Burgundy 2009 & alot more...

Burgundy 2009

January is the traditional round of U.K. Trade and sample tastings for Burgundy 2009. An impressive Vintage though with a few noticeable question marks. A longish list of recommended wines will be culled somewhat, on price. Like Bordeaux there are over-priced offerings in 2009 but equally others that have pitched fairly. These we will indulge in. Within the hour I head to the City for yet more Burgundy trials and tribulations and hope to add to my select list. Over the next couple of days my recommended list will go to those regular Burgundy and or En Primeur buyers. If you think you are not on that list but would like to be, do let me know.

Jean Daneel “Signature” Chenin Blanc – Past, present and future.

With 50 Cases having arrived on New Year’s Eve we are already just over halfway through this stock. So we’ll be lucky if the stock will last another month. Alas Daneel has no more 2009. He is doubling our allocation for the 2010 Vintage but it won’t be bottled until February; then he wishes it to settle for 3 months; then it’ll take a month to ship, and then I have to determine how good and how it is drinking. Even if approachable, we are looking at June at best to re-stock. We still have some 2009 but it’ll likely last 3-4 weeks and not the 3-4 months we’d like. On the plus side, he is relinquishing from his own stock 6-36 Bottles of historic Vintages like 2001-2003-2004-2005. Those of you lucky enough to have delved into the 2003 originally will know how complex these become with good bottle-age. Again, let me know if interested. These will be shipped circa June. Along with a tiny amount of the legendary 2001 “Signature Red”.

Still to come, next week or beyond:

A couple of everyday numbers (£ 10 to £ 17.50) – a 2007 Rhône and a Premier Cru White Burgundy

Weekly indulgence:

We have just acquired tiny parcel of an old favourite from Ribera-del-Duero. V.A.T. increase – pah! Exactly a year ago we had this wine and price wise it was £ 26.00 a bottle.

This little parcel happens to have cost us that bit less so we have priced it accordingly and despite V.A.T. now at £20%, we are happy to offer the Viña Sastre at bang on £ 20.00.

30 Bottles only (5 half-cases of 6 bottles each in their own wooden cases)

Viña Sastre 1999 Pago de Santa Cruz,

Ribera-del-Duero, Spain at £ 20.00 per Bottle

Classic sweet Ribera fruit but softening as it has hit perfect full maturity. Nice, soft, comforting, characterful nose. Enjoyable.

Silly-season:

Call me a Luddite but last night I dropped in to some School friends of my son and the younger sister (aged 5-6?) had her own I-Phone. Boy did I feel old. I still feel that a Volvo and vinyl are State of the Art. Will I be finally dragged kicking-and-screaming into the 21 st Century? It has been said of Ireland (Eire) that it went straight from the 19 th Century to the 21 st Century. Should I now entertain such a similar shock to my system? Some things however don’t always stack up. I treated myself over Christmas to a small DVD player so I could watch a few old films and did something a bloke doesn’t or isn’t suppose to do: I read the instruction manual. Does that now make me a Meterosexual? Jury’s out. For a full twenty minutes I pushed and prodded and unplugged and reset but nothing. Re-reading the manual I discovered that the remote control should be used from 15 inches or less. That is 15 inches, a mere few millimeters longer than my left foot. Not 15 feet, 15 inches! Call me a couch potato but at 15 inches I think even I can stretch forward and hit play or the on/off button. Technology, humbug.



The Ashes . What a result lads. Phenomenal. Maybe I am just getting old but I did feel a pang of sadness for the old enemy, those Kangaroos. And that was before hell washed through Brizzy etc. Cricket is A religion in England whereas down under it is The Religion. On the night “we” had won the Ashes I sat in a Sussex Hotel dining room with my son, filled with perhaps 60 or more English, families, couples, groups and so on. In the entire evening, not a whisper; not a mention; not a cheer about the Cricket. In England, Cricket is one of perhaps fifty culturally enriching endeavours. In Australia it is one of perhaps half-a-dozen. Think, if the Aussies had just won, retained, regained The Ashes and you were in some Kalgoorlie watering hole or some swish Sydney Hotel, would you have heard anything other than the Cricket? Of course not. It meant alot to me and a few other Hooray Henrys and beyond but it means far more to those Wallabies. As such I actually felt a wee bit sad for the Aussies. Perth and Western Oz aside I am told by many an Aussie friend (counting on one hand I do have a few) that they are in a real depression about this. It’s like Russia and then Qatar being granted the World Cup. Yes there were reasons to host it here in Blighty but let’s be honest, I think it’ll mean more to the Ruskies and the Quataris than it does to us. Likewise the Ashes. Perhaps next time we should let the Aussies win. For such an outgoing nation like the Aussies, I personally am struggling to gain pleasure from seeing my Aussie mates, Angus, Mark, Nic, Rod, Sheila (the last one I made up) and others so glum. Cheer-up mate. We, sort of, know what it’s like.

Don’t ask an American Mum this but why do Chocolate Brownies never actually taste that good?!

Played hooky t’other day and went to see “The King’s Speech”. Worth a butcher’s. Funny to see Timothy Spall playing Churchill in this one and just last night as a projectionist in “Quadrophenia”.

“History will say that the Right Honourable Gentleman was wrong. I know it will because I will write it.” - Winston Churchill.