Christmas Wine II
- Thread starter Dogberry
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andrew d
pfm Member
We were gifted a bottle of Moet Grand Vintage 2012, not a fizz person but a decent start to the day. Musar 2001 worked well again with the turkey and the Graham's crusted port as recommended by Marchbanks more than did the job. ( came in a snip at £13.50 a bottle with discount.)
Mrs D re gifted me some 'wine balls' to swill round in the base of the decanter. Must say they they do a good job of cleaning those hard to reach places and may even get a mention in the cycling thread if I carelessly misplace a ballbearing when re greasing!
Mrs D re gifted me some 'wine balls' to swill round in the base of the decanter. Must say they they do a good job of cleaning those hard to reach places and may even get a mention in the cycling thread if I carelessly misplace a ballbearing when re greasing!
Pleased to report back that the San Leonardo was very good. Double decanted 90 mins before and was still improving at the end, although I may have been deteriorating by then. Better than most Bordeaux I've had and no doubt the other bottles will improve for years...hopefully to whatever it is we decided is above VG.
Ponty
pfm Member
We consumed the Wild Soul yesterday. What an absolutely beautiful wine, very addictive, going to have to buy some more! Many thanks @eternumviti for the suggestion. The St Estephe and Nuit St Georges on Christmas Day were also delightful. Could do with a couple of dry days before doing it all again!
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
We managed to get through three bottles of 2009 Ronan by Clinet, and something or other white (Sauv Blanc), which I didn't drink.
We also have a massive turkey crown to get through. We ordered one for 2-4 people, but Sainsbury's were out of stock on that, and sent us one for 7-9 people. There's only two of us eating it. We haven't even got a cat any more!
We also have a massive turkey crown to get through. We ordered one for 2-4 people, but Sainsbury's were out of stock on that, and sent us one for 7-9 people. There's only two of us eating it. We haven't even got a cat any more!
Sue Pertwee-Tyr
Accuphase all the way down
Just another day chez BTC3...
I think it was more the reverse: there hasn’t been much to celebrate this year, so we decided to drink the stuff anyway. Not that I feel champagne needs a celebration: it’s often a nice Chardonnay or white Pinot[noir] that goes well with food. When we make paella or have it at a restaurant, cava is often the wine to accompany it; I like champagne or Prosecco with risotto!
But they were very nice, though.
But they were very nice, though.
Yes I agree about the motivation, and that bubbly is underrated as a drink with food. I've opened several bottles that I normally would have kept longer.
Was 1 of the 3 a winner ? Or all just excellent ?
Marchbanks
Hat and Beard member
On the contrary, having been brave enough to accept an invitation to Marchbanks Towers you survived the experience intact* - that on its own is cause for much celebration.
(Mr 3 brought an extremely generous selection of gifts with him - but looking at his post above I now realise telling him I am not the world’s greatest Champagne fan was probably a big mistake.)
*well, almost... I can only apologise again for the behaviour of the ferrets. I’ve never seen them do that before en masse. I hope my tailor and dry cleaner between them managed repairs to your satisfaction.
John Phillips
pfm Member
I am entirely with you (and with Lily Bollinger). I don't ever wait for a celebration to open Champagne. A bottle (even a fairly good one) with a Chinese meal is just right. I could bore for England on my research into the "right" Champagne glass.
However I do find the quality of big brands is often less good and less consistent than it should be. So I typically go for the right inexpensive Champagnes (or other sparkling wines) or splash out at times, as here, on reliable expensive wines.
You can't tantalise like that ! What is the right glass ? And the right inexpensive Champagne/bubbly ?
They were all excellent. If we had to pick one, the vote was for the Taittinger.
It was fun trip up to see you, but celebrating with champagne seems wrong; Alsatian Gewurtztraminer seems more appropriate. I must report that, sadly, the luncheon jacket and trousers did not survive contact with the ferrets, despite the staff’s valiant attempts. But no matter, an excuse for a new one, and your tailor is first rate!
I like the approach, and I tend to favour grower champagnes over big brands - the photo above notwithstanding. But the big brands aren’t bad, just maybe not as good value for money. JAL used to serve Delamotte Salon in first class, but stopped last year. Their Sakura lounge serves (or did a year ago) Fleury Blank de Noirs - I’d put Fleury in the grower category, or at least the lower tier of marketing spend. I witnessed an interesting exchange between a passenger who was remonstrating the absence of a bottle of the “right category”, and the staff who politely asked them to at least try the available, and carefully selected, option. Instantly mollified upon trying, and it’s a sub EUR30 bottle - goes very well with a Chinese take away! I remain curious about Salon, and at £500/bottle it’s a big call just to taste, but it will have to be done sometime!
As for glasses, I love the look of long, narrow flutes, but have “settled” for Riedel Veritas [edited to correct] champagne glasses. I do notice a difference in smell and taste, and find them to be a good size. As ever, buy the restaurant ones if possible, I think they work out at under a tenner a glass.
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John Phillips
pfm Member
I have an array of champagne glasses that I have tried. And I can't actually say what is right for sure but I have learned what (for me, anyway) works badly and no longer use these.
The first thing is that most flutes and tulips (it has to be one of these) are too small and need to be filled up far too much for a reasonable glass of the bubby. It's quite difficult to find nice looking ones with more than about 200 ml capacity and I have never found anything that small big enough to allow what is usually the rather subtle bouquet of sparkling wine to develop well enough to appreciate fully.
For this reason, the Champenois are said to use white wine glasses for tasting. However my experiments in this direction suggest that while good for tasting, the large wine surface area this exposes leads to the bouquet actually dissipating too quickly when you are actually drinking fairly slowly and want the bouquet to also last some time. The expensive 450 ml Riedel Vinum Veritas tulips suffer in the same way, IME. It seems these ones are too big.
The best flutes I have had (only one left now after inevitable breakages) were 240 ml Dartington Chateauneuf. Still not big enough IMHO but much better than typical. The Dartington Wine Master (235 ml) were not bad and the ones I had were etched with a nucleation point. Both seem now to be unavailable.
The "goldilocks" glasses I use now are Schott Zwiesel Enoteca tulips with a 310 ml capacity. And I fill them with just 100 - 125 ml at a time. The bouquet develops well and lasts long enough to accord with the amount of wine. They also have an etched nucleation point so that as the bottle progresses there's still enough sparkle to entertain the eyes.
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guey
pfm Member
Had this Otago Pinot Noir on Boxing Day (i.e when I wasn't driving); and jolly nice it was too - might have to pick another couple of bottles up.
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