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.

Lunch at mine, 13th May

Last Sunday, I was joined by G, D and ACC for lunch at A du V Towers.

We commenced with some pork scratchings and this bottle of Meursault 1er cru Sous le Dos D'Ane 2002 from Domaine Leflaive, provided by G who is trying to breathe new life into the Premier Cru Project. It was a beautiful pale gold colour and had good legs. I'd like to think I would have identified it as Domaine Leflaive from 20 paces. I'd probably have thought it was Puligny though. It was restrained and elegant with a hint of mushrooms, and was drinking perfectly now. G explained at length that the Sous le Dos D'Ane vineyard is in Blagny, but it's only called Blagny if it's a red wine. We gave it 9 points.

Next up, with our starter of smoked mackerel pate on toast, was this Vougeot 1er cru Le Clos Blanc de Vougeot Monopole 2011 from Domaine de la Vougeraie. We suspected it might not be 100% chardonnay and that there might be some pinot blanc in there. It had a lovely weight and G referred to it having "nice shoulders" while ACC described it as racy. I noticed that it strangely seemed to have evaporated in my glass - not sure how that happened. We gave it a 10, which means Vougeot keeps its top spot with the highest average score for a village. 

ACC had brought along this 2014 Beaune Vieilles Vignes from Domaine de la Roseraie, which although very young was starting to drink. As usual with this domaine, it was a serious wine demanding concentration! It was pretty yet had substance and was very smooth, classic red Beaune. Personally I would come back to it in five years.

I was fairly happy with the roast beef which is just as well as I've been eating it all week!

D had brought along a Adelsheim Oregon Pinot Noir Calkins Lane Vineyard ‎2004 which sadly turned out to be corked. I think this is the first corked bottle we've ever had from D, which is a remarkable record, and what an irony that it was this one and not one of his much older vintages.

Fortunately I had a wardrobe full of alternatives so I wheeled out this Pommard la Croix Blanche 2009 from Domaine Parent. I got this out of storage a few months ago and the verdict was that it wasn't quite ready back then, but this time I think it was. It was tres Pommard, powerful and rich, with good length. G described it as impeccable, and ACC told us that the lieu-dit is next to premier cru vineyards, which explains a lot.

This Epoisses wasn't quite ripe enough for my liking. Never mind. The Picos de Europa was pretty stunning, a new discovery made by G. It's going to be hard to go back to Roquefort now...

A brace of digestifs was consumed with abandon. The fine is made from aligote from Pierre Fenal's parcel (i.e. Maison en Belles Lies) and in my opinion these are up there with the Roulot equivalents.

And then just in case we hadn't had enough to drink, G supplied this Exshaw 1973 cognac to round things off. All in all, a very fine luncheon!

SPNS dinner, 23rd Jan

Last Monday evening, four of us met up for another Swiss Pinot Noir Society dinner, held at the Perseverance pub in Marylebone. I arrived to find T and D sitting at a table at the back of the bar downstairs. We debated whether to order an aperitif while we waited for G, but we held off and our patience was rewarded as he arrived only a couple of minutes later.

The first wine of the evening was this 1997 Brut Saphir champagne from Louis Barthelemy. We weren't familiar with this producer but G came across this wine at another do, and then when he saw it on an auction list, snaffled the lot. Very good it was too - a deep golden colour, with a lovely nose, mature and yeasty. "Smells wonderful. Tastes as good as it smells" said T. High praise was recorded by everyone in the Book.

Next up, also from G, was a Rusalca Alba Crama Oprisor 2009 white brought back from his recent trip to Romania. Sadly, this failed to impress. I found it very bland and unexciting and others recorded that while not actively offensive, it was dull. Nothing going on. As we had a lot of other things to try, we didn't drink much of it. A shame, as I believe it cost a bob or two and was supposed to be one of Romania's finest offerings.

After that, we had a brace of wines provided by T, the rose specialist on the team. These were both Bandols from Domaine Tempier - 2008 and 2010. The 2010 was very pleasant, salmon pink, dry and refreshing. Everyone liked it for what it was. The 2008 was a more orange colour, and pungent on the nose. I preferred it, finding it more interesting than the 2010, but it faded quickly and we felt it was probably approaching the end of its life.

We then moved on to try the two reds side by side. First, a Vougeot 1er cru Clos de la Perriere 1996 from Domaine Bertagna, provided by me. I got this as part of a parcel of mixed Burgundies at an auction, so it squeaked into the SPNS criteria of costing below £20. It would usually cost a good deal more than that. G and I had previously had the 2005 vintage en demi and given it 10/10, so after the debacle of the corked Chambertin at the last SPNS dinner, I fervently hoped this one would turn out to be a good 'un. And indeed it was. It had a wonderful Cote de Nuits style, with lots of fruit and black cherries and was generally rich and serious. Everybody liked it. Phew!

Finally, D's wine, once again something really quite special and different. This time, it was the McGregor Vineyards Black Russian Red 1999. This vineyard is in the Finger Lakes area of New York State and the wine is made from grapes which originated in Russia. It reminded me of a claret, with big blackberry fruit and a sweet finish. It was big and dramatic, a real eye-opener. Very interesting to try against the Burgundy. 

Another great tasting, and it was good to be back at the Perseverance which has a relaxed atmosphere. I wouldn't get away with wearing my Dennis the Menace jumper at the Savile! The food was excellent and very good value, and Dom was very helpful and provided us with all the glasses we needed, being a high-maintenance bunch. This place is a real gem.