Two very different vintages - 2001 Grand Crus & 2003 1er Crus

This was a very interesting tasting that followed on from two similar but different "exercises"; 2010 White Burgundies and 2008 White Burgundies. The format was similar in as much as we did half as a tasting without food and then the other half at Trinity Restaurant in Clapham. The difference came as this was two vintages (2003 and 2001) and  also red Burgundy rather that white. The 2003's were all 1er Crus, the 2001's all Grand Crus. There was one exception in each flight both caused by the same person…oh Woo!!

There was much debate about scoring and whether it was supposed to be in context of the vintage or not…I went with not and tried to just rate them overall. 

2003's

Beaune 1er Cru Clos des Ursules 2003, Jadot – Quite a rich, brownly fruited nose, a little stewey which was as many expected. It was quite savoury already and dry on the finish. This may well have been ok when very young but is pretty uninteresting now. 13/20

Monthelie 1er Cru Les Duresses 2003, Lafon – Deep in colour, slightly lacked clean focus but in fairness had weight without any stewed element, got better in the glass and would have been one to decant. Not necessarily Pinot purity but a good wine. 15.5/20
Volnay 1er Cru  Taillepieds 2003, d’Angerville - Deepish in colour, a little raisined on the nose but not unattractively so, a little bit of freshness and some licorice on the palate, quite good. Had enough refinement. 16/20
Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers 2003, H.Gouges Corked and not only a little bit!! No Score.

Nuits-St.-Georges 1er Murgers 2003, Meo-Camuzet - Frazzles and bacon fat, a totally different shape and size to the earlier wines, more northern Rhone than Burgundy, a decent wine but not a charmer at all. It is easy to say so now but I'd have said "turn the winemaking volume down" in such a vintage. 14/20 (as a Burgundy), 16/20 (as a wine)

Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Corbeaux 2003, Serafin - This was tasted later on but is recorded in context here, it was soft fruited, juicy, nice, a soft touch that suits the ingredients. 16.5/20
Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St Jacques 2003, Fourrier - A slightly menthol note on the nose but a good one generally, red fruit peering out through a little bit of cheesecloth, impressively primary. My note ends "I like this". Never a bad comment. 16.5/20

Gevrey Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St Jacques 2003, Rousseau - Lovely fruit especially in the mid palate, then a nice tautness. Redder fruit than the others, classy actually, made you forget the vintage. 17/20

Charmes Chambertin Tres Vielles Vignes Grand Cru 2003, Roty - Bizarre at best. Nose quite decadent and high toned with a saline character. Then on the palate a lack of charm let it down, clunky and OTT in extraction and dry fruit. All a bit forced. 15/20

To start dinner we then had three Chablis from Dauvissat:
Like a beer at the end of a day tasting "Primeurs" in Bordeaux they were bliss. Are the wines of Raveneau and Dauvissat still a shade under appreciated given the prices for what can be more ordinary (in terms of Grand Cru white) a little further south? I think may be they are. 

Chablis 1er Cru Vaillon 2008, Dauvissat - Lovely, open and generous, crackingly ripe but also mineral, properly delicious. 17.5/20

Chablis 1er Cru Le Forest 2008, Dauvissat - Clean and very classy, many seemed to prefer this to Vaillons but actually, right there right then I preferred the generosity of the Vaillons. I'd be delighted to own either! 17/20

Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 2005, Dauvissat - I have had this before but then it was from magnum. It is full on and rich, drinking really well now, it has a bit of oiliness to it and very real Chablis ripeness. A keeper? I am not so sure but a lovely wine. 17.5-18/20

And then into the red 2001's:

Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs 2001, d’Angerville - An element of softness, almost too mellow and easy, poised. Not too much depth  but very fine and good. May be the elegance that 2001 can give to the Cote de Nuits can be a little light for the Cote de Beaune, who knows. It was lovely but not that serious. 17/20.

Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 2001, Lignier-Michelot - My notes here are only really notable by their brevity, saying only "good, silky, rich & good". 17-17.5/20.

Bonnes Mares Grand Cru  2001, Groffier - The first of a Bonnes Mares pair that caused much discussion quite a lot of it based on bias (both ways). The Groffier was spectacular, very Pinot, extrovert even gregarious, open and full, ready and really quite sexy. One of the "real drink me now" bottles. 18/20

Bonnes Mares Grand Cru 2001, de Vogue - The vote showed that of the "Bonnes Mares for drinking now" Groffier got the nod (me included). The de Vogue had a saline edge (I love that, it's the Barolo man coming out) it was coiled up (for which read closed if you like), dense, taut even brooding, all there and serious. The potential is great (IMHO). Now 17.5/20 could be 18.5/20 easily.

Echezeaux Grand Cru 2001, R.Arnoux - Quite dense and fragrant, red primary fruit, a dash jammy may be or just a bit hi-octane, tarty, good stuff if not massively serious. 17/20.

Echezeaux Grand Cru 2001, Engel - One of the wines of the night by consent, very fine, dense but never heavy, quite savoury or certainly finishers that way. It is in the second stage of development, a little browner and as above more savoury, not salty but nearly, moreish which is always a good sign. Really good. 18.5/20

Ruchottes Chambertin Grand Cru 2001, Rousseau - Gorgeous, soft and succulent but with real focus. Very fine, not overly rich, refreshing even, which takes some doing at this stage, does have a savoury edge but is at stage one, may be one and half of its life. You could drink a lot of it. Pretty special. 19/20

Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru 2001, Dujac - A very interesting selection alongside the Rousseau. This was more dense, had more volume, quite rich, higher-toned, succulent, almost purple fruit, delicious and a treat any day but not with the refinement and class of the Rousseau, a sexy bottle of wine. 18-18.25/20.

Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru 2001, Dugat-Py - Checked and then not tasted. Not in good shape.

The really brilliant food was as below. It is a very generous kitchen, they don't just over load you with food, there is finesse, but they also don't leave you hungry and needing bread. A great restaurant. You should Go!

Game Consomme Dome d'Or, English Wild Mushrooms

Charred Mackerel, Pickled Chicory, pear and Walnut

Saddle of Hare, Hot Pot for the table, Brussel Sprouts and smoked bacon

Welsh Rarebit

Many thanks to Mr H our host and organiser!

Truffle-tastic at Zucca...

I am delighted to say that something of a tradition appears to be emerging…a November truffle extravaganza at Zucca.
Sam (Harris) organises a great menu, Eric gets a fun crowd along and we all bring wine then eat our way through about nine courses each coated in white truffle. The 2013 Truffle crop would appear to be stunning. The best bit of it all is that people are generous and choose interesting bottles, about half way through you can't work out whether its about the wine or the food - perfect!
As always we kicked off with Perle 2006 from Ferrari, showing well at the moment with a little edge of lemon shortcake then a dry finish it sets things up well.
So, with some Sprat Fritti and Broccoli Fritti it was time of the first white, my white. Meursault Perrieres 2009, Matrot in Magnum, it's my wine so I can say what I like, I took it because I have a lot of time for Thierry Matrot and think that he makes some seriously good wines. This, however, was decent but no more than that, ready now, a little broad and loose, not worth cellaring further. The next white was very poised Chablis Grand Cru Valmur 2003 from Raveneau you would not have guessed 2003 in a "million years". Chablis purity and a lovely whiff of old gym socks that you some times also get with White Bordeaux, beautiful texture and very expressive but in no way "of" a hot vintage, very moreish and a perfect combination with the delicious triple header of Pesce Crudo (see pic at bottom).
And so to the red as the Venison Carpaccio smothered in Truffle hit the table, the dishes were all good but this might have been in the top three for me. The red of choice was spot on, lots of black and a little red fruit exploded out the glass, charm with a dollop of extrovert, it was La Dame de Montrose 1990, two bottles served separately. The structure was soft and I would say this was definitely at a beautiful peak now, really great. It is so nice to be excited by a Bordeaux.

The next five reds were all from magnum and were all decanted as the "Dame" had been. We ventured into Burgundy next with Romanee-Saint-Vivant 2000 from R.Arnoux. Open, mellow and fruited without a bite of structure. The 2000's are looking lovely now and certainly it represents one of the vintages to be drinking. A totally new dish to me was served with the RSV -Potato & Mushroom cake, fonduta, Saturday breakfast was being cancelled as I started it and that was only the last of the Antipasti!
The structure of the wines took a bit of a step up from here with Ornellaia 2000 showing next. It showed superbly, ripe and a touch sweet with a dash of tobacco. It was expressive and stopped short of being too much, may be a little tarty but in a good way, just lovely from now onwards. The dish with it was what Sam described as an "old school" pasta dish - Ox cheek Cannelloni, Cauliflower Cheese - slow cooked comfort food with Truffle everywhere? Yes please!
The next wine was the only glass I didn't finish - Voerzio Barbera d’alba Riserva Pozzo dell ‘ Annuziata 2007 - it had been decanted at 4pm and was still almost impenetrably rich and port like. I have not had it before and it'll probably out live me. It would also stand up to chocolate very well. If you own it then forget about it for a decade I'd say, incredible stuff that was just hard to gauge in amongst wines with a different texture and weight.
Risotto Bianco came next and once the "truffle squad" had been you actually couldn't see the Risotto, apparently Adam who did the food with Megan helping as well, doesn't like doing Risotto, well all I can say it that it's pretty awesome. It worked really well with the next magnum, Barolo Brunate 1997 from Marcarini, this is a wine and vineyard I know well but I hadn't had the 1997 before. It can be a tricky vintage as it is often a little open, lush and lacking focus but this wasn't. As "Henry the 8th" my fellow diner said "the cool serving temperature was crucial" to how well this wine showed. Warmer vintages need cooler temperatures. The wine showed tarry red fruit and a little tartness (in a good way). Really very enjoyable.
Pigeon, Hare & Lentils was the next course served and may be it's the fact that I live in North London but I love lentils especially in this sort of dish. It was a prefect foil for one of, if not the, wine of the night - Barolo Brunate Riserva 1988 from Giuseppe Rinaldi. Rinaldi is a wizard of a producer and one whose wines I do anything to buy. My notes are hard to read by this stage but I can tell from their erratic nature that the wine was exciting and exacting. Lots of fruit but a lovely degraded complexity, dense and rich but also elegant and with a cracking saline quality that I love in the best Barolo. Simply put, a brilliant wine.
The main course (yes that's right the rest was just a warm up) of Grouse, Roast Carrot & Wild Mushrooms was now served and along side it the oldest wine of the night. Another legend of Barolo - Cappelano. The wine was Barolo 1964 from 2 different bottles. The wine had a nutty, hazelnuts and walnuts, finish as well as some sweet but degraded red fruit, lovely but I would suggest it has little more to offer from here on in, the savoury bacon and tar edge was delicious, the odd "frazzle" too but not too many.
A fascinating blind white was served with the selection of Italian cheeses, it was a couple of bottles of Clos Joliette 1970, Jurancon Sec. It was like dry toffee apple and one of those wines that was fascinating on the nose but slightly harder work on the palate, really intriguing. And so to a lovely Pistaccio Cake with a cracking couple of halves of Avignonesi Vin Santo 1986. The Vin Santo was brilliant and even at the end of this feast of wines and food it caught the attention for having a beautiful rancio edge to a lovely nutty but fruity nose…as good a Vin Santo as I have ever had.

Staggeringly good evening as it goes - thanks to all for their generous bottles.

Beautiful Pesce Crudo

Potato & Mushroom Cake, fonduta