Oremus are owned by Vega Sicilia, so by rights this wine should be so oxidised it would only taste of vinegar. Luckily, Vega have not moved their love of over-oxidised wines to Hungary. 

Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos 1999, Oremus
A heady golden colour. The nose is very ripe and botrytic, but has no sign of oxidation. Amazing! It is largely clean and full of fruit. The palate is very rich and sweet, but the acidity seems in balance. Lots of peaches and cream/apricot jam richness. It is not terribly complex, but tastes lovely. The finish is superb, very long, sweet and fruity. This is a very good, well-balanced sweet wine.

It's the first time I've tried wine from this producer. I met him in a restaurant on my last trip to Burgundy, he was very loud.

Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru 1999, Domaine Christophe Newman
A pure and elegant nose of red fruit, it is not especially complex. The alcohol stands out a bit. The palate is similarly hot and the tannins seem a bit dry. It is not especially complex or refined. It is a nice drink but hardly Grand Cru quality; it is a bit big and lacks finesse.

A shame. He seemed keen on making fine wine and has some good vineyards. I was disappointed.

The first bottle of Champagne of this new year's evening. The back label helpfully tells us this was disgorged in September 2004 and it has a minimalistic 4g/l dosage. This cost ~€31 and was a bargain at that price

Champagne Avize Grand Cru 1995, Jacquesson et Fils
A lovely, toasty, bready nose. It has plenty of apple fruit and is really pure and elegant. The palate is linear and direct, but has plenty of fruit and sings a deeply charming song. It is very long. It has a fine but lively mousse. The balance is superb and all the flavours are integrated; it lacks the 'face-lifted' character of some RD Champagnes. Up for drinking. And I am deeply up for drinking it. This is a seriously charming and lovely bottle of Champagne, I can think of few bottles at this price that provide so much pleasure. Many thanks to the wonderful partner for providing this.

This is not quite as good as the Cailleret on christmas day, but it is pretty damned-good.

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Pucelles 2001, Domaine Leflaive
A rich, powerful, toasty nose that has real Grand Cru power. The oak is noticeable but it is not unbalanced. The palate is fruity and oaky, but has really good acidity and a nice minerality to keep it balanced. It is a pleasingly savoury wine. It is pretty complex, but perhaps not as complex as the Lambrays Cailleret drank recently. The length is certainly faultless, it tastes lovely going down. It is a powerful, rich mouthful that retains its balance. First-class white Burgundy without a doubt.

I spent last night in Whitstable eating oysters and fish. Only one bottle of wine consumed, but it was pretty good.

Champagne Brut Reserve NV, Billecart-Salmon
A toasty, elegant nose. It showed a bit of maturity. The palate also showed a bit of mature complexity, and it really was quite complex for a non-vintage. Good length, nice power but very well balanced. One of my favourite non-vintage Champagnes.

Sometimes it is nice to have a fully mature bottle. In this case it may have been a touch over the hill, and it wasn't the greatest of wines, but it was still nice.

Bridgehead Mataro 1995, Ridge
Nice dark fruit nose, but it is a bit hot. No wood standing out on the nose, it is all nice and clean and fruity, although the fruit is quite dark and brooding. The palate has fruit, but it tastes soft and mature. The tannins are a bit dried out. But this has reasonable balance and, despite being a bit hot, is not over-bearing. The quality comment is 'perfectly drinkable' and there is no shame in that.

But white this time.

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Clos du Cailleret 1999, Domain des Lambrays
Intense nose of nuts and stone. Really powerful and weighty, complex and intense. The palate is very full-bodied, with nuts, honey, plenty of fruit and some maturity. This is deeply lovely, I've had less impressive Grand Cru wines. The balance is superb and the length is just incredible. Top marks to Thiery Brouin of Lambrays for this stunning effort.

So said Brillat-Savarin, and he has had a cheese named after him so he must have been a gentleman of taste and style. When I think back to some of the wines I've savoured and reported on in this spume of drivel I have to say I agree. I recall wines like the various Clos des Lambrays, the Rousseau Chambertin, all of the Boxler Rieslings (that man is some form of demi-god) and the Mission '75 I remember the incredible pleasure they gave me. Pleasure like that is almost tangible, it thrills, excites and charms me to a nigh lewd extent. This is why I take notes to remind me precisely how much nicer nice things are than nasty things.

Much as these wines are excellent in themselves, to extract maximum pleasure you need people of taste to share them with. I am very lucky in that I have a partner who is extremely knowledgeable about and interested in fine wine. A bottle shared, discussed and loved with my love is a particular pleasure that few things can touch. Friends are good too. When I opened the Lambray 2002 our shared smiles as we put glasses to our noses were a delight. Wine is a very good social lubricant; to share such wonders makes everyone happy, more engaged and more social. As Richard Burton put it, "I have to think hard to name an interesting man who does not drink."

Wine is such an ephemeral pleasure. Those few mouthfuls you get from a glass will be the only time you try that wine in that condition; the next bottle will be subtly different. To pop a fine bottle of wine is to have a fleeting grasp of perfection; you have to be awake to all the possibilities your small measure will provide. Miss the chance and you'll never have that experience again. I've occasionally joked that alcohol is a magic potion: it makes you funny and popular. The inherent interest in a bottle of fine wine probably makes it a magic potion: its interest rubs off onto the company consuming it.

With christmas coming I have a few damned-good bottles planned along with plenty of top food. These will be shared in good humour with my partner and friends. We'll be happy and feel good.

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day - Frank Sinatra

Another bottle of Boxler Sommerberg L31E 2002. This is a really beautiful, powerful yet balanced wine. The fruit is superb, as is the acidity and minerality. Really top bunny. I look forward to trying the rest of my partner's stash in many years time.

When I purchased this I thought it seemed like a top vintage, time has proved me wrong. It is not bad, just not up to the standards of other vintages.

Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1994, Château Beaucastel
A soft, earthy nose. Some dark fruit there. Seems subdued and muted. The palate is quite dry and tastes very strongly of olive water, quite brine-y. There is fruit, and a bit of earthy richness, but this is basically on its way out. Much better than a bottle I had in the summer, that was completely past it, though. A nice old wine, but it has definitely been drawing its pension for a few years.

I tried this wine at my first Decanter magazine panel tasting years ago. I remember it being very good, but hellishly oaky.

Chablis Grand Cru les Preuses 1996, William Fevre
Nutty, honeyed nose, plenty of fruit, round and mature. It has a good creamy minerality to it. There is a bit of woody vanilla, but not as much as I recall from years ago. It has integrated nicely. The palate has quite high acidity, but plenty of fruit and reasonable length. It is dense and weighty, but kept lively by the minerality and acidity. It is really quite good and one of the best 1996 Burgundy/Chablis wines I have had. Still in very good condition the day after I popped it.

I was looking at the distribution of grape varieties in my wine collection:

It pleases me very much that I have more Mourvèdre than Chardonnay, albeit by a single bottle. Syrah is a bit high, but Riesling and Pinot Noir hold the top spots, as well they should. Nebbiolo seems high and Chenin Blanc seems far too low.

The owner of the wonderful food blog Chez Pim has linked to my rant about the greatness of Burgundy. I return the favour with a link to her site. She is clearly more of a serious blogger than me, or has more money to spend on food than I do on wine.

This was quite disappointing, not up to the required standard for here.

Cornas 1997, Clape
A nice nose of dark fruit and earth, but very dirty and bretty. The palate is angular and really filthy. Incredible levels of brett in this wine, it is very dirty indeed. There is not much else on the palate, hardly any fruit, and not much length. The nose promised some goodies, but the box was just empty. Very disappointing.

I just felt in need of beauty tonight.

Riesling Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr Auslese Goldkapsel Fuder 9 1994, Fritz Haag
A beautiful nose of botrytis, slate and petrol. The nose is quite developed. The palate has really quite a lot of acidity, but is balanced by plenty of ripeness and fruit. It is very long and speaks of where it was grown. A seriously lovely wine.

Riesling Cuvée Frédéric-Emile 1990, Trimbach
This started off being surprisingly closed. However, it opened up to reveal plenty of limy fruit on the nose along with a creamy minerality. The palate was very long and complex, with austere lime fruit, earthy richness and an almost toasty finish. Very good, once it had opened up.