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'.