Sunday, September 18, 2011

Recent drinking round-up!

In no particular order...


I recently got some wine out of storage including this white St Romain 2008 from Vincent Perrin. I bought a case after tasting it at the domaine in January 2010 which I blogged about here. I was interested to see that my case was actually 2 boxes of 6. Still, je ne regrette buying 12! It was exactly how I remembered, with a fruity, floral quality that a lot of chardonnay doesn't have. Refreshing and zingy.


Also coming out of storage was this old friend, Yves Darviot's Beaune Greves 2002 (and magnums of 2005, which are waiting for a special occasion...). This is one of my desert island wines and it was great to try this vintage at last. It didn't disappoint.


This was a Cote de Brouilly which ACC brought round one night. Cuvee Zacharie, by Chateau Thivin. I foolishly chucked the bottle without noting the year, but it gets points just for that label, what a horror! It was fruity and rich, and quite gamey. Serious beaujolais.


Thanks are also due to ACC for bringing me back this bottle of marc from his travels. I can only apologise that it did not last long enough for him to try it... Made at Domaine Morot, it was enjoyable, with a good nuts-and-raisins thing going on, but I have to say it was no match for the Felettig which remains the gold standard of all things marc.


A double-bill of Odoul-Coquard... first the 2008 Bourgogne Rouge which is really quite delicious. G bought it, not me, and I'm kicking myself. Shall be looking out for it in 2010. And then the 2007 Vosne-Romanee which I was expecting to be good. It had lovely sweet, warm fruit on the nose, blackcurrants and chocolate, and on the palate was very soft and supple, quite light for a Vosne. "Lovely", "beautiful" and "pretty" were all used to describe it. This is only a village wine, but we decided that if it had been a premier cru, it would have scored a 9. Praise indeed. We felt it was drinking now but had a good future ahead of it too, no rush.


A double-bill of Alsace wines from Hugel, both en demi. 1973 Gewurtz and 1979 Muscat. You would not have guessed they were that age. Still absolutely singing.


And finally, this little number which I picked up in Selfridges on Friday: Gutierrez Colosia Fino. This is also a half bottle and wasn't cheap at £11.90 but I fancied trying it to see if it was worth it. It does seem I paid through the nose (Selfridges' pricing policy: think of a number and double it) as these people have it for £8.75 a half. Also, I had been suffering due to the lack of La Goya which spookily became unavailable from Corneys just after I bought a case. Have just checked and see that it's back, hurrah!, but seems to have gone up to £6.29 a half - even at that price, it's worth it. Anyway, the Gutierrez stuff was a fantastic pale colour, and clean as a whistle. It really was very good and went very well with the excellent nuts from the Middle Eastern counter but I don't think I'll be rushing to buy it again.