Duvault Blochet

Cigars, Wine & Photography all in a Nobleman's House

2012-02-21T07:21:00.042-08:00

Last night was a truly memorable evening at a wonderful location - The House of the Nobleman http://houseofthenobleman.com/partners.html - in which there is strikingly excellent Gallery space which amongst others currently houses several photographs from the renowned photographer Alistair Morrison.Yesterday was all about Cigars, Wine, Cigar people & photography. Alistair has a project on the go called Fuma Divina, a book of Cigar smokers portraits that you will have to ask about, it is very special, and also an exhibition of cigar related photographs more details here http://www.alistairmorrison.com/projects/fuma-divina/.

The event was a combination of several peoples work and judging by the packed room one that will be repeated.Laurence Davis of Sautters of Mount Street (http://www.sauttercigars.com/) great people with a similar attitude to cigars that we have to wine, spoke about the two cigars and I spoke about the wines.

What resulted was the most smoky and decadent room in London, a top Monday night! We had two combinations - El Rey del Mundo 'Choix de l'Epoque' a UK Regional Edition for 2009 with Macon Verze 2009, Domaines Leflaive. The cigar is essentially a short Robusto (50 ring gauge by 4 and a bit inches), a straw and hay like aroma and a just under medium body, it worked well with the Macon Verze which has great fruit but also a good texture. The 2009 is drinking really well know, a dash of opulence with acidity to keep it in check. I had never had the L'Epoque before and was impressed. After most people has tried the first pairing we moved on to Ramon Allones, Allones Extra a Limited Edition for 2011 with Psi 2009, Peter Sisseck. I had bought a box of these smokes on recommendation but never tried one and I was delighted. A rich stewed fruitcake character that I associate with Ramon Allones was there from the off, it started at just above Medium and came back after the first third to medium, these will age brilliantly as there is real complexitiy and clout. The Psi was a great foil for the cigar, Tempranillo often is, as it had a sweet fruit but very little oak and a rich palate coating texture that made for really balanced enjoyment. The 2009 Psi has started to hit it stride in the last month after arriving about 6 months ago, it’ll give a lot of pleasure. I must alos mention that there were some very high class ash trays and immaculate Humidors on display from Linley - very special things to own. My over-riding impression was of a room packed with fun and banter. The world of Cigar smokes is a broad church and all the better for it!

If you would be interested in similar events please let me know!

My first trip to 10 Manchester Street

2012-02-10T00:07:00.001-08:00

My first trip to 10 Manchester Street last night, loved the place. Also a first chance to try a rather glaring ommission from my cigar smoking history - the H.Upmann No2. Really enjoyed the smoke. It was well constructed and mellow, having not eaten it was a wise choice. It reminded me of the profile of a Hoyo more than anything, it built a little towards the end but had a lovely aged feel to it. I wish I knew what the box code was. I think I'll buy a box at some stage as it is a good change of pace from my beloved Partagas.

Lunch at Otto's

2012-02-09T00:15:00.000-08:00

Lunch yesterday at Otto's, 3 times in 8 days it isn't quite my new Zucca but is very good, was a catch up with a customer who shares my enthusiam for drinking "the good stuff" and has firmly shifted from customer customer to friend customer. There aren't many professions like this and it is a fundamental appeal of the wine world for me and I am sure many many others. The more automated wine becomes, websites, mass email offers, trading platforms etc the more I think the personal contact is essential, may be I'm just getting older...

Anyway the food at Otto's was great, mushrooms, steak, apple pie, just the job for a cold midweek february day. But this is about the wines.

First up was the white which I cruelly served blind, the stab at it was good with white Rhone the shout...in fact it was white Rioja - Que Bonito Cacaraeba 2008 from Benjamin Romeo - but I like to think I'd have said the same, the texture and waxy peach-like fruit reminded me of rhone. Either way it was a good start. The blend is Viura, Malvasia and Garnacha Blanca in what may as well be equal thirds. From white we were on to the real deal...my guests very kind contribution...Richebourg 1998 from Domaine de la Romanee Conti. I have tasted this before but not since release 11 years ago and certainly only to sniff back then.

The wine openend up over the hours or so that we had it in the glass. As an aside a wine like this between 2 or may be 3 people is perfect, you could miss some of the charm and evolution if you had one glass. Also having a decent amount of wine in the glass makes a big difference to the way a wine comes across. The colour was deepish and almost consistent to the rim. There was powerful, masculine texture and weight as you'd expect from Richebourg but an elegance too. Curried spice (it's a cliche but it is there) did develop and there was s nice bit of grip, also good acidity. I think it was geat now but certainly has legs. If you are in the nice position of having some then have a bottle soon, if I had one bottle I'd probably be tempted to drink it just before it's 20th birthday. A rare treat and a great bottle.
We finished with a half of a delicious Vin santo, I didn't catch the producer, after a DRC bottle is seems a little much to worry about however obnoxious that sounds...nearly time for a week off but first...a cigar at 10 Manchester street this evening.

H.Upmann Royal Robusto - LCDH 2011 release

2012-02-05T11:19:00.000-08:00

This was a stick I bought from Sautters of Mayfair, really friendly cigar shop/merchants, on recommendation. it was as the title of this suggests just produced for sale by La Casa del Habanos stores (that's the extra band too).

It had a great dark but not too dark wrapper, lovely construction, perfect draw, a touch too wide in gauge for me but it is what it is so that unavoidable. The burn was good , initially rich strong tea with a touch of cream. It than got fuller at end of 1st third, up to medium or just above. It tasted young but very good too, tea like finish with grass too. Final third, quite punchy and more coffeed...rich tobacco.

Needs a bit more time...89 now potential for 92+, well worth seeking out.

Domaine de la Romanee Conti...the 2009's

2012-02-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

Friday was the annual treat that is the Press Domaine de la Romanee Conti Tasting. I will write my views on the wines but clearly as I work for the agents I am biased, although when it comes to these wines what I think it is of little consequence.

My fear before this tasting was that the 2009’s would be too 2009ish and that the terroirs might not show as wonderfully as they did in the last few vintages. I shouldn’t have worried as they showed as much if not more than I can remember going back to the 1997 vintage which was the first I tasted on release. A small note for accuracy I tasted at 8.00am as I was also checking the bottles for the actual tasting. We always serve them very cool, as they would be served at the Domaine.

Notes, actually they are more comments, are in the order that the tasting was set up in:

Vosne Romanee 1er Cru Duvault Blochet - Crisp almost crunchy red fruit this was leaner and more pinot than I can ever remember, I wonder which Cru’s featured the most I

would guess not the Richebourg... good start, an open wine.

Corton Grand Cru -The “new comer”, the first vintage of this wine. One wine made from the Prince Florent de Merode holdings which are now on a (I believe 40 yr) lease to the Domaine. In the future there may be more than one wine (Clos de Roi, Bressandes & Renardes could all be made as GC’s in their own right) but not now. Colour was so much deeper with an almost blue edge to it. I have been no lover of Corton generally but this had the sweet fruitedness it can often lack and a silky texture. A good amount of Corton spice..very impressive debut.

So now we were into the “range” as everyone knows it:

Echezeaux Grand Cru - One of the two most impressive wines for me in terms of showing against the standard I’d now expect. Purely because it had almost the perfect Pinot nose, all feminine and elegant, no grunt or weighty pretense, Colour was exactly between the first two wines. Joyous.

Grands Echezeaux Grand Cru - A bit darker than the Echezeaux, almost to the Corton in colour. I always find GE the hardest to get my head around. There is a little orange rind on the nose, dash of spice too. Lovely texture...bit of a keeper I would guess.

Richebourg Grand Cru - Darker fruit here as ever, this wine always has the broadest of shoulders, the most masculine, the palate weight is very impressive too. The required freshness is there, very much Richebourg no mucking about.

Romanee-St-Vivant Grand Cru - The star for me for the reasons mentioned in the Echezeaux note. The startling rise of this Cru over the last 10years is quite something. A wonderful balance of pure red fruit but also real depth, a classic. Sets the standard for RSV for me. Just makes you smile. If this nose doesn’t excite you then forget red Burgundy.

La Tache Grand Cru - Back to almost the Richebourg colour, serious wine that whilst fruited has another layer that is hard to describe. There is the talked of asian spice but also a depth I’ve not often seen in Tache. As good as it gets if it wasn’t for RC.

Romanee Conti Grand Cru - A shade lighter than La Tache. Often the RC has all the texture but somehow the La tache shows more on the day and only in age does the RC make itself known as the very peak. This year the RC was strutting it’s stuff more. It is exquisite and in some weird way manages to be extrovert and introvert at the same time. As good as I’ve tasted and with real life, will be very long lived but also a beauty in relative

youth.

And all over for me by 8.20ish in the morning! The tasting itself went very well. I was lucky to be amongst a few of us that went for lunch afterwards at Otto‘s (near Holborn). It is not often you find yourself next to Aubert de Villaine and opposite Hugh Johnson drinking Montrachet and I hope this is not seen as a boast. Both men are true stars, in the wine world at least, but actually couldn’t be less star-like, brilliant company and endless topics were covered. The Le Montrachet was the 2009, this needs time, not because it is piercing, Le Montrachet from the Domaine is never that, it just has more cards to play. The density of fruit you get from this wine is unbeaten by any other white wine to my mind and you would never think it is as young as it is because of that fruit. This 2009 I would put on a par or just above the 2006 but not as high as the 2007 or 2008. In time I am sure I may well be wrong but I’d be happy to find out...

An amazing friday, only 364 days to wait for the 2010’s

Carillon 2010's...a tasting and dinner

2012-02-01T01:53:00.001-08:00

Below is a blog I did for the C&B Blog, as it is my views I feel justified in repeating it here...

Last Thursday saw the launch of our latest exclusivity – Domaine Francois Carillon – Alison (Buchannan) has done a full offer (on C&B site) so I will not repeat that here but more give my view of the wines. The venue was Le Cerle near Sloane Square http://www.lecercle.co.uk/about.php which gave proceedings a suitably chic feel.

The evening however was a focus on the beginning of what we, in our admittedly biased way, feel is a very exciting “new” venture. I say new but the name Carillon is anything but. What is new is that with the retirement of Louis Carillon the what was Domaine Louis Carillon has become two Domaines – Domaine Francois Carillon,with which we are dealing here, and Domaine Jacques Carillon. Francois and Jacques are both Louis sons, the mind goes instantly to what must have been a family feud and arguments but actually it is the opposite just good timing and a chance to set things up for future generations. Francois and Jacques both have large families so it makes sense to divide the former Domaine now and avoid any future difficulties. The parcels have been divided up or split.

And so on to the wines which Francois and Alison presented. 2010 is the first vintage of this Domaine and all the pre-dinner wines were from this vintage the first two were Bourgogne Blanc & Saint Aubin 1er Cru Les Charmois - the Bourgogne Blanc was quite closed on the nose and in many way the least expressive of the range, this may be due to the fact it is nearest to bottling, it was fresh and with great texture just subdued on the nose almost Chabliesque, 18 months and I have no fear that this will be singing. The Saint Aubin was stunning, I love this appellation, it has richness but also a spine, it sees a tiny (12%) of new oak, there is very little produced, so little in fact that it is sold out, I didn’t buy any and regret it. Next we moved to Puligny-Montrachet having the villages first and then the 1er Cru Champs Gains. Village was a step up, it sees 1year in barrel (15% new) with lees and is from a plot at an elevation of 230metres, very impressive, the Champ Gains, first of the 1er Crus was very pretty, fine honed and with real complexity.

Have moved into 1er Cru territory we now had a trio – Folatières, Les Perrières & Les Combettes – this was fascinating, all having their champions amongst the team, rather than describe the wines with my dodgy adjectives I will give my views on their personalities. Folatieres is more of a military man broader shoulders, bold. The Perriers a more steely, almost stern but not quite, aristocrat. The Combettes is the extravagant man about town who you know under a slightly brash exterior is the kind of guy you want on your side…think I better stop this now, getting carried away. If I had to have just one it would be Combettes but I feel guilty (a good sign) saying that. Our resident Burgoholic, Tom Bird, I know would champion the Perriers to his last word…

The last pair was two Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru’s Les Clos Saint-Jean & Les Macherelles – I have far less experience of Chassagne than Puligny so found this an excellent opportunity. The Clos St.Jean is from a vineyard only planted in 2003 and has exquisite balance when you take the recent planting into consideration this is a wine to watch. The Macherelles was to me a step up, very expressive, crying out for food (Lobster). The whole tasting had been brilliant with the differences from one wine to another pronounced. The overall style? It is one of minerality and finesse, these are wines for the medium to long term, the lack of oak is great to see.

With dinner that followed a glass of Delamotte Champagne we had wines from Domaine Louis Carillon as there is no “Francois” pre 2010. The first course of Seared scallops, fennel tatin, baby spinach and citrus dressing we had with Puligny-Montrachet Villages 2008 & 2009, the 2008 opened up in the glass with a leesy richness developing nicely the 2009 was to my mind less complex, straight forward and delicious but I tend to find 2009 a less exciting vintage for whites than 2008 and this showed here, 2009 will be delicious from the off but 2008 I feel has the edge on potential and complexity. The next course - Roasted Veal Filet, dulce glazed salsify, carrot pulp and bok choi was served with 1er Cru Champs Gains 2008 & 2009, I look back at my notes and notice I gave 2008 18points and 2009 17-18 points, this seems correct on reflection the 2008 as with the Villages before shading things.

The final two wines with Mini tour de France cheeses were Combettes 2007 and Les Perrieres 2007, my notes had by this stage got brief but I gave Combettes 19 which is high for me, the note says “rich but fresh, great” for the Perrieres I commented “as with 2010 more taut again”, given that 2007 is a taut vintage this is not a surprise. The overall feeling was that the dinner wines were delicious but the 2010 was where the excitement lies, this may be convenient for me to say but I feel it is the truth…exciting times ahead...

Charlie's first time at Cheltenham...

2012-01-30T03:57:00.000-08:00

On Saturday just gone Charlie and I made his first Pilgrimage to the home of Jump racing – Cheltenham. This was his 4th days racing having been to Leicester, Newbury and Goodwood before. He has an interest through the fact I love the horses and a bet. We set of early to avoid the traffic and stopped off en route for breakfast and a quick first look at the Racing post, got to have a copy each!!

Just over a year ago we went, as a family, to Newbury and Charlie has ever since had Big Bucks as his favourite horse so he was delighted to see in print that he was running again. I had been keeping a close eye on this in the week before as it would be a great for Charlie to see him again.

With breakfast done and a good early arrival secured we had a good wander around before getting to the paddock for the first…we both liked the look of a few especially Hollow tree for Charlie but certainly thought that Pearl Swan was on his toes and too excitable. How wrong we were as Pearl swan picked up late on to be first past the post, he lost the race in the stewards room however. From then on we followed the tried and tested route of paddock, betting ring and back again. We found a friendly bookmaker who didn’t mind Charlie perching on the rail to get a good view.
The next three races came and went with Charlie getting in the frame each time but none of the bets were each way. We then needed a winner…Batonnier at 12/1 in the 5th was just the job as we both backed him and that put as nicely ahead!! We were now full of the joys and ready to cheer on Big Bucks. He looked awesome as always in the parade ring, very imposing, he even got a round of applause pre race. With the winner in the bag I could justify a cigar with a pint of the black stuff so out came the Por Larranaga Robusto (Asia Pacific Release 2007) it was good but if anything a little one dimensional. We then moved through for the Cleeve hurdle with Charlie getting on to his usual perch. We both had a little on Restless Harry “without Big Bucks” but that looked a lost bet turning for home. Charlie had convinced me to put £5 on BB for him at 1/5 he was happy with his £6 (I didn’t have the heart to tell him he’d scammed me, may be he knew!) when BB rallied well when looking like there might be a real battle, to win by 7 lengths. We rushed back over to the winners enclosure to see the reception he got and were not disappointed!!

It had been a cracking day and I was delighted that it was just about profitable too…where to next?

It's there to be drunk...

2012-01-18T00:42:00.000-08:00

I was asked a couple of weeks ago to do a small "critics corner" feature for harpers so here it is...

The fine wine market has hit a bit of a lull of late, hardly breaking news or surprising , but I am not sure this is such a bad thing. It will be great to focus on selling wines where people’s interest is in drinking them, whether that is now or in 20 year’s time. I have found over the last 2-3 years that there is a massive overuse of financial terminology creeping into to the world of wine and for me it is a shame, it de-personalises and over simplifies wine. I am not naive and realise it is good for merchants, agents and brokers when wines prices are flying high and there is a frenzy but surely we have got to a stage where supply and demand (by which I mean bottles being drunk or bought by drinkers) have to be re-introduced to each other.

Wine investment as a by-product of the fact that supply goes down and therefore people have to pay more to incentivise people to sell is fine and has gone on for years but if prices are manipulated by the fact that so much is in “funds” or “portfolios” it can’t be healthy in the longer term. The market has to reflect what people will pay to open a bottle of a wine not what they will pay on the basis someone will pay more at a later date, surely that is a slippery slope?

To be more positive and go back to the drinker I don’t think they/we have ever had it so good, wines in the £10-£50 a bottle range have surely never been as good? I realise that is a large bracket but then people’s budgets are very different. Wherever you look, Italy and Piedmont in particular for me, there is great competition, diversity or styles and exceptional quality which can only be good. This forces even the established names to constantly review what they do in the vineyard and cellar. So whilst the investment angle may have dropped off the radar let’s all enjoying selling and better still drinking some great bottles, magnums and bigger in 2012.

The 2010 Burgundy tastings will be a good place to start with the excitement of a week where pretty much all the offers are out and a large group of growers travel to the UK to engage with their customers it is always a great week to be in the trade. Especially with 2010 looking a good to great, if small, vintage. There is real passion amongst those who buy and drink Burgundy and whilst you get some high prices at the top end the wines are produced in genuinely minute quantities and in most cases would sell to drinkers for more, a lesson to be learnt?

Hoyo de Monterey Epicure no2 - Robusto Review 10

2012-01-16T03:36:00.000-08:00

Of all of the Robusto's this is the one I know best. It is at it's best a very elegant and graceful smoke, at its worst under filled and a bit plain...

The review - Nice looking "normal" Epi 2, tan colour, aroma was tea-like, cold draw of tea and hay. Nicely filled and with good construction. It went straight to the gentle side of medium, great even draw and burn, lovely dense smoke, almost a sweet toffeed tea note...a very good start.

To use a wine analogy it is a bugundian smoke, no overowering youthfulness to speak of, it is more about balance. Into the middle of the smoke it changed only a little, a touch of spice to add to the tea...still good but needs to move on to another dimension to be great rather than just good. One small aside, why does a cigar need two bands when it is a standard release? And on a cigar short one too, unnecessary in my book. When I first smoked these Epi 2's they had no band at all and I used to like that.

The final third got a little richer but didn't change much which was a bit of a shame. Overall it is an elegant smoke, a good first robusto for those not familiar with CC's and that is not to be patronising. I can see why so many people like them. A rating?....88-89

Several bottles at Planet of the Grapes

2012-01-16T01:17:00.001-08:00

Last week we had two colleagues over from the Hong Office - Erica and Huge. We decide on a meal out on the Tuesday and headed off to Planet of the Grapes in Bow Lane near mansion house tube. It is a cracking spot and they allowed us to take two mags (see below which they were). The rest of the wines we just bought 2 bottles off the list and tasted. Most of the time we took it in turns to pick and then everyone could have a good go at calling what they thought it was. Food-wise we had a mixed platter of cold meats and cheese to start then mostly had steaks but a few people had other things...anyway on with the wines.
First up was Macon Verze 2009, Domaines Leflaive from magnum which we took along, it is starting to drink really well, a nice combination or richness and a racy acidity, it will open out more but is delicious now, I love white burgundy in magnum. Next on the agenda was a pick of mine, aimed slightly at catching one of the team out, Egon, as he's always going on about this type of wine it was Soave Classico 2010 Tiama. Most people thought it was a little older, it had good soft, mellow Sauvignon like fruit on the nose and a decently complex palate which might have been why people felt it was older, it went down well and quickly. Next was the choice of Mr H and was our last white, it was Kistler Chardonnay 2008. I really liked it and felt it might have been something like Kumeu River from New Zealand it was not hot. It had good complexity, was a touch short possibly but then I m not sure how good a vintage the 2008 is? I enjoyed it, rich and broad but not OTT.

And so with the platter done and steak on its way we moved to the reds starting with a real favourite of mine Cascina Francia Barbera 2008, Giacomo Conterno from magnum, I just love the fact it is packed full of fruit but also has a savoury, almost salty, edge to it, I could drink a lot of it, it'll age too. Next was another "blind" choice of mine - Barolo 2006, Aldo Conterno - this was picked as being a lot older by most of the team, I chose it because not many of them have seen the oaked side of Nebbiolo. I thought this was well done but for me oak and Nebbiolo should be kept well apart, you get a mint, iodine like nose that is not as elegant as the grape itself, a good wine but not a good barolo in my opinion. Mossy and Egon then chose the next wine which turned out to be Beaucastel CNDP 2001, I have been enjoying more and more Rhones of late. This was decent but I picked it as more northern rhone than southern, Guido got it right. There was an almost gravy-ish texture, I have a feeling that this is somewhere between a primary and secondary phase, it was ok but there was not enough fruit for my liking. I would love to taste again in 2-3 years, an interesting wine to try blind.

It was then decided we needed something sweet and plumbed for two halves of Filhot 2001, Egon will claim he got this but given that he mentioned every Chateau and vintage in Sauternes I think his scattered gun approach can not be rewarded. It was decent as a sauternes but I would expect more from a 2001, it was true to Filhot's style though with a lightness of touch. Huge and myself then decided we needed one more red to see the night out, we went for Ridge Monte Bello 2005. It was a very interesting one, there was no way anyone thought it was old world there was an exotic richness and fruitiness that meant you had to be new world, western Australia was also dismissed as this was bigger in fruit that those. The good thing was that there was no heat and no over high alcohol here. I thought it had very clear red fruits with a little creamy black currant in reserve, it was very good but I wonder how it will develop.

It was a cracking night and good to spend time with our colleagues from the HK office...we were very well looked after by the guys at Planet of the Grapes too, if you like simple proper food and interesting bottles you should go...

R&J Short Churchill...the next Robusto

2012-01-09T00:47:00.000-08:00

Having had a cough, cold, sore throat thingy over Christmas this is my first proper cigar review of 2012. I warmed up the prevoius night with a Paratagas Short that was as good as ever, despite being a stick that was a bit battered from being in and out of a pouch.

Anyway on with the job at hand, the R&J Short Churchill, not to be confused with the R&J Wide Churchill, which I had in Spain and loved. This had a good appearance if not exciting, mellow tobacco aroma when cold, great draw, light hay notes when tugged on pre-lighting.

Good start, nice classical richness, just under medium body, good ash. Half an inch in it had picked up a touch to medium, leather and spice, dark tea too...promising at such an early stage.

By half way the spice has calmed and it is purely a lovely balanced leather and tobacco smoke, great aroma too. The drizzle had forced me to smoke half in, half out, of the shed and I'll be doing it again as you get more of the aroma.

Into the final third I was thinking it was just really good, solid smoke. I am not sure of box code but I'd guess 2010 rather than really young. I can't see it as being a smoke to keep for ages but at this stage it is "singing" well.

Very good all in all, last third got a bit soft but I'd think seriously about getting more of these...fits between a H d M Epicure No2 and Partagas SDN4 for me...90-92

Vegas Robaina Famosos - Robusto Review 8

2011-12-30T00:33:00.000-08:00

I've not had that much joy with Vegas Robaina before so expectation was pretty low here but that can work well as it leaves a good bit of room for exceeding those expectations.

Good draw, dark wrapper a shade on the dry side but otherwise good appearance. Flavours were straight into just above medium, dark coffee, not espresso but black slightly burnt coffee. Good size in being a touch narrower than a true Robusto (48 by 5). Aftyer the first third it was developing a little but still stewed coffee and leather, decent but no more than that, 84-85 as I approached halfway.

There was no real development from there. I'll be kind and just say it lacks any charm. It may be in a dead phase as it is certainly young but either way it is disappointing...83-84...need to try another but given what else is about it won't be soon.

My awards 2011 - Wine, Restaurant, Cigars & racing

2011-12-23T04:05:00.000-08:00

So what would I do if I had my own awards?…don’t worry I realise this is highly unlikely!

Red Wine of the year: Lafleur 1966, didn’t think I’d say that at the beginning of the year, there have been a staggering amount of amazing bottles this year, many from Piedmont as you can imagine but if I had to pick just one, which I do, then this would be it. It was simply immaculate, balanced, eveolved but still fresh. I love Pomerol the most of all the Bordeaux regions and this was as near perfect as a wine needs to be.

White wine of the year: Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese GK 1983 from JJ Prum, incredible balance and poise, whether you know wines well or not you simply could not fail to be impressed by this, it has years, in fact decades, to go but is insanely good now.

Producer of the year: Giacomo Conterno - as I am totally biased, the more wines I have from this great estate the more I love it. Without question the fact that I have met Roberto several times now and am impressed by him and what he stands for obviously has an effect. There have been other strong showings from Coche Dury, Prum, Leflaive, Trotanoy, de Vogue and many more.

Meal of the year: Given that both my wines of the year above where from the same meal it won’t be a massive surprise that the meal wins this…full write up here http://duvaultblochet.blogspot.com/2011/10/royal-hospital-road-courtesy-of.html

Restaurant of the year: No shocks here…Zucca but I will explain why, I have never had a poor meal there, the service is always friendly and never fussy, the food it fresh, kept just simple enough, always well cooked and digestible. This last point may seems a bit overly functional but it is seriously important in my book, I hate feeling stuffed or sleepy however large a meal. The wine list is superb and well-priced. I would also make a good mention on Koffmans at the Berkeley Hotel for traditional French food and good service.

Cigar of the year: Behike 52 – was brilliant, full write up here http://duvaultblochet.blogspot.com/2011/12/cohiba-behike-52with-days-to-go-this-is.html

Cigar Marque of the year: Partagas, quite simply because I have had four different sizes, in some cases many times, and they have been consistently excellent smokes. This has become by “go to” marque – SDN4, SPN2, Culebras (no Novelty) and shorts have all been excellent, there is a bit of everything about the brand in flavour, weight and complexity.

Racehorse of the year: It has to be Frankel, as there were stand out performances and well as a recovery mission after Ascot.

Race of the year: For pure emotion it would be Kauto winning the Betfair Chase at Haydock, not a dry eye on the house. Delighted by the Tatling winning his last race and Denman retiring in one piece.

And that is that...

Bolivar Royal Corona - Robusto 7

2011-12-23T01:14:00.001-08:00

Well with Christmas nearly upon us and work slowing there was time for a mid-week cigar. So onwards with the Robusto sampler, this time the Bolivar Royal Corona, this is a strange name for what is basically a Robusto.

I have only previously had one Bolivar which is a rather glaring omission from my experience. This was a great looking stick that burnt excellently had a perfect draw, it was possibly a dash moist which was my fault but it had a wonderful oily texture. From the off it was straight into dark, autumnal flavours as a wine analogy this is would be "Cornas" – muscular and brooding but obviously very good.

Once an inch or so was gone, it settled into a combo of rich fruit cake and marmite on toast. This was delicious and impressive now but there is so much more to come. I think I will be laying a box down. I was intrigued to see where I thought it fitted in with the other richer Habanos – Ramon Allones & Partagas – and I would say, from this alone which is slightly ridiculous, that there are elements of Ramon Allones but also of Monte Cristo in the dark coffee and chocolate profile. It was more dense than heavy which is good. As a rating I’d give this a promising 90-92…

Cohiba Behike 52...with days to go this is my Cigar of the year so far

2011-12-18T01:35:00.000-08:00

Beautiful draw and construction, when unlit the draw is more towards hay but complex hay if that makes sense. On lighting you get a great thick dense smoke no harshness, tea and also cream are the very first flavours. It is straight into medium flavour but rich in weight. Wonderful aroma so a real shame to smoke it outside. After a few draws peanut and tea seem to take over but with depth.
Approaching the end of the 1st third the flavours darkened a little stronger tea. This is a brilliant afternoon or "clean palate" smoke, it would be great anytime but due to it not being more than medium I think after a big meal it would not be at it's very best. The excellent construction meant that the burn was very good and even, the dense smoke continued all the way. The middle of the smoke was more nuts, almonds and macadamia. By half way it as already showing significant complexity. I would say it will age in wine terms more like a Burgundy that a Bordeaux. Coming to the end of the second third it was superb, nutty, creamy...the only dimension missing at that stage was spice but it isn't about that really but...then coming into the last third a little spice appears...gloriously, may be it's because my tea is gone but I think not. There was a little bit of astringent youth showing towards were the band had been but then this is a young stick. A class act and a very solid 93-95 for me! I'll be grabbing a few of those and trying the other Behike's too...

Lodovico - Tenuta di Biserno

2011-12-15T02:49:00.001-08:00

My last big dinner of 2011 and it was a cracker, no old or mature wines here this is a new project but one set for great things I (in my biased way) think. It was hosted at C&B’s offices and began with our “house pour” Delamotte NV, delicious as ever without being at all pretentious.
Lodovico Antinori, a legend of the wine world, then started proceedings with a little background to this estate – Tenuta di Biserno in Bibbona just up the road from Bolgheri. The estate had at one time been earmarked for possible inclusion in Ornellaia but as sometimes happens this never occurred and instead Lodovico has decided that this will be his “last great” project. The estate is planted with a predominance of Cabernet Franc but also Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot (in more than it’s token Bordeaux amounts). The wines we were to taste and drink are from the first two released vintages, there were bits of 2006 made but essentially this is a story that starts from 2007.

Over the first course of Oriental Duck Salad we had the three wines from 2008. Il Pino di Biserno which is the 2nd wine of the estate and was wonderfully easy to appreciate even now but with more to come in the medium term. Biserno which is the main wine of the estate and showed brilliantly (for me the wine of the night if I had to pick), it has excellent balance and harmony that means the abundant fruit is kept in check with a framing structure that is a very complete scenario. Finally Lodovico which is from a specific plot within the estate and will not be made every year, there will be no 2009 and a minute 2010 for instance. This is a brooding wine of great depth and in need of time though impressive even now, it will be very interesting to see the development of Biserno vs Lodovico in each vintage when they are both made. These 2008’s were very impressive as there is the Tuscan warmth and ripe richness but you get a feeling of a cool structure too, classical is an overused word in wine these days but there is a good “dollop” of this here.

With the rest of the menu we had the 2007’s of the same three wines in larger formats, something I love and which add to any occasion. The generalisation of the vintage, 2007, is that the wines are softer, more lush at the moment and very expressive (and better as a genarl scoring comment but this I don’t find the case). The density of 2008 is replaced w

ith a more opulent feeling. So first up was Il Pino in Magnum, this is ready to go now, I will keep some but this would be a “restaurant cracker” of a wine with the Mossiman’s signature Risotto ai Funghi it was brilliant. What followed with the Roast Venison and then Welsh Rarebit was the Biserno and Lodovico both from Jeroboam. The Biserno was a little more closed than the other two 2007’s but with the food the texture was very classy. The Lodovico with the food was a star, the richness and almost flamboyance matching brilliantly for a hedonistic finale. It is great to be in on as estate from the off whether you are a buyer or a seller and this is feels the case here. Meeting and listening to Lodovico speak about the wines adds a lot as there is a sense of fun and humour (and twinkle in the eye) that means you just know you are in safe but exciting hands.

I was delighted to have several good customers and friends (as pictured) at this dinner and the banter was exceptional…one of those evenings when things just clicked….

Robusto 6 - Cohiba

2011-12-05T00:35:00.001-08:00

So after an action packed week that featured a Partagas short after dinner on wednesday - god they are good, if you love rich cigars they have to be part of your rotation - it was finally the weekend and time for the next Robusto in the sampler pack I have.

I decided on the Cohiba, partly because I just wanted it and partly because a friend gave me a Behike 52 that I would like to compare it to soon. It had a lovely aroma and cold draw, a little farmyardy which I like. It started very complete and mellow and was around medium in body.

It was a fraction under filled but I am fine with that. the burn was good and even, I would say it was a 2011 stick. It smoked well the whole way with some nuttiness and always that creaminess that Cohiba has. It was thoroughly enjoyable. A little woody towards the second half with some honey. It reminded me of a creamier epicure No 2 from Hoyo. Just under medium all in all. A rating? I would say 91 with potential to rise a bit on this showing - very good. I only wonder it is too "smooth", a bit of spice would be good but then that is splitting hairs...bring on the Behike!

Roberto Conterno 2 days, 2dinners...

2011-12-02T04:59:00.000-08:00

On wednesday night last week I was delighted to host a dinner at Franco's in Jermyn Street - Roberto Conterno of Cantina Giacomo Conterno and his assistant Lauren were in town for this and another dinner (see below). It was a select bunch of hardened Barolo fans. We started with the Delamotte Blanc de Blancs 2002 which having been released for 6 months or so is just starting to flower gorgeously a real treat and a great start.
From there the 14 of us were seated and started on Veal Carpaccio, rocket, parmesan and black truffle with this we had the two wines from the new, well new to Roberto from this vintage (2008), vineyard of Cerretta - the wines were the Barbera and the Langhe Nebbiolo. First up Barbera Cerretta 2008, this was several peoples surprise wine of the night, such fruit but also a savoury edge and real substance, a seriously under-rated wine, this is on clay and shows richness...if only people took Barbera a little more seriously. The second wine was the almost unique Langhe Nebbiolo Cerretta 2008, I say almost unique as there is likely (90%) to be a Langhe Nebbiolo in 2009 too. Although the 2009 will be released next year after 3 years in barrel rather than the 2008's 2 years. Both wines could be Barolo, technically and in quality, but this being Roberto only the very best will do. The Langhe Nebbiolo Cerretta 2008 is stunning, I love it, a Volnay of a Barolo that isn't actually a Barolo if that makes sense, this is no novelty. Next up was the obligatory Mushroom risotto with a pair I have had many times and was to have both nights but I will never ever tire of them. Barolo Cascina Francia 2005 & 2006 the former has amazing accessible balance, the later is so classically correct, structured with lifted fruit, a must for Barolo lovers, I've bought a lot of 06's so also always a relief too! I will repeat something here that Roberto said and that is that 2005 is a good and consistent (across the region) year as it was pretty easy, 2006 whilst technically better is less consistent as there was great ripeness, great tannin and more excess so the balance was harder to strike...there are people out there who have produced better 2005's than 2006's.

The final two wines accompanied two courses Braised Lamb Shank with Potato Puree and then Cheese, the wines were both first timers to me Barolo Cascina Francia 1996 & Monfortino 1996. Both wines had been decanted out of the bottle and back about 2 hours before serving, the others were checked but then just poured from the bottle. This vintage has a lot of classical similarities to 2006 - taut structure, dense tannin and fruit. The Cascina Francia was stunning, young with a proper tightness wonderful balance and a way to go, no rough edges, ripe tannins, open enough to be no waste now. The Monfortino 1996 will out live me but actually came out to play quite flirtatiously, it is a profound wine and chewy in a "see you in 10yrs" sort of way, there is fruit in abundance but presently subdued, the texture tells you everything, it took may be 15 minutes in glass to sing but it showed all it's class.

We were well looked after by Franco's...a memorable evening, a great atmosphere that lead nicely to the following day...

The next evening we were at Mossiman’s, this time 50 people in the top room, a wonderful layout and stunning wines led to superb night. First up was the Delamotte Blanc de Blancs NV, always a wonderful aperitif Champagne, elegant and almost too drinkable. Once seated we got the evening going. There were many interludes during the evening with Roberto, Alison (Buchanan) and myself speaking. Roberto was asked to talk about the philosophy of the estate…he quite quickly pointed out that the estate was about people not philosophy, a point that struck home later with a poignant toast Roberto lead to his father. The first food and wines were Barbera Cerretta 2008 & Barbera Cascina Francia 2008 with a delicious warm Oriental Duck and Vegetable Salad. It was a great pairing that showed the difference between the two sites so very well, the clay of Cerretta give more flamboyance and fruit whilst the Cascina Francia was more savoury, serious, masculine and structured. They developed wonderfully in the glasses though the evening.

From here we had the same pairing as previously Barolo Cascina Francia 2005 & 2006 with the trademark Mossiman’s Risotto ai Funghi. Roberto spoke of the differences between the vintages and about Cascina Francia as a whole.

As we had done the previous night the last two wines were served with the last two courses, people having plenty of wines to re-visit, those two courses were Roasted Highland Venison, Juniper Berry Sauce, Market vegetables & English Farmhouse Cheese, Walnut and Raisin Bread. Far more importantly the wines were Monfortino 1997 (magnums) & 2002. Here Roberto spoke passionately of the 1997 being a good year and the year his son was born and of his decision to make a 2002 Monfortino but no Cascina Francia. 2002 was seen by many as a bad vintage…there was a lot of hail and bad weather, amazingly none of which hit Cascina Francia. After a severe Green harvest and with a small crop on the vines there was then a magical three weeks up to the harvest. Roberto then spoke with his father, who was by this time unable to join him amongst the vines, about the fact he had a small but immaculate harvest. The decision was then made to make only a Monfortino, tasting the wine shows this was clearly the correct decision. The amazingly thing about the 1997 and 2002 that we finished on was how brilliant they were whilst so different. The 2002 is a richer more dense and primary fruited wine that showed a loit of class but actually closed down a little in glass, this is a great but it may be about to go to sleep. The 1997 started as archetypal maturing Nebbiolo nose and just got better and better and more and more multi-faceted and complex. A Joy that I can still all but taste.

The atmosphere though the whole evening was magical with Roberto speaking passionately but concisely, customers getting bottles signed and everyone just loving the wines…BRAVO

Robusto 5 - Juan Lopez Seleccion No2

2011-11-28T04:39:00.000-08:00

Just the one Robusto this weekend although I was very generously gven a Behike 52 that is now resting on the Humidor for a suitable moment. This week's smoke was Juan Lopez Seleccion No 2. As a brand it was, or so the web tells me, first founded in 1876 by Juan Lopez Diaz.

I had never had a Juan Lopez but I am always keen to try new things. The look and feel was great the draw a little too tight. The inital flavours were totally "down the middle" not on the dark chocolate and coffee side, nor the leather and hay side. Medium bodied at most it started as a nice smoke but the draw never really freed up enough for me, I like a slightly easy draw. It was though by halfway a little boring to the degree that I almost forgot about it and read the racingpost with full concentration. There was nothing wrong with it at all but the lack of interest is a downside so 86 points seems as high as it can go. I'd love to try another but with so many good smokes out there I can't see myself buying any.

Next week may well be a Cohiba Off - Behike 52 vs the Robusto...sounds good to me!

Prum Day - Gauthier & Nobu

2011-11-28T00:33:00.000-08:00

Last thursday was very much a Prum day. Dr Katharina Prum arrived at our offices in mid morning and led a fascinating and detailed tasting for the team talking about the history of this great (over-used word but not here) estate, the vineyard holdings, the wines and how they go with food. It was a great tasting.

Shortly afterwards Adam (C&B MD) and I dashed Katharina off for a, supposedly quick, lunch at the excellent Gauthier in Soho with two customers. We were very well looked after and after a bottle of Champagne (Gosset 2000, very nice too) we had two wines to have wit the food. We almost all had the same food as Katharina - Risotto followed by salmon - as we all wanted to see how the wines and food worked.

First up was the Bernkasteler Badstube Spätlese 2009 which was delicious, precise, full fruited, primary of course but in great form, it worked well with the rich Risotto. During lunch we covered all sorts of issues, two I was keen to ask about were, decanting and ripeness levels. Decanting it has appeared to me does the wines a lot of good and Katharina agreed that when possible it does and that at the estate they will decant if there is time, the wines Katharina also likes to serve very cool so they can evolve in glass. On the ripeness levels I asked why it might be that in general I find my taste in Riesling is towards the Kabinett and Spätlese end of things? Katharina said that in younger wines that made perfect sense but that as I try older Auslese I would realise that there is so much intensity to the Auslese and a little less sweetness as they get older...I must try more older Auslese then (can`t wait..finding them is the problem!). As the dinner later showed the vintage has a lot to do with it too.

Next wine was the estates very top "normal" production wine (there are auction wines but that is another topic) and this was another 2009, the Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese Goldcapsule. The Goldcapsule refers to a tiny production of grapes selected in the vineyard for their sublime quality. The intensity of the fruit, soft white and tropical is staggering given the low alcohol (7% ish). These are amongst the world's let alone Germanys most attractive, long-lived and extraordinary wines. The amount of ripe fruit means that the "sweetness" is so natural that it goes brilliantly with the food, the Salmon, was delicious but all the better still for the wine. With dinner to follow (see below) we didn't extend lunch much further.

And to dinner, at the world renowned Nobu (Old park Lane), Katharina despite being incredibly well travelled had not been before and we were all very excited. The room of 60 people were in for treat.

As an aperitif we had 2010 Kabinett, there was only one Kabinett in 2010 as the year was more biased towards the richer styles. This worked really well, it is clean, fresh and primary but very mouth watering. The meal itself started, after an introduction from Oliver Hartley and an overview of the wines from Katharina, with assorted Sushi and Sea bass Tiradito with these two we had two contrasting Kabinetts - 2009 Bernkasteler Badstube and 2008 Wehlener Sonnenuhr - these two vineyards are about 3 km apart and have differing styes. The vintages two are very different, 2009 more rich, rounded and extravert, the 2008 more classical and taut, this showed in the wines with the Bernkasteler after being a little closed opening up to more rounded fullness. The Wehlener by contrast was racier and had extreme poise. the combinations were great with clean flavours in the sushi and a little spice from the Tiradito going especially well with the 2008.

Katharina next spoke about the 3 upcoming Spätlese - Bernkasteler Badstube 2007, Wehlener Sonnenuhr 2007 then Wehlener Sonnenuhr 2003 which we had with Lobster Salad with spicy lemon dressing, Rock shrimp tempura with creamy Spice sauce, Black Cod with Miso. 2007 is a very classical vintage with poise elegance grace and balance, similar in many way to the most recent release 2010. 2003 by contrast but in keeping with the rest of europe was a freak year of low rainfall and very high temperatures. The 2003's Katharina feels will age very well (as the 1976's have for a similar reason) as there is structure and acidity it is just not apparent because of the opulent fruit. This trio were brilliant. To my mind the Badstube had rich texture on the palate was a touch closed and reductive on the nose, no bad thing, may be not perfect yet, the Wehlener was one of my wines of the night, rich yet mellow, highly strung but inviting, very classy and delicious especially with the tempura, a match made in heaven. the 2003 I think surprised everyone with it's balance, it was an extrovert but not an outlandish one and great with the Miso Black Cod.

Katharina was back on here feet again, no rest here, for the final three wines the first two - 2004 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese & 1998 Bernkasteler Lay Riesling Auslese were served with Beef Kushiyaki then the 2003 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese Goldcapsule was served with Exotic Fruits. The 2004 vintage was more akin to 2007 and 2010 in being poised, balanced and delicate. I thought the 2004 was a true star, light colour and just opening out, really beautiful. The 1998 was richer and fuller with a bit of development as you'd expect. The match was a tricky one and whilst they went well I preferred both wines after the food more than with, just one of those things. The Goldcapsule 2003 was some finish though, very expressive but you could see there are years and years of development and intrigue to come, not one to drink too early despite how wonderful it is now.

The day of 11 Rieslings was over for me...a real shame, great memories. I loved Prum wines before the visit but do so even more now.

Robusto Sampler 3 & 4 - El Rey del Mundo CS + R&J Ex No4

2011-11-21T00:34:00.000-08:00

So on with the Robusto sampler experiment/investigations, weekend just gone saw two sticks of the exact same dimensions. I always think of Robustos as 5 x 50 but both of these are a tad thinner at 5 x 48, it is a great size. The first up was El Rey del Mundo Choix Supreme on Saturday afternoon, I have always wanted to love these but never been that excited. First problem was that despite the great look of the thing it had a very tight draw, after about 5 mins of tugging hard on it I chose to try a plan. I could feel that the “blockage” was under the band so I removed the band and “lopped” an inch off the head, problem solved although the smoke was now 4 x 48 but never the less it meant I could assess the tobacco. Light bodied, more tea than coffee with a hint of nuttiness and creamy honey on the palate. This is a high quality tobacco and a great reminder of how good lighter bodied cigars can be. I will have to try another to get the full affect but this was mellow but not dull, 89-91 I’d say.

The next smoke was Romeo y Julietta Exhibicion No4, I’ve never had this before but after a big Sunday lunch I decided it was time. Medium bodied, no more than that, with a core of dark (80-85% cocoa) chocolate and strong coffee with a dash of milk. This was fairly box pressed which I avoid if possible but the flavour was good. My problem with this smoke, and it is a bit unfair as it is a youngish smoke, is that it “didn’t go anywhere” it was quite monosyllabic. I will try the R&J wide Churchill soon and compare notes but the one I had on holiday in the summer (which means I may have been more relaxed and positive) was better than this. I must smoke another Exh No4 but currently 87-89.

Looking forward to trying more already…

Not an average tuesday dinner and all in a good cause...

2011-11-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

A very generous customer and his wife (a very good cook) organise an annual charity dinner – For Christian Aid - each year. The wines come from their own wonderful cellar with one generous contribution each year from an American friend of theirs who flies over every year for the event. I was very lucky to be the Wine Trader asked along to comment on the wines...it was a lot of fun, any evening that has a mix of people, starts with Champagne and ends with a cigar is always good in my book and this was more than just good. I wont outline all the dishes we had with the below as there were six courses, all delicious, fish/seafood twice, duck then beef and pudding then cheese.

Canard Duchene 2004 - this was a first for me, it was good, well balanced neither Blanc de Blancs nor high in Pinot Noir I would say. I was surprised it was as generous as it was for a 2004.

Chevalier Montrachet 1992 Domaine Jean Chartron - this was the only wine with a remote condition issue, our host stated as much and said it was worth a last look, it was not dead but the initial glimmer of full maturity did give way to over maturity in a bit of time, you could still see the breeding but the poise, balance and tautness was a few years behind it.

Corton Charlemagne 1992 Domaine Bonneau du Martray - by contrast (beware of professional bias here) this Corton-Charlemagne was excellent, under stated as Bonneau du Martray often is and all the more drinkable for it. This had real tension and poise as well as great length, still going strong and arguably not quite as it's zenith, great stuff, more a drinkers wine than a tasters one, of which I approve.

And so we move from white Burgundy to Red Bordeaux, there was no mucking around here this was a classical dinner of "catholic" tastes. The Bordeaux, below, were all double decanted fairly near to serving.

Pichon Lalande 1982 - Previously a glaring omission from my Bordeaux experience and as a result of the hype this wine gets I was worried it would be underwhelming by comparison. I need not have worried at all. A tropical, high toned, exotic but beautifully elegant and balanced claret, very strange in behind youthful and rich but also light and ethereal...a real joy, I want to say it's a classical left bank bordeaux but it isn't really, just a great wine.

Cos d’Estournel 1982 - More than any other wine on the night this divided opinion, on the one hand over how good it was and on the other which stage of evolution it was at. I liked it's masculine classicism and savoury nature initially but it did lean towards iodine and a little bit of bovril over time. I think it is a wine that will hold well but a little like Cos 1986 it may never quite be a charmer. Next to the Pichon it was more weighty structured and masculine. This commentary does not really do it justice. A fine wine but more prop than backrower if that works for you?

Haut-Brion 1978 (double magnum) - This was just lovely, not showy, and not as "good" as the Pichon technically speaking but it has such balance and lightness of touch, a real "magnum between two" sort of wine, nothing forced about it, you could drink a lot of it, refreshing and digestible, very Pessac in style...lovely, no more need be said.

Rieussec 1990 - This great fun, quite flamboyant and rancio in style, lots of toffee apple and tarte tatin. I think I would think it a little older if served blind, I like the Rieussec style but I can see it not being everyones cup of tea. It does not, generally, have the poise and clinical freshness of Climens nor the outright balance and fresh, sweetness of Yquem, BUT given the mess the pricing of it is in these days, worth buying a case or two of the young vintages I recon. I am increasingly enjoying Sauternes.

Graham 1977 - A contentious vintage if ever there was one, some say "great" others say that "from 1971 to 1993 there wasn't much good port made" (a recent Noval Nacional 1983 would argue with that). I enjoyed this without being knocked over buy it, it had lovely fruit and soft structure and was really drinkable but there wasn't an added dimension lurking there with a savoury edge, good to very good but not great.

The cigar - a Montecristo No4 from DIC (the factory) 2003 (the year it was put in its box) - was delicious, mellow and aged wonderfully, I so rarely get to smoke inside these days that this was a joy, smelling cigar smoke as well as smoking a cigar is magic in my book. The ageing of the smoke makes so much difference, it was a terrific end to a very memorable evening.

And that, as they (who?) say, was that...wonderful...certainly not my average tuesday!

Movember - Team "La Tache"

2011-11-15T00:04:00.000-08:00

At C&B we have created Team La Tache for the great movement that is MOVEMBER

Team page http://uk.movember.com/mospace/team/

We are very proud, as it stands, to have between the 15 of us, raised £7224 which ranks us 14th in the UK at present as a team. This is no token effort under the leadership of teamleader Hartley (below)! A few other photos below!

Robusto Sampler 2 - My first H.Upmann Connoisseur No 1

2011-11-14T00:23:00.000-08:00

Second from my Robusto Sampler pack was a cigar I have never had before – H.Upmann Connoisseur No1 – I had always slightly dismissed Upmann when I first got in to cigars, ten or more years ago, as being beginners Cubans and not much more. I have been corrected on this recently by cigar friends and also by having a couple of cracking magnum 46’s – one from 2010 and one from 2001. This is a serious marque on great form at the moment.
This was a great smoke, fabulous rich colour with a lovely waxy texture, the draw was a touch tight but very consistent and with a good amount of smoke. The initial flavour was terrific and stayed well throughout the smoke there was no harshness at all even towards the end. This is not a heavy or rich cigar but is all the greater for it. This is all about balance and mellow (but not light) tea and leather characteristics, it reminded me of a bottle of wine that when tasted seems nothing spectacular but when actually drunk is just lovely, the bottle and this cigar both “slip down” a treat…90-92points and will be better with time too, I will be re-visiting this.

Robusto Sampler 1 - Por Larranaga

2011-11-07T00:55:00.000-08:00

About a week ago a "sampler" of 12 different Robusto's, all Cubans, arrived. For my own benefit I have decided to do a brief blog of each so I can draw conclusions and decide what to buy more of.
First up was the Por Larranaga. Now this is the very first cigar I have from PL let alone the first PL Robusto. It was only made as a Regional Release hence the second band below with says "Exclusivio Asia Pacificio". Each region or market has different exclusive releases each year. This is different from the LE (Limitada Edicion) which is a cigar made for all markets but in a specific year and a specific amount, the band for these is black and gold.
I smoked this while we had a small and slightly underwhelming fireworks display at home. My overall impression was of an enjoyably mild, mellow smoke with hints of straw and hay. The flavour built a little but it stayed at the mild end of things. The construction and burn was good, this was a little under packed and had a slightly open draw but nothing severe. I had a glass of red (Roero 07, M.Corregio) whilst smoking it and that worked well. If I have this again I would be tempted to have it in the morning with coffee or on an afternoon walk (or golfing / horseracing) as it was slightly too mild for post dinner. If you want a score then 88-89 would be about it.
Background to the Marque: (from http://cigars.co.uk)

The name Por Larrañaga, which means “By Larrañaga”, was first registered in Havana by a certain Ignacio Larrañaga in 1834. It is the oldest brand of hand made Habanos still in production. For much of the 19th century and into the early part of 20th the brand was owned by the Rivero family, who built its reputation for the highest quality particularly amongst the royal houses, the rich and the famous of that time. Its golden ring attracted the attention of Rudyard Kipling who, in his 1890 poem “The Betrothed”, asserted that “There’s peace in a Larrañaga.” (This poem also contains the immortal, if obscure, line “And a woman is only a woman but a good cigar is a smoke”). In the 1950s and 1960s Por Larrañaga’s factory in Havana was a magnet for the finest cigar rollers in Cuba. It gained a standing for the unrivalled quality of it cigars and its reputation lives on today in the small range of standard Por Larrañaga sizes, which are now made at the La Corona factory in its new location at 520 Avenida 20 de Mayo.

Lunch @ Koffmann's

2011-10-26T08:48:00.001-07:00

Today was a tale of two Burgundies at Koffmann's in the Berkeley Hotel. It was great chance to have a long overdue catch up one of my oldest and best mates in the trade (a clue? He shares his name with a character in some TV show called "The Simpsons" apparently). But also to try Koffmann's which I have heard good things about and been recommended on a few occasions. The service was good, attentive but relaxed and friendly with out being OTT.

Boringly, or sensibly, as it turned out we both went for the very same food Squid Bolognese - where every bit of the dish is made from the squid so what looks like pasta ribbons is not - and Goose...these were both excellent and went well with the two bottles we had. We had agreed I would do red and he would do white.

So white first Corton Charlemagne 2002 from Henri Boillot, I know Corton-Charlemagne well under the guise of Bonneau du Matray but do not know Boillot well. This was slightly how I would imagine a top Meursault producer making Corton would see things (and lets face it Mr Coche Dury does that just a bit well). The bottle was a good one with poise but also richness...very enjoyable and looking good when we revisited it with cheese at the end.

The red I took was Clos de Tart 2001, always nice to have two Grand Crus on a wednesday I find(!!). I have a real soft spot for this wine (and will admit professional bias too) as I think it is a marker for the return of the Domaine to its rightful quality level. Sylvain Pitiot took over running the Domain in 1996 and upped everything immediately but I feel the 2001 is from where you can really see the lift. I also love red 2001 Burgundies generally, they are so "Pinot", so fine and so fragrant and also so wonderfully different from the 2002's, which are more masculine, savoury and animal. This was really singing and all the better for being nicely cool. I am a big fan of Anthony Hanson's (MW) 20 minute Burgundy rule - reds in the fridge for 20 mins and whites come out for 20 mins...makes a great difference to getting everything out of the wine...

Anyway this wasn't meant to be a long post...if you get the chance go to Koffmann's (corkage £22 a bottle)...and I recommend both those wines!

2009 Sauternes...

2011-10-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

Having just been at the UGC (Union de Grand Crus) Bordeaux 2009 tasting I thought I would quickly jot down my thoughts on the Sauternes. There were so many people crammed in around the "big" name reds that I only tasted a few of them that I have a little stock of before realising that it would be a great chance to taste a range Sauternes from one vintage and get a feel for house styles etc. 2009 is not by common agreement a stellar year (like say 2001 or 2007) for Sauternes but it is a good year and a rich one with lots of Botrytis. A few recent bottles of aged (and very high quality) Sauternes have really re-enforced my feeling that these are brilliant wines and in relative terms good value. I have scored them out of 20 to focus my mind.

Bastor Lamontagne - A rich nose but with a good floral edge too, honey and cream the prevalent notes. Fresh and not over the top, I would imagine a high proportion of Sauvignon. Impressive. (17.5)

Climens - Very high levels of Botrytis here, a combination of Crème Brulee and Orange rind on the nose a rich palate two with oak showing bt in a good way, rich and intense style. Opposite style to the Bastor and goes to show why Climens is so highly regarded.(18)

Coutet - Floral on the nose with a note or caramel too, a little simplistic as a whole but still good. (16.5)

de Fargues - Shortbread and honey on the nose, rich and fuller (up there with the Climens on that front) as I always de Fargues to be.a dash of orange rind again as well.(17.75)

Rayne Vigneau - Awful gold label (not that that matters of course). Nose a little subdues but then an uplifting palate with a dash of pineapple.(16)

Doisy Daene - A really sulphurous bottle that made it hard to assess so I will wait for another time, texture seemed good but unfair to score it.(?)

Doisy Vedrines - Very balanced nose with both honey and fruit (tropical and orchard), rich with good acidity there too, impressive, one of the stars.(18)

Guiraud - A serious and slightly closed nose with lots of Botrytis on the plate more than the nose. Very good although somehow I expected more.(17)

La Tour Blanche - Lovely delicately fruited nose, nothing like as bold as Climens or de Fargues, good texture. (16.75)

Nairac - Vanilla and Creme Brulee nose, very full-on, a more oxidative, rancio style, very full and quite old school, hits the ground running, not to be aged in the longer term I'd have thought (but may well be wrong).(16)

Sigalas Ribaud - Good relatively straight-forward nose, good depth, a little simple at this stage, would love to re-taste.(16)

Suduiraut - Very full-on rich creamy nose, lots of Botrytis vanilla notes along with hint of orange rind, sample was a little warmer than it might have been, good wine.(17)

As a range they were impressive and the high Botrytis probably masks the fact that there is also decent underlying acidity. As it is a vintage that will probably move very little in price over the years I look forward to trying them again.

Royal Hospital Road courtesy of "Newcastle"...

2011-10-05T01:17:00.001-07:00

Given some of the truly memorable lunches and dinners that I have been lucky enough to go to and the fact that I am only 35 it may seem a little premature to say the below was one of the great lunches of my life but frankly it just was and I am confident it will remain that way. I have been trying to think of how to write it up. There was just so much good food and truly exceptional wine over the nearly 6 hours that it would become tedious or worse arrogant to write it as one great long meal. I think I will do the food then the wines. The menu was selected by "Newcastle" who had done a lot of work on it and provided all the wines. To say this meal was ALL down to him is totally correct and is something I am very grateful for. So the food:

To start Pressed foie gras with peppered Madeira jelly, smoked duck, Peach & almond crumble...you can see this with the Prums...simply delicious and in the best of proportions.
Up next was Stuffed pig’s trotter with veal sweetbread, parsley, Dijon mustard, warm apple sauce & ‘Waldorf salad’ with reds, don't panic we went back to whites which was a great tactic for a long meal, one for the note book. This was simply amazing, I am not going to describe it as I am too greedy with great food to make notes but it was spot on! Then back to whites we had one of the extreme highs - Fillet of turbot with truffle linguine, Scottish langoustine & cep - which for a bit of an Italianophile like me was stunning, a bit of everything in the dish...with the dry, and German, whites behind us we were into carnivore territory, Roasted grouse, foie gras, savoy cabbage, girolles, liver pâté & bread sauce the wines (two burgs and another wine as below) with this course were fascinatingly diverse and therefore I paid slightly less attention to the food...I can't say that for the next course which was brilliant, very traditional and simple, all the better for it, the sight of several of us gnawing on the bones must have been amusing, the full dish was - Côte de Boeuf, bone marrow, sauce choron and red wine jus from here it was - Selection of cheeses - to mop up the brilliant reds and get started on the Port. I have to say I am not always a fan of cheeses in the middle of a marathon meal but this worked. A brief interlude to wipe the palate came in the form of - Green apple, basil & lime sorbet & wild strawberries - before the Sauternes came along with a brilliant - Caramelised Tarte Tartin of apples with vanilla ice cream - that was the sort of pudding you could eat until you're ill.

So with the food described what about the wines? We started with a magnum of 1995 Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs Tattinger, I had never had this vintage before, my only comparison is Salon 1995 that I know pretty well, I am a fan of the 1995's they aren't the 1996's in classicism but have a wonderful apply acidity and freshness, I really enjoyed this perfect apertif.

A pair of Prums followed - 1982 & 1983 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel - we had all the wines after the Champagne blind. Both of these two were in great condition and tasting younger than they are. I think my thoughts were that the 1983 was a Auslese GK and the 1982 was a straight Auslese or even Spatlese. In age I had the 1982 as being 5 years older than the 1983. I am happy with these guesses as it is, at least, logical. The 1982 was wonderful, slightly drier and a dash more tangy, but the 1983 was magnificent - the best Riesling I have ever had - everything you wanted from the Mosel and with decades ahead of it. There was a theme that happily went on through the whole meal here...all the bottles absolutely sang, a rarity.

We went to red now for the first time with a trio of wines in Burgundy glasses - 2002 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru, DRC, 1990 Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, Dujac & 1955 Barolo Riserva Monfortino, Giacomo Conterno - The first two were clearly red Burgs and I was relieved to call the Monfortino as Barolo, I went for a second tier producer (wrong!) and a wine from the 1960's may be '64 or '67, good enough for me. In fairness if you have had old Nebbiolo then it was not hard to spot, it was also almost orange really really interesting, I loved it. The two Burgs were much harder, I had their ages way out thinking the 2002 was more like a 1990 and the 1990 more mature still. Also if I had to spot one of them as DRC wine then I would have gone with the 1990. They were both very good and clearly Grand Cru. I do find that 2002 reds in general are more prone to the farmyardy style and more "degraded" than many other vintages of 9 years old tend to be, this is not to say they have aged prematurely as the intensity is there they are just far more like that. The opposite of the less serious but brilliantly precise and youthful 2001's. The 1990 was a serious wine, impresive.

We are now staying with Burgundy but moving to the white side of things with - 1996 Meursault Perrières 1er cru, J-F Coche-Dury, 1996 Meursault Perrières 1er cru, Comtes Lafon & 1988 Montrachet Grand Cru, Domaine Ramonet - this was a fascinating trio. The best showing I have ever witnessed by a Lafon, I've just been a bit unlucky over the years. The Coche was brilliant, isn't it always (?), although it was suggested by others not to be as good a bottle as we'd had previously but only by a fraction if at all. The Montrachet had an amazing almost Botrytis nose that I've often found in my fairly limited Montrachet experience, it appears to come from the fact that Montrachet is often very late picked, a dash of overripeness. The acidity was good on it though and staggering to think it is 23 years old. We had these blind and my guess was that they were all Grand Cru, they certainly had the quality, - one Chevalier one Batard and one Bienvenues Batard - or such like, age wise I was early 1990's so 1990 or 1992 as they were clearly from a fine vintage. I kept my glass of Montrachet and it got better and better.
The next pair were Rhones and Guigal's at that - 1998 Côte Rôtie ‘La Turque’ &
1996 Côte Rôtie ‘La Landonne’ - These were on cracking form and I nearly made a mistake I have made before but stopped myself and said Rhone. The mistake is that there is something in the oak used by Guigal on these top wines that always makes me think of Haut Brion, anyway know that I know it can be quite helpful because when I think it is one or the other you can quickly tell which from the texture these are undeniably great and impressive wines, I am not sure if they are totally my thing but I have limited experience and there is (or should be) a place in every top cellar for this style and character. Very youthful even at 13 and 15 years of age, almost primary.

The next four wines I think have to have formed the best quad of mature Bordeaux I have ever had in one sitting - 1970 Château Petrus, 1966 Château Lafeur, 1964 Château Latour, & 1955 Château Mouton Rothschild - The Petrus was in some way the odd one out it was youthful, funky, almost tropical in character a truly remarkable bottle but somehow less Bordelais that the others. The Lafleur was exquisite in every way...perfect Pomerol at a perfect stage in its evolution. The Latour was just so Latour and I love it for it...very Pauillac, ultra classical and better than it should have been and then for the Mouton 1955. It was very well pointed out around the table that when Mouton was made a first growth (1973) this was the sort of wine that the decision would have been judged on and I can see why the upgrade came. It was vibrant, fresh, almost with that mint element still there, rich but not heavy a masterpiece. I have to mention the vintage now as I have has several 1955's recently - Trotanoy, Haut Brion amongst them - it is a seriously good and reliable vintage and the sort of year that makes me wonder what the Bordeaux of today will taste like in 56 years time.

A bottle port- 1983 Quinta do Noval Nacional - was an impromptu addition. I have never had Nacional before and as port was what first got me into wine, simple names and not many vintages, I was excited. With the taste buds waning a bit I made a strong mental note to remember this, it was supremely good, rich but balanced young but so ready as well as having years ahead of it...I must drink more port! It's a steal after all.

The final three wines were - 1947 Château Climens, 1938 Château d’Yquem & 1935 Château Filhot - a specialist subject of our host and a growing interest of mine hence next blog on 2009 Sauternes. I was a little past note making but loved them all. I made two mental observations. Firstly, that the Filhot was amazingly good and far bolder than I could imagine their wines now becoming as them seem to have gone for a lighter style now, not that this was heavy but it was intense. Secondly, that it was hard to tell which of the other two was Yquem which is normally relatively easy. Having had a few Climes now 1971 and 2001 amongst them there is no doubt that Climens is staggeringly good. All this has to be put in context though with '47 a great vintage and '35 less so and '38 even less so.

A truly exception lunch was over but not before we met the chef and saw the full line up in the Kitchen. The service and style of the whole team at Royal Hospital Road was superb. I am sure that I write for all the guests (Halifax and Suffolk featured her as before), we were 7 in total, when I say thank again to Newcastle for his generosity and organisation...the only problem now is whatever next?!?! A good problem...

Monprivato 1970-1990...

2011-09-29T01:24:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night was Monprivato night at the Maltings Cafe http://www.maltingscafe.co.uk/ run by Sam Harris of Zucca fame. The tasting was attended by a familiar collection of merchants & brokers and hosted/organised by Eric “Barolo Guru” Sabourin. For me as a Barolo fan this has been looming large in the diary for a fair while. My knowledge of Monprivato being fairly limited to recent bottles of 1986, 2003 & 2006. I guess what I wanted to know was how good is the vineyard and is it in my opinion, when mature, a first growth/Grand Cru?

The format was 6 pairs of wines with just some bread to keep the palate going. I scored out of 20 which I have put below, I found scoring them tricky because you have to be aware that amongst wines of this age some bottles will show differently from others. There was one curve ball thrown in but a very interesting and totally logical one.

So Monprivato, the info is essentially here - http://cadmorissio.com/pagine/eng/prodotti_produzione_vinicola/barolo_monprivato.lasso but it is interesting to note that it took from 1967 to 1970 for Mauro Mascarello to convince his father that a single vineyard wine was a good idea, they had always blended this in with other vineyard holdings. This tasting was of wines from between 1970 & 1990 so was all “like for like” from 1993 there has been a wine - CA' d' MORISSIO – made from a part of the vineyard in some vintages but this is not relevant here.

Before staring we had some Ayala NV sans dosage, decent and Moreish. So the tasting…oldest to youngest, all the wines had been double decanted and had time (2hr or so to settle).

1970 Rich strong firm colour, surprisingly so, a savoury bacon edge to the nose but also fruit and freshness. Structure good and masculine too, fruit more black than red. Impressive, will keep but I don’t think it’ll change or evolve much more as the structure and fruit seem locked in the same balance. Good start (18).
1976 Lighter, browner, slightly “bricky” colour. Bovril and frazzles on the nose, fully mature and a nice example of aged Nebbiolo but a bit out of its league here (15-16).

1978 Dense colour with a little brown. Deep and darkly rich nose. Reminded me of struck matches and mushrooms. Brooding and masculine in style, has grunt to it. Very good (18+).
1979 Fascinating to have this next to the 1978. Lighter more feminine, fragrant and very good. Like Volnay next to Chambertin. Redder fruit, impressive especially for the vintage (17).

1982 Mid colour with a touch of everything about it. This was deeply impressive. Red fruit and gorgeous balance, everything in check, lively acidity, great wine (19).
1984 An awful vintage but this was a more than decent wine. A bit of soy and Worcester sauce. I put “no faults but no charm”, probably one of the best 1984’s I’ve had from anywhere! (16.5).

1985 The curve ball – this was Monprivato 1985 from Brovia – they sold their tiny (less than an acre) plot to Mascarello in 1991 so 1990 was their last vintage. This had a different texture/profile to the Mascarello’s which is no problem (I am a big Brovia fan). It had a dash of Christmas cake and spice with a finish that reminded me of Palo Cortado (17.75)
1985 The “real” Monprivato 1985, a lighter redder colour, a salty tangy to the wine that I liked. Like the 1982 in profile and made you want the 1982 again, good if rougher round the edges than the ‘82 (18).

1986 A spicy soy-ish edge to the nose, green pepper and more spice too. “Feminine but butch” someone said and I get the idea. My note here doesn’t do it justice, very good (18.5).
1988 I have written “dash of ketchup” which is strange, this was more than decent but not in the top few wines (17.25).

1989 This final pair was very good as you’d expect. I got a lovely balanced nose but with a definite crème brulee element to it. Vibrant and fresh it gave a slightly immortal feeling, very hi-toned, a star (19.25).
1990 A more evolved nose, still complex, good fruit but it was the palate that this wine took off, very impressive and expressive, sweetness and depth (18.5).

As an aside there was also a bottle 1971 that Eric felt was not good enough to show, it was not perfect but it was interesting, closewst to the 1970/78 in style, so a more masculine wine.

So what of the Monprivato vineyard? As far as I am concerned it is definitely a Grand Cru, the quality was very high and there is a real sense of place to the wines…it was deeply impressive.

After the tasting we had a great selection of food that Sam had created, I ate far too much to quickly but then that’s just my greed. We had a double mag of Fontalloro 1997 to accompany it, this was delicious, balanced, vibrant but mellowed from the bit of age…a good choice.

Bravo all round Eric & Sam!

Cigars and Lunch

2011-09-21T00:25:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a busy but good day...after clearing the decks in the office I headed over to the West End to meet up with Nick Hammond, a cigar journalist and blogger amongst many other things, for a discussion about wine and cigars and what we could do togther...a few good ideas for articles and tastings popped up and more will follow. After that coffee I still had 20mins before needing to head off to lunch so accompanied nick to Sauters of Mount Street (a great bunch of people with a website well worth viewing if cigars are your thing). The trip there was made all the better by the fact that Berta Corzo was there rolling cigars on the spot. Nick fired one up but as I had a lunch to follow I have mine for the next available smoking slot. A Robusto in size from a blend (the tobacco was flown in for Berta's arrival) similar to Cohiba but a little richer in flavour and aroma. I can't wait to smoke it, it smells awesome and looks immaculate.

Having left Nick herfing away I jumped on the jubilee line to London Bridge and walked to Zucca, my favourite restaurant (see Decanters October issue for glowing review) to have lunch with a customer. The food was great as ever, if you go make sure you order at least 2 starters a head and share, it is the only way to do it. The wines were St.Peray 2009 from Michel Tardieu (Tardieu-Laurent) a blend of 50:50 Marsanne:Roussane, it has great fruit, a balanced nod to oak and good acidity. I am not famed for my love of Rhone whites but that is changing and the reason is wines like these (I still can't "do" Viognier though). The red was obvioulsy Barolo, one I have not had before - Capellano Gabutti 1996 - at a lovely stage now, just opening up, good fruit, great balance and a wiff of healthy decay...great stuff. I was delighted when my friend said he couldn't eat cheese as Zucca's tarts (and other puddings) are great! Didn't need much supper after all this...

Solaia @ Massimo's thanks to "Sussex"

2011-09-15T00:33:00.000-07:00

Sussex (referred to in other posts) decided very generously - he supplied almost all the wines with a couple of bottles from the UK agents - that a Solaia Verticle at Massimos (pictured below) was a good idea. You won't find me disagreeing with that. For several reasons; I've very little experience of the wine, that is a fair sized omission for an Italian-wine-ophile, several of the people going are good buddies and thirdly I've not been to Massimo's before despite several people saying I should.

The evening started, as is only sensible!!, with a Jero of Krug Grand Cuvee. But not just any Jero, this one was signed by Olivier Krug. It was still quite taut very good for getting the hunger going but will still improve, youthful but very Krug. This was served with a selection of Mixed Crudo, all delicious. We then had the first of two Italian whites an oaked but balanced and good 2009 Miani Banel Sauvignon Blanc, it had good dose of freshness but also a waxy element. The second white was, richer but not with the desired freshness, a 2008 Jermann IGT Were Dreams. Interesting but no more than that. The two whites were served with Lobster with cherry tomato salad Crispy scallops with lentils and delicious Octopus.

We then moved on to Pasta with Ragu and the first flight of Solaia’s – 1990, 1997 & 2004 – The 1990 was a little funky, sweaty and a little bricky a good bit of proper Italian decay but then actually went t Bovril aromas a little too quickly. It may well have been great straight out the bottle but the more air it saw the more it lost any fruit. The 1997 was one of the two wines on the night that was a little closed and angular but that did improve in glass (the 1996 being the other), I liked this without there being any major wow factor. The 2004 (from magnum) was a very proper wine, quite decadent and lush but also tightly structured, a bit of green pepper, very Cabernet…impressive

With the delicious secondi Piatti - Rack of Lamb (see right) with spicy fregola, chickpeas and passion fruit sauce – we then had the 1994 & 1996 – the 1994 was the most pleasant surprise of the evening and apparently is a wine Piero Antinori often uses when showing off the estate. It had superb balance, was really moreish, complex and at a lovely stage. The 1996 was, as mentioned above, a little more taut but it did over time give more aroma away, it was the one wine that really needed the decanting.

The last trio was 1978, 1982 & 1985 with cheese. The 1978 was the one wine of the night that had elements of tertiary character, it had a more Burgundian feel (relatively speaking), very balanced and elegant. The 1982 was disappointing, a slightly strange confected nose of almost marshmallowiness and then a dried out finish, this is a little too negative but against the 78 and 85 this was the lesser wine. The 1985 was interesting as there were two bottles but one very much better that the other, luckily I had the better one and it was lovely it had a weird note of almost toffee without being sweet, good length and very slick, not quite the balance of the 1978 but very good.

The overall feeling in the room was that the 1978 was the pick and the 2004 had great potential. I love the 1994 for its balance and would love to try the 1985 again. My overall feeling on Solaia from this one tasting (that is not enough for a definite view) is that it is a very good wine but not necessarily a great one.

I haven’t majored on the food or venue but both were excellent, the private room comes highly recommended as the cooking is all done in there against you.

Thanks again to “sussex”

Some days you just have to...

2011-09-06T05:44:00.000-07:00

There are some days when the wine trade is like any other trade, spreadsheets and problems but I'm lucky and most days have things to really look forward to. That was definitely the case last monday. I've been looking forward to a dinner in November with Katharina Prum @ Nobu but when the chance to go with Alison (Buyer) and taste the menu with a couple of Prums - Kabinett 2007 & Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese 2009 - I amazingly managed to clear my diary!

En route I managed to drop in on Sautters of Mount Street to say hello. This all came about after a bit of bantering on Twitter. I picked up a Bolivar Petit Belicoso LE 2009 and a Flor de Cano Short Robusto. Been wanting to try the former for a while and the later again - even if it is a stupidly small smoke.

So on to lunch, we had 6 courses to go through and had chosen the two wines above as they meant we could cover all bases of sweetness. The dinner in November will feature 9 wines - an aperitif and 4 pairs. The six courses were:

Seabass Tiradito - in essence a carpaccio with lemon and seas salt and some coriander, lots of flavours, I loved it but was worried about it with the wines, it was even better with the wines, a great start.
Lobster salad with spicy lemon dressing - a few mushrooms thrown in too, the salad was spot on, the muchrooms had a little warmth and the lobster was chilled, worked very well and was good with either wine, very good.
Rock shrimp tempura with creamy spicy sauce - any one who finds Tempura stodgy or heavy needs to try this imply delicious, dangerously moreish.
Black cod with miso (soaked 72 hrs) - An amazing dish which is very rich but also fresh, the soaking makes the sweetness all encompassing but not OTT, went very well with the sweeter style (Auslese). You then have a good chunk of a specific ginger root that cleans the palate.
Beef Kushiyaki - Kushiyaki basically means skewer, this was delicious and went well with either style of Prum.
Assorted Sushi - I thought this would be strange timing but the thinking is that it cleans the palate and I don't now disagree. I loved it but then I love sushi.

A wonderful monday lunch!!

El Rey del Mundo Tainos 2001

2011-08-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

The first time I have had one of these. A good, proper size at 7 x 47.
The appearance was great, nice richly coloured wrapper and nice oils in it too. The aroma cold was of tea and a little linseed oil…a classy yet mellow aroma.
My initial thoughts: great draw and even burn, lots of cool smoke, it started at light to medium bodied with a woody, tanned tobacco and a touch of vanilla cream (not sweet Vanilla cream). As an aside, I had wondered what a glass of Palo Cortado (E. Lustau) sherry would be like with the cigar..it was awful, not a good combo…anyway I discarded the sherry and cracked on with the smoke.
The first third; stayed at a mellow, medium level with a little hint of spice and a subtle note of nutmeg there was an element of tea loaf there too, not fruit cake but tea loaf, it was hitting its stride.
The second third was to my mind the very best as a nutty note arrived, roasted almonds and (now really going for it) a touch of macadamia.
The final third had a bit for spice and continued well. The post smoke aftertaste was of dates which was un expected. If I had to rate it I would go a mellow but solid 90. The only reason why it is not higher is that I expected a bit more richness.

Partagas Culebras

2011-08-08T00:59:00.001-07:00

One, or should I say three, of the cigars I brought back from the trip to Spain mentioned in my last blog was a Partagas Culebras. I looked up the history of this cigar (on http://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/ ) and it is an interesting one. Until 2005 Culebras was a standard (but machine made) production cigar. Re-released in 2007 as a LCDH cigar and discontinued in 2011 as part of the new policy of releasing LCDH cigars in limited numbers. It is a unique smoke in a physical sense and I was kind of thin king it’d be ok but actually it had a great draw a really good burn and that Partagas spice but if anything a touch more mellow. It was a real joy to smoke, I had forgotten to take a drink into the garden but this cigar was so balanced and enjoyable that it didn’t matter.
The flavour profile didn’t change much but that didn’t matter. I wonder if the other two are going to be as good, no reason why not other than the fact that I know expect them to be good, and from recent wine and cigars tasting this can be dangerous territory. Under promise and over deliver is the best way. Try a Culebras…another reason Partagas is definitely by brand of the moment.

A holiday in Spain...lots of smokes...

2011-08-04T00:53:00.001-07:00

A recent week away with the family and friends in north-eastern Spain, as well as being a great break with loads of food and wine, was a great chance to smoke several cigars. I took a few with me but also found a good cigar man in the town of L’Escala which meant I could take advantage of the good pricing (30-40% cheaper) of Cigars in Spain and try a few new cigars. First up after lunch on the first day was a Cuaba Tradicionales, it had been a while since I had tried a Cuaba and sadly this was not a good start. The look and feel was fine but the construction was so tight at the head that I had to cut about an inch off to get it going, the eventual flavour was ok but by then the smoke was all but done…I have some more so will try again soon. On day two I thought I would put the Cuaba behind be so went for an old Favourite - Hoyo Epicure No2 (pictured) it was on its normal glorious form with some Tawny port after dinner, mellow but not dull. The wrapper was a bit pale and from the “sandpaper” category but flavour excellent. The following night we drove in land for a great dinner at our friends brothers house, rabbit on the bbq as well as more different types of sausages than I think I’ve ever had in one sitting. The wine flowed but at the end of it all it was time for a R&J Short Churchill (picture). This was a cigar I had heard mixed things about but never tried before. I was really impressed and will definitely be getting some more…very classy, a little spice, great construction and a good size (if silly name). The next day it rained proper cats and dogs all day so by the evening it somehow felt wrong to launch into a big cigar so I went for one of my favourites a Partagas Short, this was from a box I am trying to leave for a while but have already smoked 4 of, a slightly loose draw but all that spice and gorgeous Partagas character. I love this cigar as it is small but not a compromise. My mid-afternoon smoke, I was on holiday after all, the following day was the other smaller cigar that I am a massive fan of, the Trinidad Reyes, it is very different from the Partagas, as different as Bordeaux and Burgundy in wine, but as good. Creamier, latte coffee flavours but not too smooth. I have never had a Lancero from Trinidad but I must as I suppose it is the Reyes older brother. I can see those two smaller format cigars being cornerstones of my smoking in years to come, both can be smoked in 20mins or preferably a little longer. Next up after a hot day and large dinner was Partagas Serie P No 2, like the R&J this was a first and also a smoke I had heard mixed things about. This was my highlight of the week smoke wise, really dark oily wrapper I wondered if it was going to be a young monster but it was delicious from the off, dark chocolate but not harsh a real after dinner treat, very impressive and also nicely different from the Serie D No 4 in style…I like the size too, not a massive fan of pyramids but this longer one makes sense, I would love to lay some of these down for 2-5 years. The last but one day of the break saw me in the Cigar shop again to buy a few other sticks I had not tried before, two of which are mentioned after this next one which was a nostalgic choice, Toscanello (pictured), I had to buy a pack when I saw them. I last smoked a Toscanello on honeymoon 12 years ago when I first got into cigars and I remember loving these veined cheroot’s dark, rich, earthy, rustic flavours with Italian Espresso. This time I had it with normal coffee, it would be a great after lunch smoke when you had little time. The other two smokes I bought were Joya de Nicaragua Robusto and Vegas Robaina Famoso (pictured) the former was creamy and light, very easy to smoke, lots of thick smoke, a little one dimensional to be critical but a good smoke and a good choice for a larger ring gauge but at any time of day. The Robaina was disappointing, it had an overly tight draw which is always off putting but even so it smoked very plainly, nothing wrong with the flavours but not enough of anything or any development…I will give Robaina another chance at some stage but this was a shame…so now I can turn my mind to my next smoke which will probably be something like an HdM Epicure No1 I should think…

An Italian day...

2011-08-03T00:30:00.001-07:00

A very Italian day yesterday with a tasting of Andrea Franchetti's two latest sets of wines and then lunch at Zucca...

The tasting was hosted in the office by Alex Burge who works with Andrea on the sales and marketing side. We looked at the wines that C&B last released and then ones we will next release in November (all shown in the photos). As background I buy the Cupole and Passopisciaro every year for myself and normally in large bottle formats - I love large bts and these come in mags as well as double mags!). I was as impressed as ever. I won't go on about the wines as they can all be found on the C&B site but the vintages are both good ones. The Sicilian wines are getting better and better. The Nerello Mascalese grown on slopes of Etna has definite similarities to both Pinot Noir and Nebbiolo - both very good things as far as I am concerned. Andrea produced four single vineyards wines (Contrada is the word for this, a little like Lieu dit in France) in 2009 as he did in 2008 the only shame is that the productions are pathetic. The Tuscan wines were all on great form with real richness but not overly powerful, delicious, Palazzi 2010 possibly sung the most at this stage.

Lunch that followed at Zucca was a good relaxed affair, Alex had kindly given up some holiday time to see us. We had one white and one red. The white was 2007 Chardonnay from Hyde de Villaine in Carneros. I have shown this blind a few times and the elegance and poise always means people say burgundy, Alex thinking Puligny, I though Meursault last time I had it blind. Either way decanted it was delicious with an array of starters (always the way to do it at Zucca). For the red (to go with a mammoth Veal chop in my case) I wasn't going to miss the chance to further explore the wonderful Piedmont list. This time I opted for one of the growers I buy blind for myself every year now - Guiseppe (Beppe) Rinaldi - it was his 2005 Barolo Brunate-Le Coste, I expected it to be enjoyable but obviously too young and whilst I will keep the case or two I have for a long while yet I was staggered at it's balance and openness now...a very classy bottle. If you can find his wines I strongly recommend buying them, failing that get to Zucca and try them there.

Then just as I was about to post this blog Mr Bird, plonked a glass on my desk, it was totally delicious, sweet but with real balance obviously not young but not old either, I had an inkling of Sauternes but settled on it not being...it was Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Vendage Tardive 1999 from Zind Humbrecht, seriously good so I went to see what else was in the tasting room and there was the "same" wine but the Selection des Grain Nobles (SGN) but from half bottle. I like this too but the added sweetness to my mind slightly affected the balance...those that love SGN's will certainly love this...

a big eating day...

2011-07-19T08:23:00.001-07:00

Wednesday was a good day from the eating and drinking standpoint first up was lunch with MrMead. As he is off to HK soon to join the C&B team out there it seemed a good idea to have a catch up over a couple of bottles and where better than my favorite...Zucca? So with a selection of courses we had the two bottles photographed. Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Les Cras 1990 from Barthod (a kind donation from Meado), the wine was a little closed but very good. The cheesecloth nose left and you had a good dollop of red fruit on the palate. It was one of those bottles that made you keeping questioning it to see it develop. I don't know the house style but I enjoyed this a lot without it really singing, to be fair we were chatting away so it worked well. Next up was a bottle off the list - if you have not been and love Italian wine thengo, awesome list at great prices and this is not a "suppliers view - Barolo Margheria 1996 Massolini. The sommelier said very honestly that the last bottle of this he had served was a bit tired but that it may have been just the bottle. I was keen to try this producer so we decided to risk it. The colour instantly suggested this was not tired, a strong but honest colour. It was closed and started me wondering what sort of a tasting day it was. As with the Chambolle it was very honest and had good fruit but it never quite sang. Very good balance and the structure you would expect of a "classical" (overused wine word but there you go) Barolo vintage like the 1996. The food with these was great as usual, fresh, varied flavors and always interesting without trying to be novel for the sake of it. The thing I also love about the food is however much you eat you never leave stuffed and sleepy... something I do when I eat very traditional french food at lunchtime, reduction sauces etc. A very good meal and personally a nice send off for Meado even though he doesn't go for a month or so.

The evening was a different venue - Pearl. I had not been before. I was dining with a German wine merchant who was in town and who I had not met before. It turned out to be a great evening. A lot of chat a lot of similarities between his business and the one I work in and therefore a lot of people we both knew. Meeting interesting people is, for me, aside from the wine, the great thing about the wine trade. We'll be staying in touch as it is always good to have allies to bounce ideas off. What did we drink? A glass each of Deutz Blanc de Blancs NV which was excellent, not a house I know well but a lovely style and from the taste not skimping on a bit of time in the bottle which should be applauded loudly. We followed this with a bottle of Hyde de Villaine Chardonnay 2007 which (I am biased as we are agents) I am loving at the moment (not to say it won't age, it will). The style is more Burgundian that most US Chardonnays or at least the perceived style...I'd like to the think things are changing on the over oaked style. The food was good but for me a little fussy. I think we chose well as we stuck to fish dishes. I had then wanted to have the Volnay 1er Cru Champans 2004 from d'Angerville - I think they make good wines in more difficult years and 2004 was that for reds - but sadly the bottle had sold earlier that day. Instead we had a safe but unremarkable Chambolle 1er Cru 2006, unremarkable enough that I can not remember the Cru or the grower..shame on me but as with lunch the chat on this day out shone the bottle.

Anyway next week is holiday in northern Spain I can't wait, after a slog through En primeur 2010 it'll be good to relax...corkscrew, cigars and flip flops are packed so I'm ready!

Khvanchkara 2003...

2011-07-18T09:02:00.000-07:00

When I opened this yesterday at home (Mrs H had been given it) I was pleasantly surprised but just could get past wondering what on earth I would have thought it was if I had tasted it blind.
So what better way to find out than to bring it to work, put it in another bottle in the tasting room and see what people thought. The answer ranged from old piedmont - this guess was probably becasue it was me bringing it in - to the logical Banyuls via Port. The nose is Port-like in fruit character but the palate is far lighter (alchohol is in the 10.5-12 range) a real confusing one. I would serve it slighly chilled if I had it again. It worked quite well with a Montecristo Petit Edmundo (2010). Oh well, one for the memory bank.
The novelty helped me get over Banimpire's very close defeat in the Irish Oaks!

Beer and Cigar after Golf....now that's an afternoon

2011-07-14T08:41:00.001-07:00

With the En Primeur Bordeaux campaign all but over, I took wednesday afternoon off to have a round of golf with a mate from the trade (who gets a mention on other posts as my Barolo Guru) at Wimbledon Park, a lovely course right opposite the Wimbledon Tennis Club and all its massive stands. The round was great fun with a narrow victory. I only seem to play once a year these days and as a result just relax and enjoy it with low expectations. After we had finished it was still too early to go for the curry we had decided on so we had an hour to kill in the evening sun over a couple of pints of Youngs and a pair of H.Upman 46's that my mate had brought along. The were bought in Geneva and are from either 2000 or 2001. I was excited about this. I am increasingly buying some cigars to lay down so any opportunity to smoke a stick with some age on it is welcomely received. They were in great shape with a subtle aroma when unlit. The cigar itself was creamy with a lovely mellow almost chocolate taste about it. The construction was good and the bun lovely. The ash a very pale almost white shade that you get with age. All in all a great hour putting the world to rights (is that spelt the other way?) which is exactly what cigars are about.

On the aging cigars front I have chosen to start by aging two boxes, Partagas Shorts and the "new" Flor de Cano Short Robustos. My thinking being that there may not be that many chances to get the Flor de Cano and with the Partagas I think it is a good idea to age some smaller smokes as they will offer more flexibility in the future and I think it is a mistake to only age the bigger smokes.

Three do the Harwood Arms with some bottles...

2011-07-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

Last thursday evening was a dinner I had been looking forward to for a while. A new venue to me but from the amount of people who know it well I am obviously in a minority there - http://www.harwoodarms.com/ famed for the venison scotch edge, which was excellent.

The three of us all took bottles along. I have to admit I was somewhat outgunned! Ian took to 2002 white Burgs from the village of Puligny, one a 1er Cru and one a Grand Cru. My Volnay was in the middle and then Peter brought two blind reds....The two whites where served up blind. We did relatively well on getting to Burgundy and getting to the level but beyond that it was just time to enjoy them, they were:

2002 Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Garenne, Bize - More open and a rich than the Grand Cru that followed. A very nice bottle and I think roughly where you would want this wine to be on its evolution. It is not a producer I know at all really but was a lovely bottle.

2002 Bienvenues Batard Montrachet, Paul Pernot - This was a real step up, very clean and precise, with a way to go, lovely acidity and freshness, initially I had been thinking more Chablis Grand Cru than down in the heart of white Burgundy and I still think that was a decent logical conclusion. I would guess the oak was very under played here, it developed very well over the meal too, classy stuff.

Next up was my bottle served blind a fraction warmer than ideal which made it harder for the guys, they did well though.

Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets 2007, d'Angerville (not in the picture!) - The reason I chose this was that I like 2007's and love Volnay (Lafarge and Angerville being best IMO). I have recently had the Champans and Taillepieds 2007 and loved both so wanted to try this. No disappointment here. It was delicious fresh red fruit, pretty but with substance. It won't make "old bones" but is well worth a try.

It was then Peter's turn to preoduce his reds, both blind and both from decanters. The first was from a batch of 7 bottles he had bought, from the two he had had so far one was ok the other excellent.

1982 Clos de Beze, Rousseau - This bottle was a strange one to drink, ultimately it was wonderful fun and a good drink too. The initial nose had a touch of the cheese cloth about it. Ian and I both guessed it was much older than it was. We were back in the 60's or so. The nose was delicate and the palate a touch hidden initially but developed later. The one element that remained the whole time was a wonderful fresh and precise, delicately red fruit finish that was very fine. The bottle got a lot better with more time in glass and was fascinating. Just you try and find any to buy anywhere...

1989 Cote Rotie La Landonne 1989, Guigal - Just goes to show that time in the trade means nothing sometimes, Ian and I were both convinced that this was Haut Brion from a good maturing vintage like 89/90, I think I first said "that is Haut Brion" so I will shoulder most of the blame. A little like the Grand Cru Chablis that turned out to be Bienvenues Batard I am at least pleased with the logic here and can safely say I don't mind the mistake. The wine was exceptionally good, very youthful given it is/was 22 years old. The oak is still quite clearly there but not over powering, this wine is a puppy and will make a lot of people happy over a lot of years. It was my first "mature" La Landonne from Guigal.

We finished with a sweet from Bonny Doon but the evening had been all about the five wines above, great fun too, a lot of chat and banter, particularly when Ian and I debated (actually it was more a case of alternate rants) the future of the wine trade...all good stuff.

The Harwood Arms was very good, relaxed and had good service of food and wines!

A Cigar revelation...

2011-07-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Another nice weekend of pottering around at home, bit of exercise and a lot of racing to watch plus a nice smoke each evening to look forward to!

Both smokes were a first for me and both bought about 10 days ago. The first was El Rey del Mundo Choix de L Epoque 2009 (4 3/8 by 52) this was a “UK only” release back in 2009. I have always wanted to really like El Rey del Mundo, especially the Choix Supreme which I think is a great size of smoke - basically a Robusto but a 48 gauge instead of 50, but for whatever reason it has never quite clicked for me as a brand. I really enjoyed this smoke without it being exciting, it was smooth and not that rich, I wanted a bit more spiciness from it. It burned well and kept a good flavour going but that flavour didn’t really develop, good but no more than 16/20. One try is never fair with cigars or wine so I will try again at some stage.

Sunday afternoon was time for a Partagas 8-9-8 (unvarnished – the box not the cigar!) late released from 1999 – this is a great size (6 1/8 by 42) , 45-50 minutes worth of smoking whilst reading the Sunday racingpost (heaven to me!). This smoked and burnt like a dream, full but very mellow, complex too. I will definitely be buying more. It is the first properly aged cigar I have had and like wine I will now be starting to “lay down“ a few boxes with Partagas amongst them.

Weekend of a few Smokes...

2011-06-26T23:52:00.000-07:00

After a quite boozy week of mostly (very good) Barolo I thought it would be a low key weekend from a booze point of view. So with some decent weather and a festival to go to, not Glastonbury but Summer Soulstice in Barnet, it turned into a good weekend for a few more smokes than normal. Having predicted I would only have one on Saturday I went for a Partagas Serie D No4 (from a 2008 Box), so far these have been great and this one certainly was too, rich and full but not OTT, savoury and a little spicy, cracking smoke, which explains the almost burnt fingers. I later fancied another smoke and only had with me a Trinidad Reyes (2009 box). This is one of my very best smokes at the moment and a really great post lunch smoke in particular. I thought it might get “drowned” by the larger richer Partagas but it just had a very different texture and flavour profile, more mocha and cream, it worked well and remains a firm favourite.

I suppose the most exciting smoke of the weekend was the just released - La Flor de Cano Short Robusto Limited release – lots has been written about this new release so see http://www.cigars.co.uk/news/latest-images-la-flor-de-cano-short-robusto for background. The draw was excellent, almost, but not quite, too easy, there was a dash of sweetness to the initial flavour then it got deeper and deeper and quite rich. It is a quality smoke with overall medium richness, for my palate it was a little in need of a couple of years to mellow out – I am finding this a lot and think it is just me, it is an exciting smoke and well worth adding to any collection. I have a few aged smokes lined up for next weekend. I may try to go to the Coral Eclipse and Sandown and fancy So You Think to get back on track with a win at the expense of Workforce.

Not bad for a Monday

2011-06-21T04:46:00.001-07:00

A rather unusually good Monday night with a couple of colleagues/friends and a mate at No1 Lombard Street – we were very well looked after by Matt, great food, service and care for the wines, but I am afraid this will be all about the wines rather than food.

We started with Delamotte Blanc de Blancs 2002 which has just been released, it is tight right now as you would expect and really want it to be. Still delicious it is best kept another 2 years before being in no rush to drink, at about the same price as Grand Marque NV this is a great Champagne. We then moved on to Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clavoillon 2004 from Domaine Leflaive, decanted, this was great, I wondered how open it would be, it was at a lovely stage, gunflint on the nose and then good fruit – I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

One of the main reasons for the gathering was to show some great older Piedmont wines, these were supplied by my mate and Barolo Guru. All three were in immaculate condition and showed three things brilliantly: A fully mature Barolo, then a great Barbaresco and great Barolo, the latter two alongside each other was a great contrast…and so to the wines:
Barolo Brunate 1964, Marcarini - Brick red hue, lovely nose with a hint of ginger, it is developed but not tired at all a great bottle for the age. Lovely. I have had a lot of luck with older Marcarini including 1978 Brunate and 1970 Brunate...this made it three from three! Barbaresco Santo Stefano 86, Bruno Giacosa - Very good colour right to the rim, the nose was more Grand Cru Red Burg like than Piedmont, perfumed, gorgeous, rich but pretty, very good indeed, we agreed that it was at its peak, very elegant. Barolo Cascina Francia 87, Giacomo Conterno - A savoury, powerful wine with dark fruits, delicious, brooding, a dash of "frazzles" about the nose. Brilliant to compare it to the Giacosa, so different. Youthful colour. As good a 1987 as I have had from anybody anywhere (that’s not damming it with faint praise I hope).

We then had a pair of Sauternes de Fargues 05 which was balanced and very good, nothing like the intensity of the 2001 I have had recently but at this young age that’s a good thing, really drinkable. Alongside it we had a half of Doisy Daene 83 which showed really well, a little bit of marmalade and at a lovely stage but probably not worth keeping any longer than this (or may be that is just the format?). And that was that, a realy fun and relaxed evening of great wine and good food…will be doing it again…

7 go wine mad at The Connaught...staring Halifax, Newcastle, Sussex, new Sussex, London, Henley & Suffolk

2011-06-10T04:17:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday saw the return fixture from the http://duvaultblochet.blogspot.com/2011/01/6-go-wine-mad-in-yorkshirestaring.html tasting dinner and also a chance to celebrate "Sussex's" 40th. The team assembled at 12.30 at the Connaught and after a, very good, bottle of Pol Roger 1999 Blanc de Blancs we made our way down to the Sommeliers Table. See below new Sussex looking very at home.

The first wine downstairs was Wiltinger Brauner Kupp Auslese 1988 from Egon Muller, the wine was very elegant balanced and a greater starting point. The nose opened up but sadly by that point I had greedily finished mine. Blind I wouldn't have said Auslese as the wines had developed and left that level of sweetness behind.

Once seated we had the first of 4 wines from 1971 - Dom Perignon Oenotheque 1971 - served decanted so as to be blind. I loved the mushroom-like nose but the palate didn't quite match. A great wine to have tried and a good match for the charcuterie. It would be very interesting to know how the non Oenotheque bottling is by comparison.

Next up, with Foie Gras, was a real highlight, Yquem 1971 (picture below) in immaculate condition, long, fresh but also developed and at a lovely stage, just how I love Sauternes...wow.

With a pea and salt cod dish we next had two wines totally blind from the Sommelier Clos de Litanie 1971, Pomerol & Chateau Cabrieres 1971, Chateauneuf-du-Pape - The Pomerol I got wrong and though was more Pessac in style but I'll forgive myself that (nobody else did)...the Chateauneuf was a weirdly "bovrilled", semi madeirised wine, a bit past it despite probably being as good as it'll show. Nice to have some more 1971's we had 5 in total as there is still one to come.

We then went to two wonderful white burgundy producers for the next pairing served with my dish of the day - Calamari Ravioli. The wines were Bienvenues Batard Montrachet 1999, Domaine Leflaive & Meursault Les Rougeots 2000, Coche Dury they were served - I believe - in that order which was the opposite to what the sommelier said but having had the Bienvenues 1999 just before Christmas with the same crowd I feel sure I am right (and was kindly supported by others)...anyway both were splendid and showed how good those producers are. Neither has peaked just yet which is good.

And now to Bordeaux with the tandoori spiced scottish scallop, two wines I have always wanted to taste as they are great wines and rather glaring omissions from my "repertoire" - Margaux 1983 & Palmer 1961 - As they were served blind and we had taken some other Bordeaux the consensus was that they were younger, never a bad sign, the cool temperature having something to do with this. The Margaux was an elegant and balanced glass, mature but in no way past a peak, real balance and without being greedy the sort of wine you want a bottle of rather than a glass. The Palmer was exceptional, in at least three ways - pure quality (amazing), the bottle itself (a great one) and it's "differentness" (it is a bit of a freak) - it seems insane but you could decant that wine for 2-3 hours and I can't see it fading. The last mouthful was the best Given that the vinification back then will not have been complicated it makes you wonder I there is too much top Bordeaux being "made" today.

Having drunk "enough" great producers to last most months already the heat stayed on...up next with Roasted veal was Romanee St Vivant 1995, Domaine de La Romanee-Conti and Charmes Chambertin Tres Vielles Vignes 1989, J.Roty. Both wines were interesting but only one was great. The RSV was a really lovely wine that a few of us had had before Christmas, elegant, balanced and fresh with lovely red fruits, it is fair to say it was still primarily primary in character - very impressive and with a way to go. The Charmes was frankly a disappointment, a little soupy and whilst I expected it to be more masculine than the RSV I think that would be a kind way of putting it. A little too rustic and lacking the required charm. Having had the 1988 of the same wine I think it was a phase when there was a little bit too much oak and extraction - nothing like the wines they now produce.

Next was Climens 1971 which I thought was a delight and shows there is some exceptional value in good and great Sauternes (and whilst you now don't think of "Yquem" and "value" in the same sentence I do include older Yquem in that). It was a great wine and a good decision of the sommelier to serve the two 1971 Sauternes apart as we could enjoy both without a competition. Very special and both great both bottles, obviously well stored. These gatherings always seem to feature at least three Sauternes (lets face it we never drink enough Sauternes!) and so it did again as de Fargues 2001 was now served, a pick from the wine list. It was served blind to all but two of us and I have to say I thought the suggestions were entirely logical if not correct - suggestions were mainly that it was Rieussec and anything from 1989 to 2001. I could totally see why, it had a real Rieussec orange peel richness about it. A very interesting ending to the main wines.

With a some more time before the Northern contingent had to get trains we had one more Dom Perignon Oentheque this time the 1995. I liked this, although my palate was a little jaded by this stage. I think 1995 Champagne will always suffer from being next to the ultra classical and superb 1996's. The 1995's are a lovely drink, softer and suppler with a lots of balance. In time they may be a good value, if different, alternative to the 1990's & 1996's.

It was then upstairs to the bar for a slightly underwhelming Jacquesson 1990 Magnum. Nothing wrong with it but I didn't think the complexity you would want from that great vintage. It did show that the glass matters as the glasses were designed to match the bar not the wine...a small but relevent point.

Henley made a very wise shout that it should be "cigar time", never something I disagree with so I accompanied Henley over the road to Sautters where we purchased seven Sancho Panza Belicosos - a cigar I love. A great way to finish a great day. Special thanks to Henley and Halifax for the organising and to Newcastle for some especially generous wine choices.

Roll on another trip to the North for round three, all we need is a tenuous excuse!!

Conterno Blog 3...the vineyards

2011-06-02T01:16:00.000-07:00

Just some pictures from the two vineyards Roberto owns, first up is Cascina Francia. The first photo being of Roberto with the southernmost vines behind him. The second is looking west. You get some idea of the severity of the slopes here from the pictures but in reality it is far steeper than it looks. The vineyard faces west south west and even though it was a very hot muggy day for May you had a cooling breeze coming up the slope towards us. The Barbera is on the lower slopes.

Next up was the 2008 acquistion - Cerretta - The first of the photos is taken looking across Cerretta in the foreground towards Castiglione Falletto on the hill top in the distance.

Cerretta is a more complex vineyard as it is not a Monopole and there are a few different parcels. When in the two vineyards you can really feel why the two spots produce such different styles.
And sadly this was the end of the trip...but have no fear I'll be going back...

Giacomo Conterno...tasting the wines

2011-06-01T02:52:00.000-07:00

Having grabbed a quick breakfast in Monforte we headed just south out of the town to Cantina Giacomo Conterno to meet up with Roberto (pictured above) again, this time for the business of tasting the young wines as yet unreleased onto the market. You could feel the temperature change as we made it down to the immaculate cellars. We were very much in Roberto’s hands in terms of order of tasting – Barbera - Barolo – Barolo Monfortino. All the wines were tasted directly from barrel in the Burgundy glasses that Roberto likes most. It was a staggering tasting.
I have put my scores (in brackets out of 20) and rough drinking windows. These are not purely tasting notes, there are comments and observations thrown in too….

Barbera Cerretta 2009 (17.75-18.25) 2012 - 2015+
Harvested at the same time (22/23rd September) as the Barbera in Cascina Francia. A "very good year for Barbera, end of august was very hot when normally there are storms". Rich, deep with dark fruit. A hint of violet about the colour. A really fresh edge to the wine - Dark cherry, cassis and a touch of mint. Very pure and clean but with balance. Structured but still juicy. Up on intensity over the 2008.

Barbera Cascina Francia 2009 (18.25) 2014 - 2017+
Similar in overall colour to Cerretta but darker at the core and this followed through to the wine. A base, savoury nose with stones as well as real dark fruit. A chunky minerality but with definition. Fruit and real guts. No rawness. As Roberto commented "more salty than Cerretta". Serious wine

Barolo Cascina Francia 2007 (18.25 -18.75) 2014 - 2027+
Elegant light colour especially after the Barberas. There is no Monfortino in 2007 although 1 barrel was made as Monfortino and then blended in 2 years ago. The 2007 vintage was not so hot but followed a very dry winter when there was little or no snow, no ice and hardly any rain. The 2007 will not need as much aging as many Cascina Francia's (certainly less that the ultra-classical, very structured 2006 that preceded it) as there is a more immediate balance to the wine. We discussed racking with Roberto at this stage as he commented that this had been racked just 10 days ago. In the 1st year there is typically 3-4 rackings and then after that 1 racking every 1-2 years. I found the wine very impressive and also seductive a great wine to show those unfamiliar with Conterno's style of Barolo.

Nebbiolo di Barolo Cerretta 2009 (18.25) 2014 - 2023+
I have called it this as it is not yet decided whether this will be Barolo Cerretta or Langhe Nebbiolo as it was in 2008. If it is the later then it will be bottled after 3 years rather than the 2 years the 2008 had...if the former then it'll be bottled after 4 years as per Cascina Francia. Roberto says he is 70% decided it'll be Langhe Nebbiolo again in 2009 for a couple of reasons, firstly when tasted up against the Cascina Francia 2009 you can see why (though in isolation anybody else would release this as a Barolo). Secondly he is so pleased with the 2010 that he thinks it would be good to start “Barolo Cerretta” with a great vintage. We'll see what is decided. The wine was expectedly lighter than the CF 07, very defined strawberry (fraise de bois). Very, very elegant more depth than the Langhe Nebbiolo Cerretta 2008 that I had last night (trying to keep the trip going you see). I think this is a seriously interesting wine whatever it is released as. The very best thing is that Roberto has two such different "Crus" to work with. They complement each other perfectly.

Barolo Cascina Francia 2009 (18.75 - 19) 2018 - 2032+
Very, very fine, Elegance but also "grit and grip". Seriously good combination of richness and savoury minerality, you can now see why Roberto thinks Langhe Nebbiolo for the 2009 Cerretta wine when compared to this, it is very impressive.

Barolo Cascina Francia 2008 (17.75 -18.25) 2015 - 2030+
More degraded fruit character, a touch of mocha, there it is a maturity about the way this wine is. Roberto commented he could see a common thread with the 1971 we had had the previous night. He felt it will need 5-6 years in bottle to come together. I liked this and also loved the sense that had built up of the Cascina Francia showing the different years so well, there was a similarity but a very definite vintage variation. Just as there should be…

We then moved on to taste the Monfortino...three vintages in the order 2005 - 2004 - 2006. I ask a few questions on Monfortino generally. The wine is not a set parcel but often comes from the same area. Cascina Francia was bought in 1974, Since 1978 the Monfortino has always come from only the Cascina Francia vineyard (as had all the Giacomo Conterno wines until the Cerretta vineyard was bought in 2008). The only "decided upcoming non-Monfortino" year is 2007 as it did not stand out enough, this is quite controversial as the vintage is being lauded as a good one. A Monfortino is always "made' and then blended in if not selected to be released on its own. The typical aging for Monfortino is 7 years although this can vary, it was 8years in 2002 and may be the same in 2006, see below. The freak year of 2002 where there was a Monfortino but no Cascina Francia was due to the vineyard missing hail - and having seen how steep Cascina Francia is, the rain runs off it anyway - and being in Roberto's words "all exceptional" when he made this comment to his father he said "Simple only Monfortino"...a brave move as with the choice of not making 2007 Monfortino. Roberto is here to do what is right not necessarily what is expected. The Monfortino is always labelled on the front as Cascina Francia but on the back of the giant Botti it has a Monfortino label...a nice little "hidden" touch (see below).
Monfortino 2005 (18.75-19.25) 2015 - 2035+
Wonderful degraded fruit but also a savoury “bovril-ness”, a good acidity. Very very fine. It is a “straight down the middle” Monfortino. Very balanced I think this will shut down less than most. There is another level of complexity. Tasted blind I am not sure what vintage would have guessed at. Really impressive. I can’t help feeling 2005 is an underrated vintage as it has come amongst 2004,2006 & 2007.

Monfortino 2004 (19.75-20) 2014 - 2040+
The most anticipated wine of the trip as the ingredients are there for a potential legend, this makes it exciting but also nerve-wracking. I have never scored a wine 20 but I think this is the closest to perfection I have tasted hence the score. There is nothing I would change about the wine. I initially wrote, light depth. This is because there is so much there but at the same time it is so fresh. The precision is immense, roses, violets, strawberries but also that classic tar and savoury edge. It just got better and better and there was no way I was going to spit it out. Amazing balance of freshness and depth...in a word BRILLIANT.

Monfortino 2006 (19.25) 2018-2038++
I am a big fan of 2006's as I think they are what Barolo is all about, you can argue 2004 is the perfect vintage and you're probably right but I would rather a 2006 style Barolo than an easy fleshy (2000?) style any day. Roberto was spot on to show this last as it is a big chap on the finish. It has that degraded maturity of fruit on the nose and is a harder but totally in-check version of the 2005. Roberto says he may well give this 8 yrs in Botti rather than Monfortino's standard 7. This is one of the treasures of traditional Barolo - longer in very large Botti/barrel means more elegance and a chance for the wine to meld together and soften an fraction. In the world of new oak wines where the oak adds structure here the very old (50-55yrs in places) wood allows the wine to mellow and breathe. A deeply impressive wine that in 30 yrs time will be fascinating "up against" the 2004.

Some notes on the 2010 vintage – it has been an amazing run from 2004 to 2010

2010 - Very late harvest, lots of tannin which meant you had to harvest very very late to make sure you had the fruit (and tannin) ripeness to go with the tannic structure - Classical like 2006 but may be even better.

After this we headed to the Vineyards…more of which tomorrow…

Locanda nel Borgo Antico with Roberto Conterno

2011-05-31T05:02:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday morning whilst still a little tired from the wonderful Clos de Tart dinner, Adam (MD), Alison (Buyer) and myself met up at Gatwick for the flight to Torino. To say I was a little excited about this trip would be understatement of the year, I am something of a Barolo obsessive. Having arrived to me met by a muggy 26degrees we folded ourselves into the fiat 500 and set of for Monforte d’Alba. Despite the heavy traffic we were in Monforte at our hotel – Le Case della Saracca (http://www.saracca.com/) which I strongly recommend – with just enough time to freshen up before meeting up with Roberto and his assistant Francesca. We shared a bottle of a Piedmont Sparkler, Valentino 2006, 70% Chardonnay 30% Pinot Noir and very good it was.

After this we all jumped into Roberto’s car and headed to a nearby restaurant than Roberto had chosen - Locanda nel Borgo Antico (http://www.locandanelborgo.com/) . It was terrific, attentive service, great food and a nice atmosphere with plenty of space, oh and a stunning view - look it out if you are in the area. We had seen Roberto sneak a bottle out of the boot of the car but it was not to be revealed till later. We had two Barolos to start things off. Roberto chose to show us two different styles, I must say at this stage that it is very rare for a producer anywhere in the wine world to show another producers wines and much as we knew we would finish the evening with a wine of Roberto’s it was very interesting.

The first wine was Barolo Monprivato 2006 from Guiseppe Mascarello, like Roberto’s wine this is a very traditional style and from one single vineyard. There was a little, and not unpleasant, “stink” that went quickly, this was followed by a really lovely almost Volnay-like red fruit elegance, very smart wine, this will developed well. I loved the very traditional style. Roberto suggested that their 2005 was very good indeed. Wine two could not have been more different - Barolo Cicala 2005 from Roberts uncle, Aldo Conterno. Much darker and more saturated of colour, rich, dense and dark, not so much my style if I am honest but good, lots of fruit and a touch of coffee and linseed notes. This changed through the meal more than wine 1. The combination was fascinating to look at, small and taste. The Vitello Tonnato I had with these two was superb!

By now Roberto had revealed what the last wine was but at the same time suggested that we had a wine that was between the first pair and the last wine in terms of age. It was a recommendation from the sommelier, the wine in queston was Barolo La Ginestra 1982 from Paolo Conterno (no relation), very traditional in style, a typical aged Barolo, just the sort of think I love a bovril and sherry scenario on the nose, a lovely brick colour, really really nice, balanced. Next up was the highlight Barolo Riserva 1971 from Giacomo Conterno and therefore Roberto – the term Riserva was dropped from 1985 onwards as it was only a legal requirement back then. The sommelier was so excited by this bottle and served it at the perfect, cool as for red Burgundy, temperature. It was holding an amazing colour, youthful and fresh, very complete, glorious, slight maturity “funk”, seamless, nearly too balanced, a wine you could never grow bored off and an early candidate for my mature wine of the year award (don’t worry this is only a hypothetical award!) The four wines a set were brilliant and fascinating and show that one should just try these wines, they are not the tannic monsters that they are sometimes portrayed as.

Through the evening many questions were asked and topics discussed, I’ve summarised some of these

Roberto on…

Decanting? Yes with wines that have been in bottle for 2 or more years and don’t be afraid of 2-3 hours or more, Barolo is not afraid of air. A phrase I remember was “in Barolo oxidation brings sweetness”.

Tasting others producers wines? Yes, but in private and always blind and never for the sake of criticising them, purely as a way of looking at what people and doing and what they are producing.

Buying land in Barolo? Would love to but so rarely does a good vineyard or site come up.

All the Conterno’s in Barolo…there are many as the name Conterno is not rare in Italy, the only relation is between Roberto’s estate (Giacomo Conterno) and that of his Uncle Aldo.

The Challenges of making Barbera and Nebbiolo…the Barbera does not like rain but is fine with almost any amount of heat and is earlier to harvest.The Nebbiolo is not a fan of excessive heat but is ok with rain and ripens late, sometimes very late.

Why the Monfortino bottle is different to the other wines? Purely as a way of Roberto’s grandfather knowing which was which in the cellar. In past times the wines would all have been kept “naked”.

If he had to make sine elsewhere then where? Burgundy, “I am a massive Pinot Noir fan” and if not Tuscany but working with Brunello (Sangiovese) rather than a modern style…Soldera got a mention.

The Great older vintages? 1958 one of the greatest then going further back 1955 and 1947. I mentioned 1964 which he likes but prefers 1967.

It was a brilliant evening…as this is already quite long…I couldn’t help myself I will cover the following days tasting and vineyard visit separately…

Flying Dragon...

2011-05-19T00:08:00.000-07:00

Just by a chance comment on twitter with @LeeCrymble - I was saying that Ormes de Pez was a fair price but that I tended to buy Phelan Segur and/or Lafon Rochet in that category (good value drinking St.Estephe) - it came to light that Phelan Segur translates as "Flying Dragon". As a result may this will be the next Chateau to "fly" if you'll pardon the pun?

People often wonder which chateau will next "do a Lafite, Carruades, Duhart", Beychevelle has done likewise to a lesser degree (and the 2010 has this miute some out at £650ish). I would have majorly mixed feelings if it does take off. On the one hand I love the wine (I have some in my cellar and my son's) and I like the people. On the other I am not a massive fan of "investment" distorting the market. I have done quite a few tastings of Phelan over the years and recently did a run at the chateau of 2001 to 2010, particularly liking 2001, 2005, 2008, 2009(which was a relief as I sold a lot of it) and 2010 (also a relief as it the next one out and having sold a chunk of vineyard to Montrose between 2009 & 2010 there might have been a worry). I also feel the strong, striking image (which I love but not everyone does) is a potential help to it taking off.

So will this dragon fly? Only time will tell but if it does the sub £300 a case price tag will be long gone.

A few links and resources for any fellow Barolo obsessives

2011-05-15T03:48:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning to do this for a while and now that my son doesn't have mini rugby on a sunday morning for a while and there is some time I thought I would put it together. It is not at all comprehensive but I will try to add to it over time. Any suggestions (non-commercial please) I can add please send them through...most of these ae just things I have found from my own research.

Information:

- Really worth exploring and with a great index to producers sites. One word of warning this is dedicated to "old skool" Barolo and so is not a good place for the modern producers. I am a believer that the old skool (although the notion of new vs old is outdated now) is the way forward but this is a matter of opinion: www.barol.org.uk - some great photos too!

- For ubergeekdom and labels from G.Conterno, B.Macarello and Giacosa http://www.finewinegeek.com/

- For general chat with some very knowledgeable people who will help answer questions: http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/forumdisplay.php?f=40

- General Italian but definitely featuring Piedmont http://www.vinissima.net/

- General Barbaresco information http://www.enotecadelbarbaresco.it/

- General Albeisa info www.albeisa.org/welcome_eng.lasso

- For some great dinner tasting write-ups - http://theviptable.blogspot.com/2011/04/1995-barolo-retrospective.html

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barolo

Maps:

- For a good general map with general wine characters too:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yQj6jSDWkoQ/SlVZRCs528I/AAAAAAAAAdI/-RR1VJumg8c/s1600-h/BaroloMap.jpg

- For the ultimate geeks maps www.enogea.it/Enogea/Home.html great and very useful too.

- A specific map I was pointed towards
www.enogea.it/Enogea/Immagini_files/Cru%20Barolo.pdf

-http://kobrandwineandspirits.com/maps/flash/203_barolo.php

Videos:
There are a lot on www.JamesSuckling.com it is a subscription site, good for the more modern producers in general.

Barolo at Zucca with friends...

2011-05-12T08:50:00.001-07:00

Last Tuesday I hosted a Giacomo Conterno dinner at my favourite (and brilliant value) restaurant Zucca (www.zuccalondon.com). Lots of people will have been but if you haven't then go. Great wine list, value and range, as long as you like Italian wines! I had arranged this dinner for a few reasons; I love the place, I love the Conterno wines (and wanted to show why), I wanted to see a few customers all at once and ask them to bring a friend (for which read potential customer) and lastly I see myself as a bit of an evangelist for Piedmont and Barolo in particular.

There are 7 producers in Piedmont that I aim to buy every year and these are (in rough priority order): Giacomo Conterno, Bartolo Mascarello, G.Rinaldi, F.Rinaldi, Brovia (esp. Villero), Marcarini (esp Brunate) and from Barbaresco, Produttori del Barbaresco (great list of these at Zucca). These are all traditional in their approach, which reflects my preference for this style of Barolo (and wine in general) and the preferred style of my Barolo "Mentor".

Right, so on to the evening in question. All the wines had been double decanted out of the bottle and back in at about 1pm that day. After a couple of bottles of Prosecco and with everyone calmly assembled we embarked on the food. A three part starter of Tuna “crudo”, San Daniele & Mozzarella Trapanese (this is brilliant, Mozzarella with almonds, tomatoes etc). I will admit here that I am no guru on food and wine matching, I follow a few rules but basically wines I like seem to work with food I like. The two wines we had were Roberto's (Conterno, Giacomo's grandson, the headman and winemaker at Cantina Giacomo Conterno) Barbera: Barbera d'Alba Cascina Francia 2008 (from magnum, I love magnums!) and Barbera d'Alba Cerreta 2008. Brief background here. The Cascina Francia vineyard was bought in 1974 and from 1978 to 2008 (when Roberto bought Cerreta halfway through the vintage) was responsible for all the estates production (Barbera, Barolo Cascina Francia and Barolo Monfortino) before 1974 the estate used to buy in grapes. So the wines, as I expected the Cascina Francia showed a more savoury serious edge and a greater depth, this is a wine that will age in my opinion in a similar time frame to southern Rhone reds, it is great now but will attain more complexity over the next 3-7 years and beyond. The Cerreta over which Roberto had little experience in the vineyard was softer, more ready (the bottle vs magnum will have exaggerated this too), more feminine and with redder fruits. In general the Cerreta was preferred now but ultimately for me the Cascina Francia will eclipse the Cerreta in 2-3 years. Both great but different which after all is what it is about?

Next up was Ravioli of asparagus & ricotta with in some ways the most interesting wine of the night, Langhe Nebbiolo Cerreta 2008, this wine from the same vineyard as the second Barbera could easily have been released as a Barolo but with Roberto, being the perfectionist he is, it was never going to be released as such so in the same way as a Burgundian might release any wine as Bourgogne Rouge this was released as Langhe Nebbiolo. In time I am sure it will be Barolo but when is not yet clear (I hope to find out in 2 weeks when I visit). As it was released as a Langhe it was bottled and therefore released after just 2 years (like the Barbera) rather after 4-5 years as for a Barolo. The colour was pale, Nebbiolo is big on structure but a thin skinned variety more like Pinot Noir than most, and the nose was so pretty and red fruited with a really fragrant, refined edge to it. A real crowd pleaser but in a non-frivolous way. If this ends up being the only time it is a non Barolo then it'll be a collectors piece, either way it is a wonderful wine. The Ravoli was superbly fresh and lifted.

I suppose you could say things got serious now, food wise I was very impressed with the Lamb breast, cannellini, spinach & salsa verde which was fresh but with a good amount of fat (I am a firm "fat is flavour" believer) and a great sounding board for the wines. These were two vintages - 2005 & 2006 - of Barolo Cascina Francia. This is essentially the main wine of the estate. The Barolo Monfortino is sometimes made from the top selection of this vineyard in some years. From 2000 onwards it was made in 2000, 2001, 2002 (controversially but wonderfully), 2004, 2005(?), 2006(?), not 2007, after that not yet known. Roberto firmly believes Monfortino does not "work" in the vintages with heat spikes like 2003 or 2007.

The Cascina Francia is a wonderful vineyard of 14 hectares with 9 planted with Nebbiolo. There is arguably no stronger link between a producer and a vineyard in Piedmont, think monopole like La Tache for Domaine de la Romanee Conti for example. These two wines were very different, purely because the vintages are so different. The 2005 was comfortably the more open wine showing well all ready, I think over time this will be proved as one of those wines that is good young and old and doesn't go into its shell too much in between. A really good wine to decant on a friday morning and sample over a weekend to get the idea of Barolo. The 2006 is a classical, dense wine with refined but big structure and the long-haul. This is for the classists out there (if I am sounding biased I have bought a lot, in my terms, of 2006 Baroli). The comparison was fascinating and the wines opened up more and more in glass. I was delighted with how they showed.

I think some of the misconceptions of Barolo (and this spreads to the other wines of Piedmont as happens with human nature wanting to simplify things) is that the wines are massive, dense and "need" time. In many cases the Baroli and Barbaresci do reward patience and take time to be at their optimal but they are wonderful in youth, the comparison with Burgundy and Pinot Noir is far more accurate than anything else. I would suggest people experiment there are many wonderful producers and all sorts of levels.

I haven't really mentioned much about the conversation but it roared like a rampant fire to make it a memorable evening, before we knew it 7pm had become 11pm. A wonderful evening. If you are interested in something similar? Let me know.

My top 15 Red Bordeaux 2010's

2011-04-24T01:54:00.001-07:00

I am busily working away on the C&B Blog of the bordeaux trip but didn't want to leave off doing my own list of the top 15 Red 2010's as per my scoring during the trip...I must add there are a few notable names I did not taste, Ausone, L'eglise Clinet and Vieux Chateau Certan amongst them, but then you can be there for two weeks and not get everything done let alone one week.

In alphabetical order:

Cos d'Estournel

Conseillante

Ducru Beaucaillou

Haut Brion

La Fleur Petrus

La Mission Haut Brion

Latour

Leoville Poyferre

Leoville Las Cases

Lynch Bages

Margaux

Montrose

Petrus

Tertre Roteboeuf

Trotanoy

Amongst those closed to getting in there were: The two Pichon's with Baron ahead of Lalande, Calon Segur, Cheval Blanc & Latour a Pomerol.

The First growths in my order:

Haut Brion

Margaux

Latour

Lafite

Mouton (definitely disagreed with the team on this one)

The sweet whites seem to be getting acclaim but are very hard to taste at this stage so I have not put many scores against them so any ranking is largely pointless.

The dry whites were exceptional and there was real consistency, the efforts by the first growths; Pavillion Blanc and the whites of La Mission and Haut Brion were particularly good. At the value end there were some cracking whites at affordable prices like Blanc de Lynch Bages and Picque Caillou but to name two.

Monday at The Square....

2011-04-11T02:57:00.000-07:00

Back in November I wrote up an amazing tasting/dinner at the Devonshire Arms Hotel, a truly legendary line up was assembled. I hadn't thought anything remotely so good would come round again but...on monday myself and three others assembled as guests of a very kind customer to drink and eat at the renowned "Square" (www.squarerestaurant.com).

The food (from the tasting menu with one or two tweaks) was sublime and service excellent but this is all about the wines...before we were seated at the table we had a magnum of..

Salon 1988 - Up north we had had the '88 from bottle and it was the star Champagne of the night. This was, as you'd expect a bit tighter and more mineral and had a lemon freshness, really good and so clean as always with Salon...a great start.

From there we were on to two white Burgundies, one of my favourite wine types and both from Meursault and both from superb producers. Meursault-Perrières 1er Cru 2001, Lafon - this was a little muscular especially for a 2001, quite broad and savoury, very good but it struggled alongside what is an early contender for white wine of the year - Meursault Rougeots 1er Cru 1996, Coche-Dury - this was such a complete wine, a nose of flint and "struck match" then brilliant fruit but all with good acidity and a brilliant finish. There are plenty of examples of expensive wines being more style over substance or over priced but with Coche-Dury (and it is not cheap at all) you really get the best. There is no such thing but if there was Meursault Grand Cru this is what it would taste like.

The next wine - Hermitage 1991, JL Chave - was served on its own (as in with no other wine, there was plenty of food!). I am something of a heathen when it comes to the Rhone. I like the wines with age for drinking but have never found tasting them young easy or fun. This was very savoury and masciline, I loved it. I would say it must be at, or approaching, it's peak but there are no signs of any decline...impressive

We were then back to Burgundy again La Tache 2000 this was a real treat. I get to taste DRC more regularly than most (working for the agent has it's major advantages!) but actually drinking bottles is very rare. I think people believe DRC needs ages to mature but this is, in my opinion, not the case, the wines age amazingly but are almost always accessible in youth as well. The nose on this La Tache was a touch closed but soon opened up to reveal a wonderfully complex palate...it is still a "puppy" but bloody good now, if I had any i would look again in 3-4years. So having had one corked bottle a replacement was sought - Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses 1er Cru 2002, Roumier -this was still primary in it's fruit and very fresh a classy bottle with a lot more to come. I find some 2002's have already started to attractively (and a bit prematurly in places) degrade but this was not like that.

Bordeaux was up next - 1982 Pichon Lalande (Mag) - I have not had this in magnum before but I would say it is the perfect format for this wine now, I found it to be on great form, at a lovely stage in it eveolution, great fruit but also maturity, really good claret!

I had wanted to take a bottle along and I selected - 2002 Monfortino Barolo, G.Conterno - on the basis that it would be interesting and different to the others. I decanted it in the morning at 8am and then back into bottle. It showed well but needs even longer decanting than I managed, there is real grace here and power but more a power of density than concentration - more young Grand Cru Burgundy than young Cote Rotie for instance. It will outlive me and is best left for now.

Our host has a real soft spot for Sauternes so this is where we went next with a wine I have never had before and may well never have again - Yquem 1943 - it was decanted briefly before serving and was at stage I love, honeyed and toffeed with a tart freshness on the finish, real creme brulee flavours. We then went to 1934 Gilette & Yquem 1988 - I made no mental note of the Gilette other than that it was very good, more youthful in colour than the 1943. The Yquem 1988 was brilliant, I have not has the '88 before, the '89 and '90 steal the attention but the '88 is so fresh and balanced that in my opinion it is so near those other two vintages that it is something of a bargain.

The finale just before coffee was 1963 Cockburn which slightly lost out to the stunning Sauternes but it was youthful for a '63 which is a good sign. And so a lunch that started at 12.30 ended at 5.45 with a mad rush to a cab before the non Londoners missed their train northj, they made it! A wonderful day...

Domaine Leflaive at The Greenhouse

2011-03-27T02:55:00.000-07:00

Last thursday we were delighted to have Anne-Claude Leflaive over for a wonderful dinner at The Greenhouse (I will load photos when I can). We started with the delicious Bourgogne Blanc 2005 as an aperitif. The wine was just starting to open up and worked well, some balanced richness starting to emerge, no rush at all but if you have a case it is well worth trying a bottle. The plot for the Bourgogne Blanc is very close to the Domaine. Anne Claude later described it as a "wine of energy".

Following an Amuse bouche of crab we were onto Meursault 1er Cru Sous Le Dos d'Ane 2007 and Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières 1er Cru 2000. Adam introduced Anne Claude who spoke with real energy and passion swell as lots of humour. She recalled how C&B were the Domaines first customer way back in the 1960's and that, charmingly, there has never been a contract always a "Gentleman's/womans(!) agreement". Of the pair of wines Anne-Claude explained that back in 1995 the "Sous Le Dos d'Ane" vineyard was replanted from Pinot Noir to Chardonnay as she had realised that the soil was just so much more like the Meursault Les Perriers soil next door than the Blagny 1er Cru La Piece Sous Le Bois "Pinot" soil (where as an aside Matrot makes very good Pinot) also next door - it was just made for Chardonnay. So from 2000 a Meursault was produced, this Meusault, 2007, was taut and highly strung having a bright future, it is somewhere between Puligny and Meursault in style to my mind. The Folatieres 2000 was one of the happiest surprises of the night for me as it has no rights to be as good as it was, 2000 being a difficult vintage in burgundy but particularly for the whites. I found the Folatieres really balanced a little enjoyable opulence too, spot on. Interestingly Anne-Claude said Folatieres was a very important vineyard for Puligny as a commune as it is a big 1er Cru but also has many growers so fills the role of standard bearer to a degree. The Meursault and Folatieres were served with diver caught Scottish scallops, sauteed wild mushrooms, cep espuma and cumbawa lime, it was a great combination.

The final two wines from the Domaine were then served; the two wines were both Grand Crus separated by 1 meter - Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet 2006 and Bâtard-Montrachet 1996 they were accompanied by roasted farmhouse veal from Aubrac, cime di rapa cabbage, fondant celeriac and mousseline. It was interesting to taste these tow wines with an age gap of 10 years. Bienvenues was described by Anne Claude as "the fight of her life" because on taking over the Domaine in 1990 it was not in good shape (despite only being the same age as Anne Claude) it should have been hitting its strides but instead it was in bad health so Anne Claude decided to go Biodynamic on that vineyard (the Domaine, as of 1998, is well documented as being fully Bio dynamic) and ultimately it worked.. patience and good vineyard work winning out. I found the Bienvenues structured and youthful, again balanced and with great texture but to my mind there is more to come (some in the room "preferred" it to the Batard but not me) I would be looking again in 2 years. As an aside the Bienvenues 1999 from Anne-Claude was my white wine of the year last year! So on to the 1996, as we had done at the master class with Anne Claude a couple of years ago when we showed the (wonderful) Chevalier, we were keen to show this vintage as it is a highly controversial one. There were those (winemakers and domaines in Burgundy) in 1996 who were scared of the acidity (in the wines) and de-acidified their wines, Domaine Leflaive did not and the Batard showed that this was completely correct, amazingly at 15 years of age it was just starting to hit it's stride. From the very first pour it opened out and was one of those wines that I enjoyed far too much to bother making notes about (even briefly) had I written anything it would have been "complete", if I had a case (I don't!) I would be fascinated to follow this wine by having a bottle a year from now and I would decant it as it just gets better. I have always found the Domaine's wines all repay decanting.

There was a wonderful story that Anne Claude told about the 1996's. In the winery Anne-Claude and team were getting very nervous as the fermentation just would not start, on the monday of one week it was suggested that yeast would have to be added on the saturday if nothing had started of it's own accord. Anne-Claude's face at this stage suggest this might not even have been an option but I suppose it would have to have been eventually. Anyhow, visiting on the friday (nothing had started on the fermentation front!!) was the Society of Tastevin of Tahiti and out came the suggestion of a little song to encourage things, so out came the Yukelele (seriously!) and everyone was singing away, the visit ended and guess what? The next morning, THE saturday, Anne-Claude gets an early call - the fermentations had started bubbling away!! The 1996's will forever be the "Yukelele" vintage at C&B from now on.

The Domaine, Anne Claude and the wines, were on great form for the whole evening it will remain a memorable event!

We did have one more wine - Lodovico 2007 from Tenuta di Biserno in Tuscany - with mushroom Gouèere as a way of balancing the end of the meal, it showed very well...you can read more about that wine on............(link to blog entry). A wonderful evening ended with a palate cleansing desert of Blood orange sorbet with Cointreau mousse.

Trade Lunch...a nice way to spend a friday pm..

2011-03-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to Oliver, Tom and Mark of Farr vintners for a great friday lunch time/afternoon/ evening (always the way these things tend to end up). Trade lunches used to happen a lot more often but as the trade had become busier and busier it understandably happens so much less. It was great fun to catch up with people who you speak to so often or more likely email but might not see that regularly.

I was also excited to be eating at Zafferano, a restaurant I have always heard a lot about but hadn't ever been too. Stupidly I left the menu behind but will try to recall most of it....so the wines

Dom Perignon 1996 - as impressive as ever, very fine bubbles, at a lovely stage now, really starting to mellow, a super glass of champagne and given how much they make the quality is staggering.

Moving downstairs for lunch we then had a Jeroboam of Batard Montrachet 2002 from Joel-Noel Gagnard, not a producer I have that much experience of. I thought it was on good form, at or approaching its peak. It was served at a lovely temperature and initially lent towards the mineral Puligny style despite the developed colour but as it warmed up over the next 1-2hours it really opened out and became more Meursaultesque (a good sign in my book) wit bacon fat and richness coming more to the fore, a very impressive wine I thought..great drinking. Went well with the asparagus and seafood medley.

We were then on to the first pair of blind reds, then was one more blind red after the two pairs. The two wines were of very contrasting styles although you could say they were both Cabernet Blends. A bit of added spice was brought out when Tom said that there was a 20 point difference in uncle Bobs score the first wine getting 77. The first was a touch over ripe may be but was full of fruit, if a little one dimensional but 77 points? I think not. This wine turn out to be Ridge Montebello 1988 - amazing fresh fruit for 23 years old, it had not got more complex but was all still there. The second wine was far more "complete" and universally thought to be Bordeaux, there was a minerality and gravelness about it that made me relatively confident it was from graves, having shouted out I was pleased to see this was true so I wisely shut up and quit while ahead. It turned out to be La Mission Haut Brion 1990, a very good wine...I was surprised it was 90 as it seem a little less lush that I would have expected but then it turned out I had had the more muted of the three bottle so that made sense. This was served with a Zafferano signature dish of Pappardelle with Pigs Cheeks - delicious and just my sort of thing.

Next up was the second pair - the common thread here being the vintage, as with the La Mission it was 1990. The first of the pair had an intensity of black currant fruit and an exotic, warm climate richness. I was fairly sure it was not Bordeaux and suggested Coonawarra or California...this proved correct but I didn't anticipate that it was another vintage of Ridge Montebello (1990 of course). I was impressed because the richness made me think that if it were Californian it would have to have been 91 or 94 (both considered better than 1990). Generally the end of the table I was at agreed that it wasn't the style of wine you would want everyday but that it was a delicious bottle for when you wanted something a little decdent. The second in the pair was much more Bordeaux but that was about as far as I was going to risk. My next door neighbour got it first time - it was Leoville Poyferre 1990. A seriously good bottle of wine, really complex and classical fruit, great balance and a beautiful time to drink it. Having had 1995 and 1996 Leoville Poyferre recently (both of which I thought were a bit so so) I was very impressed. They are widely accepted to be on top form again now and if the wines are like the 1990 I can well see why. Probably the good surprise highlight of the day. The full 4 wines lineup below. The later two with a great piece of beef worked really well.

So one more red...this was served from double magnum and was a great advert for just that size of bottle.

It showed really well, had a very grown up and complete texture and a touch of soy but at the same time plenty of fruit, the tannins were not pronounced but there and the colour was holding up well. It was confusing until the bottle size was revealed as putting a date on it seemed very hard. The big bottle allowed you to look a little further back...it was Trotanoy 1970 (as I work for the agent of this wine I will state my bias!) a real revelation for me and having not had the wine before I was so pleasantly surprised, in no decline it was just beautiful, it was a drink in itself but with the cheese it worked very well. There was one wine we had to skip as it was not in god shape and sadly that was Brauneberger Juffer - Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Goldkap 1983 from Fitz Haag..a real shame as on form it would have been brilliant. Not to worry next up was Banyuls 1950 from Pietri Geraud. I really enjoyed this. Fresh and rich but with balance and acidity, I can't think of anything except Madeira that wears its age so well. It was a dried fruit feast with plums, prunes and rasins, delicious. The Coffee and Guiness followed as we moved ot the pub, the rest is standard wine trade stuff...meant to have 1 quick pint 4 pints later I managed to drag myself away...a great afternoon and many thanks again to the generous hosts!

12 Tuscan 88's....

2011-03-17T02:13:00.000-07:00

My knowledge of Tuscan 1988’s is very limited so the tasting laid on last night was a brilliant chance to learn and assess the wines. Set up perfectly as ever by Mr Sabourin we started with a glass or two of Louis Roederer NV which I have to say was on great form. Then we were down to “work”. The tasting was organised into three sections – 1)Brunello’s, 2)Sangiovese based Super Tuscans and 3)Cabernet based Super Tuscans with each section having 2 pairs in it. This set up was stated at the beginning but the wines then served blind. All wine has been decanted out of the bottle and back in. Everyone scored out of 100 so I have done the same.

The Brunello’s
Cicacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Riserva - Nice Brick red colour. Nose of bruised red fruits, great balance. Very good start. Drink now and over next couple of years. 91pts

Poggio Antico - Fuller darker colour than the Cicacci. A nose with some mushroom notes as the wine opened up. Quite masculine and a little four square. Good if a touch hollow. (Note: this was opened as a replacement for a corked bottle so had no “air time”) Drink now. 89+pts

Soldera Intesti - Corked. Everyone was gutted about this understandably.

Castello di Ama Vigna Apparita – Deep and impressive colour. Richly brooding red and black fruits. A lot of sweetness and ripeness. Quite international, impressive. Drink now-2019. 91+pts

Sangiovese based Super Tuscans

Fontalloro – Deep core to a brick red rim, rich maturity to a Bovril edge, balanced and despite a dash of dryness recovers to finish well. Drink now-2012. 92-93+

Tignanello – Nose similar to Fontalloro but showing a touch more age. Fruit a little battered and bruised but in a good way, plate a touch to simple (not as good as the 2001 tasted recently). Drink now-2012. 89pts

Pergole Torte (from mag) – Slightly cloudy appearance suggested not the greatest bottle, a touch too dry on the finish, not bad but those that know suggested not a true example. Drink up. 88pts

Flaccionello – Very Italian and slightly rustic nose, bruised fruit and a dash of highness, it is a bit tired but I like it. Drink up. 89-90pts

Cabernet based Super Tuscans
Sammarco, Castello di Rampolla – Quite youthful nose, decadent almost heady, savoury palate, good wine. Drink now-2015. 90pts

Sassicaia - Youthful and classy. Rich, possibly to rich and a little over exotic for my taste. Drink now-2018. 89-91pts

Solaia – Youthful dark colour. Rich, full, lovely nose. Good balance of red and black fruit. Only suggestion of age is on the nose. Drink now-2018. 91-92pts

Ornellaia – Dense and brooding, no rush to drink up at all. Very impressive but not quite as good as the Solaia. Drink now-2018. 91pts

Summary: A good vintage, as the scores suggest the wines were very consistent. The wines were all certainly drinking but many going strongly. One small note and possibly something that should be taken into account is that these are all very much food wines, especially in the case of the first two sections.

Selections...12th February

2011-02-12T02:21:00.000-08:00

Looking forward to going skiing next saturday and watching the rugby later but first a few bets:

2.45 Leopardstown - Oscars Well 2pts win @ 15/2 - Basically fancied taking on Zaidpour and much as the form of OW's last win isn't great he won and I feel is a bit of value.

3.00 Newbury - Cornas 2pts win @ 4/1 - Understand the logic that he got it all to do at the weights but 2 mile chasing is all about fluency and form so I feel he has been largely ignored at the other expense and he sees the trip out very well.

3.15 Leopardstown - Kempes 2pts win @ 13/2 - Was pleased to see a decent write up by Mullins and just feel the price is good enough, he needs to prove himself but why not.

All three bets with Corals who were best on Oscars Well and the same as the others on the other two. More my type of bets today as a win on any would guarantee a profit. Interested to see how the other Newbury races go but feel they are priced about right especially the Aon where I like What a friend but is potentially too quirky to be a bet at those prices against the "form in the book" Riverside Theatre.

Selections..Saturday 5th

2011-02-05T04:33:00.001-08:00

No rugby today as a family birthday then a Christening tomorrow...all a bit sociable for me really...

Todays racing features lots of good horses but the punting opportunities look a wee bit thin so I have gone for only three bets:

1.30 Ffos Las - Kazzene 1pt win @ 7/2 - Basically fancied taking on the respected Henderson favourite and Scudamore and Pipes young horse looked the best option

3.00 Sandown - Numide 1pt e/w @ 40/1 & Altilhar 1pt e/w @ 33/1 - Not the sort of race I get that involved in normally but I just think Numide is coming back to some sort of form (won last time) and 9/1 a place (4 of them on offer) is a decent bet. Would love it to happen for the Millman's. Numide used to be with Gary Moore and that is who trains my other selection - Altilhar. This is the sort of race Gary would not waste a good hurdling mark on so it looks interesting again I think it is the place part of the bet that makes real appeal. Numide to beat Altilhar would be nice (I'd willingly take it the other way round!)

Have a good one!!

Domaine de la Romanee Conti...the 2008's

2011-02-03T08:07:00.001-08:00

Being in the privileged position of working for the UK agents it is one of the annual highlights to get to taste the Domaines wines on release at the trade and press tasting each year. I have never missed the tasting in my time at C&B and started with the 1997's only about 2 months after joining. The wines always show well on release, you would think it would be nerve racking to show wines that have this incredibly lofty reputation but actually as long as we get the temperature right, "cool" then the wines look after themselves. Below are my personal thoughts on the wines from one quick tasting. This year was especially interesting as we had drunk several older vintages of Romanee Saint Vivant and Richebourg the night before (written up in the entry before this one).

Given the title of this blog and the name I go by on twitter it was a shame not to taste the Vosne Romanee 1er Cru "Duvault Blochet" - there was one in 2008 to follow on from 1999, 2002, 2004(only released in France) & 2006. Prior to this it was made once in the 20's and once in the 30's. It is essentially declassified Grand Cru fruit that the Domaine feels more that merits the 1er Cru label. Otherwise, everything the Domaine release is Grand Cru...

Echezeaux - This had almost the perfect pure "Pinot" nose, very red fruits, feminine and just so inviting, as impressive as I can ever remember the Echezeaux...really great. Very long too.

Grands Echezeaux - A step up in structure and also complexity, not as pure as the Echezeaux to my mind a dash of black fruit to add to the red of Echezeaux. A more spicey and savoury edge there too. Good length, will be fascinating to see how this ages compared to the Echezeaux.

Richebourg - Very interesting compared to the previous nights vintages. Fruit a shade darker more density, bigger shoulders than those that went before it but possibly not as much as usual, almost a touch of green pepper and graphite.

Romanee Saint Vivant - My notes say a little like a bigger Grands Echezeaux, this is true in profile but there was also a purity fruit that reminded me of the Echezeaux. Stunningly complete. Real finesse as has become more and more evident in recent years.

La Tache - Often the star of the show (comparatively), deep darker, more textured than the Romanee Saint Vivant. Spicey and almost an edge of tar too. A little of all those before it but with more depth...very, very impressive and very La Tache...classical.

Romanee Conti - Obviously impressive, amazingly complex nose giving away more than it sometimes does at this stage, a nice earthy edge, fruit character is not really categorizable as red or black, Amazingly length.

And so that was that, except that a very nice (and lucky) practice has started whereby we take Aubert (de Villaine) for a brief lunch afterwards, at The Don this year, and open...

Le Montrachet - as always a nose and colour that would never let you believe its youth, an almost impossibly rich nose that somehow manages to be both rich and fresh, dense and light, it sounds trite (and biased) but there really is no better white wine in the world - that I have had - the empty glass was almost impossible to let go as the aromas just go round and round. With no wine left it is a butterscotch glass but so much else before that...where does the 2008 "rate" amongst the vintages I have had from Le Montrachet - 2003, 2005, 2006 & 2007? I would say along with 2007 at the very top.

So with this tasting done and the previous nights dinner it had been the most immensely pleasurable and fun 24hrs of the Domaines wines...never to be forgotten.

DRC at the Drapers...RICH and RSV 93/95/03 + a unique white!

2011-01-31T09:35:00.000-08:00

It is always a treat to have Aubert de Villaine in the Uk to show the Domaines wines but for a whole evening over dinner was a real privilege. The setting of the Drapers Hall (as most recently seen in the King's Speech) was perfect. To start the evening we had Salon 1997 from magnum in the Drawing room, there was a real atmosphere of excitement.

Moving through to dinner Adam and then Aubert both spoke about the Domaine and how the evening would work. Aubert then revealed the first wine...Bâtard Montrachet 1997, what? I can hear you think (if that were possible). This wine has never severed this outside the Domaine. It is usually for internal consumption as the Domaines 1/12 of a hectare only produces one barrel. There was a moment lost in translation when Aubert described it as being served at the Domaine in "happy hour". What a wonderful thought. The wine was rich with a dash of Botrytis on the nose - The reason for which Aubert related as being iue to the fact that the Grand Crus of "montrachet" are in such a great spot that you can wait for later ripeness without the fear of a flabby wine which you might get in you wait longer in say Meursault - the palate was more savoury and very complex with a lovely length, intiguing and moreish..if only there were more. The Pave of halibut with pea purée and lentils worked well but as through the whole night the wines held the attention the food just helping out.

So after a unique start, where to next? Well, when discussing what to show at this dinner we thought it would be most interesting to look at a comparison of two of the Grand Cru's as a main theme. The two we chose were Richebourg and Romanee Saint Vivant the reasoning being that they are very similar in quality but different in style. In the hierarchy of the Domaine's wines you could say that from 2007 onwards the Romanee Saint Vivant has just edged above that of Richebourg.

The first vintage in which we were to compare was 1995. Aubert spoke of the vintage as one that started out cool with rain into June with heat then arriving in August. September was wet again so Botrytus was a concern. Harvesting was around the 5th October and there was lots of sorting needed. My notes for the Richebourg 1995 have lots of phrases like dense, rich, muscular. There was real power on the nose and an almost menthol freshness, a touch of savory character behind this. The palate was balance but also youthful...a very impressive start from Richebourg. Romanée-Saint-Vivant 1995 by comarison was tasting les obviously youthful, more complex on the nose with a braoder spectrum of aromas, almost pine forrest freshness on the palate though, more transparent with more finesse that the Richebourg. As hoped the personalities showed so well in this pair - it is not as simple as Richebourg being masculine and Romanee Saint Vivant feminine but there is a lot of truth in that. Interestingly Aubert mentioned that he was a believer in the adage that you can't go wrong opening Grand Crus (or the best 1er Crus) at 15 years of age which essentially these were. The individual duck cassoulet was a good partner.

We then had the same two Grand Crus, but now from the 1993 vintage. Aubert described it as a vintage not that different in weather from 1995. A tricky beginning with possibilities of mildew gave way to a heat wave in August followed by a little rain before beautiful weather up to the harvest which was between 20 & 30th of September. I felt the 1993 came across as possibly more wines serious than the 1995's, a little more structure and acidity. These will repay more time very well. The personalities were all there to see. The fillet of Beef was mighty impressive especially given the numbers and worked well with the added structure.

I don't think an evening with wines as great as these really has a climax, such is the quality all the way through, but if there was one it was the two Grand Crus in the 2003 vintage. The weather is well documented but essentially - savage sun and heat from April to the end of August with 3 big storms - kind of sums it up...not like any other year. Aubert commented that he hadn't tasted the 2003's in a little while. The rule that from bud burst to harvest is 100 days was thrown out of the indow in 2003 - it was 80days!! Also intriguing was the idea that Aubert had been tempted to only bottle the 2003 in magnum but as there was so little produced this would have made keeping people happy very difficult indeed. As the wines age Aubert feels the mark of the vintage lessens and the climat (the specific vineyard site) begins to show. I think this was starting to happen. The Richebourg had an amazing Pinot/Syrah type nose, a unique (to me at least) density for Pinot in Burgundy. I would say it will be a fascinating wine to follow over the years, if only there was more of it! The Romanee Saint Vivant was to my mind a stunning wine with a real balance between fruit and structure. I think in time it will be a stunning example of what could be done in 2003. The marked differences in the two Grand Crus was really evident here. The twice baked cheese soufflé I'm afraid didn't get a mention here, far too much discussion of the wines. I was delighted we didn't get into a chat about winners and losers on the night etc, it wasn't an evening like that and frankly I have no idea which I thought was "best".

And so baring a glass of "bottled for C&B" Hine 1988 Early Landed Cognac (almost too drinkable) the evening was over. Not a dinner I will ever forget. I was a great opportunity to drink wines such as these with customers and friends who love the wine. Surroundings were wonderful and Aubert spoke in his normal concise, relaxed and informative way. The evening felt effortless, which these things never actually are so a big thanks from me for all the behind the scenes work!

As a note and for accuracy, all the wines had come direct fro the Domaine earlier in the week of the tasting.

Selections..Saturday 29th

2011-01-29T04:10:00.000-08:00

What a great card at Cheltenham...sky plus is set as will be at rugby but the bets are on...

1.30 Shakalakaboomboom 2pts win @ 7/2 - Impressive last time and very well thought of at the Henderson yard...I expected him to be 3's or even 5/2.

2.00 Calgary Bay 1pt win @ 8/1 - Like Somersby in the same colours a horse I have watched and followed a lot, likes the course and I simply feel is due a win, competitive race and a fair price.

2.30 NO BET but I would want to be against Punchestowns, just never been convinced about him over fences, be great if he really jumps into the GC picture but I doubt it. None of the other appeal enough though.

3.05 Rock on Ruby 2.5pts win @ £11/2 - Price seems very good to me especially given he is available at 9/2 or 5's in several places, if Nicholls form was better (which is a downer) he would be 7/2 or 4's. Saw him (through the fog) at Newbury last time and he looks an imposing and promising horse. My nap of the day.

3.35 Fair Along 1pt win @ 10/1 & Restless Harry 1pt win @ 9/1 - Big field for the Cleeve and several candidates for whom it is either a trial or a race to decide where (or even if) they go at the Festival. I simply feel both my selections will be there or thereabouts and at the prices I am comfortable with that.

Good luck all!!

Cheltenham Festival...thoughts and bets so far

2011-01-24T02:49:00.000-08:00

Have only had two antepost so far bets and both are small...The season has been so disjointed that a lot of horses will go to the festival fresh and many unproven so I have held back...

1 - Mr Gardner 1.5pts win @ 26/1 in the Jewson, he looks to be Henderson's No1 in the race so will have Geraghty on board. I liked the way he ran in the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Chase at Sandown, he was in with a good chance until pecking at the last but is a rangy horse who jumped well and slighly left (no bad thing for Cheltenham), looks like he needs more of a trip and at the price seems good to me. More to come next season too I think.

2 - Woolcombe Folly 1.5pts win @ 10/1 This is a less logical choice than the above but in a market where no horse has stood out I think a fresh Woolcombe looks a decent bet. Master Minded doesn't seem to have the zip of previous years and Big Zeb doesn't jump fast enough for me (I know he one last year but still). Nicholls comments that he was quite pleased WF missed his latest run were also quite encouraging. Somersby doesn't strike me as good enough so I'm happy with WF.

My big fancy for the festival is Menorah but at 5/1 with 2 ahead of him in a competetive market I can't see any needs to take the price yet as the other horses at the head of the market especially Binocular may well be heavily backed nearer the time if reports from the various yards are good - this tends not to happen with Hobbs horses. I just think Menorah has a lot in his favour, a proven attitude, a like of the track and the festival etc. I expect to have a decnt bet at 5/1's as soon as all is definitely fine, for the reason above there is no rush.

I was not remotely surprised to see Cue all but confirmed for the Supreme. I don't think anyone expected otherwise?

The Gold Cup is a race I am looking forward to but I see no reason to have a bet yet and it is in my view very hard to assess. Nearer the time I will probably look at the place market as much as anything - a good few oppurtunities there.

The World Hurdle - to complete the biggest races - Grand Crus appearance on the scene is very exciting indeed but I can't help feeling all it will do is bring out even more quality in Big Bucks. I was more taken with BB when I saw him at Newbury (even through the fog) in late December that by any other horse and it has left a lasting impression. Could be even be next years GC horse for Nicholls? He has a few to follow Kauto & Denman but surely winning more World Hurdles will prove nothing...we'll see.

Anyway, that's where I am now on Cheltenham lots more to come though sadly I won't be going this year...

Sunday lunch the way it should be...

2011-01-24T01:21:00.001-08:00

I had been looking forward to yeaterday's lunch for weeks. The kind invite to Fran (Mrs H), Charlie (Hargrove Junior) and I from Eric Sabourin and Family had been made back before Christmas. Other guests were Jon (works with Eric) and Sam owner of my favourite current restaurant - Zucca http://www.zuccalondon.com/. As a lover of all things Piedmont and that being Eric's speciality I was understandably excited.

So, once we had the compulsory Campari and soda (I always think this is Italy's G&T alternative). We were on to a bottle of Brut Initial from Selosse, until about 2 months ago (with Eric at Sam's restaurant weirdly) I was a Selosse virgin. I now love the wines, expensive though they are. This was, as you would expect, toasty and rich but with poise and definition, a really great start, it was still good at the end of the meal as there was some still in the bottle! Makes me realise I love the two extremes of Champagne; Salon and Selosse - couldn't be more different but are wonderful. From the Champagne we went on to have Thai Prawn salad with 3 different 2007 Spatlese from Prum, a producer I know quite well and admire. These were spot on despite having decades of life ahead of them, it's been said before but is there better value anywhere? I found the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr the most intense and the Wehlener Sonnenuhr the most elegant and refined, they were all delicious. It did further cement my opinion that I love the germans up to Spatlese level, I am less inclined as the sweetness increases, wonderful though they are I do not buy them for myself. There was no typical Prum stink either on these - they can be quite reductive. Next up was a tasting precusor to the mature reds. For some time Eric and I had been trying to get together to taste the Francesco Rinaldi 2006's. On trust I have bought them already (as Sam had). They did not disappoint in any way. Cannubi was up first, being repurted to be more aromatic, this was definitely the case, a very revealing nose, with openess and elegance, very classical on the palate and with ages to go but pretty too. Brunate followed and played up to stereotype, tighter more brooding and masculine, harder on the palate but very good, a keeper. I am chuffed with both as purchases. I kept re-tasting through the afternoon and the quality is there in spades. The 2006's I have tasted are very much to my liking I am pleased to have bought several. So with the tastings done and conversation flowing we were onto the wines for drinking. First up was Spanna 1964 from Vallana, spice, good strong colour to the rim and very much a Nebbiolo nose, it was still very Piedmont and very Italian. I am always releaved when bottles like this are good and haven't just become "old wine". A real treat, very retro bottle/label was a laugh too. Barolo Cannubi 1990 from R Voerzio was next, being a lover of the very traditional style of Barolo I am not that well versed in Voerzio's wines. There was a strong hint of marzipan on the nose initially that then dispersed, the texture more than anything gave away the "new skool" maker. The balance was good and the wine is very polished but still with structure. I am note sure it'll improve but it is definitely holding very well. A good, good wine. Ornellaia 1988 was next as we moved to Tuscany, this was Sam's bottle and had a closed nose at first but that opened up well, it was delicious, with decent structure and classical with a savoury quality to my mind. There was good fruit too though. Sadly the middle bottle in the picture Figeac which Eric had very kindly wanted to open as it was both Sam's and my birth year, 1975 (and yes I've had a hard life!), was corked and not even in a way that meant you could theoretically assess the wine, this was "fully" corked...a very kind gesture that did not deserve such an ending. So the Tuscan adventure continued with the Figeac being replaced by a tip top bottle of Pergole Torte 1990 from Montevertine - showing great fruit balance and still with structure to come, very youthful and a great bottle. We had eaten through the great Lamb by now and were on to cheese, which as usual I ate far too much of. Eric was just about to open some sweeties when we rememebred the bottle I had bought - Rasteau VDN 2007, Tardieu Laurent - which was spot on with a rich chocolate and pear tart. Needs a few years for tannins to soften but it is a nice drink now. I was not sure what to take and have found that something for the end of the meal never gets in the way!

Many thanks Eric and Clan for an awesome day!

Selections..Saturday 21st

2011-01-22T03:08:00.001-08:00

A tricky day racing wise and I've not really been in the loop due to a really busy work week with all things Burgunday 2009 (they are brilliant and in most places prices nothing like as extreme/silly/exaggerated as Bordeaux 2009), Haydock off is a shame and Wincanton has a great turn out (89 runners in 6 races) but it is hard to spot a bet so only two selections today:

1pt each way on Mad Max at 12/1 in the big race at Ascot (2.35), has a good record there and will like the trip. I nearly backed him to win in the "without Master Minded" market at 5/1 but feel that is a bit of a compromise...we'll see.

2pt win Rose de Roi in the 3.25 Wincanton at 2/1 - looks like a horse very much on the up and as the whole card is sponsored by the Pipe Stable sponsor I think he may have gone here to "make sure" of a win (I'm not claiming to have noticed this but it is relevant).

Otherwise it is Poker tonight with a regular band of Dads from my sons class at school then a sunday off the mini rugby coaching before lunch in south London with a great friend and wineman and the families tomorrow..a good weekend in prospect then!

bets are on a scal of 1-5 pts with 5 point being a mximum bet

6 go wine mad in Yorkshire...staring Halifax, Newcastle, Sussex, London, Henley and Suffolk

2011-01-18T09:16:00.001-08:00

Shortly before Christmas, in a very fortunate gap in the weather, I got together with 2 other guys in the wine trade, "Suffolk" who I worked with until recently and "Henley"who I know from a good lunch previously and 3 mutual customers/collectors/drinkers (I never think any one of those terms is quite right) who will continue the privacy by being known as "Halifax", "Newcastle" and "Sussex". The wine traders and one collector all came up from London the others from Halifax and Newcastle (yes, yes the names are unimaginative). The location was the Devonshire Arms Hotel - www.thedevonshirearms.co.uk - and I must come clean now and take no credit for the organising - this was all done by "Halifax" with a large number of the wines being sourced by "Halifax" and "Newcastle" and the others from the rest of us. It was a great meeting of minds and unsurprisingly everyone got on well. Having trained it up there - and you can tell the wines to be served were serious as there was on onboard drinking - we managed a quick walk down to the river in borrowed boots and coats.Post walk and before settling in for a "little" late afternoon tasting a bottle of Tattinger Comtes de Champagne 1998 was opened coutesy of "Henley". Always a bit of a trade favourite and also relevant because along with a tasting we will come onto later this is the Champagne house that claims to have first "done" Blanc de Blancs. I will say now I haven't had a great deal of Tattinger over the years but this was lovely, balanced and ready to go, a good loosener.

Right tasting one...now "Halifax" as is his wont tried to mislead us a touch here by serving the second wine blind having alluded to the fact it would be a different vintage of the first wine (which I brought along) it sort of was, sought of wasn't:

Romanee St Vivant 2007, Domaine de La Romanee Conti - I think this amazed several of the assembled with it purity and the ease with which you could see it's beauty - yes it was very young but in no way closed or harsh, very pure and primary and very "Pinot". The demand for DRC and the prestige (hate that word) in which it is held often belies the elegance and "alwaysenjoyableness" of the wines. A top draw start!

RSV 1989 Leroy - (Served Blind) now weirdly the conversation did come onto Leroy while we tasted this (Halifax might have pushed us mischievously that way) and we all said how little we knew of her wines. This was tasting well, a little chalky which was why I guessed '88, I was quietly pleased with being so close. A very pleasant surprise and a lovely wine. I would love to try more of her wines.

Corton Charlemagne 2000, Faiveley - this was I think by universal agreement a bit of a disappointment, it tasted older than it should have and whilst there was the depth (more of a Meursault than a C-C) it lacked freshness and poise. Interesting but nothing compared to the white Burgs later.

There was a quick break now to shower, wander about, phone the wife etc before the real "work began".

Down in the bar the evening then started with a trio of Salon Vintages 1997, 1995 and 1988. This is especially interesting as the 1999 will launch in the coming months.

Salon 1997 - I have had this more times than I deserve but it is always good, very BdB, very precise, no mucking about, will age very well and I feel won't shut down (as the 1996 might).

Salon 1995 - I remember going to the launch of this in Biarritz what seems an age ago. It divided opinion, I liked it (I am unapologetically biased) and felt it was putting on some weight, others thought it was a bit gawky and the least impressive of the three.

Salon 1988 - I have only had this twice before and as with a few 88's I always think of it as a Page 3 Champagne "all upfront and in your face" and it is definitely unSalonesque in its richness but it was in check and actually complexly lovely. Wet down very well indeed and led into to dinner in style.

Right, dinner - I am not going to write about the food as it was good but not the point of the night and most people will think this is long enough already. My notes on the wine to will t more and more vague as we go on...it was a relaxing night and note taking would not have ben polite or enjoyable....this was drinking and enjoying rather than critiquing, it is not a competition after all.

Pair 1 - Bienvenues Batard Montrachet 1999, Domaine Leflaive - I was excited about this as I have heard such good things about the '99 Leflaives but rarely tasted any, this was all gunflint and matches on the nose, quite incredible. Now that the year is fully done I have no hesitation in making it my white wine of the year. I will seek out '99's from now on.

Batard Montrachet 2002, Domaine Leflaive - so to the next door vineyard and some of the table (not quite me) preferred this to the BBM '99 above, I can understand this as it was very very impressive from beginning to end, very complete and long. A fascinating wine - Chevalier often steals the glory at Leflaive but I tell you what these two would be right up there to my mind

Pair 2 - Laville Haut Brion 1983 & Laville Haut Brion 1990 - this was the most educational element of the day for me as I do not know the wines well, I have had a disappointing bottle of the 2003 and a great bottle of Haut Brion Blanc 1995 but that was about it for top Dry White Bordeaux. These two were terrific and nicely different but the same as well if that makes any sense. There is weight here and a definite sense of Sauternes without the sweetness, the 1990 was a little more opulent and the 1983 a little more dense and textured, a fabulous pair of wines and all 4 whites were in immaculate shape!

Trio 1 - Haut Brion 55, 82 & 89 - what a treat - two wines I have had once before and one I definitely haven't!

Haut Brion 1955 - Supplied by "Sussex" in its tissue from a complete case (see bottle on right) and in the old (therefore conventional) bottle. The level was a surprise to the provider (you can see it is mid shoulder) but the wine sung well, the colour was firm and not over mature and there was good fruit there, lovely wine and did show the style of HB, a real treat and shows that levels can be very miss-leading.

Haut Brion 1982 - the last time I had this, probably 5 years ago, I remember thinking it was so balanced, that happened again, tasting it along side the 1989 was fascinating as it is a great wine but there is always a suspicion that the 1989 is a tad bigger and better. I am not so sure I thought this was gorgeous and complete.

Haut Brion 1989 - This was richer, darker and tasted at least the 7 years younger than the 1982. It is denser and I feel still not at its peak just yet. These three vintages proved the sense in the recently quote expression that you should "sell Lafite and drink Haut Brion".

Trio 2 - I will have to admit that my memory from here on in is not very detailed but courtesy of "Newcastle" we were able to add too more legends to our list Mouton 1955 was fascinating as was the La Mission Haut Brion 1961 - neither of these I had ever had before. The La Mission was a little short which was a surprise but the breeding was more than apparent. The Mouton a little like the Haut Brion 1955 was a very pleasant surprise, with good solid fruit, amazing in wine from 55 years ago. As if that wasn't enough we than had "Halifax's" Pichon Lalande 1964 (from Magnum) and this was stunning, well above expectation, a good advert for buying the 4star vintages in magnum, it stood up well to its first growth friends. I will be interested to try other 1964's on this evidence. None of the older Bordeaux were at that "farty claret" stage, all retained fruit.

Somehow a couple of relative oddities were squeezed in starting with a suggestion from "Suffolk" who clearly couldn't cope with the lack of Rhone representation Crozes-Hermitage 1990 Alain Graillot a producer I know nothing of was lovely on the nose but weirdly almost completely absent on the palate...strange. Then our esteemed organiser chose a 1947 Scharzhofberger I am going to have to admit that both producer and sweetness level are no longer in my memory, the wine was good, alive and still complex with a dash of sweetness remaining, not that I have much experience of such things but it was what I expected. This led us into the....

The sweets - (pictured with the Leflaive's above) the food and drink was hitting home by now and I don't think I appreciated these as much as I could have but I have been waiting a very long time to try Yquem 2001 - several people who's palate I really rate have told me it is the real deal - the nose is amazingly intense and almost round in it's neverendingness. The palate weight and richness of texture is almost unique in my experience...there is no doubt that this wine will outstay (nice racing reference) any one alive today. It is amazing to think it is already 10 years old. It is the most intensely balanced wine I think I have had, I look forward to tasting it again. Climens 2001 did well not to be overshadowed but is not in quite the same class (what is really?) the wine is brilliant though and is drinkable, whilst not at its peak, now. What a finish. Amazingly Newcastle and Henley managed a few beers after but the rest of us were done.

In these times of premox and other things all the above wines being faultless was wonderful and may be a little lucky. The alarm clock at 5.50am the next morning was not nice but at least I was no off for a big friday lunch..the same can not be said of "Henley" and "Sussex" but they have survived....there is talk of a part 2 to this great evening, bring it on, a wonderful evening...

Many thanks to everyone involved and especially to "Halifax".

Cigars...

2010-05-05T07:06:00.001-07:00

I love cigars and have been interested in them since they suddenly became very popular (dare I say fashionable) 15years or so ago. I have never been a cigarette smoker as I've always played too much sport and just never started. Over the years by interest has ebbed and flowed but is at a high at the moment. So I thought I would do a little Blog on it by answering my own questions:

Similar to wine? People often like to talk about cigars in wine terms and much as I like cigars I have far more knowledge of wine and have to say there is no way, to my mind, that you get the same amount of variety and diversity as you get in wines. There are similarities in how and when you enjoy and the fact that one country is the "boss" (France/Cuba) but I recon it ends there. There is however one definite similarity and that is ageing - I am now trying to start to buy a few boxes of cigars to age over the next 5-10 or so years. This is for the very same reason as with wine. The cigars become more harmonius and complex over time. At the moment the only cigars I have are in the small humidor pictured, which works well but is not a long term solution.

What Sizes? I have to say that practicality comes into play here, with a busy life (everyone says that) I don't have time to sit around outside for over an hour very often so I want a good cigar that gets you flavour in 30-50 minutes. I therefore tend to buy cigars in the 4-6 inch range and with a ring gauge (basically measured upto 50, which is an inch) of 38-50. This just fits the bill for me.

When to smoke? For me mainly on the backstep at home with a drink and just sit and may be read the racing post whilst the world goes past. The other two places are because of being relaxed and outside - Golf and Racing - neither of which I do as often as I would like but both of which suit a cigar perfectly.

Which Brands? My top 5 in no order would be Partagas, Hoyo de Monterry, Cohiba, Trinidad & Sancho Panza - there are plenty of others I have liked over the years but my reasoning for the above is:

Partagas - the Serie D I think is a bit of an Icon which draws you to try it but it is very good, the Short is a very good and useful cigar too, if I have to smoke mini's then I have always found Partagas the best.

Hoyo de Monterry - I have just simply found very balanced, a good daytime smoke and very Cuban without being too over powering, it is great to see the extra sizes being added like the Petit Robusto, possibly if I had to have one brand this would be it.

Cohiba - the basic reason here is that I have always want to be skeptical about "new" brands and therefore it has taken a fair bit to win me over on this one but that is definitely the case, a good smoke that I like very much even thought there is still a price premium.

Trinidad - in a slightly similar way to Cohiba I wondered what all the fuss was about and to be honest when there was only the Lancero (long thin) size I didn't bother with them but I have to say that the Reyes is probably a new favourite daytime smoke and the Robusto "T" a great one too, I guess what I am saying is that they are worth it.

Sancho Panza - this is a bit of a loyalty shout, Sancho was one of the first brands I really followed and I am still a fan, not a heavy Cuban by any measure but great value and just enjoyable, there are some 1998's on the market that really tempt me. The Belicoso is a great ring gauge and flavour at a bargain price, the non plus has always been a "go to" cigar for me.

More tasting notes and comment might follow on a future blog

Barolo 1971.......

2010-03-04T08:32:00.001-08:00

Last night was Barolo night at the Maltings Cafe http://www.maltingscafe.co.uk/ run by Sam Harris, Fraser and I met up with a whole collection (what is the collective adjective for wine merchants?) of guys from the trade to taste a selection of Barolo 1971's (& 3 Barbarescos) the tasting was hosted and organised by Eric Sabourin. For me as a Barolo fan this has been looming large in the diary for quite some time! 1971 is a great year for Barolo, up there with 1964, 1989 & 2004 at the very top of the tree.
The format was 6 pairs of wines with just some bread to keep the plate honest. We were asked to score out of 100 so I have included these below, I found scoring them difficult in because it feels strange to score wines of this age when you know that different bottles will show differently.

One observation from the moment I arrived was that the labeling (this is borderline geeky) is superb on these wines, varied but superb, you get a real sense of something special, far nicer than the dull minimalist so often found now. Whilst on the subject of labels what about the bottles….it appears there is no rhyme or reason to which bottle shape producers use and some producers, Giacomo Conterno for instance, uses the classic Albeisa (like Burgundy) bottle for Barbera and Cascina Franca and an almost Bordeaux bottle for Monfortino. This can be further confused by the fact that back when these wines were bottled it would not have been that uncommon for producers to go to their neighbours for bottles or vintage labels if they ran out, so you may find the “same” wine in two different bottle shapes…wonderfully Italian!!
All the wines were decanted at 5.30 and put back into bottles then tasted from 7.30 onwards, this is certainly the best option despite the fact that some wines might have faded as this allows you to check the wines and give them a chance to show best.

Barbaresco Rabaja Riserva - Prunotto (Pictured), nicely degraded nose, good now, savoury, nice start if not earthmoving (90).

Barbaresco - Giovanni Moresco, Moresco used to only make one wine, a blend of vineyards but has now sold to Gaja (you may see the names on the odd Gaja label), good wine, fully brown but with good acidity, impressive (94).

Barolo Marcenasco - Renato Ratti, a strange stink of degraded fruit, not sure it is a nose I like, palate big smokey and cigar box like, the 1978 is supposed to be better. Not for me but decent enough (87).

Barolo Riserva - Franco Fiorina, a soy-like nose, very dry palate that would be good with food but a touch hollow without, solid (89).

Barolo Brunate Riserva Speciale - Marcarini, a dash of Sercial Madeira about the nose but not a bad bottle at all, quite the opposite, this divided the tasters, I loved the tangy acidity (94). This backs up a bottle of 1970 I had last year, good value producer.

Barolo - Bartolo Mascarello, simply gorgeous, drinking perfectly, elegant and balanced, a “Volnay” of a Barolo, this wine is always a blend of many different vineyards in different villages in this case it sings (95). Keep an eye out for “anti” Berlusconi labels from the early 90’s, Mr Mascarello being a staunch Communist!

Barolo Bussia Riserva - Aldo Conterno, not a great bottle, a touch milky and a little too much tobacco for me, a shame (not scored).

Barbaresco Montefico - Giacosa, decent tangy nose, a little subdued but fruit is there under it all, a lot of sediment (89)

Barolo Rocche - Brovia, almost strawberry fruit, blind I would have ben in the 90’s!! Hints of toffee apple, unique in the tasting and remarkable if hard to rationalise as a 1971 (92+?).

Barolo Cappellano, I wrote “I like this, I really like this”, great balance, very complete (93).

Barolo Briacca Rocche - Vietti, almost perfect, gorgeously big with great balance, deliciously savoury, dense colour too (98).

Barolo - Giacomo Conterno, richer, more textured and structured than any of the others. The one wine that almost needed more time. A note of Bovril. Seriously good (97).

The tasting was followed by a selection of dishes Sam had prepared then the conversation flowed as the wines were finished up……

A memorable night with names to follow for the future, especially for me G.Conterno, Vietti, Bartolo Mascarello & Cappellano……Cheers Eric.

Clos de Tart 2008....

2010-02-25T02:21:00.000-08:00

Having last tasted the Clos de Tart 2008 wines on Day 5 in Burgundy back in November it was great to get the chance this morning to taste the final assemblage, albeit not in final bottle as it will not be bottled unitl April/May. The release of the 2008 will be April and we will be doing a Masterclass with Sylvain Pitiot on 15th April.

I thought the two wines were showing very well (you never quite know with cask samples) and for those lucky enough to get some 2007 I think there will be a massive amount of enjoyment over the years in comparing the two vintages as I feel the quality level is similar but the wine different in profile. To be crude I feel the 2007 will peak earlier and the 2008 is a "keeper" as below...

Les Forges de Tart 1er Cru 2008 - Pungent, spiced but very precise, gorgeous lanolin nose of good oak in the background. The palate is a more Pinot expression...good length and weight. Impressive and just begs to nosed time after time...for me an 18/20

Clos de Tart 2008 - Stylistically similar to the Les Forges but with more power, density and weight. A more broad-shouldered and masculine wine. Darker fruits but still that tell tale spice. Palate is dense and everything is there even if it shows less than the Les Forges (it should) at this stage. A keeper! 18-19/20

Not even time for 11's yet.....

DRC 2007.....not bad for a Monday!

2010-02-16T04:11:00.000-08:00

For the first time I can remember (and amazingly this was my 11th vintage) the DRC Press Tasting was on a Monday. As is traditional now the wines are shown to the press just after bottling, which was done in the last two months. The Domaine de la Romanee Conti wines are amazingly easy to taste at this young stage. I have always thought it would not be the case even as little as 3 months later when they start to become constrained by bottling. It’s always a massively exciting tasting regardless of the vintage as you are dealing with the very essence of terroir. The tasting takes a relaxed yet studious tone, there is very little talking at all, whilst Aubert is almost always in attendance, as he was again this year, there is no speech or presentation. The wines are “left” to do the talking themselves. The wines (no Vosnee Romanee 1er Cru Duvault Blochet this year) are tasted in the order below with the Montrachet never shown (more of that later!), the notes are my own and brief….I’m not a massive fan of scores so there aren’t any….each wine taken on its merits, it’s not a competition after all…..

Echezeaux – Beautifully “Pinot”, red fruits, elegant and feminine, good acidity and poise, long finish…very impressive.

Grands Echezeaux – Immediately less obvious than Echezeaux, fruit red again with a hint of something darker, a leafy note and more impressive on the palate than nose at this stage.

Richebourg – As with last year tasted before the Romanee-St-Vivant, Richebourg was more gutsy with a masculine edge, serious and more brooding to me.

Romanee-St-Vivant – Classy and a little more “showy” than the others so far, red fruit again, rich and a touch decadent, the biggest (good) surprise for me.

La Tache – As is often the case (almost always for me) the most obviously performing wine and, if I were pressed, the most impressive, richness and splendor combined, brilliant texture, hidden structure too.

Romanee Conti – The nose showed more than some years, exquisite balance and harmony, palate tighter and giving less away…so impressive and true.

With the tasting over before 12.30 it was brilliant to have a brief window for Aubert to present the wines and vintage to the entire C&B Team, the samples were minute - it’s amazing how far a bottle can go – the entire press and home team requiring less that 2 bottles of each wine!! Aubert is always clam when speaking and manages to make something very complex sound simple. “A vintage that will be for the nose” being one of the more memorable quotes.

From 1 Thomas More Street those that were lunching - Adam, Alison, Rachel and & I were hosting Aubert, Serena Sutcliffe MW, Anthony Hanson MW & Remington Norman MW - moved on to Lunch at C&B Paternoster Square. The post tasting Lunch has been a tradition, a massive personal highlight, and a thank you to Aubert for as long as I can remember. It is a good chance to relax and get the views of some of the wine world’s biggest names. Exciting though this is for me there is nothing to rival the fact that we now taste the Le Montrachet 2007 at lunch. The 2007 was a spectacular wine, especially when you consider it was the last picked of the wines (17th September) and you can well see it. A gorgeous young gold colour and exotic nose, to make an almost farcical comparison it reminded me of the 2005 with a dash more zest and acidity…you could drink it now or at anytime over the next ?? years….as Adam’s tasting note says, Noble Wine. The other wines at lunch were the 2007 Echezeaux, Romanee-St-Vivant & La Tache. In particular the La Tache shone again for me. Conversation flowed – everything from the Hospice auction to Le Corton to the En Primeur 2009 campaign in Bordeaux - but one question I wanted to ask Aubert, because we get asked it a lot, was which vintage the 2007 wines reminded Aubert of. He said the weather was so unique that it was hard but eventually he said a civil marriage (no churches) of 1997 and 2004.

The only problem for me now is what on earth do you do on Tuesday when your Monday is that good?

two 2006's in bottle

2010-02-03T03:28:00.000-08:00

With the big tasting of 2006 Bordeaux in Southwold recently (it has been variously written up by Jancis Robinson and more) I thought it would be a good idea to serve - blind - two Bordeaux 2006's from two of our strong Bordeaux connections, there was another reason for one of them but I'll come on to that later. The lab mice for this tasting was the private sales team (if you want an opinion this is where to go) at 9am on tuesday (hoping it will have been the first drink of the day)...

All they were told was that the wines were from the same vintage and were both from Bordeaux in the £200-£400/cs price bracket.......

Wine 1 - La Grave a Pomerol 2006 (sells at £235ib/cs). Overall score 17 and the view on drinking was now onwards but with no great rush so let's say 2010-2016. Now what is strange about this score given that we can be quite a critical lot, and yet gave an unknown wine 17 (the scores ranged from 16-17.5+), is that it gets a shocker of a write up from Mr Parker and a poultry 80 points. We'll have to let him off as it only has one note and that was a year ago. I will see if it get re-tasted now it is bottled.

Wine 2 - Roc de Cambes 2006 (£155ib/cs(6)). Overall score 18 with scores from 17.5 to 19 with the view on drinking being 2011 (although it is pretty "sexy" now) to 2016+. There are no score from the critics but I was so impressed by the 2005 Roc when I tasted in Bordeaux that as soon as I heard the 2006 was good I bought some then.

The contrast in the wines was marked and great to see. The La Grave a more classically inspired wine with such good fruit and decent grip but the sort of claret you can get stuck into. The Roc was more dense (but not heavy) had a richer texture and a little more "lip-gloss". As we have found over the years this is a great wine to serve blind to someone as it punches well above it's weight! If you see it available the 2002 and 2004 are really worth buying too and there is a common thread with them and this 2006.

So that's that...a 17 and an 18, just good wines at a very fair price

The 2008 Burgundy Tasting...with Alsace, Germany and older vintages!

2010-01-15T07:46:00.001-08:00

Last Thursday saw the 2008 Burgundy release tasting at the Tower of London, a venue we are making our “tasting home” for the time being. The format was a pretty tried and trusted one with a press and trade preview from 3pm till 5.30pm and then from 6pm till 8.30pm it was the private customers tasting, with a really good turn out of just under 200 keen tasters. The room was busy all evening without being overcrowded. The wines showed well (it was a "fruit" day after all – that’s to do with biodynamics and for another time all together). I noticed quite a few of the wines having put on a bit of weight since November (wish I could say I hadn’t). This tasting has become very much part of the furniture for us now with people having the chance to tast, as we often do, unfinished wines. One of the exceptions to this were the brilliant wines of young Vincent Dampt which never seem to disappoint. I won't go on about the specific wines here as that is all covered in the offer Allison has written and in the blog enteries from the trip.

As well as the rafts of 2008 we also made an effort to show some older vintages of wines that we have just shipped amongst the whites (pictured) that we showed were some Matrot wines from 2004 & 2006 that arrived last month along with a few Olivier Leflaive’s and the Macon Verze 2007 from Domaines Leflaive. The reds were new arrivals from Varoilles & Arlot. Both tables seemed to go down really well. Arlot and Varoilles both made very good wines in the four star vintage of 2001 which I like very much when we tasted at the Domaines in November and Arlot also showed some wines from the tricky 2004 vintage in which they shone with there finesse orientated style.

It was great to have so many producers on hand to show their wines and our thanks go, in no particular order, to:

Vincent Dampt
Nicolas and Florence Rossignol-Trapet
Gilbert and Delphine Hammel of Domaine de Varoilles
Francois and Miriam Labet of Ch de la Tour and Domaine Pierre Labet
Olivier Leriche of Domaine De L’Arlot
Guillaume d’Angerville
Olivier and Marc-Emmanuel Cyrot
Marion Javillier
Henri Darnat
Thierry, Pascale and Elisa Matrot
Pierre de Benoist of A&P de Villaine

The tasting only promises to get bigger and better each year. Next stop the very exciting 2009 launch next January.

One other point of note was that for the second year we showed our allocation of the immaculate JJ Prum wines. These are hard to taste in their youth as they are reductive (sulphurous) on the nose, this can to a degree be conquered at this early stage by double decanting which we did in the morning of the tasting. The nose takes 3-4years to fully settle but the palate is stunning from the off. The Wehlener Sonnenuhr wines were particularly superb….to be released for sale soon!! For those who still hadn’t fallen to palate fatigue the Trapet wines form Alsace where there to be tasted too.

The Beefeater on duty promptly cleared the room as everyone has to be out of the tower by 9.30 for the Ceremony of the Keys (the Longest continuously running Ceremony of its type in the world I’m informed). A few of us stayed behind to help clear up, once the job was done we were delighted to find a substantial chunk of Taleggio which we washed down with some opened samples! Then it was upto our Jewry Street Winebar for a drink and some food with the producers….. a long but massively worthwhile day….

So what wines do we really like......

2009-12-29T06:21:00.001-08:00

As the last week before Christmas was ticking along and everyone was getting tired and at times a little ratty I thought it would be a good idea to do some research….what is the ranking of the great regions and countries amongst the team here. To discover this I took a cross-section which included all the private customer and trade sales people (10 in total – 9 male, 1 female), the “3 Marketeers” (all female) and the buying team (8 – 2 male, 6 female). Then asked them to……”Please rate the regions/countries in each of the sections below (Red, White and Other). Please do them as three separate sections scoring your favorite 1 and going down the list from there”.

Yes, yes you can argue there should be a sweet Loire and a white French region section and what about Switzerland and Rose in general but I can’t keep everyone happy…..One other important point it that this was asking for peoples overall wine preferences NOT a reflection on the wine C&B has in the categories etc

Reds
Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, Loire, French Regional, Italy, Spain, Portugal, USA, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile

Whites
Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, Alsace, Loire, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, USA, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Chile

Others
Port, Madeira, Sherry, Tokaji, Sauternes, Sweet Alsace and Champagne

And now for the results……..

Reds in Order
Burgundy
Bordeaux
Italy
Rhone
Spain
Argentina
New Zealand
French Regional
Portugal
Australia
USA
Loire
Chile
South Africa

Burgundy averaged a score of 1.9 with 11 people voted it number 1. Bordeaux averaged a score of 3.1 with 4 people voting it number 1. Italy, Rhone and Spain was possibly the most competitive area and there wasn’t much between them at all, scores varied widely. From there we had the (predictably?) top two new world countries which to me were no surprise…New Zealand showing rare(?) elegance for the new World and Argentina’s brilliant “Old vine” fruit showing well. The rest indisputably produce some great wines but may be the style (Australia?) and possibly price (USA?) have an effect on their popularity. Overall pretty predictable.

Whites
Burgundy
Germany
Alsace
Loire
Rhone
New Zealand
Italy
Bordeaux
Spain
Australia
Austria
Chile
USA
South Africa

Burgundy (averaging 1.52) first the rest NOWHERE…only 6 of the 21 managed not to give Burgundy the nod here (and they all ranked it – 3,3,4,2,3,2). I suppose the dominance should not be a surprise but given there are people and some merchants too with a real fear for this category I was delighted to see this. Germany just beat Alsace by 2 points (interesting as our Alsace and German rages are quite limited, I don’t think this is or would be rare in the wine world) and then the next 5 countries were a smidge apart, from there we are into countries that really produce red but do a bit of white on the side…one common thread is that the countries more renowned for oaked wines seem to feature more lowly. Poor old South Africa again bottom…may be the test series (they are 59/6 as I write this) and the last Lions tour make for some prejudice??

Others
Champagne
Sauternes
Sherry
Port
Sweet Alsace
Tokaji
Madeira

This was always going to be the most contentious category with a certain lack of logic as some are Aperitifs and some Afterdinner and some both! Interestingly neither Sauternes or Tokaji got anyone’s vote as favourite which is especially weird given that Sauternes came second in the category. I take Madeira coming last as a personal challenge…if there is a better value drink out there then what is it?

I can’t go without a mention of the living legend that is Kauto Star…what a great run in the King George and when you combine that with Barneveld’s 9-darter at the Ally Pally last night you have sporting gold…..anyway need to keep an eye on the racing results….Menorah, Go Native and What a Friend have made it a decent punting Christmas….just need Diamond Harry to do his thing now! Have a great New Year.

and they're off......

2009-12-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

First blog entry since the site has gone live although there are plenty of blogs from the last few months - Dinners, Tastings, Burgundy trips etc - I have been getting things ready for a while!!

It’s been a hell of a week.

Last Friday saw the release of Domaine Leflaive 2008 and the vast majority sold that day which made for quite a buzz around the office as the phones rang and the emails flew (is that the right terminology?). Fraser then did the Sloane club Rhone dinner in the evening which went well by all accounts. I won’t bore you with the weekend details other than the fact that Twist Magic winning at Sandown finally got by betting back on track.

Before I knew it Monday was on us and there was still some Domaine Leflaive business to do which was good but telling customers that many of the wines had all gone is never easy or enjoyable. There was a hint that the new website (which you will have seen if you’re reading this!) would go live over night………..but no there was a slight integration (hate that word!) niggle and another 24 hours would be needed.

Tuesday was an extraordinary day – Adam and I both manned the C&B Table at the first Royal Warrant Holders Christmas Fair which was held in the Ballroom of Buckingham Palace for 1000 members of the Royal Household and their guests. A great day meeting some fascinating people including the Queen, not something you can say everyday. Once out of the Palace, no blackberry/mobile action in there, I saw that the site was minutes from go live. The amount of work has been mind blowing from tasting notes to pricing to functionality…….

Wednesday, quick interview first thing…always like to see and stay in touch with people who write in and may be of interest in the future…after that it was looking at the selection of wines for the post Christmas Bin-end, working on a few teething issues on the web (it needs a period of “running in” so the speed should improve!) and setting the offer Calendar for next year. Exciting reports of a spectacular tasting at Clos de Tart have a started to emerge, it looked at vintages spanning an amazing 116years, I have attached these below….they reinforce what I feel, which is that the estate is a stunning terroir and now under the control of Sylvain Pitiot is going from strength to strength…very exciting times for the estate (see Burgundy Day 5 for the Clos de Tart 08's tasting notes).

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a20091208.html

http://blog.cavesa.ch/index.php/2009/11/21/191523-bourgogne-passe-present-fabuleux-clos-de-tart

http://www.academiedesvinsanciens.org/index.php?archives/2131-English.html&serendipity%5Blang_selected%5D=en

With the first full day of the web done it was time for a drink!

Thursday dawned and it was time to re-focus on wines for Christmas and all the offers we have out at the moment….almost too many toys to play with. Joined the Board for a drink at lunch time, Flor de Pingus ’99 showing brilliantly and ready from now onwards, Corton-Charlemagne 2003 from Bonneau du Martray which is opulent but not too 03ish and to start (not sure why I’ve done the wines backwards) Delamotte Blanc de Blancs NV which, loyalties aside, I love.

And so to Friday….one of those frustrating start everything, finish nothing days, but given that this time in two weeks I’ll have a glass of something fizzy in my hand it can’t be too bad.

Over time I will introduce various aspects of C&B life and the characters here but we have to lead off with Darth!! Guess who got this as their Secret Santa last year?

Right time to cycle home!

Moueix Monday..........

2009-11-24T09:04:00.001-08:00

It was a Moueix Monday this week with the great man himself, Christian, in London for our Moueix Dinner at The Groucho Club. This was an evening as much about Moueix the merchant as Moueix the owner, and lets face it when you have Petrus, Trotannoy, Magdelaine, Hosanna etc in the stable it is easy for people only to think of these very great names. Their own website explains well what they do (www.moueix.com) but essentially Moueix are Château owners (producing, marketing and distributing their own wines), Wine Merchants (buying, maturing and selling the wines of other right bank estates) and also a Negociant dealing on the Bordeaux marketplace in the futures market. Interetsingly they never get involved in whites wines, focusing purely on red (not black!!) wines.

The tasting dinner was planned to co-incide with our Christmas offering of Clarets sourced by Moueix exclusively for us. The format was a relaxed walk around tasting of the six wines below :

Lafleur Beauséjour 2005, Côtes de Castillon – Ripe but classical and drinking well now will improve for decanting.
B de Belair 2001, Saint-Emilion – The third wine of Belair St.Emilion, now re-named Belair Monange and also owned by Moueix (but wasn’t when this was made), starting to develop but not earthy, good fruit and structure, perfect now.
Haut Roc Blanquant 2002, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru – We joked that this was a super blend between Haut Brion, Roc de Cambes and Cheval Blanc (ok the Cheval bit was too ludicrous even for us) but actually it was the surprise of the night for me, glamourous, well fruited and with a kiss of oak. I am not a 2002 fan but this was very good.
L’Hospitalet de Gazin 2006, Pomerol - Second wine of Gazin and a wine I know well…..really good honest Pomerol that is versatile and very reliable (why does that sound bad ?), try it...
Capet-Guiller 2005, Saint Emilion – I hadn’t tasted this in a little while and it is a surprisingly serious wine, earthy and structured and in need of more time in my opinion, very good potential.
La Grave à Pomerol 2004 – I have always had a soft sport for the relatively easy charms of La Grave a Pomerol, soft and succulent but with lots of life left too.

A really good tasting of wines that are easy on the palate and good with food but have little pretence to profoundity.

Dinner Menu & Wines
To wash the palate and accompany the Crab Risotto we had a glass or two of Mâcon-Verzé 2007 Domaines Leflaive, still only the fourth vintage but already becoming an old friend, just starting to fatten out too, if you have 2 cases, start one!

We then moved on to two vintages of Certan Marzelle the 2003 & 2004 with slow cooked rump of lamb, mashed potato, pea purée, glazed beetroot, thyme jus. Certan Marzelle is 100% Merlot and when Moueix bought Certan Giraud (last vintage 1998) the estate was split as there were two distinct soil types, one half was made into what is now the mighty Hosanna, the other portion became Certan Marzelle. Both vintage are showing well and for those that like younger Bordeaux, starting to drink well, the style is one I like. Christian, who was on sparkling form all evening, possibly helped by the bottle of Certan Marzelle Adam and Christian shared at lunch, wanted the floor to vote on which wine they preferred. This vote went to the 2003 in a 2:1 ratio. Myself and Paul (Marus) were firmly in the 2004 camp, Adam firmly in the 2003 camp…some things never change.

Next up……Latour à Pomerol 1999 & La Fleur-Pétrus 2003 – a lovely contrast of vintages and properties. A vote would have been interesting but it was not to be. I thought the Latour a Pomerol was absolutely spot on, combining savoury nuances with sweet gamey fruit character and finished with a mineral edge. The La Fleur Petrus had a very un2003 nose, pure fruit, but to me was just not as balanced as the Latour…I think a vote may have been 50:50.

A great evening and not a mention on 2009!!

Peter Sisseck @ 1 Lombard Street

2009-11-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Last week was a hell of a week with three dinners amongst the many releases and offers we were putting out at the minute. There was no doubt about the highlight though….the Sisseck tasting and dinner at 1 Lombard Street. The format of the evening was a relaxed walk around tasting of the recently bottled 2007’s and the 2008 cask samples. The wines were stunning although well structured as you would expect. For me the highlight was the simply awesome length of the 2008 Pingus. The Psi 2008 and Flor de Pingus 2008 were still very youthful and not yet giving away much but the mouth feel (I hate that expression but it is useful here) and texture show that it is all in there. The 2007 finished wines got better and better in glass and had a real richness and power but with a freshness under it all, quite an achievement at 14% and more. The Psi 2007 is growing in stature with every tasting and as Peter said almost apologetically “I’ve made quite a serious wine here”…not necessarily the aim but more of that later.

From the tasting it was a glass of Delamotte NV from magnum en route to the dining room, everyone seemed to agree the Delamotte was on fine form, the perfect “refresher” before moving on to the dinner wines. Adam then introduced Peter having given a brief history of the relationship between Corney’s and Peter which goes back to the very beginning of the Pingus Estate and beyond as Peter’s uncle, Peter Vinding-Diers, is an old supplier and friend of the company. Peter then spoke about the 2008 and 2007 vintages and the “PSi project”. Psi – taken from Peter’s initials – is a project aimed at helping small vineyard owners who have no real interest in making a wine but have some great old-vine fruit. Peter helps them to produce the best they can (organically or a near as) and pays them a fair price, we then get a cracking wine that drinker earlier than Flor de Pingus…it’s a winner all round!!

At dinner we had Flor 2003 and 2001 with Game Pithivier with Cabbage, Foie Gras and Truffles. I loved the combination, there seemed to be something of an agreement that before eating the Flor 2003 was possibly the pick of the two but I think it became clear when combined with the food that the 2001 although still young was more complete and had such harmony. Both mighty impressive and starting to drink but if I had a case of each (sadly I don’t!!) I would wait 2 years and have another look then. The Flor 1996 is stunning now and there is no doubting that the raw ingredients of Flor are better now than then. It is worth mentioning that all the dinner wines were carefully double decanted at about 4pm the same day using the tried and trusted out of the bottle and back in again technique! See the Pictures.

Then we had Pingus 2004 & 2001 with Peppered Loin of Venison wrapped in Speck. This was stunning, the food being the perfect foil. The 2004 - being Peters first 100pointer (his wines are always in the 92-100range and love or hate scores they are a validation of achievement) - was stunning but very tight…it had been quite incredibly fruited when we had first decanted it - and was still going well 2 days later – this is a wine to marvel at but then leave alone for 8-10years and more (much more). The 2001 Pingus was as with the 2001 Flor more integrated and nearer to drinking but still very youthful. If you can find 2001’s snap them up. Cheeses followed and the tasting wines came out again. All in all a very memorable evening and certainly not a standard Tuesday!!

Note to self.....make sure your camera flash is working!!

Next week "Moueix Monday"

Burgundy - Day 5 - d'Angerville and Clos de Tart

2009-11-12T05:51:00.000-08:00

As the photos below suggest our last morning was a cold, foggy and damp one….I had been looking forward to both the day’s visits - d’Angerville and Close de Tart - as I have recently met both Guillaume d’Angerville and Sylvain Pitiot in London and both struck me as charming yet serious “Winemen”, a nice balance I think.

Earlier in the week we had managed to take a picture (left) from the very top corner of the Clos de Ducs Monopole for which d’Angerville is best know and it really showed the different aspects and the unique nature of the vineyard, not to mention the steepness! As soon as we arrived Guillaume suggested a tour of the vineyard, Alison and I jumped at the chance and go into Guillaume’s run around. First we went through the Village and out the other side straight into Taillepieds (the north eastern corner of whch is in the photo on the right) which sits just above the larger Champans. As much as anywhere in Burgundy you really get the feeling in Volnay that the various vineyards have such different slopes and aspects and soils. It was a fascinating tour including some new holdings (Clos des Anges 1er Cru). After the tour we were back at the Domaine to taste the 2008’s. Starting with the Bourgogne Rouge, which doesn’t come into the UK, and working our way all the way up to the Clos de Ducs before trying the one white, Meursault 1re Cru Santenots. The overall impression was of a sleek, feminine and above all pure vintage. The wines gradually climbed in stature with it hard to differentiate in scoring terms but easy in taste terms. The Taillepieds and Caillerets possibly pipped it for me with the stunning Clos des Ducs the most clearly in need of time. The Meursault was stunning too…one to buy for me! It was very kind of Guillaume to give us so much time and this was another visit that left me impressed by Volnay.

And then for the weeks last visit…..Clos de Tart. Sylvain Pitiot met us at the immaculately kept domaine and we went straight into the vineyard, the first thing you notice, or at least you should, is how the vines run north-south rather than east-west. This helps to prevent soil erosion on the slop, it is also much harder to work the vineyard but then it is not the easy life that Clos de Tart wants it is all out for quality. Surprisingly the size of crop will be almost exactly the same in 2008 as it was in 2007, most other domaine’s were down in 2008. Sylvain explained that this was down to a massive amount of work in the vineyard that meant there was very little selection to do when the harvest was brought in. Each plot of the vineyard, there are 6 distinct parcels, is vinified separately. Really there is only one wine produced here (there is sometimes a La Forge de Tart from young vines but whether this is made is not decided until much later), we tasted three different cuvees, one the young vines, one from whole bunches and one 50% de-stemmed. A really interesting exercise, the young vines combined red with black fruits and good concentration, the “whole bunch” pressed wine tasted more structured (as logic would dictate) with a touch of white pepper and spice, great length. The 50% de-stemmed was a little more subtle with a classical nose, delicious mix of red and black fruits, big but balanced…impressive. It is the continual experimentation and questioning of the status quo that makes Clos de Tart so exciting.

And that, as they say, is that, the car (no C&B limo) was left at Dijon station…..slept on the train to Paris, lugged my half broken bag back home and now Burgundy makes a whole load more sense……I’ll be going back.

Burgundy – Day 4 – Negociant, Varoilles part 2, Darnat & Cyriot Buthiau

2009-11-12T04:06:00.000-08:00

The sun was well and truly out again, first visit was at a Negociant house we don’t deal with but that we had been asked to visit / taste at by a UK contact. The wines were good and as the range is wide and the use of oak subdued there may be some business to be done in the future but probably more with a view to restaurants who need to buy regular stocks rather than anything more but I guess we’ll see, very worth while though.

We were then due at Domaine de Varoilles to taste some older vintages with a view to getting some for a pre Christmas offer. It is a difficult task sometimes to balance doing well selling wines on release but then also having something to get your teeth into for drinking a year or two later. Varoilles (as well as few other Domaines) keep some stock back for just this reason. Essentially we tasted the 2001’s and 2002’s. What was interesting was that the 2002 were starting to show a little “animal” development where the fruit and the body were becoming one and the farmyard aromas start to come through, with sweet fruit this makes for good balance and great food wines. The 2001’s by contrast were more obviously Pinot and more primary with definite red fruits on the nose and palate. Clos de Varoilles 2001 was a real highlight. A delicious contrast and we will definitely me buying!! There was one curveball of a wine which was 2007 Yvorne L’Oraille from Varoilles sister estate in Switzerland…my note has Chablis meets sancerre…it was a nice “lunch-time” style wine

Back to the main road and down to Meursault for a quick lunch in the square before getting to see Henri Darnat (Pictured). Marc-Emmanuel Cyriot, who’s own Domaine (Cyriot-Buthiau) in Pommard we were to see later, looks after the commercial side for Henri. The wines Henri makes, always with classical music in the background, are almost Chablis-esque in minerality and there is little or not new oak (5% at most). The colour is very light and the wines are beautifully elegant, definitely good decanting whites. It was the 2008’s first up there are two Pulignys; Villages (17) and 1er Cru Champ Gain (17-18) and two Meursaults; Clos du Domaine (17), a Liet Dit that includes Henri’s back garden and 1er Cru Richemont (17+). Having tasted the lithe and tight 2008’s we then tasted the same wines from 2007 which is such a classical vintage that it really plays to Henri’s style….a Domaine to get to know if you like producers like Matrot and Javillier.

From Henri’s we went over and up the road to Pommard following Marc-Emmanuel (left, talking with Henri and Alison)in our trusty car (see Day 5 for photo – we may have Warrants but we’re not proud!). The Cyriot-Buthiau Domaine was newly formed in 1989 but from holdings that essentially go back to the 1920’s. From 1999 a decision was take by Marc-Emmanuel and his wine maker brother to invest and change the winemaking, 100% de-stemming in most vintages (possibly not in 2009), with 5 days cold maceration and pigeage not remontage. The Domaine is not certified BO (organic) but has not used any fertilizers in over 8years. As we tend to buy the Cyriot-Buthiau wines when finished and in bottle we tasted the 2007’s which will in time follow the 2006’s we currently sell. The wines were very true to their appellations – Santenay, Volnay and Pommard. There is an elegant structure about them and I can see them getting better and better.

Only Day 5 to go but what a day…..D’Angerville and Clos de Tart…