Pommard Premier Cru Rugiens 2002, de Montille: One of my favourite recent acquisitions. Top Pommard. £50 from The Wine Society.

Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Moss Wood: One of my favourite Cabernet Sauvignons (a short list, I admit). Properly structured, ripe and fun. £36.00 from The Wine Society.

Pouilly Fuisse 'Vieilles Vignes La Verchere' 2005, Domaine Daniel Barraud: Proper white Burgundy at a keen price. £17.75 from Lea and Sandeman.

Central Coast Pinot Noir 2005, Calera: A lovely US Pinot, read the note here. £16.14 from Waitrose Wine Direct.

Cabernet Merlot 'Ribbon Vale Vineyard' 2005, Moss Wood: A bargain offering that has flashes of the quality of their top Cabernet. Good stuff for the price. £14.95 from The Wine Society.

We popped a few bottles for my birthday last Saturday. It was great to have dinner and some serious wine with friends. Sadly at the end of the evening my relaxed-status was too high to permit writing too much detail about the last two wines.

'PR' 1988, Pol Roger
The last vintage of the much-missed and much-loved prestige cuvee from Pol. A complex, biscuitty nose that smells properly mature. The palate had a good depth of flavour but remained an elegant dancer of a Champagne that skipped lightly across your palate. This was really stylish and was a great treat to drink.

Vintage Brut 1996, Alfred Gratien en magnum
This seems quite youthful on the nose, plenty of fruit and a sedate seasoning of oak. Good complexity here. The palate had the power and elegance of an Aston Martin; beautiful to behold but capable of generating deep excitement.

Riesling Cuvee Frederic Emile 2002, Trimbach
Baked apple fruit on the nose, ripe with creamy minerality. There is also a vague hint of petrol on the nose. The palate has real complexity and more than a degree of rigor, serious acidity here. It has good, concentrated flavours and perfect harmony. Lovely.

Riesling Sommerberg Grand Cru 'L31D' 2002, Domaine Albert Boxler
Really ripe fruit on the nose, good citrus action with a really pronounced minerality. This smells like a really thrilling, lively drink. The palate has a good interplay between ripe fruit, acid and minerality. Excellent stuff, but I was in a minority preferring this to the CFE.

Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru les Cras 1997, Domaine G. Roumier
Ah, Christophe Roumier, his wines rarely disappoint. This had a highly attractive nose of fruit and earthy richness. Yum. The palate was really classy, with lovely ripeness, finely-balanced acidity and deeply pleasing earthiness. Really yummy++.

Chambertin Clos des Beze Grand Cru 1997, Dominique Laurent
The nose was very polished and refined, with only hints of Laurent's fabled 200% new oak treatment; I expected it to be a lot oakier. Nice cherry fruit on the nose as well. The palate was silky, svelte and smooth, with plenty of interest. I think I preferred the Roumier les Cras, and the Lambrays too, come to think of it.

Pinot Noir 'Jensen Vineyard' 2005, Calera
This was a ripe, heady, juicy smelling wine, bursting with fruit and not short on its booze-quotient. There was a reasonable earthiness to the nose, which was most pleasing. The palate was also dominated by ripe fruit. It was soft and highly attractive. A really serious Californian Pinot, I loved it.

There were a couple of other bottles popped, but I am afraid to say at this point in the proceedings I was happy to drink and enjoy them rather than think too analytically about them. Hermitage La Chapelle 1995 from Jaboulet is always a treat and the mag of Riesling Maximin Grunhäuser Abtsberg Auslese 2001 was reasonably elegant and stylish.

Many thanks to James and Katie for hosting us all and cooking a rather nice stew. It was very tasty.

Last night there was a fun-filled evening of fine wine and larks. I'll write up the wines I can remember tomorrow when I am hiding from the cleaner. Today I'll post pictures of the ceramics I was given. Firstly a large, celadon bowl made by Stanley Field:

A little stoneware vase by Ursula Mommens:

Finally a mug made by Karen Downing:

My other mag of red is Barolo, something I went through a bit of a phase of buying a few years ago. I tried enough to realise that I prefer 'new style' Barolo, rather than the dried-out, oxidised, old style wines.

Barolo 'Nei Cannubi' 1997, Luigi Einaudi en magnum
A highly perfumed, expressive nose that is floral and bursting with ripe cherry fruit. The alcohol level is a bit intense, but then so are all the rest of the aromas. The palate is freaking tannic, man, but there is a lot of fruit. It has a distinct minerality to the palate, real vineyard character. This is a large scale wine, but definitely well definied: a body-buildier with sculpted muscles. I am sure this will blossom with even more charm when the decanting works its magic. This wine would easily be improving for another ten years.

It is my birthday, so I am quickly writing up the two wines I am decanting now to drink tonight at the mass piss-up with wall-to-wall vomiting dinner. This is completely lovely.

Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru 1999, Domaine des Lambays en magnum
Ripe, fleshy, gorgious fruit on the nose; completely lovely and highly attractive. There is a real mineral complexity to it which is just great. This in on the border of maturity, it smells like it will improve over the next several years. The palate is also ripe and fleshy, with deeply pleasing soiliness and layers of charming class. This is a really serious mag of Burgundy, really great to drink now and will improve. Sadly this is my last bottle. Bums.

I've just scored a bottle of Pommard Premier Cru Rugiens 2002 from de Montille. I also have Pommard Premier Cru Clos des Epeneaux 2002 from Comte Armand, and both Premier Cru Rugiens and Premier Cru Grand Clos des Epenots both de Courcel from 2002.

Now, I find myself feeling pretty smug about having such quality Pommard that promises to provide a lot of pleasure at some future event. I do wonder, however, if there is any other 2002 Premier Cru Pommard I am missing out on*. I think not, but I'd be willing to entertain any suggestions that other people might have. And Pommard can be lovely, Jeremy, so a bottle of Cotes de Nuits red would not be an appropriate suggestion**.

*I also have Pommard Premier Cru Jarollieres 2002 from Pousse d'Or, but I doubt this will deliver the olfactory fireworks as the wines mentioned above.

**I already have a more than suitable ringer for the mass Pommard-tasting: Sancerre Rouge.

This was a great bargain direct from M. Boxler. He is a charming fellow and a truly skilled wine-maker.

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg Vendanges Tardives "Cuvee Zacharie" 2004, Domaine Albert Boxler
There is real late-harvest candied fruit on the nose, with a lovely creamy minerality. As I suggested, this smells like glue (in a nice way); at least it doesn't cause 'instant death' as sniffing glue can do. The nose is really complex and bursting with tittilating interest. The palate is for tartness freaks, given the ripeness and density of this wine it is bitch acidic, man, leaving an almost burning sensation on the finish. This is great, though, with all its weight and scale it bursts with life and excitement. This is a nipple-nibblingly good wine, how I wish I had more.

The results of my 'Best Cornas' poll are here. OK, a total of eight votes doesn't really qualify as popular acclaim, but Clape is clearly the most popular. I can understand how people would vote for his wines, much as I prefer Lionnet. A bit of a shame Noel 'Papa' Verset scored so badly.

Sealed with a glass stopper this is not going to be corked. Good, it is delicious.

Central Coast Pinot Noir 2005, Calera
Not that it means much, but this is surprisingly light in colour. The nose is bursting with attractive, fleshy Pinot fruit; lovely. OK, the alcohol does stand out a bit, it smells a somewhat warm, but there is plenty of fruit and, dare I say it, hints of earthy complexity. The palate is soft and fruity, with ripe tannins and just enough acidity to keep it lively. Again, the alcohol stands out a bit on the finish, but it is still charming. The Calera single-vineyards require age for them to show their best, no need for that with this wine. Drink and enjoy, especially as it is on sale in Waitrose.

I am a big fan of de Courcel wines, even though Yves Confuron, the wine maker, is a bit of a curmudgeon. This is particularly fine.

Pommard Premier Cru Grand Clos des Epenots 2002, Domaine de Courcel
Ah how pleasing; there are layers and layers of complex fruit and stylish minerality to the nose. It is positively oozing with class, profound aromas of completely loveliness. Yummy, scrummy. The palate is really svelte, silky and refined, with lovely ripe tannins and truly gorgeous fruit. This is really class action, utterly ravishing and completely desirable. No shortage of complexity and plenty of pleasure here. This is really pleasing now, but it has a long and glorious future ahead of it. There is a big grin slapped across my face, not only because I am loving this wine now, but also because I own a couple of magnums of this wine. Ho ho ho, I'll drink them with my friends and even Jeremy, that master of Cote de Nuits wines who claims not to like Pommard, will freaking think they are tits++.

When posting my poll of the best Cornas producers I missed out on mentioning M. Vincent Paris. Should I have included him? Read on...

Cornas "Granit 60 Vieilles Vignes" 2004, Domaine Vincent Paris
Leathery, blackcurrant, peppery aromas on the nose. There is also something vaguely floral, jasmin? It has a pleasing earthiness to it, and a good depth of character. The palate has a nice spiciness to it, pepper and cinnamon. The tannins are a bit dry, but it is not too much like hard work thanks to the old-vines concentrated fruit. It has a reasonable degree of style, but not really the class or complexity of Clape, Lionnet or Verset. It is good, but a distinctly second-rate producer.