be lighter and more minerally than a big sunny red of the nero d'avola tendency. ACC compared it to a Beaujolais.

Then we had the three special cuvees, all from 2017. BB stands for Bombolieri, FL is Fossa di Lupo and PT is Pettineo, all different vineyards. We drank them in alphabetical order and the general consensus was that the BB was relatively light and pretty, the FL was weightier and also more alcoholic at a whopping 13%, and the PT was the best of both worlds. A fascinating comparison!

Then last week, I was able to attend a 1980 port vertical organised by G for the Port Forum. There were 12 of us present, and 14 ports. I was tasked with bringing along the Dow and G gave me very precise instructions on what to do. Unfortunately the cork was very crumbly and I didn't have a spare, but a champagne stopper saved the day. 

It's always interesting to see the aerial view. The Dow, in the middle at the back, was a particularly dark colour and G thought it wasn't ready yet. 

The general consensus was that 1980 wasn't a very exciting or complex vintage, but as someone who doesn't drink that much port, I still enjoyed it. Points were awarded and the winner was the Gould Campbell, whereas my favourite was the Offley Boa Vista which looked absolutely beautiful and reminded me of chocolate-covered berries. Once again, the Quinta do Noval Nacional didn't justify its exorbitant price tag, being considered merely "quite pretty". None of them were obviously duff - the Burmester was a bit murky and had a slightly odd nose, possibly because it was at the end of its drinking window. Another fascinating evening and thanks G for inviting me. 

Port report

Over the past few weeks, G has kindly shared some of his "advent calendar" of port from Quevedo, a Portuguese winery which I hadn't come across before. The concept was 24 x 90ml bottles in a wooden box, which provided some good opportunities for comparison. 

First up was a 1997 Colheita which we later compared with a 1995 but it seems I'd put my phone away by then. I had to ask G exactly what a Colheita is, and he told me it's a single vintage-dated tawny port. Not something I would have guessed from the colour!

The 1997 reminded me of dark chocolate-covered raisins and had a lovely soft texture with plenty of glycerine. It had a great finish with a hint of liquorice. Apparently it was bottled in 2020, so had seen 23 years in cask. I was favourably impressed. The 1995 had some figs on the nose but was lacking structure on the palate - G referred to it as fortified grape juice. It was very pleasant, but not quite the real deal. They were both from the same vineyard and had a similar time in barrel, so this difference was purely down to vintage variation.

On another evening, we tried the 1974 Colheito versus the 1992. Again, both had been bottled in 2020. The 1974 was a mahogany colour, and reminded me of panforte on the nose, with nuts and dried fruit, and maybe a little bit of chocolate. G got sultanas. It was silky smooth on the palate. "Oh, that's delicious" said a certain person. It was really complex and had all come together very nicely, with almonds, brazil nuts, prunes and figs. Apparently 1974 was a terrible year for port, so they did very well here. 

The 1992 was a similar colour, but had a more subdued nose with a whiff of varnish. It was perhaps sweeter and more obvious, with notes of toffee, caramel and dried orange peel. A comparison was drawn between dark Lindt almond chocolate for the '74 and Curly-Wurly for the '92. They both have their place...

It appears from my notes that G got carried away and we also tried the 2005 on the same evening. Notes were becoming sparse by this stage, but the overall impression was that it was pleasant but lacking in complexity, and possibly a bit young. 

Here we have a pair of LBVs from 2014 and 2015. The 2014 had dried fruit, particularly prunes, and seemed young. The alcohol was a little harsh and not very well-integrated, perhaps because it had only had six years in barrel.

The 2015 was significantly darker and had a more subtle nose - G described it as dumb. For me, it was more balanced, softer and more mellow. It was young, fruity and exuberant and reminded me of the young ports we've had from Niepoort. 

We also tried this 2007 Colheita, which had dried apricots, prunes and glace cherries on the nose. On the palate it had notes of orange and chocolate and I thought it was pretty good. My only criticism was a slight alcoholic burn on the finish. 

Here we have a pair of white ports, the 1981 versus the "Very Old". There was quite a marked difference in colour as can be seen from the photo. Their appearance reminded me of elderly Sercial. The 1981 had a delicious nose of sultanas and a very gloopy texture. It was congruent and perhaps a little bit fleshy. G detected marrons glaces on the finish. I thought it was pleasurable in an obvious way. I'm not sure I'd have realised it was port if I'd been tasting it blind, and would probably have thought it was a sherry.

The "Very Old" was fascinating. G told me that it was from 1970. It wasn't as sweet as the 1981 and had more complexity. I got orange and dark chocolate and also some herbaceous notes, possibly menthol or ginger. This really was astonishing stuff. I don't think it's available in bottle, so it was an absolute treat to get to taste it. 

We had a couple of other ports in recent weeks. I failed to take a pic of the 20 year old Taylors tawny bottled in 1982. This was the colour of gravy. On the nose, G got spruce varnish while I got some heady sweet notes that reminded me of icing sugar or possibly candied nuts. Not unpleasant. On the palate, it delivered a massive frontal hit (G's phrase) and had a spicy finish, with some heat as it went down. It was very disjointed. We weren't sure we would identify it as port blind. "Fucked up but oddly good with chocolate gingers" was the verdict. My take home point was that tawny port doesn't benefit from time in bottle. 

And finally, we had this Niepoort Crusted port bottled in 2014. G informed me that a crusted port is a non-vintage bottled relatively young, which forms a sediment. This was like alcholic Ribena. It was very winey, typical of Niepoort, with a freshness and charm which made for easy drinking. I was pleased to discover that G got it for a remarkably low price.

Thanks very much to G for giving me the chance to try all of the above - I feel like I learned a lot!

Magnums and more

Second blog post in a month shocker! I'm now trying harder to make sure I have a notebook to hand when drinking the good stuff. 

A couple of weeks ago we opened this magnum of Auxey Duresses 2005 from Michel Prunier, which had been lying in my wardrobe for a very long time. I bought several of these and last drank it in 2013 - we decided to give the others some time to come round. Our view was that it is now drinking. It was on the rustic side, old school Burgundy. It reminded G of wines from Doudet-Naudin, and if you told me it was from the 1960s I'd have believed you. I think a couple more of these are residing in Middle England somewhere so it may be one to run by the SPNS in due course... 

A few nights later we had this Savigny les Beaune 1er cru Les Marconnets 2015 from Domaine de la Vougeraie. This was an attractive glossy ruby colour. It had black fruit on the nose, not a typical Savigny nose. It seemed quite big to me but G detected a certain stemmy quality. This went away when we drank it with the lamb tagine and our view was that improved over time. I wondered if it was a bit young, but for me it was lacking in fruit and I'm not sure it would ever really improve. We gave it a 7 on the premier cru scale so a little disappointing to be honest. 

Things improved when G wheeled out this half bottle of Gould Campbell 1980. He has shared a lot of port with me over the past few months which I've enjoyed very much but failed to report on. This was very interesting with fig on the nose, panforte and even milk chocolate - very high quality milk chocolate, G said. The texture was wonderful, lots of glycerine, and there was a hint of Turkish Delight on the finish. It needed no more time and was now a "pop and pour". 

Last weekend we were extremely decadent and ordered a takeaway from Otto's which I have written about before here. To begin with, we drank this Rully 1er cru Montpalais 2016 from Jean-Baptiste Ponsot. This was a beautiful golden colour and had a very attractive nose of unwaxed lemons. It was rounded and creamy in the mouth with a burst of acidity at the end, almost salty. We thought it would be excellent with fish and chips. G declared that marginal villages make great wine in hot vintages, something to bear in mind for future reference. We gave this a 9.

The first course of the very complicated Otto's offering was brioche with duck liver on the left and morels in a sauce on the right. The toaster was brought down from its place above the kitchen cabinets and dusted off for the occasion, and fortunately G alerted me to the fact that the brioche would toast very quickly and we timed it to perfection. The duck liver may be the most delicious thing I've ever eaten, and I plan to attempt to replicate it in the near future - we think port, brandy and butter were all involved. It's hard to believe Otto's doesn't have a Michelin star.

The second course involved duck breast, the famous sauce and some pommes souffles - a miserly portion as we were splitting it over 2 days.

The intention was to have this Beaune 1er cru Cent-Vignes 2005 from Albert Morot alongside. Like the Auxey discussed above, I'd come to realise that 2005 is taking forever to come round, so this had been stashed away in the come-back-to-it-later branch of the cellar. What can I say. It would certainly have been undrinkable young. It reeked to high heaven with famyard aromas and sousbois and there was something weirdly pungent about it. G charitably looked for positives but even he was eventually defeated and agreed it was getting worse with time, so down the sink it went. We gave it a 5 on the premier cru project scale, a disappointing result, as I did enjoy some of the wines from this domaine when I visited it in 2007. 

Next, we opened my last bottle of Santenay Comme Dessus 2010 from Domaine de la Choupette, but something wasn't quite right about it either - it had a stemmy quality reminding me of bad cabernet franc, and a bitter finish. I'm pretty familiar with this wine and it's usually very pleasurable, so something wasn't right. Down the sink it went. 

The pressure was on! Fortunately a bottle of Audiffred Bourgogne Rouge 2016 was on form with the usual exotic fruits on the nose, and went down very well. 

The following night, we had this Beaune 1er cru Greves 2013 from Domaine de la Vougeraie. This was more typical Beaune, medium weight, supple and elegant with nice acidity and complexity. It went very well with the remains of the duck, although I wondered if a big Cote de Nuits red might have gone even better. The nose took a while to open up, and after 2 hours in the decanter it brightened up with notes of black fruit, red fruit and clafoutis. It had a burst of sweetness at the end. Originally we gave it a medium 8 but it was upgraded to a high 8 as time went on. 

Finally, I've been drinking this magnum of Beaujolais Villages 2016 from Maison en Belles Lies for the past few days - not really the ideal size for solitary lockdown drinking but what's a girl to do. It has lots of fruit and is very gluggable, and it's been reminding me of the Coteaux Bourguigons from Romain Chapuis with its slightly feral quality. High praise indeed as that's one of my favourite wines. 

And so on we go... at least there are daffodils outside, the magnolia trees have their buds and I'm looking forward to resuming tastings and dinners soon!

Recent drinking round-up!

AduV is still alive! Just haven't been feeling much of an urge to write a cheery blog at the moment with everything that's been going on. But there's light at the end of the tunnel and some interesting booze has been going down. 

This will be a mostly pictorial report as I haven't been making detailed notes on the whole, with one notable exception below. 

In order of aperitif to post-prandial:

I randomly ordered this Cornish Pastis along with a rum order from BBR. I quite enjoyed it! It wasn't too sweet and G compared it to an ouzo rather than a pastis. It brought back happy memories of sitting outside at a bistrot in Lyon...

White Musar 2012.

This Bourgogne Rouge from Domaine de la Roseraie has been going down well - very accomplished stuff. 

What a treat! A half of 1996 Musar. For me, this was getting to the end of its drinking window. G noticed a lot of volatile acidity, and there was definitely a lot of brett. But it was a pleasure to drink and reminded us how much we like Musar.

The last of my red Meursault 1er cru Cras 2009 from Latour-Labille. What lovely stuff this has been. Reminiscent of a very good Volnay or I might even have thought it was Cote de Nuits with its black fruits. 

I think this was also the last of the Vosne Romanee Champs Perdrix 2010 from Audiffred, which has also been a complete delight and I'm delighted that I have three more vintages in my cellar!

A highlight just before New Year - G splashed out on this 2015 Auxey-Duresses from Coche-Dury. One of my desert island wines, the bottle has gone into the hall of fame on top of the kitchen cabinets. This had a heady, sweet nose of poached cherry - clafoutis or even Bakewell tart. "The fragrance arising from warm fruit" pronounced G. On the palate, it had a velvety texture and was sensual, rich and harmonious with a very long finish. It was bursting with flavour and certainly drinking now but we thought it would keep. Sweet berry compote heading towards summer pudding. A real treat and thanks to G for spoiling me. 

This half of Warre's 1983 wasn't too shabby either! I failed to make notes but do recall that for me it was on the drier side and quite fascinating - not as much fruitcake and dried fruit as some ports, but some interesting darker flavours like leather, tobacco and chocolate. I enjoyed it very much.

I plan to get some more wines out of storage fairly soon and look forward to seeing how they have been getting on... watch this space!

Lunch at the Baron's, 6th September

On Sunday I took the tube for the first time in months over to Baron McGuffog's neck of the woods where we were joined by ACC and G at the "pub table" in the garden. What follows will mostly be a pictorial account.

My contribution was this bottle of pink champagne from Jean Comyn which we calculated must have been at least 10 years old. The colour was compared to Lucozade and it had certainly mellowed in the intervening period but was possibly now on the elderly side! I attempted to incite ACC to tell his Comyn joke which involves at least 15 minutes of build up, but the moment passed... 

With our starter we had this white Marsannay 2017 from Romain Chapuis which was lovely, rich white Burgundy drinking very nicely now.

It went extremely well with this amazing onion tart which the Baron made from an Elizabeth David recipe. The bar just got raised!

It took an enormous amount of self-control for us not to eat all of it and save some room for the rest of the meal.

Next up, a magnum of Lombois Volnary 2014 from Domaine Perrin which was made by Vincent's son Guillaume. This was earthy, almost like a Pommard, and starting to drink. It went very nicely with the pigeon and peas. 

ACC had brought along some of his famous magnum of Prunelle which was a delight. I failed to ask the bottle detectives how old they thought it might be, but maybe 1970s? It had that almond or apricot kernel thing going on but we were assured it wasn't cyanide...

A finally, a bottle of young vintage port - 2016 Smith Woodhouse, to go with the chocolate cake, which was another triumph. 

Thanks very much to the Baron for hosting - a very enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon!