Clos Vougeot Grand Cru 2001, Domaine Rene Engel: Snap up these deeply affordable and high quality wines from the late, lamented M. Engel whilst you still can. This is a great wine for the price. £59 from Hand-Picked Burgundy.

Morey Saint Denis Premier Cru Les Loups 1999, Domaine des Lambrays: A long-time favourite of mine, up for drinking with a lot of pleasure. £34 from Hand-Picked Burgundy.

Champagne Cuvee 731, Jacquesson: A top NV Champagne. Jacquesson make some damned good fizz. £28.69 from Noel Young Wines.

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg L31E 2004, Domaine Albert Boxler: It has been a couple of years since I last had this, but it is undoubtedly a top wine that anyone would be pleased to own. £25.14 from Noel Young Wines.

Pinot Blanc 'B' 2005, Domaine Albert Boxler: I admit this is reasonably expensive for a Pinot Blanc, but this hails from the Brand Grand Cru so is quite a lot more serious than your general Pinot Blanc. £14.95 from Lay and Wheeler.

Yes, it is another Sarah-Jane Selwood bowl. This is only a little one, with a very pleasing ice-crackle glaze. I am told it is called Falling Counterpoint 1. It is nice to have a good little piece again; the bloody cat broke my last ones.

An excellent bottle from the much-missed Philippe Engel. He made extremely good wines and didn't charge the earth for them.

Echezeaux Grand Cru 1999, Domaine Rene Engel
By arse this has a very perfumed nose; it smells a lot. Really stylish exotic fruit, spice and a rich earthiness. This has serious class and serious complexity on the nose, and it is very attractive too. This is a serious bottle of wine, alright. The palate is very refined, with ripe tannins, lovely, lovely exotic fruit and a rich minerality. You cannot help but be compelled by the style and charm this has in abundance. This is drinking very well now, but will easily last another decade. A really top bottle that delivers in so many ways.

This may not be the most grand of the Dujac wines I've been lucky enough to try over the past 15 or so years, but by arse we are finding one hell of a lot pleasure in this. This is a tits offering at a basic level; Alec Seysess' recommendation was spot on.

Chambolle-Musigny 2005, Dujac Fils et Pere
What a lovely nose, plenty of charming fruit and a quite attractive aroma of oak. I suppose this has not seen that much new oak, but that which it has seen has improved it greatly. I think the fruit and style are very Chambolle. I try to avoid buying Burgundy in the UK, but my mood would be lifted if I saw this on a winemerchant's shelf.

I've never really thought that Leitz wine age so well, but this is reasonably attractive. Better when it was just released, though.

Riesling Spatlese Rudesheimer Magdalenenkreuz 2002, Weingut Leitz
The nose is a tad dirty, but there is a reasonable amount of grapefruit fruit present. It smells nice enough, but is lacking dimension. Nice fruit on the palate, but again it is quite one dimensional. It is just about interesting enough to be above sub-interest, but ageing it was a waste of time. Drink them young, boys and girls.

Gentaz-Dervieux was the great old man of the Cote-Rotie. I feel privileged to have had many vintages from the 70s and 80s whilst at Oxford (many thanks to Paul Day who seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of serious vintages), and tasting this brings back all of those happy memories. 1991 is a top Cote-Rotie vintage and with a producer of this caliber one can legitimately expect style, class and vivacity. It does not disappoint.

Cote-Rotie "Cote Brune" 1991, Gentaz-Dervieux
By arse this smells good! Mature, soft fruit, pepper and rich earthiness are very strongly present on the nose which is about as beautiful and elegant as one could possibly ask of Cote-Rotie. Really complex as well. The elegance is assisted by the low relatively low alcohol, this is not one of those over-blown Cote-Roties some people make, but it is a true vision of restrained loveliness. The palate has some Cote Brune manliness to the tannins, but the main impression one gets from this is that it is a subtle, deeply refined wine that sucks you in to enjoy its manifold pleasures. And how I am enjoying them. This is a wonderful wine that is up for drinking now, it is mature yet still lively. I'm smitten.

Lawks, it has been a while since I last popped a bottle and wrote it up. I hope you forgive the hiatus.

Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru les Caillerets 2006, Marc Colin et Fils
The nose has a strong Chassagne flat-Champagne character which is most pleasing. There is some oak on the nose, but it is by no means over-whelming. Nice lemony fruit here as well. It smells really quite satisfying; a fresh, fruity, fun concoction. The palate has a nice depth of flavour, with plenty of lemony fruit and creamy minerality. The acidity is nicely balanced and lively. This is showing really well for such a young wine. OK, I admit it may be lacking a hint of complexity, but it is quite typical and for general drinking you cannot go far wrong with this.