Not your normal monday...

A text comes through on Saturday lunchtime, "there is a "tasting" on Monday evening and your presence is required!". Now when this comes from one of the chaps on this special trip to Burgundy all you do is clear the diary and hope that there is nothing crucial planned for Tuesday. The theme was 2004 and we were on Bordeaux with the odd interloper from California, Burgundy and Champagne. The venue was one of "the chaps" houses with splendid cellar and even more splendid wife who cooked up exactly what was needed to set us up for the evening.

The dinner wines...

The format was to start with some Champagne and then white Burgundy before embarking on the reds. All the wines with one exception later in the piece are from 2004 which following on from a tasting back in june of Burgundy 2004 ten years on was likely to be very interesting. Ten years is the accepted time to "look in on" a Bordeaux vintage and 2004 has a reputation for being medium in weight, traditional and possibly a little under appreciated. Following the "freak" that was 2003 and then being overshadowed by the excellence of 2005 was always going to be an issue! All the reds were double decanted before serving.

As the team assembled a bottle of Laurent Perrier 2004 vintage was consumed in quick time. The vintage is a good one in Champagne and this was very typical of the style, taught but not closed, youthful but enjoyable now. The white wine was then Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Combettes, E.Sauzet - a couple of bottles of - both showed well. There is a lovely mid-age maturity here, still some citrus and shortbread as well as a little white fruit then a lovely nuttiness on the palate, a lovely time to drink it. Such a good site.

We decided to start the reds with two St.Emilions - Chapelle de Ausone & Troplong-Mondot - the former was mellow and soft, very complete, soft red and black fruits and certainly not more than medium body, a little bit of what I'll call "good greenness" that added freshness, I assume from young vine fruit. The Troplong - an estate I have often found to be "too much" in terms of oak and extraction - was quite toned down. A gentle wine making approach was key in 2004 and this was on good form. Blacker fruited and weightier. There was a small discussion on price and certainly the Chapelle does not warrant 3 times the price. A good start.

The next commune up was St.Estephe. Ormes de Pez & Cos d'Estournel were the representatives here. The Ormes had a nose of slightly reduced beef stock and then after a couple of swirls it mellowed to show more fruit. The palate had red fruits and good freshness with acidity and a little pencil led, an interesting wine and at the price very good value (ranks with Phelan Segur and Lafon Rochet for me). Cos was a more serious package altogether. Deeper and darker fruited with classical cedar elements to a quite savoury nose, grown up and young at this stage, good balance and a promising future...impressive.

Now we popped over the atlantic and had - Dominus & Stag's Leap, Artemis. There was contrast here between the Artemis' opulence, density and open fruit and the more restrained, arguably more elegant Dominus. There was a split vote I think on this. The Dominus would be exciting to own but you also can't knock the easy pleasure and value of the Artemis. These two were certainly as young in developmental terms as any of the Bordeaux...

And now downstairs to the cellar for the St.Juliens - Lagrange & Leoville Poyferre. Lagrange was very "proper", a balance between decent enough fruit and a savoury side, neither a disappointment nor exciting, a "steady" wine. The Poyferre was very typical of this estate, quite extrovert and open, rich but not heavy and archetypal cool vintage Cabernet fruit, neither too young nor is there a rush to drink this, open and ready now, unpretentious but that is not to say simple at all. Good.

At this stage our host started to throw in some very generous curve balls. The first that was served blind to everyone except me was Cheval Blanc. With the odd nudge the tasters got there pretty quickly. I was impressed, the Cabernet Franc had a really edgy freshness and very poised red fruit (almost red currant) that really marks this estate. It is tempting to think it will only age in the mid term but I think this could just be a wine with a very big drinking window. One to watch.

Briefly back on the original planned line-up it was Pauillac time - Clerc Milon & Pontet Canet. May be it was the class of the Cheval Blanc and Poyferre that preceded it but the Clerc came across as a little crude and "blunt". Absolutely nothing wrong with it but a little foursquare and hard. The Pontet Canet was one of the most obviously young wines of the evening, rich and black but not over the top in extraction. Good but it left you feeling it will repay a couple more years.

There was a comment at some stage in the evening that we had omitted Margaux as a commune so our host took up the challenge and opened a bottle of Palmer. This had a serious and smokey nose as well as a persistence of red black fruit, not quite the elegance of the Cheval but I think given a few more years the smokiness will meld into the wine and this will take on the Margaux fragrance. It is certainly a good deal more serious than the 2007 I has recently. Very good, quite serious.

So with one wine to go, the non 2004, what did I think of the vintage? Well these wines had all clearly been well stored and we had no cork issues whatsoever which is always a relief. I was impressed, I expected the wines to have less in common with each other but there was a similarity of weight and stage of development. The wines did not seem too light but at the same time there was no over-extraction. The wines were all appreciable now but I think they will age nicely before ultimately mellowing gracefully. I think that if you own the wines you've got classical claret to be enjoyed from now on.

As talk turned to the trip that might follow the Burgundy Bonanza, mentioned above, our host had one last trick up his sleeve - Yquem 1994. This was decadent and full, not as sweet as Yquem can be, I think blind I would have had it as 80's rather than 90's. There was a creme brulee richness and some apricots as well as spice. A brilliant evening of many laughs...

If only every Monday...

Only the Yquem 1994 was is missing...

The perfect beef...

Your normal Monday scene...

Beef and Bordeaux at Hawksmoor...

With the wine lover who set up this great Lunch leaving London for a while a Bordeaux orientated dinner was called for! Everyone brought a bottle our host brought several!
So to kick things off it was Beef tea which sparked a conversation about the joys of "Bovril & Sherry". It was delicious in a savoury and salty way. The first two whites were then poured 

Cervaro della Sala 2001 which was the lighter and more focussed than the Cervaro della Sala 2007. It was a really fascinating contrast as you would never have had them that way around. The 2007 showed a little bit of yeasty oxidation from what was a hotter vintage. Next up on the food front was Scallops poached in Red wine with Short rib & mash a dish I thought was seriously delicious. We were onto a pair of New world Chardonnays now: Cakebread Reserve Chardonnay 2008 betrayed its 16% in my opinion and was nicely harmonious with the oak, that can show at times, being well integrated. The second wine was Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay 2008. I had never had this before and I was impressed crazy though it sounds I was solidly in Chablis 1er Cru, the only reason I use to justify this is that the bottle was under screwcap and had a very slight spritz.

We were then into the reds with the Steak Tartare - Beef vs Veal course. Beef won easily to be honest, more richness and better texture plus the egg works better. The two wines for this course were Rauzan Segla 2004 and Clos du Jaugueyron 2004, both from Margaux. The Rauzan had a good classical nose and then a slightly short finish, I liked it but I've found many other 2004's more quaffable and that was the case with the more lush and sweeter Clos du Jaugueyron. The food courses did not need to get bigger but they certainly did with a rather vast Beef shin macaroni. That we ate with Clos du Jaugueyron 2000 & Leoville Barton 1990. The former did perfectly well with a slightly savoury edge and a slightly tough structure, it just needs time. The Leoville Barton by contrast was open, mellow, complex and delicious, really very impressive. Perfect now.

So now it was time for the "main course" of Bone-in Prime rib, Porterhouse, Hawksmoor Sausage, Beef dripping and chips. This was eaten slowly (as fast as was possible by this stage!) with five Bordeaux. Beychevelle 1988 was charming and poised, more open and obviously enjoyable than I associate with 1988's. Tertre Roteboeuf 1997 (my bottle) confused people blind but then FrancoisMitjavile's wines do, it was rich in iodine and a little tar but also had the trademark bruised fruit. Cos d'estournel 1989 was expressive and expansive with a savoury freshness and a showy persona, a little exotic. The Pavillon Rouge de Chateau Margaux 1998 was pure and primary, not overly complex. That is not the way you could describe the last red - Chasse spleen 1955 (re-conditioned in 2007) - when tasted blind we were all thinking 1980's or may be 1970's but certainly not the 50's. There was a lovely saline, bacon fat nature to the wine but still sweetness of fruit and no brown tiredness.

One last course remained - Suet sticky toffee pudding with Clotted cream. A nice light and refreshing ending! The two wines, both in halves, contrasted each other with the Lamothe-Guignard 1989 being a little weary and dried out, drinkable but not so charming. The Lafaurie-Peyraguey 1988 was almost the opposite, fresh lithe and with good focus.
Very little eating happened the next day!!