On Sunday we had great fun hosting Guy Dennis and his fiancée Marie-Pierre. It was great that Guy had found a partner so charming and generally lovely. Shame only one of the other four things Guy brought along was any good.

The meal was a great success (once again) for the meat of Woodlands Jersey Beef. Once again their ribeyes stunned us with their tenderness and depth of flavour. We couldn’t have wished for better steaks and they were wonderfully complemented by macaroni and cheese made according to the Hawksmoor recipe.

Guy and Marie-Pierre turned up an hour early, which is always exciting. This meant Dani was yet to shave and I hadn’t had a shower and was still wearing my Teletubbies t-shirt. We soon dropped into the swing of an early lunch by popping one of my bottles of fizz.

Champagne Brut Blanc des Blancs 2000, Pol Roger

I admit I didn’t notice when this stopped being ‘Brut Chardonnay’ and became ‘Brut Blanc des Blancs’, but I don’t suppose it’s that important. It had a very attractive nose of bread and complex apple fruit. It seemed fresh but there was a lot going on when you smelled it, clearly more complex, if perhaps not as many laughs, as the Gratien I popped when I came out of hospital. The palate was toasty and complex with many layers of flavour and those flavours really persisted too. As Champagnes go it was utterly delicious and refreshing but clearly showing the style and class to age for a reasonable period of time. I’ve had Pol Chardonnay that I’ve aged for a long time and I see no reason why this would not age just as well. When the 2002 comes out it’ll be cracking!

Then we had the first of Guy’s wines.

Cotes de Jura Chardonnay ‘Fleur des Marnes’ 2002, Labet

Orange, oxidised, dead.

I admit I rarely drink Cotes de Jura Chardonnay, but isn’t it asking a lot of any white wine, let alone one from this appellation, to age and survive for a decade? This could have been very nice at one point, but that doesn’t mean it’ll get better, especially over such a long period of time.

Guy took it home to make vinegar. Presumably that simply required writing the word ‘Vinegar’ on the label.

So Guy opened a backup white.

Macon ‘La Roche Vineuse Vieilles Vignes’ 2002, Merlin

A tiring nose of old Chardonnay with little fruit remaining but a hint of minerality. It was tired on the palate too, but the acidity was pretty good. Never really dies first, the acidity, eh? We were presented this (like all of Guy’s wines) blind and we thought it was minor Chablis from the mid-nineties, I wondered about an anodyne, tired white Rhone as a possibility. It wasn’t bad, but why on earth keep a wine like this for ten years? I bet it would have been an absolute delight when it was up to five years old – I think I’d have loved it on release. When it was ten it didn’t have much to say, it certainly hadn’t improved. What a waste of time and money.

With our cracking steaks we had the first of Guy’s reds. It had been decanted for an hour.

Chambolle-Musigny 2008, Roblet-Monnot

A nose of pepper, spice and stewed, prune fruit. A bit rough and rustic, not much refinement. The palate had harsh, tough tannins and raw acidity – extremely spiky with not much in the way of harmony and certainly no elegance. This was a tough, punishing wine. Again presented blind I thought this was a rather unsophisticated Cornas. Guy then told us that it was not Syrah and I exploded into a rant about how evil bastards should not be allowed to do such things to Pinot and if it had the temerity to actually be from Burgundy I’d be tempted to pay them a visit and disembowel them when I’m next in the area. Not only was it Burgundy, but actually Chambolle. The least Chambolle-like Chambolle I’ve ever been unfortunate not to have avoided. Guy kept apologising that it was too cold, but temperature does not turn Chambolle into Cornas. He also said someone whose taste I rate really liked this wine – I feel there must have been some kind of mistake. This was the worst Chambolle I’ve had since I last opened a bottle of Groffier; it had no redeeming features.

This bottle of Burgundy was so bad I felt offended that someone could commit such crimes and wanted to open something to restore my equilibrium. I popped a bottle.

Beaune Premier Cru les Greves 2007, de Montille

Delicious strawberry fruit nose, really very pretty. It smells soft and charming, with no hint of silliness with alcohol or new oak. The palate has a very slight suggestion of rigor to the tannins, but it is mainly all about that lovely, lovely strawberry fruit. The acidity us spot on to keep it fresh and juicy. Pretty good length to it as well. It may not be the most throbbingly complex bottle of Burgundy the world has ever seen, but it was the perfect 2007 Beaune and, as such, an utter delight to drink.

Guy’s final offering.

Cotes-du-Rhone Villages ‘Saint Gervais’ 1990, Domaine Sainte Anne

A lovely, soft, perfumed nose of fruit, herbs and grilled meat. It’s deliciously mature. Some alcohol shows on the nose but it is by no means excessive and the whole impression of the nose is one of mature harmony and accessible pleasure. Smells rather good! The palate has a hint of dryness, but there is more than enough of that soft fruit to keep you interested. Tannins are a touch dusty, but it is not past it by any means. Good complexity, good length, pretty classy! Tasted blind I thought this was a good Northern Rhone or a sophisticated Mourvedre-based Southern Rhone from the early nineties. Last guess pretty much right, the oldest Cotes-du-Rhone I think I’ve had that’s been more-or-less in top nick. Rather lovely to drink; thank you for bringing this, Guy, we greatly enjoyed it.

We popped a Schafer-Frohlich Auction Auslese 2009 to have with cheese that thrilled and excited with its violet wand-esque acidity, then drew the afternoon to a close. I still needed that shower and after eating rather a lot and fighting through a mixed bag of wines I was feeling rather tired. A nice kip worked a treat.

It was lovely to see you, Guy and Marie-Pierre; shame about the wines.

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The charming Ricard Sariola joined Dani and I to celebrate St George’s day with a wing rib of beef. Roast beef is about as English as things get and so am I! We also tasted Riesling, Burgundy and a selection of heroic Mourvedres. Truly we are serious chaps to undertake such an engagement for Monday lunch!

The food was a simple affair. Sausage and duck gizzard salad to start then roast beef with goose fat roast potatoes and green beans cooked with garlic and anchovies. We then ate a truly staggering about of cheese. After all that food, and an immoderate amount of fine wine, I was impressed by the ease with which Ricard managed to get home.

We began our afternoon with a bottle of Jacquesson Cuvee 735, the latest release in this impressive series of semi-non-vintage Champagnes. This was based on the 2007 vintage and it showed the abundant fruit of the year, but had good elegance and a honeyed complexity from the large proportion of reserve wines in it. These wines are ready to drink on release but when I’ve stuck them in the cellar I’ve found they age with remarkable grace gaining real weight and showing a lot more complexity. They are well worth seeking out.

First course was duck gizzard and Old English sausage salad. The Old English sausages came from Beechcroft Farm and are made with the pork of Oxford Sandy and Black pigs which are exceptionally tasty. Just follow this recipe with chopped up sausages added to the gesiers as you fry them.

We had three 2009 Riesling Kabinetts with this. First was Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg which was a brilliantly pure and direct expression of Ruwer Riesling. Painfully acidic and rigorous but an exciting and nervy drink to enjoy. Willi Schaefer’s Graacher Domprobst had a shade more fat and richness, but still great acidity and an edgy minerality to it. This was a step up in terms of complexity from the Karthauserhofberg. Finally a Berncasteler Doctor from Erben-Thanisch utterly blew us away. Certainly lacking nothing in terms of focus it slashed painfully across my stomach, but had an incredibly intricate and sophisticated minerality to it and a massively long finish. This was a truly great Kabinett and I couldn’t have enjoyed my last bottle of it more.

Whilst we were waiting for the beef to rest and for Ricard to create his peerless horseradish sauce we had a quick bottle of Burgundy: Volnay Vendanges Selectionees 2005 from Michel Lafarge. This is pretty much as winsome and pulchritudinous as village Volnay gets. Highly attractive fruit with a silky texture of polished tannins. Great acidity for a 2005 as well. This just seemed charged with life and begged to be drank, but I’d bet it’d improve for ages if that’s the kind of thing you like doing.

Rather idiotically, I forgot to take a picture of the wing rib of Aberdeen Angus beef, also from Beechcroft Farm, but I suppose this lack of photographic evidence might make it easier to believe it tasted far better than it looked, glorious as that was. I’ll move straight onto the reds.

Ricard had decided he wanted to do Mourvedre as the main theme and we had three to try. First was Altos 2005 from Jumilla. It was certainly alcoholic, but this didn’t show too strongly due to the lovely, scented nose of grilled meat, herbs and flowers. Not as tannic as these things can get it was really pleasurable to drink – I thought it slipped down a treat for such a biggie and was showing at a highly attractive stage of development.

Las Gravas 2001 also from Jumilla was simply delicious. It had matured and softened to a perfumed loveliness, whilst still retaining enough vigour and energy to make it a lively drink. Extremely complex and with massive length. I don’t know the wines of Jumilla at all but if they can be this good, and carry their heroism so discreetly, I’ll look out for them.

Finally I had popped a bottle of Chateau Pradeaux Bandol 2001. Hell’s bells it was a beast! I’d wager the alcohol was at least 15% and the tannins were straying to the distinctly severe side of the intensity motorway. Lovely fruit, though, and a lot of it so I think I need to keep my last bottle for a long time to let all its wildness resolve. I imagine, given long enough, it’ll turn into an extravagantly opulent and ravishing scented old lady. I hope so!

As we gorged ourselves on quality cheese we had a bottle of 2009 Riesling Auslese #45 from Eitelsbacher Karthauserhofberg. The fruit/sugar/acid balance was electric fun and thrills, and the minerality was great too, but I suspect this wine either needed popping a year ago or in five years’ time. Riesling may be the stuff, but sometimes it doesn’t always show itself at its most luridly attractive.

Our final taste of Burgundy bleached from my mind the requirement for Ricard to try some of our 100 year old Marc de Bourgogne, which he should feel disappointed about, but as we escorted him to the station in the pouring rain he looked remarkably chipper. I think we can do that ‘entertaining’ lark and do it well – I certainly enjoyed myself!

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Being fairly new to the Winchester area it is good to make new friends. Consequently, on Monday night we enjoyed going the The Old Forge in Otterbourne to go drinking with Stone, Vine and Sun’s Simon Taylor and Gordon Coates. They are the local serious wine merchant and based upon what we enjoyed together I foresee a lot of wine-themed larks in the future.

The Old Forge has good food at reasonable prices, provides a pleasant dining environment and allows you to bring your own wine for a fiver corkage on Monday nights. The four of us brought seven bottles along, ate rather well and thought the bill was perfectly reasonable at the end of the night. I look forward to a repeat match!

Riesling Auslese Traiser Rotenfels 1989, Weingut Crusius

Gordon related that with this wine the producer was trying for something a bit grander than an Auslese, but due to the acidity levels they decided to finally bottle it as one. He always remembers it being distinctly on the painful side of acidic.

Quite mature on the nose, indeed heading slightly a bit toward the old wines’ home with hints of baked apple and mushroom. Not entirely past it but it’s seen better days. Some good minerality which I do like, though. By bums, I see what Gordon meant about acidity! This is frighteningly acidic and definitely hurts. It’s beyond direct and linear, the steel rod up the arse of this wine has a steel rod up its arse. It’s difficult getting beyond the terror factor with this, but there is a bit of fruit left, some sweetness and some minerality, but it is all acidity and tiredness, really. It would have been far better, although much more scary, about five years ago. Fascinating wine, but I prefer youth rather than crapulence for my drinking delights.

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg L31E 2007, Domaine Boxler

Dani and I were a bit worried about this bottle as we’ve had quite a few highly-developed Boxler wines recently and we hoped this would not be another. One sniff… No, in top nick although time to drink, I’d suggest. Lots of very ripe but direct and focussed lemon and lime fruit. There is focus, but it’s not shy of flashing it’s assets for everyone to have a good look at. There is a real stoniness to the nose as well, which is very nice. The palate is a mixture of the fat and the searingly direct. The acidity and minerality are edgy and scary in intensity, yet the fruit is quite round and plump. It makes for attractive drinking, but you need to drink yours soon as I fear this is not going anywhere good. Boxler wines are pretty god-damned pricey in the UK and one would hope for a lot more ageing potential than this from them; I’m glad we got this direct and paid cellar-door prices.

Chateauneuf du Papes Blanc 1999, Clos des Papes 1999

OK, this is strange. Nothing wrong with being strange, of course, but modern palates might have the willies scared out of them by the odd aromas and flavours this displays. I rather liked it. A nose of glue, mushrooms and some berry fruit. Somewhere between Airfix and mature Rosé Champagne. I think it’d be fair to say it’s quite broad on the nose. I love how this smells, although it might be getting a little over the hill. A differently attractive palate that makes the nose look conventional. I really love it! Fat and broad with an idea of acidity, oddly rotten fruit and an incredibly powerful stoniness. Very long. Incredibly broad. Yes, this is brilliant. No one seemed to like it as much as me, but I’m bloody reporting on it so I can say it was great and you’ve only got me to believe. I really did like it. It fell apart after about 40 minutes, alas.

Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru 2001, Domaine Arlaud

A gloriously expressive nose bursting with youthful fruit but showing hints of soft maturity. This is well up for plucking and ravishing with great delight. The fruit is really Charmes, very complex and highly attractive. There is a strong earthiness which is intricate in character. It just smells amazing, all one could ask from a 2001 Grand Cru Burgundy and a lot more. The palate is gloriously refined and elegant with plenty of sprightly fruit, good earthiness and a sophisticated tannic structure that keeps the whole thing lively and full of energy. The acidity is spot on too. The finish lasts and lasts. What a wine, totally pleasing and definitely for drinking now with almost indescribable pleasure. You know, you can still buy this from the Wine Society for £55 a bottle and if you are a member you should be buying some at the end of this sentence.

Bandol La Migoua 2002, Domaine Tempier

Perhaps it is because this is from a lesser vintage but this smells the most wonderfully restrained and totally winsome bottles of Tempier I’ve tried in a while. There is no hint of excess alcohol, just lovely, lovely scented fruit, flowers and leathery meatiness. It is simply so good. Just from sniffing this I can tell it’ll be a joy on the palate but will be able to age and improve far longer than I will. It smells like a fabulously great Bandol. And the palate tastes like one. Some rigour, but real soft, silkiness to the palate with, would you believe it, decent acidity as well. The fruit is delicious and it’s earthy richness just right up my passage. Maturity is there but so much life and energy as well. It really will last forever. I enjoyed this bottle now and I would like to drink more soon, it was absolutely fine. Not that this really matters, but it was an incredible food wine matching so well with my slow-cooked lamb. Although I was more interested in necking lots of this than eating the lamb…

Cornas 2001, Domaine Balthazar

What you want from Northern Rhone wines is a bit of elegance and this really delivered. Really seriously delivered. A delightful nose with lots of red fruit and good earthiness, but not alcohol driven or over-blown at all. It was a model of restraint. The palate had tannins that were correct for Cornas of this age, rigorous but nicely softened, good, lively acidity and plenty of fruit. Again, it did not seem heavy or soupy, just nicely balanced and very attractive. I am a big fan of 2001 Northern Rhones and this was one of the very best I’ve had in a while, quite the charmer.

And finally…

Chateau la Tour Blanche 2003

Unlike most of the other wines of the night, a big, big nose. Lots of botrytis peaches and cream character, lots of new wood and quite a lot of booze. It has scale, that much is sure. I think there is some complexity, but I am just a tad over-come by its inhalation anaesthetic characters to be absolutely sure. The palate is extremely rich, ripe and sweet. Very big and powerful. I was happy just to have a glass of this as my dessert as nothing else sugary could have stood up to it. A sweet beast!

And that was dinner. I think we all had quite a lot of fun and I hope we can repeat the event at some point soon. Assuming Gordon ever gets over his hangover… Many thanks for the wines, chaps, it was a hoot!

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This will be a brief report, but I hope to capture the brilliance of the occasion that was lunch with Keith Prothero. Not only is he a lovely fellow, but all his friends are too, and all share exquisite taste in food and drink. Best lunch I’ve had in ages – well done Nigel P-M and The Ledbury.

Every wine we drank at lunch was a winner. Since three of them were Clarets some of you might be surprised to hear me report this, but I am prepared to indulge in the greatest of experiences, as long as they don’t drain the madness-vouchers so much I cannot do it again. The Clarets we had were tongue-engorgingly gratifying, but there was better in our little meal.

It’s worth giving a quick summary of The Ledbury – it’s the best two star I’ve been to. The food is always inventive and assembled with creative ability with a focus on intense enjoyment value. The service is unobtrusive and calmly in control and (not that we used this) it has an ace wine list. There are more slack and louche destinations in London, but if you want fine dining forget Ramsay and Tom Aitkens, go to The Ledbury. Or La Trompette, but The Ledbury will keep you chortling well into the night.

Our white wines where Meursault Premier Cru Poruzots 1999 from Domaine Francois and Antoine Jobard and Trimbach Clos Ste Hune 1973. The Meursault started off tasting a touch quaquaversal and I thought it was a touch over the hill. But as it had time to breathe and grow in the glass it expanded into a powerful, intense entity of style and class. Incredible acidity and minerality for a 1999, a vintage I often think of being a bit fat, it ended up drinking supremely well. Lots of enjoyment value here. Modesty forbids me from waxing lyrical too much about the CSH 1973 but it was amazing not only how fresh it started out but moreover how much it expanded and improved with air. Supremely fine, incredibly delicate and utterly refined. Happy birthday me.

Lunch with Keith Prothero is always going to include some cracking Burgundy and the three we tried may have still been early stages of development but were supremely fine and ravishingly enjoyable. 2001 Clos Vougeot from Chateau de la Tour was one of the greatest Clos Vougeot I can remember having. Many years away from maturity it had a robust yet delightful structure intertwined with gorgeously complex fruit. A stunningly fine wine.

Closer to drinkability was 2001 Nuits-Saint-Georges les Vaucrains from Domaine Chauvenet. This was a svelte and sophisticated Nuits that was brilliantly structures but with no hint of toughness or hard, unyielding tannins. It didn’t need so much more time, but I got a lot of pleasure from this bottle – very refined Nuits.

Finally there was a 2001 Latricieres-Chambertin from Rossignol-Trapet which showed all the accessible polish one wants from this producer, but still rather a long way from maturity. I quite liked it but found it so awkwardly hung between youth and maturity it just left me thinking I could have bought something more approachable and pleasure-delivering. It was well-received, though.

Then there were Clarets.

I had pre-judged two of them as being rubbish, and bugger me if I wasn’t wrong. The Mouton 1989 was very elegant and refined, with a sophisticated, serious structure and precise, defined fruit. This is normally the kind of Claret I hate but I found myself drinking this with a great deal of pleasure. Damn.

Even worse was the Montrose 1989, a wine I am pathologically determined to hate. Much to my chargrin this bottle had classy structure, complexity and an awfully large amount of pleasure value. It wasn’t blowsy and overblown, nor was it lean and miserable, it was quite what one would wish for if one could imagine such a thing as a fun and reasonably mature bottle of Montrose.

Finally there was La Mission Haut Brion 1982. I’ve long maintained this is one of the only two Clarets worth bothering with and this bottle demonstrated that with embarrassing ease. With its gravelly texture, mature, ripe fruit and sophisticatedly silky tannins it was a joyfully pleasurable experience for someone who hates red Bordeaux as much as me. Quite, quite brilliant, and obviously it has a long and glorious future ahead of it. Perhaps not another 1966, 1970, 1975, 1983, 1988 or, 1990, but close and definitely a great vintage of La Mission that I hope we were all suitably gobsmacked by. I was.

Finally we finished off with a Mullineux Straw Wine from 2008. The considered opinion was that this was for ageing 20-30 years or more. I wasn’t quite on that wavelength as, like brilliant German eisweins, I think this super sweet intense mega bombs are hilarious when young and I drank mine with gusto and great pleasure.

I must finish by thanking The Ledbury for a brilliant meal, which was somewhat eclipsed by transcendent wines, my dining companions for providing such wonderful wines and scintillating company and, most of all, our host who made the lunch with Keith Prothero experience even more exciting, fun and enjoyable than even my most enthusiastic spies had reported. Thank you Keith, you did it for me in my pleasure centres today.

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I visited the Specialist Importers Trade Tasting (SITT) a few days ago. It was a large event with far too many wines on show to taste the lot, but a lovely Gevrey-Chambertin from Domaine Henri Jouan really stood out as being marvellous.

Henri-Jouan is a new domaine to me. He is based in Morey-Saint-Denis and only has 3.5 hectares of vines, and sells a quarter of his production to Drouhin, but based on this one wine alone I will make efforts to secure and drink as much as insane-person’s income allows.

The 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin aux Echezeaux was supremely attractive and stylish. It comes from a village lieux-dits right next to a Grand Cru and, as drinkers of Fourrier’s well-known bottling will know, it is a completely brilliant vineyard. This wine had all the class of a good Gevrey, with delightfully ripe fruit, a pleasing tannic structure and not a hint of any rough edges or spikiness. Small-scale and refined, it was clearly one of the most utterly lovely Gevrey-Chambertin wines I’ve had in a while. He also makes Clos Saint-Denis, a Grand Cru I have a lot of time for, and based on the style and refinement of this wine I bet it’s an absolutely corking wine.

You can get Domaine Henri Jouan from Clark Foyster Wines (Lance Foyster is shown above modelling the bottle) who have just started importing them to the UK. I feel this will be another hit Domaine for one of my very favourite small importers in England – a further enhancement to their already impressive portfolio. Clark Foyster’s website is here.

A few other wines stood out in the tasting as being good. Swig had two 2010 Damien and Romain Bouchard Chablis Premier Crus that oozed with all the class of the vintage and were already highly drinkable. Chares Taylor Wines showed another lovely Gevrey-Chambertin, the 2009 Vieilles Vignes from Rossignol-Trapet, which was highly desirable but utterly eclipsed by Lance’s offering above. Robert Moncuit’s Champagne Grand Cuvee Brut les Mesnil sur Ogier 2006 was a brilliant bottle of fizz from New Generation Wines that showed all the class of the village and just slipped down a treat. Finally Adnams had a remarkably enjoyable Sauvignon Blanc 2011, The ‘Doctors’ from Forrest Wines in New Zealand, that may not have been the most complex wine in the world, but clocking in at a mere 9.5% with a shade of residual sugar it was far less aggressive and much easier to drink than most evil filth New Zealand Sauvignon.

In the remaining sea of adequate wines three stood out as being remarkably unfortunate. The 2007 Signorello Estate Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley was a boring, over-priced fruit bomb with a nauseatingly soupy texture. How anyone can even drink this stuff without sobbing due to the money they’ve thrown away on unpleasantness is beyond me. Egon Muller’s Kanta Riesling from the Adelaide Hills had hints of Saar aromas but mainly honked of insecticide. Violently repellent. From the Margaret River the 2009 Pierro Chardonnay was a filthy confection that was so repulsive it only reminded me of the flavour of vomit after eating too many sweets. Horrible beyond words.

Finally, I tried two of the very greatest grappas I have ever swallowed. However, the miserable sod pouring them greeted me by muttering he didn’t get where he was by giving free samples to wine-writers, where he was appearing to be paralytic and ignored in an extremely busy and popular tasting, and then refusing to let me try more than two of his offerings. Consequently, I will not tell you the name of these brilliant grappas and never recommend anyone buys anything from this rude git. What a spectacularly unsuccessful way of making friends and influencing people, and an even crapper way of getting some publicity. Arse.

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