There was a lot of wine experience round this particular table! Simple bring a bottle theme, the venue was 67 Pall Mall – three of us being members. Only the Barolo was served blind, for interest.
We started with Hyde de Villaine Chardonnay 2011 of which I did a Mini Vertical 2010-2013 not that long ago. It has a nice saline edge, more Meursault-esque in style than it is Californian. It has a good moreish texture as well, in a good place right now. Good on it’s own but perfect with the spiced crab linguine three of us had.
The vinous “meat” of the evening was the pairing of two generous Burgundy’s starting with Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos-Saint-Jacques 1990 from Jadot. I enjoyed a Clos-St-Jacques Masterclass not that long ago and this bottle fitted the mould well. I don’t know the top-end Jadot wines well but this was very good and, as with the white, lovely right now. Good fruit that melded well with the secondary and tertiary aspects. A nice green-spiced nose and some herbs, a little bit of grip but not too masculine. A dash of iodine with some sweet leather and a little cheesecloth, balanced. It stayed well, not fading. The other Burgundy was La Tache 2000, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti a wine I know quite well. I can’t remember tasting it on release (and I certainly wasn’t blogging back then). The largest Tache-fest I have been lucky to be at was this evening. This 2000 is mature to my taste, a darker fruit set than the Jadot, richer and broader but not quite with the depth or length. A nice bit of tangy orange rind and then some dark fruit and a good weight. They were a good pair, complimenting each other well.
Next up was Barolo Cascina Dardi-Bussia 2008, Alessandro E Gian Natale Fantino. This was served blind, I had a inkling what type of wine it might be. I thought 2012 or 2013 Barolo, so fresh was it. There is some tar and a glossy ripe fruit on the opening, not from oak as this is old school but it is certainly a driven and pure Nebbiolo. Slightly spicy this seems almost ageless so it’ll be fascinating to see how it does age. It was only decanted briefly and I have, kindly, another bottle to try so I may “slow-O”* that one. Nice wine.
We has started early so needed one more bottle, I had RG Chardonnay 2010 from The Lane in my bag and had chilled it earlier so it only needed a dip in an ice bucket. It was drinking really well, moreish and in many way stylistically in the same boat as the “Hyde” has been but slightly more savoury, they would have been interesting side-by-side. The RG accompanied much debate – the world put to rights etc…
This foursome getting together again soon was mooted and I am looking forward to it already.
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*Slow-O – the practice of opening a wine, checking for cork then pouring enough out (approx half a glass) to get the level of the wine down to the shoulder and then leaving it for several hours. Seems to work particularly well for reds from thin skinned varietals like Nebbiolo, Pinot Noir and Grenache.
194KPR 