I just want to apologise that once again there has been a lack of entries. What with my stomach and the lack of sleep I've been getting I am afraid to say I've been in the local psychiatric ward since Friday. The swine don't even have a wine list!

I am hoping to negociate for the return of my belt and shoelaces today, which will be the first step in preparing for my release, so hopefully it will not be too long before I am raving about fine wine again. I've got an interesting bottle of Volnay planned for my release.

In case you are wondering, I am writing this blog entry thanks to my Nokia N800 internet tablet. It has beeen very useful in keeping me in contact with the outside world whilst being locked up.

Normal service will resume as soon as possible; until then keep drinking! Ideallly Burgundy.

I've had a few German wines over the last period of time, the quality levels of which have been very good. This is the first long gold capsule Auslese I've had in a while, though. I'd like some more. The wines of Schloss Lieser are made by the son of Wilhelm Haag, so there is clearly some genetic component to making top-flight wine. I suppose having access to a top vineyard in a great vintage helps a bit as well.

Riesling Auslese Lange Goldkapsel Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr 2005, Schloss Lieser
The nose is rich, dense and concentrated, bursting with ripe fruit and an incredible minerality. The ripeness is such that there are hints of lemon grass and Thai basil on the nose, but this is not a bad thing. This smells extremely stylish and highly attractive. It is not terribly botrytic, though. Never mind, I could smell this all night. I'm buggered if I am going to, though, I am going to drink it. Wow, what a mouthful! It may have real sweetness, density and power, but it sings an elegant song of complete charm and delight as it dances across my palate. The acid is just great for a wine this ripe and the finish is extraordinarily long. Its melange of complex flavours has slapped a huge grin across my face. This is a great wine by any definition of the word, and merits an f'ing triple-A rating for its obvious class and utter loveliness.

Firstly, I must apologise for a lack of entries in recent weeks. My stomach has been utterly knackered and I've been unable to even drink that foul water stuff without blowing bits immediately. This has made the enjoyment of fine wine rather difficult.

For some reason, people seem to get the idea that I lead an excessive lifestyle. I don't know where they get the idea from. It is not as if I have piles of cash to blow on lavish treats all of the time. Look how empty food.elitistreview.com is. I undoubtedly like good things, but I'm not really excessive.

Earlier, I found this picture from last year's trip to Burgundy:

Now before people like Peter and Edward start chortling with self-righteous fervour about how dissolute I am, a lot of that stuff was to bring back to London from the cellar in Burgundy. Some was for drinking in Burgundy, but there are always a lot of people in Burgundy. You can click on the picture if you want a closer look at the bottles. That Brulees 96 was just delicious.

Cripes!

Riesling Auslese Berncasteler Doctor 2001, Dr Thanisch (Erban-Thanisch)
I have to summon my very darkest powers in order to fight the vivacity of this wine that is trying to drive me from my normal Eeyore-ish mode of operation. I have rarely had wines that burst with this level of precision, focus and intensity. And yet, for all of those qualities it just slips down a treat. The nose bursts with ripe grapefruit aromas and an incredible degree of slatey minerality. It explodes with concentration of aromas. So giving and so thrilling, and yet so obviously young. The palate is a truly mind-bending roller coaster ride through a panoply of experiences. There is incredible fruit, wild minerality, stunning concentration, charming hints of botrytis and quite buttock-clenching amounts of style. The acidity hurts, but in a way that you want to feel again and again. It is vastly young, but this is a wine of such quality it goes beyond slightly lewd to rather dirty.

Thanks Peter!

Lovely chap, Peter, he brought two lovely wines and we have three more. It was interesting to watch some of these wines develop over the course of the evening; there were some great improvements to be observed.

Riesling Auslese Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr 2000, Weingut Fritz Haag
This was quite mature and petrolly on the nose. There was some good limey fruit and it smells really inviting. On the palate it was perhaps less sweet than Auslesen from riper vintages, but there was a great acid-fruit balance. The minerality was very pleasing. It had a good finish, but I did worry that it seemed quite so mature at only seven years old.

Hermitage Blanc 1994, J. L. Grippat
White Hermitage from the now retired Jean-Louis Grippat, I felt pleased to be trying a wine so rare. Initially this just smelled and tasted of glue, which seemed a bit odd. As this developed in the glass it became more floral with a distinct apple-core character to the fruit. It was incredibly mineral and really seriously complex. There was real power to the palate, but it remained easy to drink and very enjoyable. The length was most impressive. Quite ready to drink. This was a seriously kick-arse bottle of white Hermitage, I'm not sure I've had a better old white Hermitage than this. Very tasty, extremely enjoyable yet really rather serious.

Pommard Premier Cru Rugiens 2001, de Montille
I opened the next two wines because they had been described by some as ageing prematurely. They showed a degree of this character when first poured, but after a while in the glass really improved greatly. When fully open, the nose of this wine was quite beautiful; strawberry and redcurrant fruit with charming hints of soil. This smelled really rather Cote de Beaune-y. Initially the palate seemed a tad tough, and strangely lacking a touch of concentration, by by arse how this improved with air. It became terribly silky, elegant and highly refined. For a minor vintage this was a wine of complete beauty and I greatly enjoyed it.

Volnay-Santenots-Du-Milieu 2001, Domaine des Comtes Lafon
Lafon's reds can be a bit butch, and this was my initial impression of this wine. Tannins were a bit tough and it seemed a tiny bit international. Once again, when it had breathed for a while it became far softer with the tannic structure more in harmony with the ripe, dark fruit. It had good length and was not short on concentration. Again, for a difficult vintage this was a very pleasing wine. Up for drinking now, just let it breathe.

Côte-Rôtie 1997, Bernard Burgaud
I had this recently. I found this bottle to be a tiny bit dirtier than that one, but it still had an elegant palate with a great, fine tannic structure. Very good Côte-Rôtie.

The last couple of days general drinking are reported below:

Riesling Serriger Schloss Saarstein Spätlese 2005, Schloss Saarstein
Much like the last couple of bottles, and very unlike the first couple, this was delicious. It has really blossomed into a peachy lovely. Great drinking on a sunny spring day.

Crozes-Hermitage 1999, Alain Graillot en magnum
Whilst this had some decent fruit, there wasn't that much else there. It really lacked dimension and was terribly dull. I've had a mag of this before and it was delicious, so I don't know what is going on with this.

Grande Millésime 1996, Gosset
This was a tightly-wound ball of intensity, flavour and class. Really ripe but with huge amounts of acid. Fabulous length and complexity. I really thought this was terribly good (although I prefer Bille NF 96) but it needs a lot more time in the cellar.

Chablis Premier Cru Fourchaume "Vignoble de Vaulorent" 2005, Domaine William Fevre
As I said when I had a bottle of this at the end of January, this is clearly the best Chablis I have ever had. So complex and stylish, so refined and elegant, so drinkable. Truly excellent wine.

Bonnezeaux 1997, Château de Fesles
An excellent sweet wine that provided me with as much pleasure as the bottle I had at christmas.

Meursault 2004, Henri Boillot
A well-made, perfectly drinkable wine which is very Meursault in character.

I haven't had access to my computer over the last couple of days, so here are brief notes about some of the tits wines I've had.

Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru les Ruchottes 2000, Domaine Ramonet
This had a wonderful, expressive nose of minerality, nuts and ripe lemon fruit. There was a good Chassagne flat Champagne aroma to it. It was really complex and stylish on the nose, with obvious concentration and class. The palate had some good weight and concentration, but was really elegant and refined. Quite beautiful, in fact. The finish was quite superb. A really great bottle of Chassagne.

Meursault les Tillets 2001, Domaine Roulot
Strangely, this seemed slightly more oaky on the nose than last time I had it. Still, very floral and mineral. Very nice fruit. Real complexity here too, and good style. Nice mineral complexity on the palate and it had real length. Lovely, but the Ramonet was better.

Cornas Domaine de Rochepertuis 1998, Domaine Jean Lionnet
A lovely nose of mushrooms and really ripe blackberries. Nice and earthy, but not rustic or dirty. Again, this was really quite complex. The palate was smooth with good, ripe tannins and plenty of fruit. Real length to the finish and a great persistence of complex, earthy flavours. Delicious. Shame Jean Lionnet retired after the 2005 vintage, make sure you buy any of this wine you see knocking around, it has always been one of the incredible bargains of the wine world. Much as I love Clape, Verset and others, I really think this is my favourite Cornas.

Chablis Premier Cru Vallions 2005, Domaine Fevre
This had a delicious nose that was so fruity it had a hint of Muscat about it. Its nutty, honey, stoney aromas showed it to be very good Chablis, though. Perhaps the palate lacked a touch of concentration, but it was a really refreshing, enjoyable drink. 2005 is very obviously a hit is Chablis.

Côte-Rôtie 1997, Domaine Bernard Burgaud
A lovely earthy nose with plenty of dark ripe fruit. Although it smelled completely ripe it seemed very restrained and balanced. The palate had real elegance and refinement, with finely-grained tannins and a very long finish. Perhaps the acidity was a tad high, but it didn't really detract from what was a lovely bottle of Côte-Rôtie. The Lionnet was better.

Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru les Cras 1995, Domaine G. Roumier
Ah what a charming nose. Ripe cherries and strawberries with complex mineral aromas. This is a real lovely, very refined and pure, but bursting with titillating pleasure. The palate sings a wonderful song of softness and life. It is incredibly silky and smooth, but is kept racy thanks to some good acidity. The fruit is utterly delicious. I knew Christophe Roumier's 95s were good but this takes the grape in terms of how much I love it. Don't get me wrong this is a freaking triple-A charm-tastic ball of love to drink now but I wonder if it might be even nicer in two-three years.

This is quite a fancy St. Joseph. I'm still drinking, hooray!

St. Joseph Cuvée des Anges 1999, Domaine Cheze
This has a very herbal fruit character, like cough sweets. There are ceps and earthy aromas with a very vague hint of bubblegum. But the nose is really good and complex, very expressive and interesting. Despite this style and complexity it still smells like a St. Joseph. Good. The palate has a very slightly angular structure and a prickle which is also very St. Joseph. It is still quite a serious wine, though. This is perfectly ready to drink and I will enjoy this as it develops in my glass. St. Joseph gets no better.

I am back drinking again. Hooray for wine! I was hoping for my first wine to be good, but I am very disappointed with this.

Savennières Trie Spéciale 1997, Domaine des Baumard
This smells rather big and powerful. A heavy nose laden with the decayed sweetness of a ripe blue cheese. There is a degree of botrytic apricot fruit on the nose as well, but it largely smells damp and rotten. I am concerned by the lack of minerality here. The palate is very full bodied, with some acidity and minerality, but it is terribly flat. There is no real dimension or excitement here, it is just a big mouthful of simple flavours. It also doesn't taste that nice, if I am honest. Doesn't taste nice seems a pretty damning quality comment to me.

Last night as I dozed in bed I started thinking about one of my favourite producers: Jean Boxler. As well as being a charming fellow, he has made some of the best wines I've had from Alsace. Right through his range there are wines that both intellectually stimulate and titillate with visceral pleasure. They are not that pricey, either.

I first visited M. Boxler with a group of friends, he was an addition to our list of old favourites in the spirit of trying someone new. This was a terribly good move. We tried the 2000s and a few older wines. Experiencing the vivid, striking nature of those wines for the first time is a memory that will remain with me forever. We tried his basic wines with increasing excitement and then he explained about the different plots of Riesling on the Sommerberg Grand Cru he owned, each of which he vinified separately. The different wines from these plots were noticeably different, and a couple were mind-bendingly good. When these are bottled the only distinction on the label is a cryptic code number on top left-hand corner of the label. If memory serves the codes are: L31JV, L31, L31E, L31D and L31D2. The L31JV is a younger-vines cuvée and is a good buy. I seem to recall L31D2 was only made in the 2002 vintage. The L31E and L31D(2) wines are both made from old vines from different soil types and these are easily among the best wines made in Alsace at the moment. He also makes a Riesling from the Brand Grand Cru.

Even though he is clearly a master of Riesling, his other varietal wines are also delicious. They all have marvellous varietal character, but show a high degree of minerality and complexity. The Pinot Blanc 'B' (from the Brand Grand Cru) is probably the best Pinot Blanc I've ever tried. His Brand Pinot Gris has delicious fruit and a real creamy Alsace character. Normally heady Gewürztraminer is balanced and refined from him, but not short on style and class.

I've reported on a few Boxler wines here, jolly good they were too. Apart from that corked one (curses). If you'd like to try some of these wines I'd suggest visiting and then buying all he will sell you. Alternatively, UK readers can try here for drinking wines, and here for slightly more serious stuff. The 04 L31E will age really well. Overseas readers can search for Boxler on Wine Searcher.

PS. I must apologise for the lack on entries recently. I am violently ill and wine makes me blow bits. Quite depressing, really.