Some recent reds

I'm recently back from another trip to the US and had a lovely time as always. This particular visit included a spot of kayaking, painting the kitchen ahead of its upcoming renovation, and a near miss with a black bear! The bear in question was spotted ten minutes ahead of our arrival on that particular trail, but fortunately had disappeared by the time we got there, leaving just a claw mark in the mud and a load of scattered berries.  

I also enjoyed splitting some logs of wood on this intriguing piece of equipment provided by the state park! The mallet was very heavy and it was surprisingly satisfying to whack the logs with it. 

On to the wine. Today's post will be an attempt to clear up some accumulated notes on random reds. 

G and H invited me round to their house for lunch one day back in July. It was great to sit outside in the garden and the occasion included numerous fancy wines, none of which I made notes on. I did however take a pic of this particularly wonderful Volnay 1er cru Clos de la Cave des Ducs Monopole 2009 from Benjamin Leroux, which was a real treat. 

And it was lovely to see the photogenic Benjy enjoying the sun.

Moving on to other recent reds, I'll do these in reverse order of how much we liked them. 

I brought this Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2015 from Ponzi Vineyards back on my previous trip to the US. Willamette Valley is in Oregon, and this was very new world and lacking any burgundian elements. No whiff of the farmyard could be detected. It had an exuberant, crowd-pleasing nose with a lot of jammy blackcurrant, but G said the acidity wasn't high enough, and I thought this was pinot that would appeal to people who don't like Burgundy. It was 13.7%, allegedly. Not so sure about that!

Next up, a Mercurey 1er cru Les Valeys 2018 from Francois Raquillet. Apparently 2018 was a big, rich year and this was a very dark colour. On the palate it was earthy with plummy tannins and a little chocolate. It wasn't croquant unlike many Mercureys I've had in the past. G described it as "rustic village in a very hot vintage" which summed it up well. We gave it a low 8. 

Then we have a Beaune 1er cru Clos de la Mousse Monopole 2016 from Bouchard Pere & Fils. I picked this up in the Pennsylvanian booze store for $36 earlier in the year. The PA booze store sometimes has remarkably good clearance deals and I don't think anyone in D's neck of the woods is particularly interested in premier cru burgundy, so it hadn't been snapped up!

This was a slightly purple colour, glossy, with an attractive perfumed nose featuring sous bois and blackcurrant, very Beaune. As it was young, we gave it a 3.5 hour decant which it needed. It had a nice weight, was well-balanced, and had a good structure with nice fruit acids. I got a hint of rhubarb on the finish. We gave it a low 9 and thought it would last, although this was my only bottle. 

And finally, back in July, as it was my birthday month and I was feeling self-indulgent, it was time to wheel out the bottle of red Auxey-Duresses 2011 from Coche Dury which I'd been saving for a while. I served this quite chilled. It had a lot going on - blackberry, sous bois and a hint of saddle. It was very precise, and had a nice light mouthfeel, and almost a hint of apple skin on the finish. We felt that possibly the nose outshone the palate, and that it was ready to drink and not one to keep any further. It reminded me how much I love red Auxey, and it;s always a joy to drink Coche!

In other exciting news, I've signed up to attend the International Pinot Noir Celebration in July next year (what the hell, it's a big year!) so am very much looking forward to that. 

Some more recent Cote de Beaune reds!

And we're back! Happy new year. It was nice to celebrate Christmas with my mother, as opposed to the solitary 2020 version, and January has been pretty good too. My friend J from Grand Rapids was unexpectedly in London on New Year's Day and I was delighted to meet up even if only for an hour in Fortnums ice cream bar, where we got the new year off in style with a bottle of Billecart Salmon rose while her son enjoyed a design-your-own ice cream sundae. 

I also had a lovely meal at Bocca di Lupo with ACC and the Baron in the first week of January. I brought along a bottle of Meursault from Perrin, while ACC brought a Beaune from Domaine de la Roseraie and the Baron brought a bottle of La Dernier Goutte from Perrin. All three were excellent and the food at Bocca was great as ever, not to mention the celebrity-spotting opportunities. 

Anyway, down to business... some recent reds from the Cote de Beaune, all of which were kindly provided by G. 

This 2015 Monthelie from Domaine Roulot was, let's just say, not one of the highlights of the month. I usually love wines from this domaine, but this one was challenging, with lots of unresolved tannin and definitely still in its sulky adolescence phase. Just bad timing I suspect. G replaced it with some Warre 1970 which was absolutely wonderful.

And then on to the premier crus. First, this Beaune Bressandes 2018 from Henri Germain et Fils. This was quite a dark colour and looked glossy. I decanted it an hour in advance. It had a lovely nose with interesting dark fruit, and was silky but somewhat croquant. Loganberries were mentioned. There was  a lot of tannin, like 100% cocoa chocolate. We decided it needed another 15 years and gave it an 8. 

I have to admit I never get particularly excited at the prospect of a bottle of Savigny-les-Beaune, but this 1er cru Les Hauts Jarrons 2014 from Domaine de Bellene confounded my expectations. If I'd been drinking it blind, I wouldn't have guessed it was a Savigny as it didn't have the typical savoury notes, but was perfumed with sweet fruit, and surprisingly light with some cherries on the finish. It reminded me more of a Chorey or even a red Auxey. It was charming and we gave it a high 8. G told me that this domaine is the personal estate of Nicolas Potel and I see his wines are sold by BBR.

And finally, the other night we had this Volnay 1er cru Clos de la Rougeotte 2005 from Domaine Henri Boillot. This was fantastic. It had lovely fruit - blackberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants - and also some interesting other, wilder flavours. "It's got really exciting undergrowth" commented G. It was drinking perfectly now, and we felt it was as good as Volnay as you could hope for. Dix points! 

Recent Cote de Beaune reds

Moving swiftly on to recent C de B reds...

This was a Beaune 1er cru Teurons 2015 from Domaine Chanson. It was a very dark colour and came across as rich, ripe and somewhat international. I did enjoy the blackberry fruit, which became more prominent when we moved on to the cheese course, and there was some dark chocolate, but the unresolved tannins led us to believe it might be better in 10 years. We gave it an 8, with the potential to become a 9 in the future.

We had another Beaune recently which was very different - G provided this 1er cru Les Blanches Fleurs 1991 from Tollot-Beaut at a recent Sunday lunch. It had that nose of elderly Burgundy with some sweetness and sous-bois. On the palate, it was congruent and silky with lovely red berry fruit. G told us that 1991 was a very good vintage, but overshadowed by 1990. This wine was probably quite challenging in its youth. We gave it a 9.

At the same lunch, we also had a Volnay 1er cru Santenots-du-Milieu 1996 from Domaine des Comtes Lafon. I always associate this domaine with Caveau des Arches as we've had so many of their wines there, . This was a darker colour and I found the nose very exciting - not exactly feral, but with a lot of animal notes. Half an hour in, it because more fragrant. As I was distracted by lively conversation I failed to make detailed notes but summarised it as "this is really serious, classy stuff" (unfortunately it also comes with a serious price tag so thanks again to G for forking out for it). We gave it a 9. I see we actually had the 2011 vintage three years ago, which I reported on here.

Later in the week we had another Volnay, this time 1er cru Mitans 2015 from Vincent Perrin. It was dark and glossy in the glass with an enticing nose of blackcurrant and blackcurrant leaf, according to G. It was powerful and intense with hedgerow fruits and later on, a black cherry note. It was meaty, complex and satisfying. We felt there was no rush on it and it would last a further 15 years, but if drinking now, then a 3 hour decant would be wise. We gave it an 8 with the potential to go higher. 

And finally, on Wednesday, sadly a bottle of my Cacheux 2005 Vosne turned out to be incorrect, so we had this Mercurey 1er cru La Chassiere 2016 from Vincent & Jean-Pierre Charton instead. I always think of Mercury as croquant and this was no exception. It was quite tart. G developed a theory that we've been drinking them either 3 years too young or 3 years too old, and that they should be drunk either young and fruity or older when the structure has had a chance to develop. I guess we hit this one in its sulky adolescence phase. Initially, we thought it would be a 7, but it improved over time, becoming lusher and rounder and ended up a low 8, suggesting it has a future. Mercurey is a village to watch, with climate change working in its favour, and prices still quite reasonable by Burgundy standards - this one came in at less than £30. 

That brings me to the end of my recent wine notes. I'm off to see Maman A du V next week (rules permitting) and have a nice bottle of port to drink while I'm there... happy Christmas everyone!

Summer drinking

Today je vous presente general highlights from the last few weeks rather than anything particularly systematic. On most of the occasions below, notes weren't taken so this is mainly a photographic record of Nice Things I Have Drunk Lately

I was delighted to return to the Savile Club for a very welcome and long overdue dinner with T and G. G and I walked there and it was good to see Oxford Street buzzing with activity on a Friday night, complete with a lunatic-with-a-microphone at Oxford Circus offering up some entertainingly ludicrous theories on the causes of Covid-19. 

   

This English pink fizz provided by T got things off to a good start. The vineyard is in West Sussex and I believe it was the 2014 vintage, which is a blend dominated by pinot noir.

G brought along this 2008 rose from Chateau Musar which he had been saving for a very long time to drink with T, connoisseur of pink wines. Apparently T's previously experiences with it had been disappointing, but this time it delivered the goods. 

My contribution was this 2012 Barolo which I brought back from a wine shop in Turin a few years ago. 

 

And with dessert, a particularly unusual additional wine from G - a half bottle of Romanian "Cotnari". We had a similar half a while back with D (see here) although I can see that the labels are different, possibly reflecting different grapes. On that occasion, it was sweet, unctuous and fascinating. This one was very interesting and although we'd expected it to be sweet, had become almost dry over time, a phenomenon which G referred to as "swallowing its sugar". Great to get a chance to try it. 

G and I drank this 1976 Vouvray from Domaine de L'Epinay a few nights ago. It was part of the interesting mixed case I got at auction some time ago, none of which have yet let me down. It was a wonderful amber colour and very concentrated with honey, grapes, lime blossom and beeswax. Once again it had a dry finish and high residual acidity. We had it with a new "ethical foie gras" from Waitrose and brioche toast, which worked very well, but it would probably have gone with other things too. Fully mature but not over the hill, it went down very easily. We finished it off with some berries and cream, which brought out an interesting note of amaretti biscuits!

I'll do some more premier cru project reports in due course, but while I remember, G and I drank this Beaune 1er cru Clos des Feves Monopole 2012 from Domaine Chanson the other night, and had an unusual divergence of opinion on it. It had a wonderful exuberant perfumed nose, very Beaune, and for me continued to deliver on the palate with wild berries, a hint of sousbois, and a heady icing-sugar sweetness. For me it was complex, fruity and autumnal, a nice medium weight and provided a lot of sensual pleasure. It was close to a 10 for me (and the same when I polished the rest off the following evening), but for G it was apparently a mid-7. We're usually much closer in our scores, so this is a bit of a mystery. I may have to get another bottle so we can investigate further, and if G still doesn't think much of it I guess I'll just have to drink it...

Finally, last night I made my way over to Shoreditch, braving the assorted stag and hen parties which were out in force, and met up with ACC for dinner at Rochelle Canteen. I hadn't been there for some time, and they've added a greenhouse type section with good ventilation so we were able to sit "outside". ACC brought along this Volnay 1er cru Carelle sous la Chapelle from Perrin, with the vintage hand-written on the back as 2012. This was lovely stuff, fully mature and elegant. 

The John Dory which we had to share was phenomenal, as was my duck terrine and the malted chocolate chip ice cream! It was great to see Rochelle continuing to thrive, and definitely worth the trip east.

So that's July almost in the bag, and on Saturday I'm off to Iceland for a few days with D which can't come a moment too soon. I suspect this trip won't be particularly wine-related, but have spotted some crowberry liqueur on a restaurant menu so may be unable to resist!

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!

Recent drinking round-up!

And so the blog limps in belatedly to 2020 with the first entry of the year! I've finally had a chance this weekend to review my notes and photos of what has been drunk here over the last couple of months.

First up, a couple of Cabernet Francs from the Finger Lakes. It seems that I forgot to take a photo of the first, which was a Ryan William Vineyard 2012. This was my kind of cab franc, dark in colour, with lovely earthy and herbaceous flavours, ripe and not stemmy. G detected plums on the finish. We thought it was drinking very well now and needed no more time. It was apparently 12.7% alcohol so no hangover, and at $22 including tax one can hardly argue.

The second was this Kelby James Russell 2017, coming in at a mere 12.2%. This was paler in colour and I probably would have guessed it was a pinot if I'd just been looking at it. It had some sweetness on the nose and was relatively lightweight with, to use D's expression, good acid. G said "you could (expletive deleted) buzz a bottle of this on your own at lunch" which is praise of a kind. It certainly went down very easily and again it was around $22.

On to more serious stuff. Here we have a 2009 Vosne 1er cru Les Chaumes from Francois Lamarche which I brought back from Burgundy some time ago. We think I paid around 75 euros for it back then and it now costs £100, so quite a top-end wine by my standards!

It was an intense deep ruby colour and very glossy. I described the nose as opulent, with blackcurrant and chocolate and it was uncompromisingly big on the palate, powerful, complex and very Cotes de Nuits. It had a wonderful intensity and went very nicely with beef stew. We thought it was at the beginning of its drinking window and would easily last another 10 years. We gave it 9 points on the premier cru scale.

I enjoyed this little map of the village on the back label!

One evening in November we drank this Rully 1er cru "Le Meix Cadot" 2014 from Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial which G bought for apparently around £30. This was a pale gold colour and had a vibrant nose. On the palate, it was ripe with a touch of honey and a certain beeswax quality, then a wonderful zing of lemon zest as it went down. We served it very cold and it was wonderfully refreshing. G said if he ran a restaurant he'd put it on the wine list. This was apparently an excellent vintage and was drinking perfectly now. My notes finish "Yay! :)" which sums it up well.

Finally, two wines which we had a couple of weeks ago with ACC. From G, this Volnay 1er cru Clos des Angles 2009 from the Marquis D'Angerville. I failed to make notes but recall that it was exactly what you would expect of premier cru Volnay from this vintage. An expensive, superior bottle of wine.

Meanwhile, ACC brought along this Aloxe-Corton Les Valozieres 2013 from Domaine Audiffred. Although Aloxe is in the Cote de Beaune, the flavours are often more like those which we typically associate with the Cote de Nuits. Again no detailed notes were taken but it was a very fine bottle and certainly beginning to drink now. I tend to end up buying Vosne from this domaine because I love it so much, but this was a useful reminder that Henri's other wines are also reliably wonderful, and it was a pleasure to see him at the Burgundy Portfolio en primeur tasting on Monday.

Dinner at mine, 18th October

On Thursday evening, G hosted dinner at mine and much to my relief did all the cooking for it in addition to providing the wines. We were joined by D and Baron McG.

Proceedings commenced with this Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Morgeot 2013 from Domaine de la Choupette. This was textbook premier cru Chassagne, and I described it as "precise". We all agreed it complemented the smoked salmon beautifully. It was drinking very nicely now, but G thought it was 18 to 24 months away from perfection. We probably also served it a little too cold. For me it was a 9 on the premier cru scale.

With our beef stew, we moved on to this mystery wine. All that was known about it was that the capsule stated "Sichel Fils et Pere, Beaune" although even then, there was a debate whether it was Pere or Frere. That's certainly an unusual order for those words. I've just belatedly Googled it and it seems it was probably Sichel & Fils Freres.

The bottle detectives got on the case and based on the large punt, thought that it could have been bottled in the 1960s so was likely to be a wine from the late 50s or early 60s. It had certainly maintained its colour well.

In fact, it had maintained everything well, and had a lovely nose which was definitely Cote de Nuits. We were thinking Vougeot or possibly Morey St Denis as there was some chocolate going on. It was rich and powerful and had clearly been chaptalised, and had an amazing finish which went on for three or four minutes. The Baron said he liked the "brambly" finish and could imagine drinking it with apple crumble. Basically, it was absolutely delicious old school burgundy and whoever stored it certainly knew what they were doing. But, as G said, it was probably absolutely undrinkable in its youth.

Next up was this Volnay Caillerets from Bouchard, again with no date but suspected to be from around the same time as the previous wine. This had a resinous quality on the nose and was very different from the previous wine, with a lively acidity and great finesse. "Grippy" said the Baron. It had stone fruits going on - plum or damson, and I got apples on the finish, but had possibly been influenced by the reference to apple crumble earlier. G thought this was a wine made for the Hospice de Beaune, but I'm not sure how he arrived at that conclusion.

The third red of the evening was this village Vougeot "Le Prieure" 1966 from Pierre Pennelle. G had saved this for last thinking it would be the biggest of the trio, but it turned to be surprisingly lightweight. It did, however, evaporate mysteriously from my glass!

D had brought a novelty can of 100% California Burgundy d'Casa along, probably from the late 80s, and we felt obliged to taste it for the sake of science. A comment was made about it tasting dusty and I can only describe it as grape juice combined with the contents of an old hoover bag. After one sip, it went down the sink.

Not to be outdone, I wheeled out this bottle of Rata Truffe which I succumbed to after a boozy meal with a certain wine merchant. None of the others there had tried it before, and the reaction was, shall we say, mixed. "The nose is offputting but the flavour is good" was one comment and "Genuinely extraordinary" was another. It was agreed that it might be good in a risotto and I might just have to try that.

Finally, I have to thank D for raising the tone at AduV Towers several notches by giving me this 18th century decanter. It's absolutely beautiful and I will certainly make good use of it.