SPNS dinner, Thursday 12th March

Sitting up here in AduV Towers, looking out on deserted city streets below, it's hard to believe that it was only ten days ago that we were convening in the bar at the Savile Club, getting ready for another excellent evening of vinous discoveries. On this occasion there were only four of us - me, G, D and ACC.

We began with this Hermann J Wiemer Riesling 2017 from the Finger Lakes, specifically the HJW vineyard. This made a very pleasant aperitif, slightly off-dry in style and with a nice weight. Most of us found it grapey but D detected apricots and peaches. It had a great finish.

Some of us had had a bad day so we didn't linger downstairs but moved up to the dining room where ACC produced this "white", a Bourgogne Aligote 1993 from Les Caves de l'Abbaye. It was clearly heavily oxidised but clean. Viewed as a dry sherry, it wasn't at all bad.

According to the back label, this wine is golden yellow with hints of green 🤣

ACC had wisely brought a back-up, this Bourgone Hautes Cotes de Beaune 1972 from Marinot-Verdun. This was another clearly elderly wine, and slightly cloudy, but had a big burst of berries on the palate and a hint of the sugar bag. G made comments about old socks and old saddle and forest floors, but appears to have enjoyed it and D admired its light fruit and good acid. ACC then revealed, to nobody's surprise, that these two bottles had come from a flea market at an advantageous price. Very much in the spirit of the SPNS!

My own primary contribution was this 1982 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Firestone Vineyard in California, which was part of a mixed lot at auction some time ago. Everything in that lot to date has been impeccable so I was hoping for a good result. It turned out to be still going strong, dark and powerful, almost archetypal cabernet. G got mint and raspberry, while D considered it ready to drink but not in decline. ACC's comments appeared to be favourable too, although we were approaching the scrawly stage of the evening in the Chronicles, which are rapidly running out of space.

D had brought along this McGregor Vineyards 2017 reserve Cabernet Franc from the Finger Lakes. This was a vibrant colour and very classic cab franc with a lot of mint and chewy tannins. Most of us felt it was on the young side and would age well.

For pudding, I'd brought along this Canadian maple wine which I was given a long time ago by a friend who had visited the vineyard. It sat in the cupboard for several years, which was clearly a mistake on my part. As G said, it "created less reaction than anything ever produced at this tasting." There was just nothing going on. Oh well!

Fortunately, G had brought along a half of Gould Campbell 1980 to go with the cheese. I found it a little spirity on the nose but otherwise it was very enjoyable drinking, with figgy fruit. D particularly rated the finish. A good way to round off the evening!

Who knows how long it will be till the next SPNS? However, the blog will be back in the near future as I got some wine out of storage on Friday. Important to have something to look forward to!

Lunch at the Baron's, 2nd November

Once again, I see that it has been a shockingly long time since I updated the blog, what with all the gallivanting that has been going on. The road trip to Maine back via the Finger Lakes was great fun, and thanks to D for his tip on the wine store in Ithaca, which had a remarkable collection. I also went to Sicily for a few days with my mother and enjoyed plenty of Aperol Spritzes in the sun. That seems a long time ago now as I sit here typing with the rain beating down outside. I plan a few more posts before the end of the year, as there is some recent drinking to be reported and a flurry of vinous-related social events lined up in the near future.

Anyway, last Saturday the Baron kindly invited us round to lunch at his place and, glass of Pol Roger in hand, we enjoyed a viewing of the newly-installed penthouse suite. With our smoked salmon, there was vodka from Uzbekistan and Russia. I'm not a vodka expert by any means but these were very interesting and definitely not something you'd find in Waitrose!

G contributed this 1973 Chablis 1er cru Fourchaumes from Lamblin & Fils which amazingly seemed to have survived very well.

It was an absolutely beautiful golden colour and very buttery. We concluded that a lot of sulphur must have been used to preserve it. It was made in the days when such things were built to last. Definitely the best dry white from 1973 that we can recall tasting.

I loved the label, with the lobsters and the rams, and we admired the colour of the bottle which ACC tells me is called "feuille morte".

Moving on to the main course, an amazingly silky "oxtail and other beef" stew, the Baron indulged us with a bottle of 2002 Beaune 1er cru Greves from Yves Darviot. This had a very farmyardy nose and needed a bit of time. It's fully mature now and went down very easily.

ACC brought along another 1973, this time a Cotes du Rhone from a negociant based in Rully. We were amused that it hadn't been passed off as a Burgundy. This was at the agricultural end of the scale and I detected a hint of the sugar bag. It had sweet fruit and was easy drinking.

My contribution was this 1978 Romeira, a random Portuguese red picked up at auction. G had suggested that it would make a good cheese wine, and indeed it was big, gutsy and powerful with a great finish.

Epoisses!

Finally, we had a bonus white which G brought along - this 2014 Hermann J Wiemer Late Harvest Riesling from the Finger Lakes.

This was medium-sweet, an old-fashioned style, and some described it as appley. It was the perfect complement to a fruit tart. At a mere 8.5% alcohol, it had good acidity and an amazing finish. The sort of wine that when I drink it, I always wonder why I don't drink wines like that more often...

Thanks very much to the Baron for hosting and to everyone for their contributions!

Recent drinking round-up - whites!

As promised, back with a report on some whites we've had over the past four months or so. We begin with this Rully 1er cru Gresigny 2014 from Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial. I'm not entirely sure where it came from but G informed me that they are a top producer. It was a pale gold colour and reminded us of premier cru Chablis on the nose, with a lemony, chalky thing going on. It was serious, with good weight and breadth, but we gave it a high 8 indicating that it didn't quite reach the heights. G considered it a little short on the finish. Looking back, we had a bottle from the same producer about a year ago which had the same issue. That's still a decent score for a Rully.

I was delighted to get this Pouilly-Fume Les Pres Bessons 1986 from Seguin Pere et Fils at a most advantageous price in a random mixed lot at a recent auction. We were encouraged by the level and the wine itself turned out to be extraordinary. It had a wonderful aromatic nose and was bone dry on the palate, with interesting fruity notes of gooseberry and quince, and good minerality. A very successful combination of both richness and precision. G said it was the best Pouilly-Fume he's ever had. Sadly this was the only bottle, but I'm looking forward to trying other wines from the same lot in the near future!

About a month ago we had this Riesling 2016 from Herman J Wiemer which was one of our purchases in the Finger Lakes. This was very much in the Germanic trockenbeerenauslesen style, with an intense riesling nose and a juicy hit of lime down the middle. Other flavours of passionfruit and canteloupe were detected. It was concentrated, well balanced, accomplished and refreshing, and went very well with our salmon with chili, garlic and ginger. Looking back at our notes from the trip, I see it cost $19.50, which is an absolute steal. If I lived nearby I'd be tempted to buy it by the case... Need to get back to the Finger Lakes soon!

Finally, a few nights ago we drank my last bottle of Pernand-Vergelesses Les Belles Filles 2010 from Domaine Ludovic Belin, which I got out of storage last July. It was a nice, middleweight white wine and G described it as "completely harmonious". Given that it was nine years old and from a relatively minor village, I think we can say it was punching well above its weight. There's definitely a place for wines like this in my cellar as I suppose one can't drink Meursault all the time...

SPNS, Mon 9th April

On Monday night, I made my way over to the Savile Club this time accompanied by thumping trance music courtesy of Paul Van Dyk's excellent podcast.

T was sitting with a distinguished-looking bearded gentleman who on closer inspection turned out to be D! Apparently the pair of them had decided seconds earlier that quorum had been reached, and so this bottle of Cuvee Brut 2013 from Hermann J Wiemer brought over by D had just been opened. It was perfect timing.

G and ACC duly showed up and we cracked on. We tried this wine at the winery back in September and were favourably impressed on that occasion. The general consensus was that it was admirable, creamy and smooth, generally a classy drop which might improve with time. It certainly gives many champagnes a run for their money.

We moved to the dining room upstairs where I had this as a starter - trying to remember what it was now! The yellow thing is definitely pasta, and I believe the pink thing is beetroot and there was also some goats cheese involved.

My contribution was this Beaune 2010 Chaume Gaufriot from Henri Audiffred, which has been sparking much joy here at AduV Towers. On this occasion it took a few minutes to open up and seemed less tropical than previously, but was generally considered to be top notch classic white burgundy. I suspect the remaining stocks need to be drunk in the near future though. Quelle horreur!

G contributed two wines, the first of which was "Queen Charlene's Dry Rose" from Seneca Shore winery in the Finger Lakes. I wrote about this winery here and Charlene is the name of David's wife for those wondering where the name came from. This was a relatively uncomplicated easy-drinking, fruity pink wine.

I can never resist pork belly and scallops when they appear on a menu...

We moved on to two reds. First this Beaujolais Nouveau 2016 from Dominique Piron, provided by ACC who with typical modesty wrote "Amazing!" in the Chronicles. Everyone else agreed that it was punching well above its weight and was fruity and drinkable. Certainly not your average Beaujolais Nouveau.

This A.A. Badenhorst Brak Kuil Barbarossa 2015 provided by T was quite a contrast. It was a big, gutsy, South African red which could really have done with some red meat to go alongside. We doubted it was 13.5% as claimed on the label. G subsequently referred to it as "break skull" as we both found ourselves suffering the next day and this was suspect number one.

Can never resist Welsh Rarebit either...

Finally, we had this La Font Del Bosc Maury 2004 also provided by G. It was described as thick, gooey and sweet by T, which was spot on, and we had no problem dispatching it. Thanks everyone. I can think of worse ways to spend a Monday evening!

Trip to the Finger Lakes part IX - Hermann J. Wiemer

Next up was a trip to Herman J Wiemer, where we were given a tasting by an affable Swedish chap who we later learned was Oskar Bynke, one of the co-owners.

We started with the Field White ($16.50) which was a mixture of gruner veltliner and riesling from 2016 along with some vin clair chardonnay from 2015. As I understand it, vin clair is a kind of grape must. This came in at 11% and my notes just say that it was interesting. Must try to make better notes in future!

However, it turned out that they specialise in riesling at Hermann J Wiemer, and we then tasted our way through quite a few.

The Dry Riesling 2016 ($19.50) was off dry and we liked it. Oskar compared it to a trockenbeerenauslese and told us that they carried out 34 pickings over the course of 7 weeks, so they got a mixture of grapes at different levels of ripeness.

Then we tried the Riesling HJW Vineyard 2015 ($39) which is made from grapes from one of their coolest sites. This was less fruity but more sophisticated than the previous wine, but we actually preferred the Dry Riesling especially given that it was half the price. The Riesling Reserve Dry 2015 ($29) was somewhere between the two and had more fruit but still a sense of being "wrought" according to G. He then had a revelation which was that the last two wines had a lot of sulphur, which would explain why we found them less attractive.

The Riesling Magdalena Vineyard 2015 ($36) was from grapes from a riper site by the lake, and had a lovely aromatic nose. We preferred it to the HJW but it was still relatively pricey. The Riesling Josef Vineyard 2015 was considerably sweeter and in a richer style and had a lovely mouthfeel. D mentioned honey.

The Semi-Dry Riesling 2016 ($17.50) is picked earlier and has a lower alcohol level, coming in at 11 to 11.5%. This had lovely aromas and was very Germanic but G found it slightly short and D thought it wasn't as complete as the other wines. The Late Harvest Riesling 2014 ($24.50) was not really botrytised but had a wonderful fruit and sweetness. It got a star from me.

We moved on to a couple of wines which weren't actually rieslings! The Cuvee Brut ($37), which I think was from 2013, was 60% chardonnay and 40% pinot noir. and was very impressive, like a good champagne.

The Field Red ($19.50) was a mixture of blaufrankisch, cabernet franc and a little bit of cabernet sauvignon. This wasn't my cup of tea, possibly because I don't like blaufrankisch. Then again I could have been getting it confused with my nemesis, Spätburgunder... I preferred the Cabernet Franc 2016 ($25) which had low yields. D said that their Cab Franc is consistently good year on year, and he has several vintages of it.

By this stage I think we'd gone completely off the tasting menu and were being offered things gratis which was very kind of Oskar. We finished with two sweet wines. The Noble Select Riesling Magdalena Vineyard 2013 ($75) was made from 100% botrytised riesling and had a lovely thick texture. It was sensational, but the Noble Select Riesling Josef Vineyard 2013 ($115) was even better. This is not only hand picked but extensively sorted and again was quite extraordinary. It had a lovely apricot note, and the finish went on for at least 10 minutes until we arrived at our next destination. It comes with a hefty price tag but perhaps this wasn't extortionate if you compare it to something from Germany and it was certainly a wine built to last. A real highlight to end with.