We went out shopping today and with only moderate arm-twisting the partner purchased a truly, truly beautiful thing. It is a Sarah-Jane Selwood bowl and looks like this (click for enlargements):

 

We now own nine pieces by her and this is one of the most beautiful. I love it. It is really suggestive. If you want to pick up a piece by her I suggest you go to Contemporary Applied Arts.

I hosted a wine tasting last night, people didn't get as many right as I had hoped. Mind you, tasting Champagne is always really foxy, especially when, like these wines, they had a bit of cellar age on them. I had aged all three for three and a half years since I purchased them. The Cornas were both damned good.

Champagne Grand Siecle, Larent-Perrier
A lovely, polished complex nose, smells a bit of fishy Pinot and tinny, but mainly rich, complex, stylish aromas. This is a lot better than when it was fresh from the shelf. The palate was very complex and smooth, with a fine mousse and a good, long finish. This was quite delicious, well worth the £35 it cost.

Champagne Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Brut, Billecart-Salmon
Quite anonymous on the nose. There is not much there apart from a bit of egg and toast. Age has made this less expressive; weird. The palate was very direct and linear, with a good creamy minerality and lots of nice fruit on the finish. However, it was a touch direct. I found it a bit hard work on the old stomach for not much reward.

Champagne Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru, Egly-Ouriet
Oh this is so difficult. Really hard. You see, the thing is every Egly-Ouriet wine I've had I've hated so I have sort of decided I hate Egly-Ouriet, yet this wine was truly excellent. It had a dense nose of red fruit and rich soiliness. Yet it still seemed very light and refined on the nose. Lovely complex flavours here. The palate had real weight, plenty of fruit, but great acidity and vivacity. The finish had a touch of meat about it, but the acidity and minerality were also present making this a lively, exciting wine. I am sure a bit of age helped it. This was quite delicious. Shame the wine is so expensive these days. Still, the only Egly-Ouriet wine I can recommend (up until now).

Cornas 1998, Clape
A lovely, herbal, meaty nose which strangely has a hint of arseholes about it. There is a hint of greenness, but loads and loads of lovely ripe fruit. A good grind of pepper is in there. It is extremely complex and not lacking any style. The palate has a huge tannic structure, interlaced with herbal pepperiness and masses of dark fruit. Very complex, but a tad angular. Great length, with real complexity on the finish. Quite delicious.

Cornas "Domaine de Rochepertuis" 1998, Jean Lionnet
Wow, what a nose! Silky, sexy ripe fruit, earth, pepper and bags of class. This smells polished and hedonistic. Real class here, and yet it is very Cornas. The palate has a lot of tannin, but it is very ripe and integrates with the bags of lovely, lovely fruit very well. Many flavours seemlessly play across your palate as you taste this. Not as angular as the Clape, but I suppose some pedants may not find this Cornasy enough. Excellent, up for drinking now over the next seven years.

It had been playing on my mind as to which Cornas would be better. Votes at the tasting were two each leaving me with the deciding vote. I have to say I lean toward the Lionnet. It just has a bit more class and style. Don't get me wrong I loved the Clape and thought it worth every penny, but the Lionnet is just a bit sexier. Half the price, too, not that these things matter so much on Elitist Review...

Riesling Auslese GoldKap Wehlener Sonnenuhr 1997, J. J. Prum: The 1996 was marvellous, why not step up a quality level and go for a better vintage too. £48 from Fine and Rare Wines.

Cornas Domaine de Rochepertuis 1999, Jean Lionnet: Proper Cornas that is silky and beautiful, tomorrow I'll be having the 1998. £23.45 from Jeroboams.

Shiraz by Farr 2004, Gary Farr: He made one of my favourite Australian Shirazes at Bannockburn, this is his personal effort. He's made wine with Alain Graillot, what more could one ask? £18.95 from Tannners.

Pinot Noir by Farr 2004, Gary Farr: He has made some great vintages in Burgundy so his Pinot credentials are spotless. I'm just about to order some of this. £18.95 from Tanners.

Chablis Premier Cru Montee de Tonnerre 2005, Louis Michel: A more minor 2005 was lovely recently, trade up to a serious Premier Cru. £16.17 from Howard Ripley.

How can I possibly describe a wine this good? For the record this cost me twelve quid on release.

Riesling Auslese Wehlener Sonnenuhr 1996, Joh. Jos Prum
An intense nose of gravel and thick grease. It is intensely limey and petrolly and positively bursting with stoney life. This is the ballerina's bits. Rude bits, at that. The complexity and god-damned style on the nose are simply awe-inspiring. The palate is light, beautifully elegant and refined, fizzing with limey, stomach-scalding acid. The sweetness is truly delicious and together with the acid and minerality this makes for an incredibly mouth-watering, moreish drink. I mean, I've had some seriously nips wine in my life and this is a memorably ranking bottle. Up for drinking now but will provide pleasure for decades if you treat it with the loving attention it deserves. I've got a bottle left; sometimes life is pretty good.

It was a bottle of Louis Michel that first convinced me that Chablis can be great. His Grand Crus are entities of intensity. This is lovely bottle.

Chablis Premier Cru Vaillons 2005, Louis Michel
This has a very steely nose with plenty of nuttiness, it is really pure and focused. The minerality is really pleasing. The fruit on the nose is strangely peary, which is really quite attractive. No oak here, this is pure, unadulterated Chablis action, and very pleasing that is too. The palate is really light and refined, but not short of concentration. It has good lemony fruit and and excellent minerality to it. This is a totally refreshing, stylish little number that completely charms. It bursts with vivacity. The minerality shows strongly on the finish which is really quite long. This is providing really quite a lot of pleasure to drink now but it has the depth of character and balance to age into something even more beautiful. Louis Michel makes excellent wines (and this is certainly one of them) that don't cost the earth. Well worth looking out for.

More Cornas, hooray! This one is from the grand-daddy of the appellation.

Cornas 2000, Noel Verset
Very stemmy on the nose, greenness with matchbox wood. There is a bit of sulphur about this. This sounds far worse than the wine actually is, though. It does smell typical and not short of style. There is a nice bitter cherry fruit to it. Proper Cornas tannins, slightly green and abrasive. Good acidity too, but this only adds to the fresh, bright fruit which is very pleasing. Good length. OK, this is a bit angular, but it is very good.

I'm back drinking, hooray! I've slept for the last two nights and I haven't thrown up in two days. This is excellent news, which together with the vast quantities of happy drugs I've been given have all worked together to put a big smile on my face.

Sadly this is the last vintage of Domaine de Rochepertuis; it is an excellent wine and it will be greatly missed. I have one bottle of the 1998 left, which will be opened soon. Eleven of the 2005 to go...

Cornas Domaine de Rochepertuis 2005, Jean Lionnet
A great, perfumed, scented nose of red fruit, earth and there is a hint of something floral about it. It is properly ripe on the nose, but the alcohol is completely in balance and there is nary a hint of jamminess to the lovely ripe fruit. This smells delicious, really complex and stylish. The palate is really ripe, with lovely fruit and a silky, stylish tannic structure. It is very polished and svelte, even though the tannins are definitely present and reasonably Cornas-y. The acidity is really quite good for such a ripe vintage. There is a bit of Syrah pepper there which is really nice. It is quite long, with a lot of different flavours on the finish which all integrate seemlessly into an exciting combination. This is very young, but it is a completely tits bottle of Cornas. I love it. This will age and age. With a damned good cellar this will be providing pleasure when it is twenty.

Well, we'll be eating steak tartare, and drinking all that is listed below.

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Clavoillon 2001, Domaine Leflaive
This smells really toasty, with round, buxom lemony fruit there. It is really creamy and mineral. Smells, perfectly balanced between youth and maturity. The palate is really fat and full-bodied, but has great fruit and lovely acidity. The balance is simply superb. It is incredibly complex, really long and screaming with style. This is tests-good white Burgundy, really excellent.

Riesling Auslese Bernkasteler Doctor 1996, Dr. Thanisch (Erben-Thanisch) Auction Wine
Dead, bereft of life it rests in peace. If I hadn't pulled its cork it would be pushing up the daisies.

Riesling "Polish Hill" 2006, Grosset
Well, I like it.

Vosne-Romanee Premier Cru les Malconsorts 2005, Hudelot-Noellat
A lovely nose of spicy fruit and earthiness, it is multi-dimensonal and terribly interesting. The fruit is really tasty and there is real exotic class. The palate is very silky and svelte with layers of intense fruit which is really lovely. There is soily richness and real depth of character. This is a really excellent bottle of very young Burgundy, but hey, sometimes very young Burgundy is a lovely thing.

Chateau Montrose 1999
Fuck me, it is fucking claret. I fucking hate fucking claret. It smells of dirty cedarwood, like some tired out old fart. The palate is hard and dry, with a lot of nasty, astringent tannins. This is positively vile. I hate it.

Hermitage 1997, Domaine Jean-Louis Chave
A truly amazing nose of dark fruit, undergrowth, earth, pepper and probably many other things if I wanted to write a note like Robert Parker. This smells divine, complex and classy, refined and completely lovely. Quite forward and ready to be tackled. The palate has a very silky, very refined tannic structure, interlaced with lovely, lovely fruit. Ir is perfectly balanced and all the flavours are really harmonious. This is really delicious, completely fantastic, wow

This is a rant about art. More specifically, people's reaction to art. Now this is something that gets me very irritated but I shall try and keep this brief as it is not about wine.

We own a couple of display cases with ceramics on them. One has Sarah-Jane Selwood stuff in it:

 

Look at that stuff, really top bunny. The other display case has work by a variety of ceramicists in it:

From time to time we will score a new piece and when someone visits I will invariably whip it out to show them. Normally this will generate the response, "What is it for?"

We also have a new object d'art sitting on the wall in the hall. It is a metal construction:

When I show people this they say, "What is it supposed to be?"*

Now, these responses make me worry about the people I know. Are the people I like so utterly functional and devoid of feeling that they think everything has to have a use and everything has to be representational. Everything you buy doesn't have to have a specific purpose, unless you count 'pleasing you' as a purpose. Similarly, everything that doesn't have a use doesn't have to be a china representation of a dog but instead can be a form that pleases you. That is enough of a form or a use, that it makes you happy; if that is true all is well.

*I find this question so depressing I've been trying to answer it as facetiously as possible, this object is normally termed a 'wall minge'.

Burgundy for heroes!

Gevrey-Chambertin "Mes Favorites Vieilles Vignes" 2005, Domaine Alain Burguet
A lovely, expressive nose of ripe black cherry fruit, smells divine. No distracting wood, this is pure fruit and Gevrey class. The palate has big tannins, and quite high acidity, but lovely fruit and real style. It is very long. This is a glass of class, manly class for sure, but class.

Heavy petrol action here.

Riesling Spatlese Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr 1999, Fritz Haag
Lots of petrol on the nose, also one hell of a lot of lemon/citrus fruit. This is lovely, but the addition of the slatey minerality makes this wine very satisfying on the nose. Cripes the palate is delicious. The intellectual tension between the acidity, fruity sweetness and minerality is freaking thrilling, man. Seriously complex, incredibly long, oozing charm and personality, this is a top bunny wine double-plus.

The wine is delicious, though. My first taste of one of the Chavy son's wines after Gerard died a few years ago.

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru les Pucelles 2005, Domaine Alain Chavy
A detailed, intense nose of stone and fruit. It smells a tad green. There is refreshingly little oak there, but what oak character there is is a tad smoky. This smells a precise wine, of distinct flavours and undoubted youth. The palate has density and real concentration of flavours with lovely ripe lemon fruit. It has great minerality which really persists on the finish which is pleasingly, but not incredibly, long. The one problem with this otherwise beautiful wine is that it is a bit acidic. This is not too much of a problem, though, as the overall impression of the wine is that it is most satisfying with enough of a personality to make this in possession of that laudable property, namely being interesting and thought-provoking. I feel this is frighteningly young, and will be much better in five to ten years time.

It is true. I like some of the Chardonnays and Semillons, but Riesling is where it is at and Grosset is the address to go to in Australia.

Riesling "Polish Hill" 2006, Grosset
A very pure, direct nose of lime fruit, with a rich gravelly undercurrent. This smells like it'll hurt my stomach, but pain can be good. It is a stellar bundle of intensity on the nose. Yes, the palate is very acidic, but the fruit is lovely as is its minerality. This is really shows quite a lot of complex for such a tightly-wound ball of brilliance. Ouch... ow... ow... it does hurt my stomach a lot, but I will be drinking more of this because this is a bottle of really top bunny Riesling. I bet it'll age a treat as well. A bargain at a shade under fifteen sheets.

This wine has had a lot of skin contact. Very different to the Fevre les Clos 05 I had in December.

Chablis Grand Cru les Clos 2005, J-P & B Droin
This smells very fresh and green, but with a good depth of lemony fruit and a pleasing play-dough minerality. There is the merest hint of oakiness, but that is just fine. The palate has density, but is really very acidic. There is also more than a hint of astrigency there, which is a bit odd. There is more than a degree of confusion about the palate, the flavours don't quite seem to work terribly well together. It is not bad, but the Fevre was a lot better.

Much is talked about premature oxidation of white Burgundy, this doesn't suffer from that in the slightest.

Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Clos de la Mouchere 2001, Jean Boillot
A lovely, nutty, buttery nose with nice ripe lemon fruit and a good mineral tang. This smells fresh and lovely, pretty god-damned complex too. The nose is a sleek charmer of pronounced beauty. The palate is very fresh, with concentrated flavours, good acidity, nice fruit and a really satisfying mineral character on the finish. It has weight and density as well, but these don't detract from its racy excitement. The finish is just great, nice and long with really detailed flavours of fruit and minerality. This could easily age for longer, but is quite a bundle full of joy now. Excellent stuff.