Steak mirabeau for dinner tonight, and with it something accessible and fruity.

Saint-Joseph "Les Royes" 2004, Domaine Courbis
A charming nose of fresh red fruit with a grind of pepper. It smells pretty simple but reasonably typical. The fruit is very nice but there really isn't that much else there. The palate has hint of Syrah spiciness, but largely it displays a lot of juicy fruit. There is some length to it, which is good. The flavours are quite simple, though. However, that is what you expect from Saint-Joseph, so I cannot really complain. It is perfectly adequate, but I feel I am going to get a bit bored with this after a couple of glasses. This ranks slightly above 'sub-interest', but not very far above that.

Oh I am sorry for that terrible pun. The wine is not as worrying as the winemaker's name suggests. This comes from the Franken region so is bottled in a novelty bottle.

Silvaner Spatlese Trocken Escherndorfer Lump 2005, Horst Sauer
A weighty, ripe nose of white fruit and creamy minerality. This smells vaguely of Chardonnay, which is a bit odd. It does have a reasonable amount of fruit, though, which is good for Silvaner. The palate has plenty of acidity, but also weight and ripeness. There is both minerality and length there, but I would not call this a terribly complex wine. It is reasonably dense and fruity, but that is about it. It is very good for a trocken wine, and very good for Silvaner, but just a bit lacking in excitement and style. I suppose it is a good novelty. Don't even begin to think about ageing this, it'll fall apart within a few years.

Back on the booze. Hooray! And it is Burgundy, what more could a chap ask for?

Morey-Saint-Denis "Clos Solon" Vieille Vigne 2001, Domaine Fourrier
Yum, this smells quite ripe and concentrated. Good cherry and strawberry fruit there, too. There is a creamy earthiness/minerality to it which is very pleasing. This is the nose of a top village wine. On the palate the tannins are refined and silky, there is lovely fruit and a real mineral complexity to the finish. The acidity level is perfectly balanced. For a village wine this has got some serious length. This will probably age for another seven years or so, but I am enjoying it quite a lot now. Good stuff.

Hooray for Burgundy! Especially good Burgundy, it is one of the nicest things there is.

Sorry I have not been posting notes of late. I have been violently ill which has made drinking wine a lot less possible. Yesterday and today I seem to be feeling a bit better so hopefully I will have an excuse to pop something good soon.

To make up for the gap I present an audio rant about Claret that I recorded when I last got particularly worked up about wines I hate. It only lasts a minute so it is not too intolerable. The audio file is here.

What with throwing up upteen times during the day and being uncontrollably insane when I am not medicated to buggery, I haven't really felt much like drinking. However, I pursuaded the partner that he should buy some of this as, along with Bannockburn Shiraz, it is undoubtedly one of my favourite Australian wines. It is more unashamedly Australian than a lot of his wines.

Shiraz "The Aberfeldy" Clare Valley 2004, Tim Adams
A rich, heady nose of ripe fruit, grilled meat, oak and (let us be honest) alcohol. It smells really complex which I have to say I find surprising in a wine so gratutioutsly Australian. Again I am surprising to find myself thinking 'delicious'. The palate is very smooth and silky, but there is one serious whack of tannin there. The tannins are very ripe and integrated. This is a seriously grown up wine, I'm going to have to stop drinking after my two tastes or I'll be violently ill. But this is not a quality comment on the wine, which is excellent. What a bargain for serious-quality Shiraz.

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.

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