New Year Resolution #4

Every year we make New Year resolutions that involve depriving ourselves of things. Losing weight, cutting back on alcohol, stopping smoking… blah blah blah. What we all fail to realise is that the reason we do these things in the first place is because we enjoy them, so it is hardly a surprise when we abandon our healthy living plan because that burger just looks so good or one more beer won’t really hurt.

This year, I’ve decided that my resolutions are going to enrich my life. They are;

1. Pass my driving test
2. Buy a car
3. Discover more interesting wines from smaller producers
4. Drink more Fine Wine with friends

And on the 1st January, I embraced number 4 and had dinner with the five people I love tasting wine with the most. Three of these are experienced tasters, albeit no older than their mid thirties. We have, as a group, tried so many fine wines over the past eight years and we bounce off each other while tasting the wine, helping each other to find new aromas and flavours. They are also some of my best friends and we rarely get a chance to see each other at the same time, so there are few people in the world I’d rather have dinner with – particularly when there is outstanding wine to be drunk. The final people are my girlfriend and my friend’s girlfriend, who are relatively inexperienced in tasting old wines and it is always great to watch them try new things, even if my girlfriend doesn’t let me look at her tasting notes!

We started off with a magnum of recently disgorged 1959 Moet & Chandon. This champagne house, probably the most famous house, has, for years, produced champagne that at best was satisfactory and at worst, bloody awful! The 2000 vintage has readdressed that, and I've sung it's praises before, and this old wine, just in its 50th year, shows the quality that Moet & Chandon is aiming to recapture. It was a delightful wine, burnt gold in colour, with lots of toast, butter and honey on the nose and some delicious soft lemon juice. The palate has a lovely mousse, with a little green tea component and a crusty bread flavour mixed with some lemon seeds. It is lacking a little bit of body, had all the richer flavours you would expect from an old fizz but just not the depth. Having said that, this was still a stunning magnum of Champagne. 9/10

A number of years ago, my three friends and I bought each other birthday presents, bottles of wine from the year we were born. Alongside a 1976 Dom Perignon and a 1979 Krug, there was a 1973 Chateau Palmer and a 1978 Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou. The latter two wines were opened, some five years after being laid down. Unfortunately, the ’78 Ducru (my birthday present) was past it – all vegetal aromas and flavours, but the ’73 Palmer was not bad, not brilliant, but not bad!

It was a bricky brown with a little cherry red in the core. There were some polished wood aromas, some dry twig and tobacco box aromas mixed with some boot polish. There are some date aromas, slightly sweet but with a dry dusty element. The palate has a tangy element; it is quite a bit past it, but still drinkable. A little dried raspberry, dry leather – almost like a dried out old boot! It is an old wine, drinkable and not unpleasant, but past it’s best. 7/10

A Pair of Mazis Chambertins followed. The 1993 Mazis Chambertin from Domaine Faiveley was full of strawberries and wild raspberries, heather and rusty steel on the nose. The palate had a leather, cinnamon and some cherry stone flavour. Very silky, some cranberry on the finish and a simply stunning wine. When it opened up and warmed up, it became a real star. 8.5/10. The 1995 Mazy Chambertin from Domaine Armand Rousseau was all about herbs and cherries with a sprinkling of pomegranate. Then there are flavours of raspberry, a little cedar box, dried herbs and a super, long, dry finish. 8/10.

I have tried 1966 Ducru Beaucaillou twice before, in 2003 and 2005 and in my overeager youthful exuberance I wrote “perfect” in the first of the two notes. But when we opened the last of the three bottles, it was exactly that. Perfect. Rosemary and sweet cherry, with lots of floral notes and some sweet toffee. The palate is dry, with leather, cinnamon and pepper. Cherry stone flavours, some cocoa, dried herbs and dusty books! Beautiful balance and an outstanding bottle of wine. 10/10

Continuing in Bordeaux, we had 1967 Chateau Suduiraut, a stinky, old honey nose with a touch of sweet pipe tobacco and a little menthol appearing on the nose. It was initially too cold, so when it warmed up, you got more of the honey, with burnt orange, and a lemongrass and graphite flavour. It was a delightful wine, a really beautiful Sauternes, a lovely texture, and so clean on the finish. I can understand why Broadbent and Parker like this. 9.5/10

Finally came a 1927 Martinez Vintage Port. It was a rich, sweet, stewed fruit and cinnamon aroma that came off the glass first, then just a little bit of baked meat juice! Very pretty with sweet quince jelly and cassis aromas too. The palate was strange – wonderful, but strange as it was so fresh! A youthful, spicy alcohol, coffee and toffee flavour with dark chocolate, coffee liqueur and blackcurrant. A wonderful warm balanced mouthful with a nudge of leathery tannin and a bundle of sweet blueberry. This is a 9/10 bottle of port as the alcohol was just a touch too prominent for me. That was until we broke out the cheese.

A few days earlier, we had gone into Ian Mellis Cheesemongers in St Andrews and spoke to the manager, Kevin. He suggested that instead of going for blue cheeses with port, we should give a goats cheese a go. He hauled out some little rolls of mould that he called St Maure de Touraine and said we should try these. And Kevin was right. Matched with the eighty one and a half year old port, this cheese calmed down the alcohol a touch and combined let us experience a perfect wine/food pairing at the end of the evening. Thanks Kevin!

My main reason for writing this though, is to record the evening for posterity. I know it isn’t showing much professionalism to inject a whole bunch of emotion into an article, but I’m not a professional journalist! I really do believe that wines, regardless of whether they are a £3 bottle from Tesco or an octogenarian port should be enjoyed with friends and family. Unfortunately, in my life, wine is rarely enjoyed. Usually I am trying wines at soulless tastings, being shown wines by representatives from a distributor, over dinner with a bunch of boring trade people, or with the wine being heralded as some majestic liquid that is to be swirled ad nauseam, discussed for hours and have any passion ripped from the appreciation of it. To me, that is not what wine is about.

The sort of evening I had on the first of January, drinking forty year old claret at a kitchen table over a plate of stew and mash with Peter, Rich, Kirsty, Lillian and Charlotte is why I love wine so much and why it is my New Years resolution to do it more. Not only did the food and wine match, but the company did too. That combination enriches my life more than I could ever express in words, and this is one resolution I will not break.