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Christmas Wine III

Apposite timing considering the recent confusion about/interest in Beaujolais here. Bottle no.2 was a Julien Sunier Fleurie, 2018. This cost me about £18 from a French merchant three years ago, I was shocked to discover. Where does the time go? It was quite slow out of the gates - at first I wondered if it was the lingering effects of the lurgi I suffered recently which severely dampened my senses of taste and smell for a few days - but after a couple of hours it came round, becoming much livelier and simultaneously soft yet austere. Cellar Tracker’s hive mind reckons these have three more years in them. I’m not so sure, I think I’ll finish my remaining bottles off next year. Curious that these feel they may have started their retreat while the JP Brun Crus Beaujolais of the same vintage still feel a bit tough and scowly.

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Dogberry said:
Show us your Crimbo drinks! ...
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I am lining up an Au Bon Climat Isabelle 2018 to accompany the duck tomorrow.
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I am hoping @Marchbanks' experience of the 2015 in post#153 is not characteristic.

I have a tasting note of the ABC 2012 La Bauge Au-Dessus from some time ago whose summary is "good but not worth the price". I have not quite given up finding good pinot noir at less than exorbitant cost, but my continued experimentation hangs by a thread.
 
Marchbanks said:
Apposite timing considering the recent confusion about/interest in Beaujolais here. Bottle no.2 was a Julien Sunier Fleurie, 2018. This cost me about £18 from a French merchant three years ago, I was shocked to discover. Where does the time go? It was quite slow out of the gates - at first I wondered if it was the lingering effects of the lurgi I suffered recently which severely dampened my senses of taste and smell for a few days - but after a couple of hours it came round, becoming much livelier and simultaneously soft yet austere. Cellar Tracker’s hive mind reckons these have three more years in them. I’m not so sure, I think I’ll finish my remaining bottles off next year. Curious that these feel they may have started their retreat while the JP Brun Crus Beaujolais of the same vintage still feel a bit tough and scowly.
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I was going to open a bottle today, same year, and actually cut the wax off, and then thought I'd better check on cellartracker . . . and decided to wait. I regret that now that I've read your comments. I'll open one very soon. I'm looking forward to it since, as you know, I am a refined and elegant gentleman.

By the way, were you in London about three weeks ago? I was sure I saw you near the Colosseum on Charing Cross Road, if not you have a doppelgänger. I shouted your name but not loud enough, and I was late for something so rushed towards Trafalgar Square.

Sparkling Shiraz for Christmas brekkers anyone? I have australian neighbours . . .
 
Bottle No.3 is Pol Roger Brut Reserve. I know little about Champagne - I’m usually underwhelmed by it and think there is better VFM elsewhere - but I’m pretty sure this is their bottom-of-the-range option. I bought it from Waitrose earlier this year with the intention of opening it on my birthday, but for some reason I didn’t. So rather than have it take up space in the ancestral cellars I thought I’d use the excuse of Xmas Eve. I never got round to cataloguing it so didn’t note the price, but I’d guess it was around £35 with various discounts and vouchers.

As I suggest, my opinion here is worth even less than usual, but I think I prefer this to the similarly-priced bargain-basement Taittinger - it seems to have a slightly drier style which appeals to me, as well as a tiny hint of berry-type fruitiness. I don’t think I’m tempted to explore further up the range though. And it’s comforting that at 12.5% ABV it‘s barely stronger than my favourite apéro of Rochefort 10 (11.8%).

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I seem to have picked up some of @eisenach’s little chums somewhere along the way.

Right now this is being paired with the Partita for Violin Solo No.3 in E, BWV1006, played as part of WKCR’s week-long nothing-but-Bach schedule. I thought I’d mention it to try to fool @mandryka into thinking there was a cultured gent hidden somewhere inside. I don’t think that was me you saw in London - I refuse to go there unless someone offers me a great deal of money to offset the trauma. I suppose I could have blanked it out of my memory though - did the poor chap look as if he was desperately trying to find a way out?
 
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Common or garden 2021 Macon Villages to go with the chook. Anything from Bourgogne suits me. Nice low alcohol (12.5%) too.
 
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twotone said:
I’ve a 32 day aged rib roast in the oven and a bottle or two of Haut-Medoc 2014 :cool:

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Very nice. My biggest decision of the day has been what to open for the big bird (we eat later on). Along similar lines, settled on a Chateau Anthonic Moulis-en-Medoc. Looking forward to it.
 
Ponty said:
Very nice. My biggest decision of the day has been what to open for the big bird (we eat later on). Along similar lines, settled on a Chateau Anthonic Moulis-en-Medoc. Looking forward to it.
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I bought a Rioja Blanco for the turkey.

My son's currently making a red wine gravy for the beef and a gravy for the turkey, it's like a commercial kitchen in the house :cool:
 
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Xmas bottle no. 4 is Vieux Télégraphe 2009. I bought four of these early last year when A. Client of L&W was letting them go at what seemed a very good price. According to my notes I drank the first eighteen months ago on my 66th birthday. I declared it ‘very good, but a bit heavy.’ Tonight it seems excellent, and not at all heavy. Perhaps I was fatigued as I had just officially become an Old Person, or over-excited at the thought of being paid for doing nothing for the remainder of my life.

This strikes me as lovely Châteauneuf - there’s no sign of old age encroaching yet in either taste (no sign of losing freshness) or colour (no sign of the orange brickiness round the rim that some VTs suffer from prematurely.) Some CT reviews have mentioned both of these problems, however - poor storage or bottle variation perhaps? Two bottles left and no qualms about waiting a year before opening the next one.

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This is being paired with FIP Jazz and a lady offering to scratch my itch ‘because I’m really quite a witch.’ “We can do it in the hall, we can do it on the couch” she pointed out helpfully. Steady on, madam - I’m an old chap these days and lacking the stamina of my youth. Although I suppose she could be talking about the Christmas crossword.
 
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I'm shipwrecked on Grenada for a while. Fine wine is nowhere to be had. Making do with a few local beers and rum from the distillery up the road. If I manage to make it back to Blighty in January I hope to make up for lost time. It's a hard life but I'm sure I'll manage. Happy Christmas Wine one and all.
 
Had this with duck on Xmas day:
https://www.majestic.co.uk/wines/parcel-series-sonoma-pn-18994

It’s really very good, a bit of a bargain. I’d been planning to have a Domaine Belleville Gevrey Chambertin as it’s a special day, but Mrs P-T is off booze due to antibiotics and I didn’t want to drink something special we couldn’t share. The Majestic PN went beautifully with the duck, and I know it’ll be even better today, and possibly tomorrow.
 
Some good stuff in the Wine Soc winter sale. I went for the Probus, one of my bucket list wines - I couldn’t resist at nearly 25% off. Then the Crozes-Hermitage Alberic Bouvet - I’ve already got the 2017 (bought en primeur for more than this) and it is lovely. Finally this Languedoc. I’m down to my last bottle of 2016 and have noted ‘must buy more.’ This is a lower price than I paid for the 2016 in France.

If you want to push the boat out a bit they have Beaucastel 2017 at £47, substantially less than I paid EP. Bastards.

The L&W winter sale on the other hand is rubbish.
 
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Marchbanks said:
Some good stuff in the Wine Soc winter sale. I went for the Probus, one of my bucket list wines - I couldn’t resist at nearly 25% off. Then the Crozes-Hermitage Alberic Bouvet - I’ve bought the 2017 en primeur (for more than this) and it is lovely. Finally this Languedoc. I’m down to my last bottle of 2016 and have noted ‘must buy more.’ This is a lower price than I paid for the 2016 in France.

If you want to push the boat out a bit they have Beaucastel 2017 at £47, substantially less than I paid EP. Bastards.

The L&W winter sale on the other hand is rubbish.
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would be rude not to - added https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/kinheimer-rosenberg-gg-dr-loosen-2019 and https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/geoffroy-empreinte-blanc-de-noir-premier-cru-extra-brut-2015 to make the round 6
 
A few months ago I got a Durand opener for the old Musar I am lucky enough to have (I don't have any other old wine).
It took several tricky openings to realise you should not use the corkscrew bit at all as it just breaks the cork up.
Just rock the 2 flat bits all the way down the side of the cork and then gently twist and pull up at the same time.
 
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No. 5 is part of a two-bottle strategy - it’s a half-bottle of Waitrose-branded Sauternes ‘in partnership with Chateau Suduiraut.’ Not as good as the real thing, naturally, but not at all bad. Nice and Seville orange marmaladey, but lacking a bit of complex lusciousness. I’m having it as an apéro, then finishing off last night’s wonderful Télégraphe before returning to it with some cheese - I’m hoping Cook hasn’t stumbled across my stash of Bleu de Gex hidden away in the cool cupboard.

It’s being paired with the Goldberg Variations (harpsichord version) which is tonight’s programme in the WKCR Bach-fest. BWV988, if you are keeping notes.

wacko said:
A few months ago I got a Durand opener for the old Musar I am lucky enough to have (I don't have any other old wine).
It took several tricky openings to realise you should not use the corkscrew bit at all as it just breaks the cork up.
Just rock the 2 flat bits all the way down the side of the cork and then gently twist and pull up at the same time.
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I guess that basically turns it into a Butler’s Friend, which I use all the time (except on plastic corks, where it struggles.) It’s the best solution for crumbly old corks and the most convenient for all others, since you can ram the cork back in without it leaking from a hole drilled through the middle when the bottle is put back in a cooler on its side.
 
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