I was in Amsterdam over the weekend, so perilously little wine was consumed. However, it was my birthday on Thursday and at the 'large-formats' party we held we popped a magnum of Riesling Singerriedel 2004 from Hirtzberger. This was quite delicious, quite large-scale but with good acidity. It had a typically Austrian white pepper aroma to it as well as late harvest Riesling characteristics. It was very nice, but I really don't think it would be for ageing.

I feel extremely fortunate to have acquired a beautiful thing today. Not a bottle of Musigny, but there are other interesting things out there. I also collect contemporary ceramics, and now have seven pieces by the talented, imaginative and reasonably hot Sarah-Jane Selwood. This is a fairly dodgy picture of the wonderful bowl I purchased.

One side of it has been folded up with six folds, which she terms a reconstruction. She is my favourite ceramicist because she is not only very skillful, but she also has new ideas on a regular basis; we like ideas. They are truly creative, inspiring and sensual pieces of art.

How can I afford these things? The Arts Council give ten-month, interest-free loans at registered galleries in a scheme called Own Art. I can afford a small amount each month whereas stumping up a big whack eats far too much into my monthly wine budget. If they accept me for a loan they'll accept a blind dog that has just been declared bankrupt for credit.

May I take this opportunity to recommend a couple of galleries in London where great ceramics can be purchased. Contemporary Applied Arts carry Sarah-Jane Selwood, Rupert Spira, Chris Keenan, Sophie Lowe, amongst others. They have a good range of art in other media as well. The Contemporary Ceramics Gallery has quite a lot of crap, but there are always a few good pieces there. They usually have some Sarah-Jane Selwood, Chris Keenan, Emmanuel Cooper and many others. Both top places to visit when you are in London, they have many beautiful things to look at and fondle.

Right, that is enough about ceramics, wonderful things though they may be. I promise the next post will be a tasting note, or some kind of wine-related rant....

Blame my community psychiatric nurse for this, all his idea. I didn't say it was necessarily a bad idea, though...

Do you find your weekdays dragging? Do you find yourself filled with ideas about things to do but no one to do them with? Fancy the odd pint? Yes, I am advertising for friends. If you live in London and find yourself at a loose end during weekdays then you are in much the same situation as me. I really need an excuse to drag myself away from the computer and if there were people out there who like wine, beer and food then perhaps you would be so kind as to be my excuse. I'm quite nice, really, even though I run a site called Elitist Review. Drop me a line and perhaps a convenient time can be arranged to go for a pint.

I picked this up from my cellar in Oxford on my last visit. It is a bit young still, but very drinkable.

Bandole Cuvee Speciale la Miguoa 1998, Domaine Tempier en magnum
A very scented, herbal, meaty nose with a charming grilled character. It has sweet berry fruit as well. This doesnt seem as ripe as more recent vintages have been. There is a reasonable degree of arsehole character on the nose, but this is by no means a bad thing. Oddly, there is something a bit Clarety about the nose as this breathes, but it is more charming and fleshy. This has a really svelt and silky palate, with lovely fruit and great persistence of flavour. It is really complex. There is more than a bit of rusticity about this wine, but it is quite the charmer. I shall continue to buy Bandol (but more Pibarnon than Tempier these days). Really this needs a few more years, but will last for an age getting only more charming.

Wilhelm Haag is a wonderful winemaker, and he makes great wine too. You cannot go wrong with his Kabinett and Spatlese wines, they are normally very ripe, delicious, will age a treat and are complete bargains.

Riesling Spatlese Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr 2006, Fritz Haag
Cripes, this smells ripe. Lots of wonderful peachy fruit and great minerality. It is not as sulphury as I would have expected. This has layer after layer of rich ripe fruit on the nose, completely delicious. The palate is very ripe, too, obvious Auslese-level sweetness to it, but with great fizzing acidity and a thrilling slaty-ness. It oozes charm and plenty of complexity is there to delight. This is a really top-bunny wine, I love it, and it was less than fiften quid, too. Cannot go wrong with this wine, now or in seven to fifteen years time.

The wines of Bruno Sorg are great value, always worth a punt when you see them. This is particularly true of this wine and the old vines flavour.

Riesling Grand Cru Pfersigberg 2004, Domaine Bruno Sorg
A lovely nose of baked apples and rich minerality. This smells pretty complex and stylish; it is certainly very mineral. Yum. The palate is very dry, with some weight from the ripeness and some real concentration there. Plenty of acidity is fizzing away on the palate which could have made this very linear, but it is broad enough to be merely direct. Really stylish with great length on the finish. This is really quite delicious, a bargain at fifteen sheets.

A few good things from last night.

Bourgogne Blanc 2004, Domaine Roulot
This smells of proper white Burgundy; there is the lemon fruit, minerality and just a hint of vomit. It smells fresh and lively. The palate has some good acidity, and a reasonable amount of fruit. It has some reasonable length, and a degree of complexity. For a Bourgogne Blanc this is really pretty good.

Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 2004, Domaine Dujac
I last reviewed the 2004 Dujac wines along with the 2005s from cask back in July of last year; this wine seems similar to how I remembered it. It is complex and earthy on the nose, with a lot of ripe cherry fruit. I feel I have to comment that the level of oak seems rather high on the nose at the moment. There are some profound tannins on the palate, but their structure is pleasing and it is very complex and long. The acidity seems surprisingly high, but this could just be at the stage we are drinking it; it is rather young. Delicious, ripe, dense fruit is here. Great finish and very long with real style and class. This is a seriously fine wine for long-term ageing.

Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru aux Combottes 1997, Domaine Dujac
Soft fruit on the nose, this seems fully mature. Very earthy and rich with plenty of complex aromas. This smells like type, mature, Cote de Nuits wine. The palate is very soft and charming, with some good balancing acidity and a reasonable tannic structure. I was given this wine blind and I thought it was Dujac from a more rigorous vintage than 1997, this shows the quality of wine they make even in these less than brilliant years. There is some reasonable length, and no shortage of complexity here. This is completely lovely, and perfectly up for drinking now. There is still some life in the very best of the 1997s, clearly. At Dujac I tried a 1997 Clos St. Denis and it was similarly delicious.

Vin de Paille 1996, J. L. Grippat
This is Hermitage made from straw-dried grapes that had to be declassified to Vin de Table for some arcane reason. I was presented it blind and I am pleased to say I nailed it. The aromas of glue and acetone were a dead give away, and not as unpleasant as they sound. It is really gluey, with a strange apple/elderflower fruit to it. The palate is quite sweet, and again has glue tones, but there is more fruit on the palate and it despite all of the weird aromas it seemed quite delicious. Acidity was fine if not spectacular. It is not for ageing any longer, although it'll hang around forever, this is an unusual sweet wine but well worth trying as it has real personality and it is actually very nice.

Live tasting notes from Fortnum and Mason's wine bar. I have internet access down here so here goes on the wines we are drinking.

Pinot Gris Vieille Vigne 2005, Domaine Bruno Sorg
A lovely, ripe, spicy nose of white fruit and minerality. It smells very ripe and very concentrated. This is a ripe and stylish wine, full of character unlike the bland Italian version of this grape variety. The palate is very dry, but has good ripeness to give it width and structure. It is quite long, and reasonably complex. Not the flashiest Pinot Gris in the world, but this is a very good drink for random drinking purposes and greatly enjoyable.

Bandol 2003, Chateau de Pibarnon
The nose is very ripe, with plenty of alcohol but by no means as over-ripe as the Tempier the other day. This has lovely Bandol grilled meat and leather characters, type but ripe! The palate is incredibly tannic, but so ripe and full it is almost voluptuous. It has good acidity too, and is really complex. This is the best wine I've had in the proverbial period of time: Complex, long and stylish. Quiet delicious too and up for enjoying. That being said I'll keep the two bottles I purchased for at least a decade.

This claims 14.5% on the label, liars! I think it suffers a bit from having heat damaged grapes in it, it is a bit bitter.

Bandol Cuvée Speciale la Miguoa 2003, Domaine Tempier
A huge, booze-tastic nose that smells of some kind of fruit liqueur. This is crazily alcoholic. The fruit is nice on the nose, though and it has some nice hints of grilled meat. The palate is dominated by high alcohol levels, but it also has a lot of fruit, and a surprisingly good level of acidity. It is a bit bitter, the tannins are harsh. I thought it was a bit of a risk getting 2003 Bandol, and I was not mistaken. It'll come around given an incredible amount of time in the cellar, but at the moment this is just a bit chewy.

The blog software is now upgraded and seems to be running fine. Hopefully, dear reader, you will not have any more problems accessing the site.

Chilean wine on Elitist Review? Honestly, elitism is my goal (rather than snobbery) so I'll take the best from anywhere, especially when this was a mere fifteen sheets.

EQ Pinot Noir 2006, Matetic Vineyards
It is quite dark. It has a slightly cabbagey, sour fruit nose which is typical of slightly under-baked Pinot. However, there is also a lot of quite nice berry fruit. The palate is a touch hot, and slightly tannic in an over extracted sort of way. But hey, there is fruit there, it is quite lively, we talked about it for... oh... minutes before deciding once again we prefer Tandem. That being said, it is not bad by any stretch of the imagination and I'll happily drink it.

You know, there were no wines of the month last month because I was in hospital. I took an overdose last Wednesday. I didn't do myself any long term damage, and I feel a fool for being so impulsive, but at least now my insomnia is being taken seriously.

I am upgrading to the latest version of my blog software, which requires me to move to an ASP.NET v2.0 capable server. There may be some downtime whilst this happens. Don't worry, you won't miss anything.

'Oh fancy!'-grade Beaujolais. I know some people who have raved about this wine, I hope it is nice.

Moulin-a-Vent "Chateau des Jacques" 2005, Louis Jadot
I'm surprised by how dark it is. It has quite a lot of cherry fruit on the nose, and is surprisingly oaky too. It seems quite big. The palate has some fruit, but is oddly heavy and dull. There is not enough acidity and there is really not enough tannin to make this anything over than an overblown tart of a wine. Yesterday's Tandem was better.

Hell's bells, a Moroccan wine on Elitist Review. Mind you, it is made by the gifted winemaker, and all round good fellow, Alain Graillot. Can he really make bad wine? We shall see...

Tandem Syrah 2005, Alain Graillot
It is rather dark. A nose of rich dark fruit that is really quite attractive. Nice ripeness to it, but there is also a hint of greenness. Lawks, this has been pressed until the pips squeak, it is very extracted. However, there is a lot of fruit, and the tannins are ripe enough. OK, there is not much here in the way of complexity, but for an eight note bottle of wine this has a degree of style. I am actually enjoying drinking it. Not for ageing or anything, but to drink as a random bottle of wine you cannot go far wrong.

I've wanted to try this wine for years, the Ramonets claim it is the best red wine of the Cote de Beaune. I've just never seen it for sale by the bottle anywhere until I went to a sushi restaurant in Helsinki: it had to be purchased.

Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge Premier Cru Clos Saint Jean 2004, Domaine Ramonet
The nose has a great purity of fruit and real elegance, this smells beautiful. There is fresh strawberry fruit there, and a real complex minerality which is similar to the minerality one would expect to find in in white Chassange. For a 2004 this smells reasonably, if not incredibly ripe. The palate is extremely refined and silky. Acidity is definitely an intregral part of this wine, but it is not overwhleming. It is quite light bodied, but there is no shortage of concentration. The tannin levels are surprisingly low, but this is not a problem. It is extremely complex with lovely flavours that really excite and thrill. Very long, too. This is an extremely good bottle of wine that emphasises elegance, purity and refinement. I don't think it is the best wine of the Cote de Beaune, but it is ranking. Whilst this will age well, it provides one hell of a lot of pleasure now. If I had another bottle I'd drink it now with someone who likes Volnay; it is very Cote de Beaune-y and I think it'd fool them. I loved it, and I would love to try it in a slightly riper vintage. If anyone knows where I can get 2005 by the bottle do spill the beans so I can snap a couple up.