We recently had the wonderful pleasure of dinner with Bronwen and Francis Percival, food and cheese gods of London, Burgundy and beyond. They cooked amazing food and, fitting Bronwen’s role as head cheese buyer for Neal’s Yard Dairy, truly brilliant cheese. I cannot remember the myriad of cheeses we tried, but I’ll start off with [...]
I visit Christophe Roumier every year – he is one of the great producers of Chambolle-Musigny. However, after I have tasted from cask most of the wines I buy go straight into the cellar. Consequently, it was a real treat to try two Chambolle villages at a relatively early stage of development. They provided very [...]
In my ; Pinot Noir is even better. A well-made Pinot Noir from an interesting location is titillates every faculty – from the intellectual thrills of its transparent expression of origin and the wine-maker’s ability to the often frankly lubricious delight of its beautiful fruit and satisfying mouth-feel it totally pleasures the enlightened drinker. If [...]
Riesling is great stuff, either you love it or you are wrong. Given the screaming peaks of brilliance it can attain it seems a shame that such a relatively small proportion of growers manage to extract the best from it. I have tried Brooks Riesling from the Willamette Valley in Oregon in the past and [...]
Ridge have long been a favourite producer of Zinfandel, the wines have always been harmonious and age surprisingly well for entities of such scale. I enjoyed this greatly as far as wines in a voluptuous style go. Willi Schaefer rarely fails to disappoint and this was an effort engorged with livid, sophisticated class. Very ripe [...]
This was one of the first wines . Back then I said it needed food with unbound proteins and it seemed to work a treat with braised oxtail tonight. Dominus 2000 There is an explosion of ripe, sweet blackcurrant fruit on the nose. Dare I say it, is this a bit earthy? It certainly has [...]
We picked this up in Washington DC when we went on our little holiday out there. This has aged faster than I’d have expected but it is still rather nice. Josh Jensen of Calera has made some of the great non-Burgundian Pinot Noir’s I’ve had. Indeed, off the Cote I think Mr Jensen and Mr [...]
In a nice way, obviously. Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ‘Six Vineyards’ 2006, Lemelson Vineyards OK, this is a relative booze-monster as far as Pinot Noir goes, but it has a really charming fleshy, fruity nose. There is some woody spice on the nose and it integrates just fine with the fruit. Perhaps not the most [...]
I’ve been let out of the bin for three hours escorted leave; the partner is making sure I am not doing anything bad. Not that I would, as I am sure you’ll be pleased to hear I am feeling a lot better. Well, unless you hate me in which case you’ll curse the name of [...]
This is one of the best US wines I’ve tasted. Quite old world-y, if we are honest. Espirit de Beaucastel 2004, Tablas Creek Vineyard This is meaty and herbal; a baby, although hilariously alcoholic, Beaucastel. You can smell and taste the real quality of the Mourvedre. There is proper complexity here, and some real style. [...]
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