We paid a visit to Oxford yesterday where we ate a truly marvelous chicken. Was nice to see the family. We drank well, too.

Morey-Saint-Denis Premier Cru les Ruchots 2004, Domaine Arlaud
Lovely rich, ripe fruit on the nose. Real complexity here, and very stylish. The palate was silky and smooth with great persistence of flavour. The acidity was perfectly balanced. This was a really stylish wine, and I greatly enjoyed it. Arlaud is one of the bargains of Burgundy, and damned good too.

Morey-Saint-Denis 2004, Domaine Dujac
Bright, ripe fruit on the nose. Very Morey, very stylish too. The palate was palate was perfectly ripe, with good acidity. This was very enjoyable, and drinking far better than Jeremy Seysses (the winemaker) said it would be when he rang as we opened it. Quite delicious, top villages wine.

Chablis Grand Cru les Clos 2005, Domaine Fevre
An incredibly nutty nose, smelt of hazelnuts with fresh lemon zest on them. It was very mineral too. The palate had real density, but was kept light and refined by great balancing acidity. This was a truly fine bottle of Chablis.

Meursault Premier Cru Boucheres 2000, Domaine Roulot
An utterly beautiful nose of stone, flowers and ripe lemon fruit. This was incredibly complex and really stylish. The palate was the epitome of balance and refinement, with lots of fruit, great minerality, lovely acidity and real complexity. It was incredibly long. Another wonderful bottle from Roulot, the man is a genius.

The final wine for christmas day. This one is a magnum.

Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru les Gruenchers "Vieille Vigne" 2002, Domaine Fourrier en magnum
A bright nose of fresh, ripe fruit. This smells very concentrated and very Chambolle. It has good minerality and a reasonable degree of complexity. The palate is very ripe, but has very high levels of acidity; this is a bit prickly. The fruit is nice, though, and there is a good earthy tang on the finish, which is adequately long. This just seems a bit out of balance to be a really good bottle of Burgundy, but it is certainly drinkable and quite refreshing.

Obviously nowhere near as good as the last one, but things that good cannot be drank all of the time.

Riesling Spatlese Graacher Domprobst 2006, Willi Schaefer
A lovely, zesty nose of lime, grapefruit and slate. This smells bursting with life and vivacity. The palate fizzes with acidity and bursts with life. It is quite ripe and very complex. This is a really serious wine, but it slips down a treat, too. I am really enjoying it, it will go very well with the gnocchi I am cooking in mushroom sauce.

... But, bollocks, I am going to try. This really is the cat's arse, opened to have with pan-fried foie gras

Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg Vendanges Tardives "Trie Speciale" 2004, Domaine Weinbach
Hell's bells, this has one of the most dense, livid and expressive noses I have ever encountered. I mean, man, it is mind-bendingly good. It has candied citrus fruit, incredible amounts of minerality and simply oozes high class action from every pore. This is the nun's nethers. The complexity and style are mind blowing, but the balance is simply beautiful. The palate? A delight! It is not terribly sweet, but it has mind-buggering quantities of acidity, minerality, extract, flavour and class. It has real density and yet dances across my palate like some schoolboy with an over fondness for flowery shirts. This is quite the most incredible Alsace sweetie I have had in years. I utterly love it, it is a hoopy roller-coaster ride of hallucinogenic drugs as far as mind-altering experiences go. I got the partner a bottle of this for christmas, didn't I do well? Drink now with extraordinary pleasure or age for seven to thirty years.

Many people have raved about the Bret Brothers, and only a slightly smaller number have then gone on to make a joke about their name. This many have lighter-fluid characteristics but it is proper Burgundy.

Pouilly-Vinzelles Climat "les Quarts" 2003, Bret Brothers
By all that is evil this has an alcoholic burn to the nose. That being said, there is plenty of stoniness, lots of white fruit and the slightly baby-vomit character of real white Burgundy. Distracting as the alcohol is, this is quite a pleasing nose, it smells a bit like Chablis Grand Crus. The palate also has an alcohol burn, but a lot of acidity, fruit and minerality. This is surprisingly complex, with some real length. Ultimately, I don't think this quite has the balance for ageing, but it is still a very enjoyable drink now.

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.