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I quite enjoy the annual Festive Drinking thread and the conversation that ensues. It’s quite interesting to see what non-Port bottles we’re opening. As such, thought it might be nice to have a more regular conversation outside of the “Port Conversations” page now that the Festive Period has properly ended.

To kick-off, this weekend I have enjoyed:

Pavilion Rouge du Chateau Margaux 2002
Dujac, Morley-Saint-Denis 2008

The Bordeaux was excellent, but unfortunately the last of three bottles I picked up many years ago for about £30 each. If you have any of this it’s drinking extremely well and probably at peak soon.

The Burgundy worked well with roast pork and was starting to show some nice development. No rush, but not going to last for ever.

Yes useful to pick up the highlights (and lowlights).

Grgich Napa Zinfandel 2004 - over the hill
Felettig 2013 Bourgogne Rouge 2013 - lovely classical CdN villages wine but towards end of drinking window
Pataille 2019 Aligote - delicious precise drinking. As a beverage better, frankly, than the much-prized lieu-dits.

I had a Rick Stein At Home meal with Mrs B Friday evening, a Christmas gift from our son. Slow cooked beef short rib was the main course.

To accompany the meal I opened one of the bottles of mature Spanish wines I acquired at auction around 2 years ago - this one being a bottle of Marks & Spencers Gran Calesa 1990 (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo and Merlot from Costers del Segre in Spain). I confess I was opening it with low expectations and was very pleasantly surprised. It was a delicious, mature CS blend with a Spanish twist from the Tempranillo.

I apologise publicly to the M&S buying team for doubting their ability to find wines which had the structure and finesse to mature wonderfully over the course of 30 years in the cellar. <<doffs cap icon>>

Highlights

Volnay 1er Cru Clos de la Rougeotte 2005 Domaine Henri Boillot - absolutely cracking red-fruited bottle lovely nose and congruent palate, showing what Volnay can be but so rarely is
Bourgogne Aligote Clos du Roy 2019 Domaine Sylvain Pataille - for me the only one of the single vineyard wines that really transcends the straight aligote - it is really good.

Lowlights

Monthelie Rouge 2015 Domaine Roulot - more closed than a closed thing. Closed closed closed closed closed. Come back in 10 years if you have any. Alas, it was my only bottle.

Only one bottle of note over the weekend - a 2007 Le Macchiole "Paleo". Drinking rather well now but no rush to finish up.

A Swartland Private Collection Chenin Blanc 2029 which is from Waitrose at just under a tenner and a very pleasant everyday white. Fresh and fruity but still dry with some stone fruit, grapefruit and lime. Nice rounded texture and very moreish with a chicken risotto.

EDIT. This was actually the 2020 vintage.

Doggett wrote: ↑16:08 Tue 18 Jan 2022 A Swartland Private Collection Chenin Blanc 2029 which is from Waitrose at just under a tenner and a very pleasant everyday white. Fresh and fruity but still dry with some stone fruit, grapefruit and lime. Nice rounded texture and very moreish with a chicken risotto.

That is an unusual wine, is time travel included in the price?

It was the 2020 but I did indeed time travel and get a future label put on it.

1979 Camarate, Jose Maria da Fonseca. Nose attractive, notes of tar, tea, and rose, but currently less interesting on the palate, somewhat past its best (about 25 years) and a bit watery. I am not sure I am going to persevere.

21/1/122

EDIT 22/1/22 - I did not persevere. It was dead. The Eau Forte 2019 from Jean-Claude Lapalu was, however, happily alive, and the second half of it is going down very nicely this evening.

Mazilly Pere et Fils 1998 Volnay Les Blanches. Unexciting.

Saturday: Bonneau du Martray, Corton Charlemagne 2009 - very fresh, not at all developed, excellent with sea bass.

Sunday: Jacques Cacheaux, Echezeaux 2002 - nicely mature but no rush to finish up, worked well with roast chicken.

@ nac - Gosh, they sound nice. When 2009 is 'on' it can be a lovely white wine vintage. But most of my forays into the white burgundies of that year have ended in disappointment.

2019 Caroline Bellavoine Bourgogne Rouge - sadly simpler than hoped.

winesecretary wrote: ↑15:22 Mon 24 Jan 2022 @ nac - Gosh, they sound nice. When 2009 is 'on' it can be a lovely white wine vintage. But most of my forays into the white burgundies of that year have ended in disappointment.

2019 Caroline Bellavoine Bourgogne Rouge - sadly simpler than hoped.

The Echezeaux was one of 36 bottles acquired EP from Laithwaites for a now ludicrously low £43.06 per bottle all in. Sadly only three or four remain.

The Hawks' Club Claret, JP Moueix 2016.

Dark purple/crimson rim, and very dark purple in the glass. Aroma very savoury - almost mushroom like, followed by strawberries and vanilla. More strawberries on the palate, with oak and a little spice. Very little in the way of tannins, and whilst a reasonably pleasant finish, it was a touch more acidic than I’d like.

A jug of tomahawk was undoubtedly preferred by all present at the tasting…

Last night a bottle of Andrea Franchetti’s Passopisciaro 2012. Good, but getting towards the end of its drinking window. Acidity now a bit too forward.

The 2012 was an IGT. This has now been renamed as Passorosso and is an Etna Rosso DOC. 100% indigenous Nerello Mascalese.

On Thursday, Paul Bara Special Club 2012 - a truly excellent way to celebrate exchanging on a house, concentrated vinous champagne drunk slowly over a couple of hours to extract maximum enjoyment from it.

Ridge East Bench 2019 Zinfandel - sherbet and red fruits. Lush but balanced. Not a lot of grip in absence of any durif but still very attractive. Drink young, but not this young- maybe 2024-25.

winesecretary wrote: ↑20:55 Sat 29 Jan 2022 On Thursday, Paul Bara Special Club 2012 - a truly excellent way to celebrate exchanging on a house, concentrated vinous champagne drunk slowly over a couple of hours to extract maximum enjoyment from it.

Congrats George!

Saturday evening (with steak) - Leoville Las Cases 2003. Nicely mature, classic Bordeaux. Missing the heat/burn present in a lot of the 2003s.

Friday evening, firstly with lamb - Nuits St Georges Les Damodes (the non-premier-cru part) 2010 Domaine Fabienne Bony. Drunk contemplatively over a couple of hours, a lovely bottle with terrific purity of fruit, with just a hint of acidity as a crack in the bell, just perhaps starting the downward curve towards tertiary flavours; the last bottle of a case drunk over the last four years.

Saturday evening

A half of Taittinger NV kept an extra year in the cellar - oxidative in the right way, a pleasant glass.

With roast chicken, and then cheese, Felettig Bourgogne Rouge 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 - a bottle of each having been purchased from FWW to see whether any of them could provide me with the pleasure of the 2013 or 2015.

Short answer is 'no'. The 2016 is the most stylistically similar but doesn't quite have the fruit. The 2017 is sulking. The 2018 was okay but not setting the world alight. The 2019 is not discernibly Burgundy let alone Chambolle- 14.5%! It could have been a pinot from the Languedoc.

Finally a half of Suduiraut 2001 with a rhubarb crumble. One the rich side of balanced, the amount of botrytis showing in bottles of this does vary, but very good drinking.

A Napa weekend.
Dominus Napanook 2007 & Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 2008. Both excellent, the Cakebread still in nappies.

That's interesting, I had the Cakebread about a year back and thought it was on the way down. Is this wine that you have had in your own cellar ageing at glacial pace? With US stuff I find that really makes a difference, I have a mate in NY whose cellar runs 58f who is still turning out 1970s Napa stuff that is fresh as a daisy.

winesecretary wrote: ↑22:29 Sun 06 Feb 2022 That's interesting, I had the Cakebread about a year back and thought it was on the way down. Is this wine that you have had in your own cellar ageing at glacial pace? With US stuff I find that really makes a difference, I have a mate in NY whose cellar runs 58f who is still turning out 1970s Napa stuff that is fresh as a daisy.

Not an EP purchase, but have had for a numbers of years and came direct from C&B stock so was perfect condition. My cellar is 11C (approx 52F) or thereabouts.

11c! The stuff barely ages at all at that temp. 'nac cellar' will be spoken of in hallowed terms as provenance a century from now. Like the 1870 clarets from Glamis.

Ridge Lytton Springs 2019, served with a slow-cooked beef stew. Splendid exuberantly-fruited red wine to warm the cockles. Although I like old Geyserville I am beginning to think I prefer Lytton Springs young.

This weekend…
Friday - Gusbourne Rose 2015 (OK, nothing to get excited about) followed by Ausone 1990 (fully mature, excellent).
Saturday - The Good Doctor’s Tonic 2008 [Tannat / Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz from McLaren Vale / Barossa Valley] (quite interesting, still quite deep, ready).
Sunday - Musar 1998 (good, but maybe lacks the depth of the 1997).

And some Cockburn 1967.

@ nac - The 90 Ausone is lovely with enough of a decant. One of the pleasures of WFH is that it allows you to take a break Friday mid-afternoon to sort the evening's wine. And the 97 Musar is a lovely wine. I remember fondly a now long-departed case of halves.

This weekend featured a Bourgogne HCDB 2016 from Gueguen - happily not corked, and lovely with a bag of crisps while reading before dinner, but I won't buy more until they go to DIAM, half of this case (bought EP) have gone down the sink.

A Beaune Chaume Gaufriot Rouge 2017 Domaine Henri Audiffred - shutting down hard now. Come back in 5-6 years.

The Niepoort 1983 held up for 36 hours, although drying a little by yesterday evening.

^^ That is strange. Amongst all the Portuguese wine that I drink, I find maybe 1 or 2 corked bottles in every 100 that I open (in fact, I can just about remember the last time I had a corked wine). And I rarely see any DIAM corks.
What sort of corks are those guys buying?

I think the corks to which you have access if you are a small producer in burgundy are very different in quality to the corks that are available in the home of cork, but the ones being sold to small producers in 2016 for their generic and village wines like this were particularly bad. Generally, for non-DIAM producers, I assume at least one corked, another out of condition, and for whites another couple premoxed in every case of burgundy, and discount what I am prepared to pay accordingly.

That's interesting. I had no idea it was still like that.

winesecretary wrote: ↑10:49 Mon 14 Feb 2022 And the 97 Musar is a lovely wine. I remember fondly a now long-departed case of halves.

Indeed - bought 36 bottles on release from Wine Society in 2004 for £12/bottle delivered. Those were the days...
I think less than 10 remain, but every bottle has been lovely.

Work commitments have largely led to a less than exciting range of occasional snatched glasses of vino over the past ten days, drunk while sitting on the sofa in the forty minutes between work stopping and bed, but a couple worthy of note from an impromptu dinner party.

- Aligote 2014 Domaine Coche Dury - a bit tired and oxidative I thought. I continue to prefer the Coche reds.
- Beaune 1er Cru Les Greves 1973 Domaine Yves Darviot - lovely old tertiary pinot, perfumed leather rather than farmyard, with an appealing sweetness to the fruit. Proof again that good vignerons with good terroir can make good wine even in dreadful years.

Bookends to a rather pleasant walk-around 2019 Bolgheri tasting at 67 Pall Mall...

Pol Roger 2002 - nicely mature with classic autolytic notes, but with years of life in it.
Sassicaia 2006 - starting to move into its drinking window; beautifully perfumed nose, plenty of fruit; structure and balance; excellent.

Tonight (to accompany a Hawksmoor at Home porterhouse) Sassicaia 2001.

Maybe not as spectacular as the 2006, but still pretty good. Possibly the decanter was leaking as disappeared quite quickly.

Ah, the leaky decanter problem. I know that one.

St Romain 2016, Domaine Vincent Perrin. Pleasant white burg but this bottle (and indeed case) at the end of its life, nuts and wax and lemon without florality. Jolly fine with a sea bream and salsa verde though.

In Aviemore for the weekend with In-laws. Musar 2003 was a treat of a bottle despite a touch of VA. Some DOG Barolo 2016 which showed what a great year it is for that region. And a 2016 Suduiraut Sauternes and or a Maynards 10YO with desert, both of which were perfect for the occasion.

Ooh, I've not had the Suduiraut 2016. More details please.

Bressan Schioppetino 2015. Extraordinary green pepper nose, richly complicated palate, herbs and leather and cherry stone, lovely acidic balance. I am not sure I've had a Ribolla Nera before. Served with a pork and beef ragu that was cooked slowly on the hob for five hours. A perfect combination for a wet Monday when on holiday.

I'd forgotten about this thread. Logging on to the forum reminded me of its existence.

Mrs B and I stayed at a rather nice hotel for a few days last week. From its wine list we drank a bottle of Guigal La Landonne 1986 (which I did very much enjoy) and a bottle of Alain Graillot's Tandem 2017 from Domaine des Ouled Thaleb. It was a superb Syrah but could have easily taken a decade or two in the cellar - but I wanted to try it since I'd never had one of his wines before but have read plenty about them.

And then on Thursday night we shared in a magnum of Pol Roger 1990 and a bottle of Chateau Liversan 1929. The 1929 was remarkably full of life. A deep and dark red with fruit and cedar. (But Taylor 1935 was the wine of the night on Thursday.)

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑18:57 Sat 05 Mar 2022 ...we drank a bottle of Guigal La Landonne 1986...

Pretty sure I haven't had a La La of that age. What a treat.

Slightly early birthday celebration on Saturday evening. Started by finishing off a bottle of Peter Sisseck’s new Vina Corrales Fino (bt.2021). This was opened a week or so ago but Vac-u-Vined in the fridge so still beautifully fresh. Then Faustino I Gran Reserva 1970. Level 25mm below a pretty new looking cork, so this was almost certainly a recentish release. Improved in the decanter over a couple of hours. Quite “brown and meaty” at first, but developed lovely mature complexity. Mrs NAC didn’t like this much, so a half of Ridge Lytton Springs 2016 was opened as well (tasted for QA purposes and was excellent, but too young for me).

Sunday - Clos de Tart Grand Cru 1996 to accompany roast chicken.

The first of two bottles swapped with a very generous friend for some nowhere near-as-grand Napa.
Quite closed; more developed in the mouth. Plenty of structure still, so absolutely no rush to drink. Really very good, but probably not quite worth the £600 you'd now need to pay for it retail (or £749 at Hedonism). Looking forward to the second bottle.

Just remembered there were a couple of bottles opened for dinner at the George in Stamford on 3rd Feb that are worthy of being captured in this thread. There was a bottle of Coates & Seely La Perfide Rosé 2009 and a bottle of Château Lafite 1996.

Ridge Paso Robles 2018 Zinfandel. Essence of rich ripe red fruits with some saving plummy tannins (and the addition of 4.7% water). Delicious with cheese course at lunchtime, more delicious with cheese course at dinner. But don't keep this one long term - I would have said 2025 at outside.

@ nac - The Clos de Tart 1996 sounds splendid. I know the Vina Corrales is delicious - a totally vinous fino.

There may also have been three premier cru burgundies. Too tired to write notes right now. Tomorrow.

Friday 11th March - Peter Michael "La Carriere" Chardonnay 2012 with sea bass and a risotto.
Opened and decanted a couple of hours before dinner.

Is this massive and impressive? Yes
Does it need food with it? Yes
Did I enjoy it? Sort of
Am I looking forward to the other two bottles I've got? Not particularly
Verdict - a bit disappointing

Friday 18th March - Penfolds RWT 2002 Barossa Valley Shiraz
Not showing much - think it probably needed at least a couple of hours in a decanter first. Will try another bottle soon to see if it needs drinking up.