Tardieu-Laurent dinner @ 28-50 with Bastien Tardieu...

This dinner ten days ago was one I had been massively looking forward to. I love the wines from The Tardieu family. 28-50 Fetter Lane did a really great job of hosting the dinner, efficient but understated service and cracking food - menu below!

You can see some other Tardieu-Laurent posts that show the range of the wines. This family firm with father and son team of Michel and Bastien at the helm on the wine side just do a great job. They work with, often in the vineyard as well as cellar, a whole series of producers from Condrieu to Bandol. Producing about 80% reds and 20% whites. They are just what a quality focussed micro-negociant should be. The firm started in 1994 and the 1994 and 1995 vintages were aged in Burgundy (hence the "Laurent" bit) and then from 1996 onwards in Lourmarin where they are based now.

We started this evening with Condrieu 2015 as an aperitif. Now I don't really "do" Viognier in the same way that some people don't like pistachio ice cream (they are insane) but this I did like, and not just because I am biased. Full rich texture but a good bit of acidity and a nice oak integration, I imagine this doesn't see much new oak. It worked well as an aperitif but has plenty about it to be a great food wine. Bastien said it was from a new producer to them, based in Vernon with a parcel facing full south and on thin soil.

It was then time to be seated.

Goose and mustard terrine

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Norfolk Horn lamb rump

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Cheese and Pudding

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Chocolate Cremeux and Fourme d’Ambert

As Bastien said a few words we were served the Hermitage Blanc 2007 en magnum. This was a real star of a wine. This sees 24 months in oak but not much new. One of the key aspects to this wine being the fact that it is possibly the most long-lived of all their wines. One important point of the ageing being that it is done on the fine lees, Bastien noting that this is crucial to the character and complexity. There is a lot going on here, waxy with notes of petrol and pear then lanolin and beeswax, a rich wine but not heavy, more intense than heavy, a little white truffle...splendid just splendid.

As we moved from Terrine to lamb (which was superb) so we moved to reds, all from magnums:

Gigondas 2004 en magnum this is from a higher part of the Gigondas area known as les dentelles, meaning silk or lace as opposed to teeth as one might think. It is an area known for grace and elegance. As an aside, if you get the chance to go to Gigondas then go. It is a beautiful village and has a great restaurant - Oustalet - as outlined in this trip. Back to the wine, this is perfect now, good slightly degraded character and nice earthiness to combine with red back fruits.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Spéciale 2006 en magnum what a wine this is. Year in, year out I love this. 100% Grenache ("as Chateauneuf should be!"), made with 100% whole cluster from 100year+ old vines in La Crau on a sandy soil (only really shared by Rayas, La Crau and Pignan). There is no pumping over, it is what Bastien described as a tea-bag wine. The colour, as Grenache should be, is not too deep. There is an extremely elegant freshness to this wine. I just love the poise and balance, the slight white pepper but mainly the redder leafy fruits. Spot on. All this from a decent, but not more than that, vintage. I have some mags of 2010 but Bastien made me promise I will leave them for a while.

Côte Rôtie Vieilles Vignes 1999 en magnum drinking a wine that is special for a particular reason is always great. The reason this is such is that it was only made in magnum and never sold. It was only the 3rd time Bastien had drunk it! Only three times have they made a Vieilles Vignes Cote Rotie and this was just 300 magnums (2 barrels). There was a "normal" Cote Rotie 1999. The nose is just classical Cote Rotie, all bacon fat and dark spiced fruit. The palate had a more ferrous feel, a savoury bite that left you wanting more. I would say it is mature now, clearly it will continue to age but is spot on at the moment.

When it comes to planning dinners one of the trickier areas is the last course, especially if the producer in question is white or red wine dominated. Here we had a great option. The other "first world problem" is whether you have cheese or pudding first so we served a fortified red with cheese and pudding alongside each other.

Rasteau Vin Doux Naturel 2014 this was a production of just 600 bottles and 2014 was only the second time they had made this. The only Rhone village that has an official appellation for Vin Doux Naturel (or Rhone Port as we simplified it to on my table) is Rasteau. This village, 50 years ago, made almost exclusively VDN. The vines are 80 years old. There is an insane drinkability to this, I am delighted that I bought some. It is redder in fruit than Port, elegant, more drinkable in volume at an early stage, also "only" 17% rather than 20%. Splendid!

And that was it really...a thoroughly enjoyable evening, Bastien throwing great nuggets of information into the mix and everyone just getting stuck in. Wine as it should be...

Dinner with Bastien Tardieu of Tardieu Laurent...

It was great to Bastien Tardieu, son of the Michel who founded Tardieu-Laurent back in 1994, in town for a relaxed dinner at Daphne's in South Kensington recently. Especially so as he needed to leave again to over see the vineyards at the crack of dawn the next morning. You can get the full Tardieu-Laurent background info but essentially the business is a Negociant-Eleveur that only deals in old vine parcels from the best blocks. The aging is then reductive with only topping up, they work/have worked with 80-100 different producers some for as long as 8-10 years now.

We started the evening with the Cotes du Rhone Blanc "Guy Louis" 2011 as an aperitif, this wine is a hommage to both of Bastien's great grandfathers - Guy & Louis - it has fruit from a few communes but is essentially a declassified Crozes-Hermitage Blanc. The wine is very young but has great balance the weight of fruit and structure is all from the fruit with no new oak used at all, nice way to start.

We then moved onto a pair of whites with the Tuna Tartare. Condrieu 2011 was the first one and I have to say I share Bastien's thoughts on "not being a fan of Viognier except in Condrieu". This wine sees 12 months in barrel with 30% of that being new oak. The wine went down well. I like the slight oaking as it adds a touch of smokiness and balances the extravagant fruit you get from the variety. There was a lovely freshness but also richness, the fruit being somewhere between lychee and dry-pineapple. I enjoyed it and would drink it over the next 1-3 years the style worked well alongside the very different next white Hermitage Blanc 2010. This was really great, a serious wine that, showed well but clearly has masses to give in the future. We were already in potential "wine of the night" territory (not that it's a competition). The sort of white to decant and then wallow in. There was one great fact from Bastien on this and that it that originally Hermitage was 100% white and now it is only 15%. This wine was a taut, tight but rich wine with minerality in spades, and a dry honey and Greek yoghurt fruit character ever so classy.

A flight of Southern Rhone reds was up next with the Lamb. Starting with Gigondas VV 2010 this was atypical in its seriousness for Gigondas, it was classically proportioned and savoury, with dry black fruits, a wine that is in need of time to flourish and expand. The raw components are all there to leave it for a while and come back to a gem. We then had two different vintages of Chateauneuf-du-Pape VV the 2009 and 2001. The wine sees 24 months in barrel of which none is new. The plot from which this comes is in one of the top spots - La Crau. The 2009 was the only wine on the night that, to me, didn't quite give its showing. The fruit was a bit bruised and whilst there's a lot of it there there was a little bit of balance missing. Might just be me or the bottle or most likely the moment. What a contrast to the 2001 from magnum, this was terrific, lovely forceful elegance, delicious. This has an age to go but if I owned it I would be starting, slowly, now. Just what the commune is all about.

The final pair of the evening with Mushrooms on toast was Hermitage 2008 and 1998. In a way the 2008 was the star...just so good for the vintage, pure elegant and not overly big (something slightly Piedmontesque about it!!). The explanation may come from the fact that the plot the wine came from was the very last harvested even after Mr Chave's. I feel like I've been rude about the 1998 by association when really it was a marvel. With lovely, getting mature character, a savoury sweetness that was so moreish.

And off to bed for Bastien! Cracking wines.