Irish makes his half century..."The Lads" celebrate...

So a meeting of "The Lads" was called to celebrate Irish turning 50. The line up being Irish, Halifax, Ronaldinho, Woo, Monty (new name on account of hints dropped) and myself. We were sad to unavoidably lose the presence of Chewy but we drank to him and I am sure he'll be back with a bang next time. 

This group is a joy. A few of the previous outings can be seen below, were I more IT savvy then maybe there would be a section of this site dedicated to the group...the same could be said of the May trips group.

Boats, bottles, tides and pirates

Irish goes into his 50th year

Double birthday bonanza

Lunch at Ronaldinhos

The venue and co-ordination was chosen and orchestrated by Irish. Kitchen W8 is a great spot and one I have always enjoyed - if you've not been you must go. The brief was a simple one "bring a great bottle or two and NO meaningless volume". I tell you what, it worked as you'll see. But first the menu which was faultless - pics at bottom of this post.

Warm Baked Celeriac, Autumn Truffle,

Roast Chicken Skin and Hazelnuts

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Risotto of Cepes with Aged Parmesan

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Fillet of Turbot, Autumn Roots, Iberico Lardo,

Smoked Potato and Red Wine

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Haunch of Venison, Bulgur Wheat, Swiss Chard,

Creamed Chanterelles, Liver and Onions
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Cheese

So let's start at the beginning, Halifax (aka Nobby) is almost always in charge of the Champagne which is fine given he has good stocks and loves it BUT has the one downside of being served first, Nobby is almost always late! Only 15 minutes this time so having discussed the state of the world over a glass of water and got the first of Ron's dodgy jokes out the way we were on. 

North-South divide...

There was an element of "blindness" to almost all the wines. Louis Roederer 1988 from magnum was just splendid. We were on the money vintage wise having been in the 1988 to 1990 range but we were almost all leaning towards a Blanc de Blancs - Taittinger and Salon both being put forward. It was lemony with a little biscuitiness in the mix, no nuts, brioche and toast, great energy, delicious now, will age well but I can't imagine liking it more than right now! The magnum size had a positive effect without doubt. We were off and running in style

With one notable exception we went wine by wine rather than pairs which meant we could concentrate on getting things properly wrong. Meursault-Charmes 1er Cru 2002 from Lafon was up next and bang on the money. A little reduction, some petrol, good generosity, very good, focused but proper and perfect from now on, a taut density and easily of Grand Cru quality.

I decided to go early and get it wrong next, I said Grand Cru Chablis and from the mid-late 90s. I was, kind of, wrong for the right reasons but mainly because the wine was quite cool. It was a cracking bottle of Montrachet Grand Cru 2001 from Sauzet. Once up to temperature it was marmalade, tangerines, rich, with good minerality underneath and opulence (essential in Montrachet I'd say). Lanolin, iodine and full, those that kept a little in their glass just kept getting more and more...lovely.

What came next was the - ludicrously generous - focal point, even in this company. First we had Hermitage La Chapelle 1990 then Hermitage La Chapelle 1978, both these bottles and the next one having come from the estate in original individual wooden cases last year. The 1990 was stinkingly rich on the nose, full, I noted that you could smell the viscosity, whether that is possible or not, I know what I mean, rich bacon fat, so sweet big and bold but balanced and digestible, almost raisined, some soy and aniseed. A brute but a dam good one, mightily good. The 1978 was by contrast all together gentler with a more tender sweet maturity, leaves, forest floor, strawberry leaf and then tea and wood smoke, a delight. A really balanced wine, Burgundian if anything...so poised.

The Hermitage La Chapelle 1961 that followed managed to combine all the best bits of both these wines. It was perfect to have then in this order. Having a bottle of this in perfect shape is a dream come true. I was laughed down for suggesting that there was a time or mood when I would pick the 1978 over the 1961. I maintain there is, the 1961 has everything you could want. I just loved the tenderness of the 1978 as well. Looking back to the 1990 I see this as having the structure and DNA of the 1961 rather than the 1978, it has that incredibly rich sweetness. My note for the 1961 was easy to write; "Pine, resinous, oils, savage, a brut, wild, uber-concentrated degraded berry fruit, bovril and sweetness...super...wild, hickory smoke, grip...stunning...complete, Indian spices now, ferrous...magnificent!"

Where on earth do you go from that? Well one thing is for sure, you get the hell out of the Rhone...Burgundy it was and more specifically Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru 2000, Dujac from magnum. I really enjoyed this and was pleased it was a magnum as it just begged to be drunk. Degraded sweet and feminine. Waxy with palma violets, and some tangerines rind. We were pretty rubbish trying to get this blind as we were in the 1980s mainly, it had an open knit maturity, attractively so.

Another Burgundy mag next, any Rousseau wine is a treat and in magnum even more so -  Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos St Jacques 1988 was everything you would want and expect. So good in fact that it blew a fuse in the restaurant. This was tightly coiled with red fruit power, poised and persistent and with stunning depth. None of the tougher, acidic nature you can get with 1988. Just a super super wine - a treat. A little bit more about Clos Saint.Jacques. 

As cheese was ordered we went back to white and a crackingly interesting pair of whites. Firstly, Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru 1991 from Neillon, then the very same wine from the following year - Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru 1992, Neillon. The 1991 has absolutely no right to be this good, none at all. Oyster-shell and a tinge of green serious focus, spicy with a little nuttiness, some stemginger and a little lanolin, the definition of an over-performer. The 1992 was altogether richer and more decadent, a little reduced, unctuous and superb, spot on with the cheese, toffee apples and hedonistic maturity.

Just the perfect time now for a sugar lift. So where better than Yquem and the 1953 specifically. I've had very few 1953s but those I have had have usually been in verticals courtesy of Jordi. This had an expressive and fully mature nose, creme brulee with a slightly burnt topping. There is a rancio sweetness to this, lifted like PX sherry but then with a drier more intense middle, slightly burning caramel.

The next wine - Mehringer Blattenberg 1989er Trockenbeerenauslese from the wonderfully named Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gynasium - was an amazingly good contrast. So incredibly zippy and energetic, intense yet light as a feather, an amazing liquid. Lemon and even line freshness...superb. 

Then the final bottle, fittingly a birth year wine for Irish - Taylor 1966 - which had been double decanted that morning. Marzipan and full raisined sweetness but a nice medium weight, it just got better and better with air...we had the predictable "why don't we drink more Port" conversation. With that and the sound of a hoover doing its business we managed to depart before anyone arrived for diner!

Another splendid few hours spent with great bottles and great people...long may it continue! It is exactly what wine shouldbe about. Here's to the next 50 Irish!

A wave to Chewy and Newcastle!!

Food pics as promised!

Warm Baked Celeriac, Autumn Truffle, 

Roast Chicken Skin and Hazelnuts

Risotto of Cepes with Aged Parmesan

Fillet of Turbot, Autumn Roots, Iberico Lardo, 

Smoked Potato and Red Wine

Haunch of Venison, Bulgur Wheat, Swiss Chard,

Creamed Chanterelles, Liver and Onions

Magnums...the best by Farr?

PG goes a little "Attenborough"

So the invite to a bit of a trade get together at the new Farr Vintners offices reads:

"It’s "bring a bottle" and there are 17 of us at the moment so don’t bring anything too flash as you won’t get to drink it! In fact, a magnum would probably be better, but either way, there will be plenty to drink."

What followed was entirely predictable, EVERYONE turned up with at least one magnum...just as predictable was the fact that it was a fun evening with everyone interested to try all the wines and the "chat" (banter becoming over-used) was obviously of top quality...So lest I forget, a big thank you to Mark  and Alastair - our kind hosts. Below are just a few notes on the wines, nothing technical, selfishly for my benefit as much as anything. Anything served from bottle rather than mag is noted as such.

Fizz and early whites:
Coeur de Cuvee 2005, Vilmart - nicely balanced from this good if not spectacular vintage, being stuck in and around '02, '04, '06, '07 is a tough gig. 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir from 55 year old vines. This clearly has a life ahead of it but is not wasted now. A nice start.

Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs 2003- My colleague, Joe Muller, brought this along, definitely best served after the Vilmart, good ripeness and just spot on now. Biscuits just starting to show. Would love to serve this blind to any English sparkling wine sceptics.

Meursault Narvaux 2002, Domaine Michelot - I liked this, has only evolved slowly, magnum factor, good minerality and no overuse of oak at all, mellow and balanced.

Guardiola Bianco 2013, Tenuta di Passopisciaro - My magnum, I figured unoaked Etna Chardonnay might be a niche that nobody would clash with. Saline and stones on the nose, clean and pure not really a fruit wine, more a texture thing.

Those all saw us very nicely through a Salmon and Scallop ceviche.

Reds - roughly in weight order:
Savigny 1er Cru Les Dominode 2008, Bruno Clair - a site I had never heard of. Quite bold colour for 2008, good texture. I liked this, robust but not over the top. Good darker fruits.

Conseillante 2007 - went down very well, balanced and will keep but why would you? Good soft fruit and a balanced light structure, nice wine.

Chambolle Musigny 1991, Roumier (bt) - this was a trickier one to pour round the group. Degraded reddish fruit but with sweetness and a pure enough fruit character. Soft and elegant and right there to drink. A treat and nicely different.

Pesquera Reserva Especial 2003 - good balance of fruit and structure here, no decayed 2003 character, Quite ferrous and earthy but with good fruit and body, a good showing.

Barolo Bussia 2001, Parusso - embarrassingly a producer I do not know at all. Judging by this I should. A good mulled fruit character with good balance, not showing obvious oak, though I think there is some in the background but only framing the wine. Good wine and overall well received as it should have been.

Brunello di Montalcino 2004, Ciacci Piccolomini - this was a ripe, full and bold but not unbalanced Brunello from this good vintage, quite extracted but kept in check. Rich dark fruits and very much still young. Would like to try this again from bottle in 2-3 years.

Ridge Estate Cabernet 2011 - I found this to have good richness, more than I expect from the lovely, always balanced, Ridge wines and certainly more than I'd expect from the 2011 vintage. Impressive for it!

Raymond Rutherford Cabernet 2006 - "out the traps" this was a little bit of a monster or so it appeared, but actually, it got better and better, full on may be but in really good balance, I'd love to drink it again sometime to see if it was a little bit of a "one glass wonder" but I think not, rich fruit but not over the top alcohol.

Sociando Mallet 1990 - this had an eggy coating of sulphur to the nose. Unreservedly from a time when quality and quantity could go hand in hand. A good decant could have corrected that but regardless this was a good rich, dark fruit and floral lift wine. Really quite typical of Margaux in its own way. 

Lynch Bages 1982 - in a different style to the Sociando this is a wine that speaks of a different generation in Bordeaux, there is a sense, in a good way, of "throw it all in". The fruit is balanced with the structure, there is some "good green" character and a great drinkability, deliciously honest.

Deer In The Headlights Syrah 2003, Two Hands - big bold and uncompromising, I didn't make many notes here. Sorry.

Vouvray Mont Moelleux 1er Trie 2003, Huet  (2 x bt) - very good, bright, orange fruits and lovely with cheese or pudding, good acidity as you'd expect.
 
Crozes-Hermitage Thalabert 1989, Jaboulet - saline, soy, good acidity, a little astringent but good enough, probably a little past it in bottle format but still there in magnum. Propper older wine for all that.

Main course of Veal, Lentils and Spinach

After dinner whites:
Sanford & Benedict Chardonnay 2013, Sandhi - tiny production (only about 100 cases), old vine, planted in 1971, Chardonnay. I have wanted to try this for a while and would love to do so again, good salinity and not over the top fruit or oak, nicely balanced.

Meursault Grands Charrons 2010, Boisson-Vadot (bt) - a very classic B-V nose, not as extrovert as their good 2009's, more classical and focused, a good wine with a long life ahead.

And I think that...was that...good fun! (and nice offices!)

Double birthday bonanza...

A meeting of "The Lads" – Ronaldinho, Chewy, Irish Peat, Halifax, Wattsy, Teardrop and Step-toe - was called to celebrate the birthdays of the first two mentioned. The venue was selected as No 1 Lombard Street and the brief was that the line-up, beautifully orchestrated by Halifax (aka Nobby), had to be top draw. Not a problem with this bunch.

As we gathered we started, post Peroni for some, with a magnum of Salon 1997, this was drinking superbly, nice focus but easy to enjoy, a dash of saline and citrus, no weighty biscuitiness which was not needed at this early stage. A cracking start.

The menu that lay ahead of us is below, with some pictures at the bottom of this blog.

Sauté hand dived scallop and prawn,chilli jam and coconut salsa

Pan fried olive crusted stone bass risoni,wild mushrooms and mushroom velouté

Truffled ballottine of chicken petit pois a la franchise

Stuffed fillet of pork sweet potato compote glazed cavolo Nero

Cheese

The two birthday boys have probably drunk more Ramonet than other mere mortals so a trio from this great estate was our starting stalls:

Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Ruchottes 2000 - quite bold and opulent with richness and breadth. This struck me as a little more Meursaultesque than Chassagne-like but I think that is more the vintage than anything…nice wine.

Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2001 - slightly harsh to say so but this was the weak-link of the trio. It was not prem-oxed or anything but was looser than I think we expected. There was a striking note on the nose of fresh mint. It may be just suffered by comparison with the others.

Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru 1988 (2 bottles because, well it was rather splendid) - This was an absolute joy, stunning. My tasting starts with "feck me" it really was that good. Superb balance, sweetness, a shade of lovely reduction - simply excellent.

From Ramonet to Mugnier for the first brace of reds…which were served blind, leading to the usual abusive "you know nothing" exchanges that have become the particular forte of this wonderfully direct group - sensitive sorts need not apply!

As a pair these were beautiful wines, such lightness of touch and confidence required to turn out wines like this that will gain weight with age but are stunning now:

Musigny 2001 - this was one of those rare occasions where Nobby got things spot on by saying this was "ding-dong". Primary, red fruit, so pretty, roses, wild strawberries, really focussed but fruited too, delightful. Definitely want to have this again...

Musigny 2000 - A little darker a little more texture, still elegant but a shade drier, superb. A rich weightlessness.

The quality of those wines took me straight back to the  Bonnes Mares 2008, Mugnier that I had 15 months ago in Chambolle-Musigny - a quality producer without doubt. On the topic of quality producers the second red Burgundy pair was from two rather special names - Rousseau & DRC.

Ruchottes Chambertin Grand Cru 1993 from Rousseau was incredibly youthful, very focussed with rich red fruits throughout, my scribblings have the word "lovely" about four times, I certain felt it showed more primary character than a 22 year old wine would normally, quality and poise, excellent.

La Tache 2000 from DRC was next, as we had this and the Rousseau side by side I think we all felt the Tache was the older wine. The texture was the odd thing, a little murky and bruised. There was acidity there and I liked the fruit character, which admittedly had nothing like the purity of the Rousseau. It was a odd showing for La Tache, lacking focus, I looked at my notes from the fairly recent La Tache "decades and decades" dinner tasting and there is some similarity. Anyhow, this group would never let a disappointing bottle change the mood. The next pair, of magnums, quickly had smiles all round. 

Hermitage 1990 from Chave was first up and was instantly a success, amazingly managing to combine meatiness with almost primary fruit, a dash of graphite but real energy. It's a good thing it was a magnum as there would have been a fight for more, a stunning wine. Several round the table saying it was a good few years behind the bottle format of this wine. Following that was always going to be tricky but Hermitage La Chapelle 1978 from Jaboulet had a damn good stab at it. It was at a different stage which was a superb contrast. Saline, iodine, some good grip and grunt, "pips and all" was a phrase someone used, there was lovely lack of compromise about this. Beef stock but good fruit too, a superb wine. As I write this I am two days away from heading to the Rhone -  a region I am loving more and more…these wines are amongst the very best reasons why.

We then hit a double "corked bottle" speed bump. Both Trotanoy 1982 and a magnum of

Figeac 1982 were corked -  a real shame. We had a brief squabble about whether you could taste "round" the cork but moved on swiftly and with good reason. A magnum of Margaux 1983 awaited. This is a wine I have long wished to have, something of a legend. There is a lovely lush texture and then a quiet extrovert, expressive character with a dash of spice, this is still youthful in magnum but is simply splendid. The expectation was high and it delivered.

The next wine, which was served blind, will be amongst the most memorable of the year without any doubt. It was effortlessly complex on the palate. The nose was far less remarkable, a little neutral to me but apparently it smelt like a "rotting hedgerow" to one of our number. Either way (the polite version of "whatever") the palate somehow managed to combine; bovril, marmite, butter, pastry, Tarte Tatin, nuts and more. It was not bone dry by any stretch, I loved it. It was revealed as Rayas Blanc Doux Liquereux 1950 - Ronaldinho's birth year - special. Vouray Mouelleux Reserve 1976, Foreau was possibly more conventionally brilliant, smokey, briney, real richness, lovely, lovely wine. A very dry and hot year of course. I have reading (and hopefully drinking) to do on this producer. The wines quality was as marked as my ignorance of it.

A Russell and McIver bottling of Cockburn 1955 followed and is a reminder, if we needed it, that mature Port is a category nobody should be forgetting about, this was long, precise and clean, not heavy, but full of gentle Christmas spices. A real highlighted even in this sort of company.

With the room, that we had sensibly been tucked away in, needed for dinner we were politely moved to the bar area where a couple of "glamourous super-subs" were opened:

The Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 2009, Tollot-Beaut reminded Nobby of "Egg Custard" or may be he was just pining for his train back ooop norf. It was broad and good, nicely savoury to balance the ripeness of 2009. It did slightly struggle for attention with a magnum of Chambertin Grand Cru 2000 from that chap Rousseau. The Chambertin, unsurprisingly, was superb, rich, balancing sweet fruit, saline and savoury seriousness perfectly…

And with that the box marked "Mission accomplished" could be firmly ticked…great bottles, great people, great abuse…who's birthday next?

The Birthday boys…a happy couple…

Sauté hand dived scallop and prawn,chilli jam and coconut salsa

Pan fried olive crusted stone bass risoni,wild mushrooms and mushroom velouté

Truffled ballottine of chicken petit pois a la franchise