I swore that if I purchased any 2003 European white wines (after my disaster with buying German stuff) I should be mercilessly mocked. So, stick a dunce's cap on me and stand me in the corner because today's glass of wine with the cricket was:

Domaine Albert Boxler Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg L31D 2003
Jean Boxler is a charming and gifted young man. He can also do things with Riesling that would make your eyes water with pleasure. He vinifies each plot of the Grand Cru Sommerberg Riesling separately and produces a range of wines that are all recognisably Sommerberg, but all have an individual charm and character. The L31D is the cuvée from his oldest vines. Obviously 2003 was far too hot for serious white wines to be generally made, but M. Boxler did make damned good stuff. This is a bit hot and alcoholic (best drank out of the fridge) but the fruit, concentration, complexity and style make this one exciting, racy, booze-tastic drink. I really enjoyed it. There was acidity and mam-loads of minerality. This was a seriously glass of quite large-scale Riesling. Cheers, Jean.

Obviously, Riesling is best with cricket; Champagne or Fino Sherry will do at a pinch.

Finally, you can point at me in my corner and shout "Shame!" as I purchased two cases of 2003 wine from M. Boxler.

Every single wine book claims to de-mystify wine, be for 'the common man' or makes laughable claims about the incredible ubiquity and cheapness of fine wine. I have no interest in spouting such drivel. I am very much of the opinion that nice things are nicer than nasty things and as such I want to focus on the best wines, with only the occasional dig at filth. I am sure, dear reader, you are enlightened enough to realise that best does not equate with most expensive, I am not a snob interested in burning money. I am interested in drinking damned-good wines. So if you prefer your wine columnists to pander to your erroneous opinions that Jacob's Creek is a fine wine then I suggest you head with alacrity away from here.

... Is that people purchase shit wine and expect you to enjoy it. Last night I had the woeful experience of opening my aunt's christmas present to me: Staton Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 1994 from Washington State. By arse it was disgusting. Very much a style of wine that one found at the four-to-six pound price bracket in the UK during the early to mid-nineties; it was especially noticeable with wines from South-Africa, but also many wines from New Zealand. I had really hoped never to try such a thing again. Mostly it was made with unripe grapes, that had spectacular yields, and the the wine was chapitalised to buggery. Enough sugar had been added to allow it to get to 13.5% rather than its natural 11%-ish. Because of this it had the strange, green-yet-chocolaty nose than this kind of filth always had. Age had done it no favours and, to be honest, I'd only opened it to make gravy from it. I must stand up for my lovely aunt, though, as she rang me the day after christmas and said she had opened two bottles on christmas day and they were both undrinkable. She was right.

The first day of a new month, a new blog and a damned good bottle of Burgundy.

Sylvain Cathiard Nuits St Georges Premier Cru Murgers 1999:
Cathiard makes beautiful Vosne-Romanée wines for lovers of beautiful Burgundy. He is the best source of the Vosne Premier Cru Malconsorts, although sadly for your humble narrator once the wines hit Blighty they are mind-numbingly expensive. Hence I was rather pleased to pick up a few bottles of this for less than thirty pounds a bottle. A damned good Nuits it is too. It has Nuits power and is not short of acidity, but has lovely exotic, complex fruit that does remind one of Vosne wines very much. The fruit character was really pleasing, and it lingered on the finish for a very long time. Despite the reputation of Nuits for beefy and tannic wines this was terribly satisfying to drink now. It would have aged very well, but it was not in the least bit hard. After an hour in a decanter my partner and I finished this faster than a smoker gets to the smoking area after a trans-Atlantic flight. Lovely wine.

Burgundy is obviously one of the most pleasing red wines. Not only can it be analysed in intellectual terms, but also they are often (if one buys carefully) lovely, sexy, hedonistic wines that almost beg one to do something amorous after a couple of glasses. I do like Burgundy.