I do love Bandol. 1997 wasn't a great vintage but I enjoyed this last time I had it and I am enjoying this now.

Bandol Cuvee Speciale la Tourtine 1997, Domaine Tempier
A lovely nose of soft fruit, grilled meat and a bit of arsehole character. This is very perfumed and has a very pleasing aroma. Nice earthy complexity there, too. This smells properly mature and up for drinking, good. The palate is quite soft, too, with good, mature fruit, a nice yielding tannic structure and satisfying earthiness. This is really quite complex, and has very good length. Perfectly mature and enjoyable. A top bottle of Bandol that restores my faith in the wonders of old Domaine Tempier.

Now I am going to be rude and turn my attention from the neighbours in order to write a quick note on this wine. It has been sitting in my cellar for just over three years as I thought, when I tried it on release, that it was interesting enough to do the experiment.

Champagne Cuvee 728, Jacquesson
Very mushroomy and biscuitty on the nose, some reasonable complexity of aromas here. Nice mousse, reasonably refined, with good flavours of toastiness and buttery fruit. Quite what buttery fruit is I don't know, but that is what it tastes like. Good length, good style too. This has not only lasted for three years but has improved. Top NV fizz!

I've just decanted the magnum of red we'll be drinking with the neighbours tonight, seems better to write a tasting note now rather than be rude when they are around and bury my nose in a computer for a few minutes.

Bandol 2000, Domaine Gros Nore en magnum
A meaty, herbal nose, like some kind of stew enriched with prunes. No arsehole character at all, but it still has a degree of complexity and a nice earthiness. I love the scented, perfumed character of the nose, it is very fragrant. The palate has a very impressive tannic structure, some mature fruit, and more of the meaty herbal character. Fruit persists on the finish, but it is not terribly long. It has a degree of style and some charm for what is a bit of a tannic beast. This is pretty good, if not great, Bandol; much better than the 2001 I had eighteen months ago.

There is a bit more to this than simply oak, but not that much more.

Chardonnay Santa Rita Hills "Sanford and Benedict Vineyard" 2004, Au Bon Climat
The nose is hellishly oaky, with hints of off milk, which isn't terribly attractive. The ripe lemon fruit is nice, though. A lot of toasty, vanilla oak on the palate, with reasonable acidity and just hints of fruit showing past the wood. This is quite a simple wine, and it doesn't have much in the way of a finish. Vinous wallpaper.

I am sure everyone who wants to know already knows this, but Oxford won this year's blind tasting competition against Cambridge. Cheers, cheers Oxford! Moreover, an Oxford chap (Piers Barclay) won the mag of Winston 96 for getting the highest individual score. I am sure there will be wonderful pictures in next month's Decanter. Pol are great sponsors of the competition, long may their generosity continue.

This smells really lovely, an excellent vintage from this excellent producer.

Crozes-Hermitage "La Guiraude" 2005, Alain Graillot
What a nose! Luxurious ripe fruit, real earthy complexity and flashes of Crozes cheap cologne. This is a totally attractive and utterly lovely nose, and this is 'mere' Crozes, triple-tmesis-A. The palate has really nice fruit, a lovely spicy/pepper character and a refined tannic structure. It has a nice Croze-y greenness on the finish, which is really satisfying. This might be ripe, but it is perfectly balanced and very refined. And very, very stylish. Alain Graillot is a cool geezer, alright.

Recommendations are a day early this month as tomorrow I am off to l'Arnsbourg. This will be my third trip and the previous two have both been freaking amazing. It is a great restaurant.

Pommard Premier Cru Grand Clos des Epenots 2005, Domaine de Courcel: Wonderful Pommard that is a bit less heroic than the 2003 I tried recently. Excellent balance and real refinement. £41.50 from Lea and Sandeman.

2003 by Bollinger: Champagne for heros! Well, I like it. £38.30 from Berry Brothers and Rudd.

Riesling Spatlese Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr 1999, Fritz Haag: A bottle of this was popped last night, but too close to bedtime for me to have the energy to write it up. Lovely fruit, great minerality and screaming acidity all inter-twined in a beautiful whole. £13.07 from Justerini and Brooks.

The Fergus 2005, Tim Adams: I had a bottle of this a few nights ago. I admit it is reasonably heroic, but it has a lovely balance between fruit and tannin. For a Grenache dominated wine it ages very well; I've had ten year old Fergus which has been most enjoyable. £9.49 from Tesco.

Semillon 2006, Tim Adams: Yes, I have a bit of a thing for Tim Adams' wines, one of my favourite Australian producers; he sold me wine when I was under-age which marks him out as a top chap. This is a lively, reasonably oaky Semillon with a degree of complexity that makes it most pleasing. It'll hang around for a few years, too. £8.54 from Tesco.

A couple of friends came around last night to drink some wine and watch the rugby. I was really amazed we managed to over-come the evil French. Not that it was a terribly convincing performance...

2003 by Bollinger
A very ripe, fruity nose with plenty of density and Bollinger cold cocoa. The nose does smell really rather ripe and more than a little heroic. The palate had great depth of flavour, weight, plenty of fruit and real style. This was a big, corpulent Champagne, but not lacking class. It was suggested this would be a good Champagne to have with food.

Riesling Grand Cru Schlossberg "Cuvee St. Catherine" 2004, Domaine Weinbach
A lovely, charming nose of ripe citrus fruit, baked apples, minerality and, let us be honest, quite high alcohol levels. Even though it was reasonably boozy it seemed quite complex and stylish. The palate had good fruit, reasonable acid, plenty of minerality and a nice, long finish. It was terribly young, but bursting with life and energy.

Richebourg Grand Cru 1972, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti
The nose had plenty of soft, mature fruit, earth and a slightly savoury character which was vaguely reminiscent of celery salt. Incredibly complex, stylish and simply oozing class from every pore. The palate had soft tannins, a good earthy character and plenty of fruit. It also displayed the celery salt savoury character, but this was quite pleasing in this wine. It was very long and very complex. A really lovely bottle of properly mature Burgundy, top bunny!

Pommard Premier Cru les Rugiens 2003, Domaine de Courcel
A huge nose of luxuriant, sun-ripened fruit and earth with the merest seasoning of oak. There is booze there, too. A fighting wine, to be sure, but not lacking in class or style. The palate is a monster, with loads of fruit, big tannins and a very long, if slightly warm, finish, but it is really sexy, svelte and smooth. Great earthy complexity is also present. This is a bottle of undoubtedly heroic, but really classy Burgundy.

Cornas 1999, Noel Verset
Lovely fruit on the nose, a hint of stemminess too. This smells really complex and refined. I was served it blind and I thought it was Chave Hermitage. The palate was very silky and refined, with good tannins and nice, ripe fruit. Very long, with only hints of rusticity. This was a proper bottle of Cornas, alright.

Cornas 1999, Clape
Ripe and bold on the nose, with nice, refined fruit. Very classy, very complex. The palate had good tannins, worthy of Cornas but very ripe and silky. Plenty of fruit there, too. Very long, with a great earthy complexity on the finish. This was a really great bottle of Cornas, which I preferred to the Verset, but everyone else preferred that. Top kit, worthy of many more years in the cellar, even though it provided a lot of pleasure now.

I hosted a small wine tasting for the neighbours last night. My aim was to demonstrate how easy blind tasting is, and I was pleased that everybody got everything right. OK, I provided a little prompting, but not everyone has my epic experience of wine.

Chavignol "Les Culs de Beaujeu" 2004, Francois Cotat
Very mineral on the nose, with a hint of dirtiness; does he ferment in old barrels? Fresh grassiness, too. The palate was very light with good minerality and high acidity which hurt my poor, knackered stomach a bit, ouch! It was reasonably long and the minerality provided a pleasing degree of complexity. I think this would age reasonably well and make an interesting middle-aged wine. Sauvignon Blanc for ageing, who'd have thought it?

Riesling "Clos Hauserer" 2004, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht
This was also very mineral on the nose, and displayed some characters of slightly oxidative wine-making. Good baked-apple and some citrus fruit. Sweet with alcohol, but not up to the normally excessive standards of Z-H. The palate was rich with ripe fruit, had some alcohol warmth on the finish and was reasonably long. Not amazingly complex, though. It was pretty dry, but there was obviously a bit of sugar knocking about in it. A reasonable wine, but nothing spectacular.

Pinot Noir "Stermer Vineyard" 2003, Lemelson
A hot, heady nose of alcohol and ripe fruit, which was moving slightly into jamminess. There was plenty of oak present, but in a wine of this scale it didn't seem unbalanced. The palate had moderate tannin, some acidity and plenty of fruit, a veritable fruit-bomb, indeed. The general impression I got of it was of a big, smooth mouthful of fruit and alcohol. It was quite nice, but not for ageing.

Corton-Bressandes Grand Cru 2002, Domaine Chandon de Briailles
Very pale colour. A nose bursting with fresh strawberry fruit and minerality. It smelled lovely, but the palate was missing this loveliness. It had fruit and one hell of a lot of minerality, but lacked charm. The minerality was quite like white Corton and, whilst I like minerality, it dominated the palate and made it quite hard; the high acidity levels didn't help with the overall impression of toughness. Maybe this would age into something nicer, but I suspect it would always be a linear and direct wine, strong on acidity and minerality but lacking a bit of fat and charm that it would really need to give it the dimension to make it a great wine. It was also quite short, which is not a good sign for a supposedly fine wine.

If I may digress momentarily into a general rant about red Corton: I feel they are always marked by strong minerality, acid and often tough tannins. They may have complexity, but I want more than that from Burgundy, I want to be charmed. Even the venerable bottles of great vintages I have tried are generally a bit angular, spiky and lacking essential niceness. Intellectual pleasures are all very well and good, but Pinot is a lovely grape and making wines stripped of that loveliness seems to miss the point. If I want hard red wines (and I usually don't) I'll drink Claret, but making Pinot into a mineral, rapier-like weapon of austerity seems just plain bonkers to me. I love Burgundy, but I might not be buying that much Corton in the future.

Last night I was invited to a 'moustache party', this is what I wore to it:

Isn't it horrible? I looked like a member of the British National Party. Four weeks that had been congealing on my upper-lip, but last night immediately on returning from the party it was shaved off.

This is raw booze. Sometimes that is nice, but this is just a bit too fiery and far too dull.

Lirac "La Reine des Bois" 2005, Domaine de la Mordoree
Incredibly dark. A hot nose of stewed fruit, not fresh in the slightest. It has some spiciness, too, but is mostly characterised by a shit-load of alcohol. I suppose my anaesthetised nose can just detect a bit of earthiness, but I wouldn't go as far as calling this complex, oh no. The palate is very hot and sweet with alcohol, with big, gum-busting tannins and some stewed fruit. And that, I am afraid to say, is very much it. No excitement here, move along please.

I have to say I've rarely got very much pleasure out of Mordoree wines, and yet I recommended this be purchased. I may be in touch with the deep message of wine but clearly I don't always pay attention when that message is "I'm a bloody awful bottle of lighter-fluid". I blame the beast of my Id, it just wants me drunk so I behave outrageously.

I have ranted about Sarah-Jane Selwood ceramics before on this blog; OK they are not wine, but they are beautiful things. In order to reward myself for surviving a freaking awful time and a brush with death I have decided to buy myself a little piece by her. I have owned four little pieces by her but the bloody cat smashed them before we got display cabinets (the cat has a bit of a thing for Sarah-Jane Selwood ceramics). So I am going to buy myself a new little piece. Contemporary Applied Arts have got three in stock and they sent me this picture of them:

Aren't they beautiful? I really like the ice-crackle glaze (which you can just see if you click on the picture to get an enlargement). Now I just have to decide which I want. I also have to not be tempted by one of her big pieces when I go into the gallery; they are great things.

It is so nice to have a drink after being locked up for a week that I will have several. Nice to see a friend and the partner, too.

Condrieu 1992, Guigal
Mid-yellow colour, not too bad for its age. It doesn't smell that oxidised, either. It smells quite strongly of melon, but also vaguely meaty, which is a touch odd. It is quite mineral, too, which is nice, and there is a touch of obvious oak, which is surprising for a wine of this age; it must have been hellishly oaky when it was young. The palate has lots of weight, some minerality, and quite a lot of oak, but it tastes fucking horrible. The oak is completely nasty and it seems very blowsy and flabby. Guigal's wines are always too freaking oaky and rarely have good balance. OK, a 1992 Condrieu is not a fair thing to judge his wines by, but I've had enough to know that the man is an unspeakable swine who does horrible things to lovely grapes. This one, for the record, is utterly vile.

Riesling Auslese Brauneberger-Juffer Sonnenuhr 2000, Fritz Haag
Greeny-yellow colour. Lovely slatey nose, very mineral. Great fruit, too, citrus and some peach. This smells quite ripe and is hilariously complex. What a lovely nose, to summarise. The palate has incredible harmony, taut linearity with good sweetness and incredible minerality. This is really beautiful, very long, oozing with style and bursting with class. Really a damned-good bottle of wine.

Saint-Aubin Premier Cru Sous la Roche Dumay 2004, Jean-Marc Boillot
Fuck me this has an oaky nose, I wasn't quite expecting that. Smells a bit hot, but there is minerality and baby vomit there too; this is real white Burgundy. The palate is hellishly oaky, too. Lawks, this isn't really in balance, the acidity is a quite harsh and the oak is really quite frightening. Some minerality, but really not that complex. I have been impressed by Jean-Marc Boillot's minor wines in the past, but I am not sure that I really like this.

Cahors Cuvee Reservee de l'Aieul 1995, Chateau Eugenie
Bloody hell, what is this nose? It smells of horse-shit, coriander and vomit. Liquorice, too, and a freshly-used lawn-mower. It may be really expressive on the nose, but it smells shamefully bad. After the horrific excitement of the nose the palate is almost dull. There is a metallic character to it, and a lot of acidity, but no fruit, nothing nice, almost nothing nasty too. I've been presented this blind as a 'comedy wine', I don't see anything funny about it.

Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Pruliers 1993, Gouges
A beguiling nose of meatiness, soft red fruit and earth. This is seriously complex. I love its rich, soil character, and the fruit, too, and also the complexity. Yum. The palate is really tannic, but bursting with totally lovely flavours. This may be masculine, but it is a real charmer; a charismatic body-builder. Very long, real style, great length. This is freaking triple-A. I've been told this is a 'food wine', but that is a concept I detest.

Cote Rotie 1997, Bernard Burgaud
Another wine presented blind. A very fragrant, giving, easy nose of dark fruit and spice. Northern Rhone Syrah, probably Cote Rotie, I'd guess. Nice style to the nose. The palate doesn't quite have the fruit that is showing on the nose, but it has a great texture. The tannins are noble, but quite ripe and silky. It has a really good earthy character. This is really lovely. Burgaud? Really tits wine, from a proper vintage. 1998. Ah, I was so close.

Many thanks to those of you who have sent me messages of support over the past few days. I am now out of the bin and feeling a lot better. I celebrate freedom tonight with a small gathering that include will the tasting of at least one completely hilarious wine.

I am sorry to say there will be no tasting notes for the next period of time; I have been locked up in the loony bin. It is not a nice place, I have to say, but at least I am safe. It would be greatly improved if they had a decent Burgundy list...