SPNS dinner, 15th March

Last Friday we had another SPNS dinner at the Savile Club and I'm delighted to report that all members of the SPNS were present and correct for once!

My contribution was this Cremant de Bourgogne Blanc de Noirs from Domaine Felettig, which was bought several years ago and had been languishing at the bottom of the wine rack as we had thought it would be interesting to try a bottle with some age on it. G bravely went first and gave a grimace, which I think created an expectation among the group that it was going to be terrible, but actually it wasn't at all. It was definitely on the elderly side with yeastiness and biscuity notes. Some detected a weird finish but overall it was considered drinkable and actually improved as time went on, although of course by that stage we had inevitably drunk it all.

P brought along a 1992 sauvignon blanc from Cloudy Bay which apparently he bought en primeur at the height of the hype. It was remarkably youthful and zingy with the classic elderflower nose, while D detected green olives. G said it was a marvellous survival and I would never have predicted that it would be so youthful. It was very kind of P to share his last bottle with us.

T contributed this Vina Tondonia rose 2008. It was a beautiful colour and had a lovely floral, herbaceous nose. D described it as bright and alive and P found it vibrant and great with goat's cheese, while T thought it was still a bit young. ACC wrote something in the book which apparently I'm not meant to quote but since I can't read his handwriting anyway there's no danger there. I found this wine full of character. T says it's still the world's best rose and he's the expert so I wouldn't dream of disagreeing

ACC had brought along this Pur Jus 2016 from Chateau Landra in the Ventoux and described it as pure and juicy, ha ha. It had what T described as a full bouquet, quite earthy, and on the palate was very fruity and powerful. It's a low sulphur wine and I found it dangerously drinkable but noticed it was 14% so have to be careful with that! It went well with food and T particularly enjoyed it, I think.

D had brought along something very unusual, a 1999 Small Berry Mourvedre from Cline Cellars in Sonoma. This was another 14% wine but less of a surprise in this case! ACC told me that mourvedre is a Rhone grape so it was very interesting to try this alongside the Ventoux. It was a very dark colour and hard to believe it was 20 years old, it seemed so youthful. It was complex and powerful with lots of mint and fruit.

Finally, G stole the show with this magnum of Harvey's Bristol Cream bottled in 1977 to celebrate Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee. This was a dark brown murky colour and quite sweet. I got notes of butterscotch and it went really well with my millionaire's pudding. G described it as coherent, old school sherry, really very pleasant and good fun. We all enjoyed it and polished off the magnum with no difficulty whatsoever. As ACC put it, God Save the Queen!

All in all, it was another very interesting and enjoyable evening and thanks everyone for your contributions and notes in the Book.

Dinner at T's, 19th Aug

On Friday night, G and I had the honour of an invitation to T's place in the Barbican to help him out with some items that needed drinking up.

It was a beautiful evening, sunny and warm. I met G outside his office and we wended our way past vast throngs of people clutching pints outside pubs before entering the concrete jungle that is the Barbican. We navigated to T's flat relatively successfully by our standards and found a range of enticing nibbles had been laid out along with a decanter of D'Oliveira's Sercial 1937.

This was a stunning bottle of madeira. It had a sharp, walnutty edge to it, and an overall intensity of flavour that went on for several minutes.

We stood on the balcony which had a great view of the terraces of the Barbican Centre. Fountains were playing on the lakes and there was a spectacular sunset with pink-tinged clouds. T couldn't have picked a better evening.

With dinner, we drank some white and pink Vina Tondonia from 2000 (the white is called Vina Gravonia). I think it's fair to say that the general consensus was that while the white was good and very interesting, the pink is unique and unlike anything else, and generally pretty damned wonderful. I have blogged about it before here.

After dinner came the coup de resistance, a bottle of 1945 Martinez port which T acquired in mysterious circumstances back in the 1960s and had somehow managed to resist drinking ever since. I think G had dropped hints that it probably did need drinking soon...

What I found surprising was how light it was. One tends to expect port to be raisiny and heavy, but this had flavours of caramel and was quite floral - G detected violets. It was very mellow and smooth and appeared not to have suffered from its occasional relocations.

I had to admit, sheepishly, that I'd never heard of Martinez - they're not one of the well-known port shippers like Croft or Taylors. It turns out that in 1960 they were sold to Harvey's of Bristol. However, apparently in 2006, Martinez was bought by the Symingtons who are planning to revitalise it as a brand. We shall see.

At the very end of the evening, T wheeled out this rather fine Cognac from Frapin which I could only manage a small glass of (lightweight) but it was very good, particularly with a salted caramel or seven from the Artisan du Chocolat. How did T know that I have recently developed an addiction to these, as well as to rillettes, which was served earlier in the evening? Spooky!

It was a wonderful evening and it a real privilege to get to drink both the Sercial and the port. Thanks!

Meeting of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society, 14th May

On Friday it was the much-anticipated third meeting of the Society. Some complex bottle-swapping and book-collecting arrangements were effected and I joined ACC for a quick G&T at the Carlton beforehand, causing much outrage among the staff at my attempt to a) keep my wine with me and b) keep my coat with me. A portrait of Michael Howard smirked at the proceedings, but sadly no members of the Cabinet were present for me to pelt with mini-Cheddars.

Then it was off to our venue for the evening, the Savile in Brook Street where we met the other members of the Society - G, T, P and D. I was unable to take any photos as cameras are banned, but that's probably just as well as it would have been disruptive and I might have missed out on a refill while I was faffing about.

The idea behind the Society is that each member brings a bottle which is supposed to be in some way obscure or interesting. One is not supposed to spend mega-bucks, although some members have shamelessly infringed this rule in the past and surprisingly the rest of us were not minded to kick them out.

Sitting in the bar, we kicked off with my contribution, a 2002 blancs-de-blancs champagne from Jean Comyn who is a fairly obscure producer and therefore just about fitted the bill. Comments were recorded in the book and on the whole were favourable although the general opinion was that it would be better in 5 years' time. It would be one to tuck away for a while, if I still had any.

Then we went upstairs to the dining room where we had two bottles of Vina Tondonia 1998 rose provided by T.

This was a revelation - we all sat there saying we'd never had any pink wine like it. It was remarkably dry and fully mature, and altogether rather serious for a pink. Everyone found it interesting and I get the impression from the book that most of us liked it, although I can't read ACC's scribble even at this early stage in the evening.

Next up we had two reds side by side: G's Barbaresco 1982 from Bruno Gracosa and D's Seneca Shore Merlot Kylix Cuvee 2001 from New York. This was a fascinating comparison. The Barbaresco was much paler than the merlot, and quite a shock to the system on the palate - very dry and mature. The merlot was full and rich and something of a crowd-pleaser. P and T were vocal in its praise, and disparaging of the Barbaresco ("would remove paint from a wall or two" was one comment) but ACC described the merlot as "frontal" which sounds vaguely rude but he's right - it had an upfront immediate charm but not much of a finish.

We had a quick claret from the club's list to go with the savoury, which was fine but overshadowed by its eminent predecessors.

With pudding, we had a bottle of 1997 Chateau Guiraud, a Sauternes which ACC had procured for a bargain price from a branch of Somerfield. It still had a gaudy price label on it. This was very enjoyable sauternes and comments in the book are positive (T: "Brill!" I can't believe T actually wrote that!) and only G sounding a note of doubt - "not complex".

Finally, we moved on to the star wine of the evening, P's Moscatel 1900. This was a dark brown colour, and stunning. It had a serious intensity and wonderful balance, and the finish went on forever. I was fascinated trying this serious madeira after all the other not-at-all-shabby wines we had drunk, to find how comprehensively it beat the competition. Everyone raved about it in the book apart from ACC who had fallen asleep by this stage (it had been a long day, apparently). "Heavenly", "nectar" and "double plus good" were all used.

P was awarded the prize for wine of the evening, and T was awarded the prize for the wine most in the spirit of the Swiss Pinot Noir Society, both well-deserved accolades. Bring on the next meeting!