I’m gong on holiday tomorrow. I probably will not have regular internet access so updates will have to wait until I get back in 13 days time. And there will be reports on my return: in Alsace we are going to Boxler and Sorg then we head to Burgundy for Dujac, Mugnier, Roumier, Lambrays and Arlaud. This is where I say “Ho ho ho, that’ll be fun!”

I really like Jacquesson , they have improved greatly in recent years. The Avize Grand Cru is an amazing vintage fizz. This is a bit more ‘basic’, but it is not terribly basic.

Champagne Brut Cuvee 732, Jacquesson
A fresh, lively nose of bright, crisp fruit. Lots of apples are there, lovely English apples. I suppose this is a French wine, but those apples are Granny Smith’s (who wasn’t allowed to sell her apples until her daughter gave birth) rather than Golden (not very) Delicious. There is some biscuitty complexity present as well, which is very pleasing. The palate also has a lot of that bright, crisp apple fruit to it. It has a lovely mousse and just bursts with life. This is a really enjoyable drink, has perked me up no end. Serious pleasure in a bottle.

A few people have said I should sign up for Twitter. I know little of it, but I seem to be aware that I have more to say than it allows, and I don’t say it that often. It wouldn’t really work.

Moreover, I like to run my own sites, it is good to keep control of what you write. In view of that, I wondered if I could keep my Twitter-happy readers content if I set up my own website based on a similar idea.

Serendipitously, I found an application for my phone which would automatically upload pictures you take to an FTP server. Daniel kindly wrote a ASP.NET application which presents the pictures, and with that a photo-blog is born!

If you want to see the latest thing to interest me head over to http://whatinterests.davidstrange.net/. Descriptive URL, eh? There is also a link on the right of this page.

I find Corton to be the least satisfying Grand Cru in Burgundy.

Corton Clos du Roi Grand Cru 2004, Prince Florent de Merode
It is quite pale. No matter what else I say about it, I cannot deny there is some nice strawberry and cherry fruit on the nose. There is a hint of greenness, too. It is quite stony, but just a bit uptight and correct. Where is the love, man? There is some greenness on the palate as well, but a reasonable amount of fruit and some concentration. It is a reasonable wine, but burgundy should be lovelier than this. If I want to be really rude about it the most damning thing I feel I can say is ‘It is rather Corton-y’.

I keep thinking I should write a ‘hilarious bargains of the wine world’ post for here. Two wines that would feature near the top of that list are Manzanilla sherries from Hidalgo: La Gitana and Pasada Pastrana. Earlier we drank some of the Pasada Pastrana with dinner at Salt Yard and I was, once again, stunned by its savoury, characterful and thrilling charms. Top stuff.

Of course, Hidalgo make other sherries as well. His dry Amontillado from the same vineyard as the Manzanilla Pastrana is is a similarly classy, stylish drink. The vintage-dated Oloroso I tried at the London Wine Trade Fair a few weeks ago blew my socks off; quite delicious. Then there are the very old, dry Oloroso and Palo Cortado sherries which cost serious money but are such exciting, burning entities of intensity that you cannot help but love them.

I admit, I have a bit of a soft spot for Hidalgo sherry. The generous and charming Javier Hidalgo gave a tasting in Oxford about fifteen years ago which will forever be burnt on my memory. All those wise enough to turn up were stunned by the expressiveness of his wines and ratted after getting through the vast quantities he insisted we all drink. Lovely fellow, lovely wines.

But the fun you can have with sherry extends beyond even the mighty Javier’s offerings. Lustau have an excellent range, which includes the novel, and delicious, East India sherry. This sweet sherry is said to be the only type that will improve with age in the bottle. I have one in the cellar to test this. Pick any bottle from their range of Almacenista sherries (wines sourced from small producers) and it will be an exciting pleasure.

Valdespino also have good stuff; it was the sherry which fortified me whilst working for one particular employer. Fino Innocente is a top bunny-grade sharpener. Their Pedro Ximenez sweet sherry is one of the few wines my mother has got through a case of (OK, I helped a bit). It may have been sweet action-a-go-go, but it certainly exceeded the quality of most sugary wines in its price bracket.

The final producer I’ll mention is Gonzalez Byass. Tio Pepe is a passable drink, but some of their other stuff is properly good. The thirty year old Amontillado del Duque is a good example of the style, nice and dry. Clocking in at the same age is the Matusalem sweet Oloroso: a really stylish, complex drink. My chum Dan really loves the super-sweet Noe Pedro Ximenez, which I think is a bit too crazy to sit down and drink for any extended period of time, but you’ve got to be impressed by its wacked-out bonkers-ness.

All of these wonderful things to buy and drink, and sadly most people in this country think that sherry is either Harvey’s Bristol Cream or something from Cyprus (which it most certainly isn’t, it isn’t ‘British fortified wine’ either, am I clear? I mean this very seriously). Get out there, spend a few quid on a bottle of La Gitana, stick it in the fridge then when it is cool pop it and be perked up. If, on a warm summer’s day, you cannot enjoy something as delightful and refreshing as a good bottle of Manzanilla or Fino then there is probably something wrong with you.

Some 2007s have closed up, this isn’t one of them.

Riesling Kabinett Graacher Domprobst 2007, Willi Schaefer
This is burning with limey life on the nose with a fantastically focussed slatey minerality. This smells totally thrilling and completely delicious. There is a satisfying purity to the nose as well. Oh I like this, it speaks to me. The palate is totally refined and pure, amazing fruit, great, exciting minerality, and quite stomach-scorchingly wonderful acidity. The complexity is certainly there. For a humble kabinett this burns across my senses with style, grace and class. This is what I like.

I’ve mentioned before that I am not the biggest fan of Zind-Humbrecht wines, all too often they are booze-tastic monsters. I’ve seen them clocking in at 16.5% in the past and this is not how I like my white wines. So imagine my surprise when I saw this on a bottle of Riesling Clos Winsbuhl Vendange Tardive 2004:

9%! I’m amazed! Fermenting with natural yeasts in a cold cellar does lead to some unpredictable results. I bet it’ll be very sweet, I hope it has the acidity to match. 9% is the kind of strength you’d expect in a German Auslese, I wonder how similar in style this will be. I’ll give it a few years before I find out.

Yes, yes, it is more of those podcasts; me speaking drivel as it occurs to me. I feel audio notes are quite good to get one’s raw opinion of a wine, but the little bit of extra reflection that goes with writing way well help.

The Fergus 2006, Tim Adams
Click the bottle to play the podcast

The Fergus 2005, Tim Adams
Click here to play.

We did have a bottle of Semillon Late Harvest from Sandalyn Wilderness Estate but it was corked. Those composite corks are a bad sign, so easy to ruin your wine if you bottle it with them. So we had to pop this to finish the night.

Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos 2000, Disznoko
Quite a clean nose, not much oxidation. Even though this is not terribly typical you’ve got to love the fruit. It is really rich and apricotty. Ripe but not really that jammy. This smells pretty good. The palate is quite sweet, with subtle botrytis hints and really lovely fruit. Sweet fruit seems a unifying concept in this wine. I think we can agree that is not such a bad thing. I’ve enjoyed it, at the price you probably would too.

I seem to be in a dirty kind of mood as far as my blog titles go, suits me just fine. This does have a slightly arse character.

Bandol 2006, Domaine Tempier
Brambly, pruney fruit on the nose. Also shades of a slightly sweaty dirtiness; this we call arse-like. The nose is really impressive for a generic wine, but I suppose it hardly counts as a bargain these days. You’ve got to love the scented, herbal character of Mourvedre, which reaches its peak in Bandol. It tastes pretty freaking tannic, but there is more of that interesting, complex fruit there. As well as being complex the palate has a degree of style. You could happily age this ten years. If you open it now give it a good decanting.

In a nice way, obviously.

Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ‘Six Vineyards’ 2006, Lemelson Vineyards
OK, this is a relative booze-monster as far as Pinot Noir goes, but it has a really charming fleshy, fruity nose. There is some woody spice on the nose and it integrates just fine with the fruit. Perhaps not the most complex of noses but highly attractive. Yum. The palate has that nice fruit, but it is perhaps a shade acidic. Tannins are a bit unsophisticated. Nice in a easy drinking sort of way, and very nice in an aromatic way, but we are only moderately entertained.

OK, based on my last taste of the 97 this won’t be necrophilia, but what more can you ask from the title of a post than a suggestion of horrible sexual perversion?

Riesling Auslese Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Fuder 6 1997, Fritz Haag
A really strong nose of that complex citrus character we like to call ‘petrolly’. It is quite amazingly mineral as well. This is properly mature and really quite classy on the nose. Very attractive, but smells like it is reaching time to drink. The palate doesn’t seem that sweet, but it is. Top acidity there, pleasingly painful in my stomach; yeah! Very long, rather complex and once again properly mature on the palate. This is quite, quite lovely. I would suggest up for drinking in the next few years but over that period it will provide top bunny pleasure.

Riesling Auslese Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr 2007, Fritz Haag
Oh lovely, charming, beautiful, ripe peachy aromas of Muscat-like fruit. Yummy, yummy, yummy. This is highly attractive, anyone could smell this and instantly fall in love with it. There is more to it than that, though, it has lots of the same kind of slatey, subtly creamy minerality that the 1997 also has in spades. Super complex class on the nose. Mmmm… the palate is totally delicious. Lovely sweetness, great acidity and incredible minerality. The harmony is simply superb. Clearly a top vintage with a wonderfully happiness-inducing future in front of it. When I tried the 1997 on release many years ago I recall it having the fruit of this, but not quite the ripeness and acidity, but my memory could easily be misleading me. We have to say that this is a truly marvellous bottle of wine, though.