SPNS dinner, 6th December

I see that another month has passed without any blog posts, largely because I was away from London for 3 weekends in a row. There's a lot to catch up on.

Last night was the December gathering of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society. G and I arrived fashionably late (by two minutes) having braved Oxford Street which was full of people not looking where they were going, while Wannabe by the Spice Girls blared out of Top Shop. Tate Britain is clearly bang on trend with its post-apocalyptic Christmas decorations.

Meanwhile at the Savile Club someone was having a 40th birthday party and the far more melodious sound of a saxophone and double bass greeted us as we walked into the bar. I produced the first wine of the evening, this Delamotte Blancs de Blancs 2002 and the day immediately improved.

This was generally well-received - it was great fizz from a great vintage, fully mature, with some nice autolytic qualities (thanks ACC) otherwise known as the smell of digestive biscuits. It was yeasty, toasty and creamy and we all agreed it would be even better served with some canapes. That wish may be fulfilled next September as I have the remainder of the case set aside for a certain  big day!

We moved upstairs to the dining room and got cracking on this Puligny 1998 from Etienne Sauzet while we perused the menu. This was provided by P who got it at auction. Despite its lack of provenance, it was a beautiful golden colour and again fully mature, quite unctuous (or gooey, to use T's word of choice) and buttery on the palate, with a good finish. I had planned to save some to go with my starter but in the end that proved unnecessary, as T had brought along a rose.

This was Mun, Rosato Marche le Calcinara 2018 from Italy. It was a pleasing deep pink colour, bright and fresh, with red fruits and almost bracing acidity. P got raspberry sorbet on the finish. Perhaps not the most serious wine ever, but enjoyable easy drinking.

With our mains, we had two reds. In the blue corner was this Moulin-a-Vent 1999 from Domaine des Grandes Vignes, provided by ACC. This had a truly remarkable nose! Funky seemed the most polite best word to describe it. T absolutely loved it. It was certainly still alive and kicking, and P went to town on the descriptions - elderberry, liquorice, chestnuts and rose hips all receiving a mention. A fascinating wine with lots to talk about!

In the red corner was something far more traditional, this Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1987 from Robert Mondavi, provided by G. This was a very dark colour, and had a lovely cedary nose. It was fully mature, archetypal cab sauv, probably quite high in alcohol, and nicely mellow now. It reminded me of a good claret and I liked it a lot.

No risk of getting these two mixed up

G had to commandeer a pink corkscrew to keep things moving along

The last wine of the evening, contributed by D, was this 1971 German beerenauslese. I nobly volunteered to write down its name and will attempt to reproduce it here: Hallgartener Jungfer from Weingut Georgshof. It was a remarkable dark amber colour, almost the same colour as the bottle, and for me, relatively dry for a sweet wine. I found it quite grapey while D detected honey. It was 11% alcohol and everyone's notes are enthusiastic. It disappeared remarkably rapidly!

P went off to get some cheese (a remarkable truffled number) and while he was gone, the thought of opening his reserve bottle of white occurred to some people who shall not be named. P was happy to go along with the plan, but sadly the wine itself, a Verget Puligny 2000, turned out to be over the hill, although T said it went quite well with his potted trout savoury.

After that, it was agreed that a bottle of Smith Woodhouse 1980 would be in order to go with the cheese. We'd given up making notes by this stage but G has helpfully supplied some for me. It had a restrained nose but delivered on the palate and was full, thick, sweet, plummy and really quite long. Given that it was "popped and poured", it showed very well and would have been even better with some time in the decanter. I've been feeling fine today - just goes to show it's worth drinking the good stuff. Thanks everyone for another very enjoyable evening!

Dinner at mine, 18th June

In catch-up mode once again, as I see this dinner was actually a few weeks ago! It was a Tuesday night and D joined G and myself here at A du V Towers for an enjoyable evening drinking mature wines from across the pond.

We began with this 1982 Pinot Noir from the Firestone Vineyard, which was a recent auction find. It was a reddish brown colour and had a jammy nose which G described as "high toned". On the palate, it was soft, integrated and congruent, still quite sweet, with hints of sous bois. We found it very drinkable and apparently it was a mere 12% alcohol. They don't make 'em like they used to!

Next up was this 1977 Cabernet Sauvignon from Robert Mondavi. Looking at the label, I get confused as am sure this is the same font the Wine Society used for some of their wines at one point, but apparently there is no connection. Sadly, there was clearly a fault with it, a weird yeasty thing going on which G said was brett, so it went down the sink. You win some, you lose some.

Fortunately, a wine had been placed in reserve for just this eventuality! This was a William Hill (amusing name if you're British) 1988 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. I'm pleased to say this was much better. It was a fruity, soft cabernet with lashings of mint and eucalyptus. The tannins had mellowed and it was extremely pleasant drinking, although my notes also contain the phrase "not setting the world alight" which sounds like the kind of thing G would say. He provided it, so he's allowed to say that.

To go with the cheese course, D had brought along a "port" from Missouri. I had no idea such a thing existed! This was Stark Star 1986 Tawny from Mount Pleasant Vineyards. The colour was not one I would normally associate with tawny port, as it was a deep, intense purple.

It was genuinely interesting, with figs, dates, and agen prunes, and went particularly well with the roquefort. It also had some creamy toffee notes and if we closed our eyes, we could imagine it was a Bual. Somehow I doubt we would ever come across this here in the UK, so thanks very much to D for sharing it with us.

Apparently a great year for tawny port too!

Dinner at D's, 23rd Sept

On our last night at D's, he held a dinner party with the guest list including Morton from Ravines and Dave from Seneca Shores and their wives.

The scene was set...

The purpose of the evening was to drink some of D's 1968 Californian cabernet sauvignons, but we started off with a variety of fizzes brought by the others including some 2000 Krug which was very generous as I for one don't get to drink that every day. I also had to restrain myself from eating too much of D's amazing venison liver pate.

Before we made a start on the reds, we had this bottle of Hanzell Sonoma Valley chardonnay 1967. This was a golden colour and was big oaky, buttery and rich, still going very strong. It was remarkable that it was still alive as apparently Hanzell weren't a particularly prestigious operation.

With dinner we moved on to the reds...

D's impressive collection of wine glasses... and as for the contents...

This was the Beaulieu Vineyard 1968 Private Reserve which was 12.5% alcohol. I found it impressive with a great finish and it seemed to improve with time. For many of the assembled company it was their favourite wine of the evening.

The Freemark Abbey came in at 12.0% and was very smooth, with resolved tannins, and notes of blackcurrant. It was elegant and more subdued but perhaps lacking something compared to the competition.

This was the standard Inglenook which was very smooth and maybe a bit lighter, something of a fruit bomb.

The Inglenook Cask H12 was very clearly a step up from the previous wine and had a good structure. It was my second favourite of the evening.

My favourite, however, was this Ivancie Cellars "American Cabernet Sauvignon" which was made in Colorado from Californian grapes. It had a lovely ripe sweetness which I found very enjoyable.

Finally there was this Robert Mondavi which was noticeably different from the others, with some darker notes. It was less fruity. Mondavi was established in 1965 so this was one of their first wines.

We finished off with some Grahams 1970 which was classic, integrated and drinking nicely now.

And finally this extraordinary item - Paul Masson Rare Souzao Port. This was very dense and reminiscent of prune juice, but surprisingly good!

Many thanks to D for hosting such a fascinating tasting - it was remarkable that these wines have lasted so well and a real privilege to get to taste them side by side like this. And that concludes my write-up of our trip to the Finger Lakes. It was a memorable trip and very enjoyable all round.

Happy new year and here's to more exciting adventures in 2018...