Swiss Pinot Noir Society, Thurs 6th November

On Thursday night, after a long day at work, I was very much in need of a drink looking forward to the next SPNS dinner.

We started off with this "Le Petit Beaufort" 2015 from Domaine Alice Beaufort supplied by ACC.

This was fruity and refreshing. It was cloudy and slightly pink, and subsequent investigations have revealed that it's made from 100% pinot noir and hasn't yet undergone secondary fermentation so will be even better in due course! I found myself thinking it would make a great party wine for the summer. "Reviving after the day's travails" said ACC, while G referred to it as pleasant quaffing fizz, unserious in a good way. Comparisons were made to elderflower champagne, although D was getting strawberries. Either way, a very enjoyable glass to start the evening.

We moved upstairs and had two whites with our starters. First, this Lomond Cape Agulhas Snowbush 2008. This was powerful stuff and there was some speculation about the grapes involved, maybe semillon or pinot gris, while I found it reminded me of a Rhone white. G thought it had a lot of sulphur. Not something I'd have encountered otherwise and I believe P got it at auction for an advantageous price - good stuff.

My scallops went down a treat!

The second white was this 1959 Riesling Forster something or other (if anyone can make it out let me know). This had been lurking on my wine rack for a while but actually belonged to P, so was brought along as something of a wild card. I think it's fair to say opinions were mixed. P was very pleased with it, but for me it was a little dried out although if I pretended it was a sherry then I could get something out of it. G thought it would go well with cold roast chicken. Old school.

D had ferried across this Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1986 which was a real treat. It was classic Pauillac, drinking very nicely now and we thought it was on a plateau. It had an enticing nose and was quite austere but with those woody characteristics we love so much. Wonderful stuff.

Five bird roast!

My contribution was the polar opposite: this bottle of Dutcher Crossing 2012 Taylor Reserve from California which was given to me by my wine-loving friend across the pond and saved for a special occasion. It was quite a contrast to the claret - a massive, big, powerful, fruity wine. I think we all enjoyed it but definitely a bottle to share - at 15.3% one glass was sufficient. Thanks J for widening my horizons!

Vanilla cheesecake :)

Finally, G had brought along this Bonnezeaux 1985 from Domaine La Croix De Mission. He described it himself as a very pleasant but slightly elderly sweetie. Others were more effusive but I think G's description summed it up well.

For some reason there were no taxis to be found but after all those lovely wines we were feeling cheerful enough to stagger home. Another great evening; thanks everyone!

SPNS, Wednesday 13th June

On Wednesday night, I made my way over to the Savile Club for the latest gathering of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society.

Arriving a tactful minute late, I walked into the bar which was deserted apart from three reprobates standing at the bar guzzling Veuve Cliquot 2008. Clearly I was in the right place. My glass was duly filled and while I'm not a great expert on Veuve, I found this relatively light and refreshing. I wouldn't have guessed it was ten years old. G, who has clearly drunk far more of the stuff than me, opined that it had finally come round. It certainly made an excellent aperitif.

We moved upstairs to the dining room where the only question was which white to drink first? My offering was this 2014 Chablis 1er cru Mont de Milieu from Domaine Nathalie et Gilles Fevre. This was full-bodied and a little richer than some Chablis with a pleasingly weighty mouthfeel. It was drinking well now but we suspected it might not last in the long term.

Meanwhile, P had stashed away this Trittenheimer Laurenz Spatlese 1957 from the Friedrich Wilhem Gymnasium (thanks G for writing that all down in the book). This was a beautiful golden colour and had the classic old riesling nose but for me had lost most of its fruit although it did have some lychees going on and certainly had an unctuous texture. The assembled company found that it became sweeter as time went on. Fascinating stuff.

Once again, my picanha steak was excellent .

D had brought along this 2007 Cabernet Franc from Red Newt Cellars, which I reported on here. I see that when we visited, I wasn't unduly impressed with their cab franc, but this was an altogether different kettle of fish. G described it as "glorious rich cab franc in impeccable order tonight" and it was vibrant with a lot of fruit, pepper and spice. It went down very easily and we suspected that if it had been in magnum that wouldn't have presented any problem. I thought it was drinking perfectly now but D thought it had the potential to age further.

Finally, with our cheese course, we had this Tokaji 4 puttonyos from 1967 which G picked up at auction. He compared it unfavourably with higher-puttonyos Tokaji but actually I think we all rather enjoyed it. It was a murky brown colour and tasted of fruit cake, with notes of figs and prunes. It had a long finish but D noticed that it was low on acidity.

It also had quite a remarkable amount of sediment in the bottle. Ah, the good old days!

Thanks all for yet another very pleasurable and educational evening. Until next time...

Tasting of German wines, 26th April

G kindly invited me to a tasting of German wines in Southwark a few days ago. I accidentally took the long way round out of Waterloo Station and then discovered that my knowledge of the area wasn't as good as I thought it was, but eventually made it to the designated meeting point only about a minute late.

The tasting began with five white Rieslings from the Saar and Mosel, all from the 2014 vintage. They were medium sweet or perhaps off-dry, only about 7.5% alcohol, and with lovely tropical flavours (we seem to be finding passionfruit in everything we drink at the moment!), peach and lime marmalade.

Comments were made about how you could drink these wines at breakfast, or mid-morning, at lunchtime, or in the afternoon in the garden (for those lucky enough to possess such a thing). They were very approachable even so young, with a certain freshness and good acidity, and wonderful length. My favourite was the Erdener Herzlei Spätlese from Weingut Dr Hermann in the Mosel, which positively demanded an apricot tart. It was extraordinary to find that they cost between £7 and £14 at the cellar door, although that was a couple of years ago and G referred to the prices on the tasting sheet as "charmingly inaccurate".

We then moved on to four red wines, all Spätburgunder i.e. Pinot Noir. Unfortunately the photos came out somewhat blurred so I won't post them here but the wines looked beautiful in the glass, a translucent red, and I detected notes of cherry on the nose. Unfortunately on the palate they were not my kind of thing, and I wasn't alone in this. There was a particular unpleasant bitter quality on the finish which reminded me (sensitive readers should look away now) of bile. I didn't say this out loud, but everyone around us poured them away, self included. I had hoped that the first wine was a duffer and I think everyone kept trying to convince themselves that each one was better than the last ("Oh, this is not too bad" said someone about the third) but in my opinion they were all equally awful. Oh well! At least now I know to avoid them in future.

Fortunately we didn't end the evening on a sour note, as the chap who had organised the tasting produced this 1990 Trierer Deutschherrenberg Auslese from the Mosel as the final wine. This was more like it! It was a beautiful golden colour and was absolutely delicious, with floral notes along with the classic petrol of Riesling, and honey. It had great acidity and balance, and a splendid finish, and reminded me of the days when G and I used to drink Bernkastler Bratenhofchen in the late 90s. Wonderful stuff and very generous of the organiser to share it with us. I may not share his taste in reds, but this reminded me how much I love this style of white, and I'll be looking out for it in future.

SPNS dinner, 12th May

On Tuesday night, it was over to the Savile Club for the next instalment of the Chronicles of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. I arrived to find a wedding party coming down the stairs but elbowed them out of the way of them as nothing was getting between me and a much-needed glass of fizz. T and I found D waiting for us in the bar extension sandpit and decided to crack on, with G and P joining us a few minutes later.

"Two from New Mexico" announced D with a flourish, and the look on T's face was priceless.

The first was a Brut from the Gruet winery. This surprised us all, I think, except perhaps D and G who had tasted it previously. There was something unusual about it, and I remain unclear about the grape varieties being used. Some doubted that grapes were involved, as opposed to, say, cactus. It was certainly interesting to try: pleasant, floral and light, and it improved with time in the ice bucket.

After the straight Brut, we moved on to the Brut Rose, from the same establishment. If anything, this was even weirder. It wasn't quite as bad as the "badly-dissolved paracetamol" Romanian pink fizz that T famously inflicted on us a few years ago, but nevertheless it produced interesting facial expressions all round. P made a comment along the lines of "this is what happens when you let the primary school make wine on their day out". I don't think any of us really liked it, with the possible exception of D whose comment in the book is carefully neutral.

We moved upstairs to the dining room, which was very busy. G had provided this Bernkastler Doctor 1985. It was a beautiful colour.

Diesel and meths were detected on the nose, which fortunately dissipated fairly quickly. It was drunk with some pleasure but the consensus was that it was elderly and past its best. We remembered a previous occasion when we'd drunk a similar 2009 wine too young - the notes are here. Maybe next time we'll get it right! G and T had a starter of scallops and black pudding risotto which apparently went very well with it, and petitions are being made to have this put on the menu as a regular feature, which I'd welcome as I was quite envious.

P had provided two reds: a 1994 cabernet sauvignon from Durney Vineyards in California, and a 1997 Chateau La Grave Figeac. The Durney Vineyards wine was the highlight of the evening - fully mature but not over the hill, with dark, ripe blackcurrant fruit. Nobody had a bad word to say about it, except perhaps regret that we were drinking P's penultimate bottle. P told us that this winery had a bad vintage the year after (if I was paying attention) and closed, but it seems to have been resurrected in the form of Heller Estate Organic Vineyards.

The Chateau La Grave Figeac was very pleasant, well-integrated, medium-weight and approachable, drinking nicely. It just didn't excite quite as much as the Durney Vineyards. Possibly this is because it was primarily merlot, whereas I'm a cab sauv kinda girl myself.

It's hard to see in this terrible photo, but the Durney is on the left and is slightly darker than the claret on the right.

With the cheese course, we moved on to my contribution, Le Vin de Francois 2010. This is a South African red which I was given by a colleague. It seemed to be quite prestigious judging from my internet seaches, so I'd saved it for this occasion. However, to be honest, it wasn't my cup of tea at all. It was 14.5% alcohol and one of those big new world blockbusters that to me just tastes like a hangover in a glass - completely lacking in subtlety. Others were kinder and descibed it as "jammy" and "gooey". It went all right with the cheese, I suppose, but it wasn't a patch on what had gone before.

Finally, we had this Eiswein 1998 from Weingut Hafner in Austria, made from pinot noir grapes, which was T's contribution for the evening. This was well-received - it was a great dessert wine with sweetness and finesse, and a very long finish. T had brought along two half bottles but only one of them was drunk, as the evening had gone on for some time and we were practically being kicked out of the dining room at that point. I've taken custody of the other half and will bring it along on another occasion, as it certainly seemed that there was no rush.

All in all, another fascinating evening and thanks to everyone for sharing your interesting and in some cases lovely wines with us!

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!

Big Ben and dinner at mine, Saturday 12th Oct

Last Saturday was one of those days that doesn't come along too often.

In the morning, ACC, Baron McG and I had a private tour of Big Ben, thanks to my sister-in-law. She's friends with Paul Roberson, the Clockmaker at the Palace of Westminster (there's an interview with him here) and he kindly took us up the Elizabeth Tower. This was my second time seeing Big Ben in action for the midday bongs but was even better than the first, since there were just six of us, Paul had some wonderful stories and jokes, and we were granted access to some parts that the main tours don't get to see! As this is a wine blog, I'll restrict myself to three photos.

Inside the clock dial

Big Ben lui-meme

View south down the river

After the tour, we had a breather in the room with the clock mechanism. I produced a bottle of Pol Roger, Paul revealed his stash of glasses, and my brother produced mini-cheddars and TUC cheesy biscuits much to everyone's delight, and we toasted the experience. Magic. Then we descended the steep spiral staircase - at this point it was probably just as well we'd only had a glass of fizz each - and went for lunch at the Green Man and French Horn on St Martin's Lane. It specialises in food and wine from the Loire region and we were favourably impressed, especially since the set menu is excellent value.

There was just time for me to brave the hordes on the tube and nip over to Knightsbridge to pick up some cheeses from my favourite cheese shop. I see their website is charmingly translated and the English headline is "Federateur of gouts and of human passions". Should I mention this next time I'm there? More importantly, I got an update on the Mont d'Or situation: it will be a couple of weeks yet before the good stuff gets going...

Then it was back to AdeV Towers to prepare for dinner with D and G.

G had also been busy and had spent an hour at Borough Market hunting down the stall with the Irish wild smoked sea trout. We drank the last of my Chablis 1er cru Montmains 2008 from La Maison Romane with it. It took a few minutes to open up, as it had been in the fridge all day, but once it did, it was perfect.

There followed a pair of half-bottles of 1966 claret brought by D, which we drank with slow-cooked lamb and gratin dauphinois. The Haut-Brion was a lovely colour and very glossy, with liquorice, sous-bois and mushrooms on the nose. On the palate it was very smooth, rich and intense - delicious. G described it as an intellectual wine. The price tag of $14.95 made us groan with envy; I think it had been in D's cellar some time!

The second half was Mouton-Rothschild which D told us had cost $5 - those were the days! It was still a second-growth in 1966 before being promoted to first-growth status in 1973. This had cocoa on the nose and again it was quite earthy and very serious. G, who has drunk far more Mouton than I have, said it was discernibly Mouton. It was drinking very well now and I thought it was very charming indeed. D pointed out that lamb was a very suitable match for it, which was a lucky coincidence!

Next up we had some poached pears with this German wine provided by G - a 1989 Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Auslese which was just 8% alcohol.

Apologies for the wobbly photo but this shows what a wonderful colour it was. It was aromatic and sweet but with sufficient acidity to be very drinkable. "Dessert by itself" said D, but it did actually work really well with the poached pears and I think we'll be revisiting this combo soon.

Finally, with the cheese course, we had this half of Graham's 1977 brought by D.

This was quite a light colour and elegant. We thought it was ready to go in half, whereas in bottle that may not be the case.

Hilarious back label telling you how to open the bottle

All in all, this was a great evening - thanks D for sharing your gems with us and I hope we did them justice!

Lunch at A de V Towers, 18th November

Last Sunday, ACC and G came round to my place for lunch. We kicked off with a terrine of lapin from Beillevaire, apparently made by the people who provide their eggs, which are truly excellent. I didn't take a photo of the terrine as it wasn't very photogenic, but it tasted all right and went well with toasted date and walnut bread. To drink, G provided this Riesling Auslese 2005 which one knew would be good just by looking at the terrible label. It was a lovely colour, quite sweet and grapey, tingly and delicious and with a great finish.

Next was a real treat, a Chablis 1er cru 2004 Montee de Tonnere from Domaine Francois Raveneau, provided by ACC. When he gave it to me on arrival the only part of the bottle visible was a yellow wax capsule which was highly promising. I was delighted when I saw what it was.  I've only had Raveneau once before but it immediately went into the pantheon of great Burgundy producers whose names begin with R. It seemed very dry after the Riesling and was tres Chablis, with that classic mineral quality, an amazing purity and no oak. There was some discussion about the wax seal - apparently wines age more slowly under wax as no oxygen can get in.

To go with this, G constructed a very fine chicken salad. Move over, Ottolenghi!

For the cheese course, we had a baked Vacherin Mont d'Or also from Beillevaire, served with a baguette. When buying it, I checked with Cheese Girl whether it was acceptable to bake it and she confirmed that indeed it was, and that the shop had recently had a baked Vacherin night and they nearly managed to set fire to the place. Sounds like a good evening. This is what it looked like before it went in the oven.

Alongside this we drank a Beaune 1er cru 2005 Les Tuvilains from Bertrand Ambroise. I bought this several years ago and it had been stashed away in G's cellar at the parental home for a while. It was big, fruity and quite sweet - not very Beaune at all and lacking elegance. Ambroise is based in Nuits-St-Georges so this probably had something to do with it. We did enjoy it, but it was marked down for not being typique and scored an 8.

Coffee was served and we got down to planning future events and our trip to Burgundy for New Year. I'm really looking forward to it!