Two wines with lunch, and what a good lunch it was

I went out to lunch with Peter Sidebotham of Hand Picked Burgundy. We went to [link2post id=”1093″]Andrew Edmunds[/link2post]. I feel the need to point out I paid for my share so glowing I will be about the company; my editorial independence is not for sale.

Meursault Premier Cru Charmes 2004, Domaine Latour-Giraud

This had real baby vomit characters, proper white Burgundy. It had good minerality on the nose and a nice purity of fruit. Perhaps not terribly expressive, but quite charming. The palate had a good grip of acidity and nice minerality, with good fruit and real length. Again, perhaps not the most complex of wines, but as far as I can understand scoring wines I agreed with Peter’s 3+/5. This was proper, charming, ultimately pleasing Burgundy that didn’t demand too much and gave more than one expected. The quality comment is: really quite good, which was a ‘good thing’ for the knock-down price we paid. He made a good buy on some 2006s from this producer the very day before, if you want to check his list in a few years’ time.

Marsannay 1999, Meo-Camuzet

There is no denying this smelled of arseholes, it was quite dirty and Bretty. Reminded me quite a lot of Pibarnon 1993, but that is not a bad thing. Underneath that the fruit was charming, and this was just on the right side of maturity. The palate was quite smooth, and showed a reasonable degree of complexity for a Marsannay, but it was perhaps a tad dirty to be a truly great bottle from that appellation. The finish was quite charming, though, and this slipped down a treat with what was a very pleasing meal.

If you are dropping by Andrew Edmunds in the future you might want to try the 1620″]Clos des Lambrays 2002, this was a real bargain at the price they were offering it for, and it is tits wine.

Perhaps it is rude of me to comment on the company, but I am sure he’ll welcome another link to his site. Peter was one of the most honest and direct wine merchants I have had the pleasure of meeting. A couple of times he mentioned wines he had purchased and for a second I found myself thinking, “You are not selling that shit are you?”, before he went on to say they were not good enough for his customers and he’d be putting them straight into auction. This is a great attitude, and far too uneconomical for him to be making an honest living out of his business. I have purchased some top bunny wines from his company, and probably will again. If you need some advice about buying properly mature, proper Burgundy (best of all) by the bottle I suggest you drop him an email or drop by his site. His prices are reasonable and he is a top chap with the correct attitude about wine. I will point out (again) that I paid for my half of the meal (again, my editorial independence is not for sale), it was a pleasure to do so, enjoying a good meal with someone who understands the beauty, pleasure and (above all) fun that fine wine can provide made it worth every penny.