Fellow Wine Lovers,
No use crying over spilt milk. Actions speak louder than words. Thank your lucky stars. You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. Blood is thicker than water. Do as you would be done by. Live and let live. An eye for an eye.
All idioms that have crossed our mind this week, rightly or wrongly, although Blood is thicker than water could be regarded more as a cleaning tip, with the follow up, but comes off easily with a spot of bleach.
To elaborate, on Sunday morning, just a few days into our 6th year here, someone took particular offence to our shop window and manifested his ambivalence towards our display by firmly punching his way through the window. Indeed, by firmly I mean really, really hard.
Glass was everywhere, blood everywhere – quite how the police missed the opportunity to use the slang ‘there’s claret all over the shop’ we will never know – and a number of hours were spent calling glaziers, sweeping up, thanking our lucky stars nothing was stolen and wondering how much it would all cost to repair.
We’re still not sure about the costs, about when it will be fixed or who it was that did it but we do know that it’s done, it can’t be changed, moaning won’t make anything better and whoever did do it has problems and issues far greater than any we might have.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
The idioms at the top can also be applied to the delightful trio of Oscar Pistorious, Donald Trump and Tyson Fury – charmers one and all – who could also take head from think before you speak, look before you leap, don’t believe your hype…
Anyway, enough of that, let’s move on to matters more festive. Less than two weeks to go. Actually, less than four days to go for many of us, work and social being what they are at this time of year.
So let’s talk turkey. I know a significant number of you will not be partaking of the oversized chicken this year, and all power to you antiestablishmentarianists, the clarets we got you to taste last week will be glorious with your beef. For the larger majority of you tucking into Mr Matthews finest Norfolk Bronze, the wines this weekend are more for you.
Having popped into Bordeaux last week, it seems sensible to shift over to Burgundy for our fun this weekend.
Both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay have a strong affinity with the classic British Christmas feast and indeed, it’s not just the French that do it well – New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Chile even, offer some fabulous matches – but at this time of year it seems a good idea to go back to where all the fuss started and thus we will pull the corks on the following:
WHITE
Mallory & Benjamin Talmard Mâcon-Uchizy 2014 – £14.99
Mallory and Benjamin produce just one cuvée of Macon each year from their 20 hectares just north of the Macon hills. Richer and riper than many, it has a generous weight, subtle, almost tropical fruit with aromas of melon, ripe pear, lemon oil and almonds and rich, bready character on the palate from extended lees aging and a long fresh, finish with hints of apple. A good all-rounder from start to finish, this was our best selling white wine last Christmas, so we figure if it ain’t broke…
Domaine Génot-Boulanger Meursault Les Meix Chavaux 2012 – £40.99
This is tip-top Meursault from an estate that has been going gangbusters since 2008. Les Meix Chavaux is a good vineyard really starting to make a name for itself. A cracking wine with a good, flinty minerality whilst not sacrificing any of that lush broadness you get with top notch Meursault.
RED
Maison Ambroise Bourgogne Rouge “Cuvée Vieilles Vignes” 2007 – £20.99
Bertrand’s Bourgogne Rouge offer us sensational value, all organic grapes, handpicked from 50 year old vines with a south/south east exposure in Premeaux Prissy and Nuits-Saint-Georges. Very classy and elegant, we consider this is absolutely bang on the button, having evolved very slowly under screw capsule and displaying a great balance between silky, pure red fruits and sous-bois notes. Don’t ask me about sous-bois, Wayne’s the linguist. A spot of declassified NSG with Christmas lunch? Don’t mind if we do…
Domaine Coche-Bizouard Monthelie 1er Cru Les Duresses 2009 – £28.99
This family run domain, based in Meursault, was created by Julien Coche in 1940 as just one hectare of vines. His son Alain took over from him and built a strong reputation during the 1980’s and 1990’s. What goes around comes around, and Alain’s own son Fabien has been involved since 1995 and oversees the day to day running of the domains 12 hectares.
This is absolutely spot on, with plenty of plum and berry fruit, silky tannins keeping it tidy and a lovely weight and length of finish. Our tasting note when we tried it said: ‘… and really extraordinatry at this price!’ We’ll let you be the judge of that.
PORT (clearly not from Burgundy)
Krohn Colheita 1995 – £32.99
This is just so darned tasty. Rich plum fruit combined nicely with dried fruits, spiced molasses and complex nutty flavours from its 18+ years in oak pipes. A very good length finish and an obvious choice with your stilton.
Not much more to add really – Wine School is gently filling up, so if you were thinking of giving it to a loved one as a gift that keeps on giving, be careful not to miss the boat. 6 weeks, 60+ wines, Wayne’s witty insight – all for £150!
We’re off to a 21st Birthday party in Tooting tomorrow evening (many happy returns of the day young lady) so we will be very excitable all day – we don’t get out much you see – and certainly not in such glamorous company!
So it would seem that a week that started off looking pretty bleak is going to finish off with a bang – he who laughs last, laughs longest!!