Read this post on Elitistreview - Monsters Monsters Attack!!!!

As I have a extremely well-developed sense of fun and good-humour, when I see a label like this I am delighted and amused. I know anything a bit silly would be a major turn off for the more miserable type of wine lover, but bugger them! The stuff is all about good times so why not have a label that makes you smile?

I was also drawn to it because I had heard of the wine and knew it to be one of the more well-thought-of of the new-wave, light, off-dry Rieslings coming out of Australia. The great Mac Forbes is perhaps leading this trend, but others follow and, whilst they might not make quite such scintillating entities as he does, good stuff is being made. Look out for those Australian Rieslings at 11% alcohol or less, they’re often a treat and usually a bargain.

Monsters Monsters Attack! 2011, Some Young Punks

An intensely focussed and direct nose of sharp lime fruit. It’s really pure and nervy. There is some minerality there too; if I were smelling this blind I might place it as coming from a good vineyard in the Saar. It has just enough complexity to keep your higher faculties frothing, but the livid nervy energy it shows in terms of fruit is extravagantly exciting. AAAAAAARGH! THE PAIN! Yes, it is ludicrously acidic but you’ve probably gathered by now I like that, even though it makes me wince when it scalds and sears my stomach. Yeah, that’s electric nipple clamps acid action! The fruit is really pure and focussed as well, as is the minerality that it does show. There is the merest hint of residual sugar, and that keeps the harmony spot on. This is merits mega mams mirth levels. Not the finest wine in the world but, by arse, it’s a fun drink that assaults you into knowing you’re having a good time.

The back label is fun too.

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Read this post on Elitistreview - Hawksmoor, wine and writers

The Editor and I travelled into The Big Smoke to meet Swedish wine writer Erica Landin in Hawksmoor Spitalfields earlier today. She seemed impressed by our capacity to eat, the general pricing policies of London and the specific pricing policy of Hawksmoor. Fair enough.

Erica’s experience of wine journalism in Sweden is somewhat different to that of mine in the UK and Europe. It seems less involved in getting riotously drunk and telling scandalously ribald anecdotes ‘off the record’ for a start. She seemed moderately impressed that we got through two bottles and a couple of cocktails for lunch; I’m told by the Editor that Swedes have unhealthy attitudes to drinking at lunchtime. Anyway, let’s have a quick look at the food.

Any reservations about the quality of the plum-pudding pig ribs I might have had on my last visit were utterly erased this time. They were absolutely cracking. The combination of melting soft meat and fat along with a richly spiced sauce is quite the winner and, like me, you should go for them every time.

Erica seemed a bit daunted by the towering nature of her burger, but said she liked it even if it did ultimately require utensils to get it into manageable-sized units. I would have been impressed by her asking if she could have both triple-cooked chips and a salad with her burger, but wasn’t because not many salads are worth getting impressed about. Salads are just so unhealthy – JUST SAY NO!

Editor Dani ordered a medium-rare ribeye, double fried eggs, roast bone marrow, macaroni and cheese and stilton hollandaise. So did I. Everything was at the ‘jester’s shoes’ end of the pleasure-spectrum. One forgets quite how good their steaks are, the bone marrow is brillo and served with style, their macaroni and cheese recipe is perfect and, though I don’t think quality meat needs much sauce, I like the hollandaise to add to the M&C for enhanced richness.

The only slight disappointment was the eggs. I know here in Hampshire we have been spoiled with amazing King’s Somborne eggs, but these really do seem to be lacking much in the way of flavour. When you shovel a big lump of animal flesh with a whole yolk on top into your mouth you want there to be serious yolk action coating your meat-filled hole; these did not deliver. More work needed on sourcing top quality ova, I think.

The cocktails were faultlessly perfect and I really felt in the mood to be witty, charming and able to listen to a new friend after knocking back my Fancy Gin Cocktail. This remains the single best martini I have ever consumed on multiple occasions. Sure, you can almost have stronger martinis, possibly, but drinking isn’t a meat-measuring exercise. These FGC’s remain quite heroic and definitely enabling/disabling enough without sacrificing anything in terms of being really nice drinks. Dani had something else, but I missed it because I was busy with my drink and being probed by Erica.

The wines:

Cote-Rote ‘Les Grades Places’ 2004, Domaine Clusel-Roch

Clusel-Roch remain my favourite Cote-Rotie producer and one sniff of this demonstrated why that is so. No silliness with high alcohol here: this clocked in at 12%. No silliness with new oak either; nary a hint of it on the nose which was all about beautifully elegant and refined fruit, which a sophisticated earthy hint and real energy and life. This showed a lot of life and was not showing any signs of falling apart having been from a weaker vintage. A supremely engaging and attractive nose of minimalism and restraint; all about beauty and understated pleasure. I was a bit surprised that when we first opened it the palate seemed a touch tough, but a shake in the decanter and a swirl in the glass sorted that out. It then showed silky, polished tannins, a fine acidity that made it sparkle with life and refined but really deep and complex fruit. The depth of flavour, despite the small-scale of the palate, was amazing – the old vines character really shining through. It was very long, extremely sophisticated and highly pleasurable. The most enjoyable Cote-Rotie I’ve had since the last bottle of this.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru la Richemone 2005, Domaine Alain Michelot

This was one of the most reduced red wines I have smelled in years. When it was first popped it honked of Hydrogen Sulphide and I was going to say we shouldn’t drink it. But I risked shaking it and vigorously decanting and it opened a little. But just a little, alas. It remained stinky and reductive, not much fun as far as fruit went at all. Strangely, the texture on the palate was quite nice, silky and reasonably seductive, but I couldn’t get over that nasty reductive character and surreptitiously ordered myself an extra cocktail as I went to ‘strain the vegetables’. I tell you, those Fancy Gin Cocktails would be all you need in the cocktail department if it were not for the rest of Hawksmoor’s brilliant list.

I’ve had a cold for the past week and this little jaunt into London was not only surprisingly manageable, both in terms of viral infection and London-related harassment, but quite a lot of fun as well. OK, I was let down by the Nuits, but the Cote-Rotie was wizard. Hawksmoor always deliver the goods and it was a real delight to meet Erica. I bet we got her more quaquaversal than the chap she was meeting next could manage.

Here’s Hawksmoor’s website

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Read this post on Elitistreview - Lunch with Guy and Marie-Pierre – could try harder

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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Read this post on Elitistreview - Pleasures of the flesh with Ricard and Dani

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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This was published on Elitistreview

Read this post on Elitistreview - Burgundy at La Trompette

Yesterday I had a great meal at La Trompette in Chiswick. The food was marvellous, the company brilliant, but sadly the red Burgundies we took along were extremely disappointing.

This was only my second meal at La Trompette and based on the food and highly interesting wine list it is a shame I have not been there more often. Pity it is a bit out of the way now I live in Winchester.

We started off with a bottle of Pol Roger 2002 brought by an agent of Pol who wishes to remain anonymous. It was just the business. Quite ripe with luxurious fruit, great acidity that was in perfect balance and really complex. A glorious wine that would just age and age. Only just about to appear on the market and I will definitely be scoring some, if you like champagne to age then you certainly should too. I thought it was easily the best since the 1996, our un-named agent thought it better than that. Undoubtedly brilliant.

Our first white wine was Chablis Grand Cru Blanchots 2004 from Raveneau. I find it hard to describe quite how brilliant this wine was. Tasting blind I would never guess it as a 2004, and probably not as Chablis, but rather something grand from Ramonet. It had layers of powerful flavour all finely balanced by great acidity and fresh lemon fruit. There was a rich, weighty density to it but it never seemed less than refined and classy even with its power. The development it showed in the glass throughout the meal was utterly compelling, and I only say it was not the best Chablis I have ever tasted because it was quite unlike any Chablis I have ever tasted. Truly magnificent, a hilarious joy to drink and revel in throughout the meal.

We tasted this with some seafood bisque with a salt cod croquette. The bisque had a good, rich flavour that was quite fishy enough and the salt cod was OK, but not my favourite thing ever. The richness of the soup was a good match for the power of the Chablis and the acidity of that kept the soup seeming fresh and delightful. This was a good dish.

Then came two 1990 Lamarche Premier Cru Vosne-Romanees. I’m sorry, Per, but I just thought these were rubbish and on their way out so I am going to be rude about them. The Chaumes was almost fruitless and quite dried out. Even thought it was effectively dead I didn’t think it showed any signs that it would have been terribly much more fun when it was younger. There was nothing to enjoy here.

The Suchots had the redeeming feature of a little bit of fruit remaining, but again this tasted largely of stewed tea with dried out tannins and nothing to titillate on the palate. As 1990 was quite a fun, fleshy vintage I was disappointed by how lean and dry these wines were, but not that surprised. I’ve never had a good Lamarache from around this period and these showed that either they were harvesting frighteningly early, had petrifying yields, or simply couldn’t make wine for toffee even in a vintage as forgiving as this one.

The dish we drank them which was, fortunately, far, far better: a little lasagne of rabbit with ceps. The rabbit flavour was rich and gamey enhanced by the mushrooms and I just shovelled this down. It was totally winning and the kind of thing I want to eat on regular occasions in the future. Brilliant flavours, a marvellous texture and simply scrummy. Top nosh!

Then we popped my two wines and I utterly despised them and felt cheated at having purchased them. Confuron-Cotetidot provided a Clos de Vougeot and Echezeaux 2006 and, whilst we felt it was instructive to drink them, I don’t think any of us would feel the need to patronise this producer with our funds based on these examples. The Clos de Vougeot was slightly better, it had some nice fruit and, whilst the tannins were hellishly extracted and harsh, they might have resolved in time.

The Echezeaux was simply shocking. Incredibly extracted with bitter, hard tannins that totally overwhelmed what soupy, over-ripe fruit managed to show through. It was totally lacking loveliness and I couldn’t imagine a less enjoyable bottle of Echezeaux. Both of these wines suffered from being monolithic and remarkably simple, so even if you did age them and somehow the fruit didn’t die before the horrific tannins, they’d never become the complex, engaging drinks one wants from Burgundy. And they didn’t provide any pleasure, and Burgundy should be pleasurable in the extreme.

These shockers were meant to match some lamb with Jersey Royal potatoes. The lamb was excellent and had a great flavour; I loved it. The Jersey Royals were presented in an impressively silly manner, but there is nothing wrong with silly and they tasted fantastic. It was a great dish and I was only disappointed I didn’t have any remotely good red wine to drink with it. I was really embarrassed by those two Confuron wines; everyone kept trying to placate me but there was no getting away from the fact that they were simply dreadful.

Finally we had Rieussec 1997 with rhubarb crème brulee. An inspired combination. The Rieussec was singing – time to drink as the acidity seemed to be softening a little but its gloriously rich and decadent characters were a perfect foil for the sweet and sharp flavours in the rhubarb crème brulee. This was the wine and food match of lunch- highly delightful.

I cannot recommend La Trompette highly enough: the food, service and environment made it a truly top rate place. They’ve got a great wine-list too if you cannot manage taking your own stuff. Based on the red wines we had we shouldn’t have managed taking our own stuff. The Lamarches used to be awful and now were awful and pretty much passed it, but then I expect you knew they would be anyway. The Confuron-Cotetidots were boring monoliths made in styles totally unsympathetic to Burgundy and Pinot Noir. After my recent experiences with their wines I will never buy from them again and I suggest you don’t either. But do visit La Trompette, you’ll have fine-dining frolics.

Here is La Trompette’s website.

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This was published on Elitistreview