Non Festive Drinking

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2009 Morey St Denis Dujac Pere et Fils

Almost absurdly archetypal Morey. Cherries, chocolate, structure. Admirable fruit. Admirable wine. Rustic in the right way. Ready but will keep five years.

Hurrah for burgundy!

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2009 Morey St Denis Dujac Pere et Fils

Almost absurdly archetypal Morey. Cherries, chocolate, structure. Admirable fruit. Admirable wine. Rustic in the right way. Ready but will keep five years.

Hurrah for burgundy!

I think I have some 2011. Perhaps one should be explored...

[Alex Bridgeman]

Another bottle of Jaboulet's Hermitage La Chapelle 1996. I just adore this savoury, meaty wine - like drinking a good venison stew. (Hmm. I have a red deer stew in the freezer which I made the other day...)

[nac]

Another bottle of Jaboulet's Hermitage La Chapelle 1996. I just adore this savoury, meaty wine - like drinking a good venison stew. (Hmm. I have a red deer stew in the freezer which I made the other day...)

I still have a few of these. One might need to be sacrificed soon.

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Corton Les Marechaudes 1970. BBR UK bottling. Mid neck.

Colour still dark.

Utterly captivating nose of astonishingly old school Cotes de Beaune complexity - cherries and tea rather than CdN chocolate and iron.

Palate takes you on a journey through fruit, tannin and acid balance. We conclude this must have been virtually undrinkable until about 1990 since it is still full of vif now.

For forty minutes, until it abruptly falls over, this is a truly astonishing wine.

I am still chasing the Burgundian dragon. Sometimes you find it. Very rarely, as here, it doesn't cost the earth. Fifty quid from Straker Chadwick. Hallelujah.

[nac]

Another bottle of Jaboulet's Hermitage La Chapelle 1996. I just adore this savoury, meaty wine - like drinking a good venison stew. (Hmm. I have a red deer stew in the freezer which I made the other day...)

I still have a few of these. One might need to be sacrificed soon.

Decided against 96 and went 97 instead (as hadn't had one for ages, and still had 11 bottles). Very good, very Rhone. Suspect not quite as good as the 96 and definitely not as good as the 88 (which also needs trying again soon).

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2014 Auxey-Duresses 1er Cru Les Bretterins, Domaine Diconne. Another auction purchase, and another delicious bottle of pinot noir. A completely different, but also achingly lovely, expression of the pinot noir grape from the Corton 1970 - lithe, pretty fruit, high-toned and (if one can say this of a Ier Cru burgundy any more) tres glou-glou. Needs no more time. I have ten more bottles. They'll be gone by March.

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Eponyme 2015 is a vanishingly rare (120 magnums for the world) Bourgogne made by Domaine De La Roseraie in Nolay. It's actually 100 per cent Beaune but because it contains 10 per cent white wine it's outside the rules hence the generic (and the defiant name). It's utterly gorgeous serious-yet-joyful lightweight pinot, full of berries and silk, now properly mature. Roast chicken was invented to go with it.

[nac]

"Royal" Reserva Rioja 1970 - Bodegas Franco

The first of six bottles acquired a couple of years ago from Laithwaites. Pretty much perfect malla (the fine gold mesh) and front and back labels, so suspect this was some form of library stock release. Level base of neck, with original cork that was fully soaked and disintegrated on removal.

Pale, but definitely red rather than brown, and managed to filter out the bits of cork and the small amount of sediment, so has a lovely clarity. On the nose, unmistakably an aged Rioja, with leather and tobacco, but also some remaining fresh, crisp red fruit. Blind, you'd never guess this is 50+. Palate still has good acidity and some noticeable tannin, but less of the fruit that the nose hinted at. Quite long.

Pretty good, and should be OK for a few more years.

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A half of Munjebel Rosso 2017 from Frank Cornelissen - 2017 being the best of the vintages I tasted when I visited there a few years ago. Pleasantly sour Etna red - wild cherry, redcurrant, herbs all present and correct - with a lunchtime treat - tagliolini with butter and vacca rossa and that annual one-time extravagance - a generous coating of white truffle.

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L&W Burgundy EP tasting last night. Very interesting to run the rule across 60-odd wines in the course of one evening.

The critics are hailing it as a superb white wine vintage but with less even reds. The picture is as always even more heterogonous than that would suggest.

Some of the whites are indeed very fine - truly excellent village Puligny from J-M Boillot and village Chassagne from Fontaine-Gagnard. But the Puligny 1er Crus definitely under-impressed, and the Chablis shown was universally a bit short of charm.

Stars of the reds were Domaine Georges Mugneret-Gibourg's Vosne village, Domaine Comte Armand's Volnay 1er Cru Fremiets, and pretty much everything from Nuits St Georges, in red or white (the 1er Crus of Domaine d'Arlot were stunning). Apart from Grivot's 1er Cru Pruliers. Not a great year for Grivot.

This was followed by a burger and fries and some of a magnum of 2007 Bourgogne Rouge from the Marquis de MacMahon. Lovely soft truffly wine. Hurrah!

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Quinta do Mourao Riserva 2013 much the most successful of the table wines to date from a recent broad order of their stuff.

Note taken + 24 hrs

85 per cent opaque with garnet rim

Grapes are TN and TF and the port heritage shows. But the fruit is cool and clean and very enticing with strong blackcurrant and blackcurrant leaf notes on the palate.

Appealing note of leather on the finish - a nod to Rioja.

Opened yesterday to go with cheese but better today.

[nac]

Two bottles of white Rhone recently enjoyed, but definitely on the downward slopes of their journeys.

2006 Jaboulet "Chevalier de Sterimberg" - still has some classic white Rhone flavours, but now over mature. Drink now.

2007 Guigal "La Doriane" - clearly still a Condrieu but now lacking freshness and the fruit starting to dumb down. Drink soon.

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A Chateau Malartic LaGraviere 2017 Blanc consumed with scallops at a Hawksmoor Monday night £5 corkage event made me wonder why anyone chases the white burgundy fairy.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Phélan Ségur 2000

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Once a week, it’s Friday night — so why not open something nice? It’s lovely, but needs lots of time in the decanter to unwind. It’s like a coiled spring at the moment…

[nac]

... and once a week it's also Saturday, so again an excuse for something I wouldn't usually have on a school night.

Grand Puy Ducasse 2001. Final bottle from a case of 12 purchased EP from Laithwaites many many years ago.

After a two hour decant, a healthy red colour with no obvious brown notes. Still has some primary black friut on the nose. Palate is more developed with some wood and leather. Plenty of tannin, but balanced with acidity and quite long.

Really quite good. Just slightly disappointed that this was my last bottle.

Not a great vintage or spectacular producer, but does show that if stored well, 2001 Bordeaux has a lot to offer.

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Two bottles of wine to celebrate my father’s life

1966 Lafite Rothschild

Impeccably stored bottle. Level into neck still and the cork came out clean. Wine still a rich red and looked 20 years younger than it was. Captivating nose of leather and red fruit and flowers. Perhaps the first time I have really experienced the ‘Lafite fragrance’. Astonishingly truffley complexity on the palate. It’s an old lady now, but it has such beautiful bones.

2002 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru, Domaine de la Vougeraie

Absolutely in its pomp - sweet fruit but with a lithe acidity that made every sip fresh.

And, because my father loved it so, a nightcap of Blandy’s 30 YO Bual.

[nac]

Two bottles of wine to celebrate my father’s life

1966 Lafite Rothschild

2002 Bonnes Mares Grand Cru, Domaine de la Vougeraie

A splendid use of two very different bottles.

Good to hear that the Vougeraie was on form.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Beautiful mature claret

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We decided to open red wine to go with our salmon steaks this evening.

By golly, this is astonishingly good mature claret at its absolute peak of perfection. Full of fruit, gentle of grip and hauntingly long.

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A good Gruaud Larose is truly a thing of beauty.

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2011 Morey St Denis, Domaine Audiffred. Pale rim, 10% opaque. Colour is not a function of Pinot Noir.

Lifted nose of mango and raspberry and chocolate, the palate bursting with rainier cherries and just a hint of noir infini on the finish. Goddam this is gorgeous. Obviously it’s my last bottle.

Served with a chicken and pea risotto, it was very fine, but in truth it’s even better on its own. Both glou-glou and a vin de contemplation, if that makes sense.

Edited to add - I have done 25,000 steps today, most of it carrying stuff backwards and forwards to throw in a skip or on a bonfire at my mother’s house up north. This sort of functional fitness activity really does add to the pleasure to be found in good wine, so long as you have had a sharpener first to quench the thirst (in this case, in addition to a couple of litres of Highland Spring, Paul Bara Bouzy Grand Cru Rose NV, in useful half bottle size).