I have a bit of a thing for Lafon’s red wines; they may be bigger and more generally voluptuous than type-Volnay but they are quite lovely: I’d go with ‘callipygian’ as a stylistic descriptor. This is probably the biggest Volnay of the vintage. For those who don’t know, Volnay-Santenots-du-Milieu may be classified as a Volnay Premier Cru, but the vineyard itself is over the Meursault-side of the border.

Volnay-Santenots-du-Milieu 1997, Domaines des Comtes Lafon
There is one hell of a lot of fresh, ripe strawberry fruit to the nose; very Cote de Beaune-y. This smells really rather fresh for a 12 year old wine. It is bigger and rounder than a standard Volnay nose, and even by the fruit-driven standards of 1997 Burgundy this is berry-tastic. Very ripe and attractive but not short of complexity thanks to its stony, mineral edge. I’m really enjoying having a good smell of this, it is quite delicious; I bet I’ll love tasting it too. I do! Now that tastes really sexy. Ripe, round, sweet strawberry fruit is there in abundance and it fills your palate with a complex, svelte collection of flavours. Oh yeah. It may be rather ‘tits out for the boys’ but they are a beautiful, sculpted set of bouncers that you just want to cuddle up to and enjoy for as long as you are allowed access. This is providing as much pleasure as it ever will, so if you have some just dive on in and have a good feel of that round loveliness.

Following conversations with Jeremy about concerns with these big Alsace Riesling's ageing profile, we thought it might be wisest to enjoy them as they pulse with bursting youth. I will never forget this wine.

Riesling Grand Cru Sommerberg Vendanges Tardives 'Cuvee Zacharie' 2004, Albert Boxler
This is being drank at cellar temperature and at this slight chill the nose undulates with fine, focused, freaking beautiful aromas. It is a vibrant expression of the vineyard aroma, concentrated through the late-harvest Riesling characters. This, oh yes, this is a surgingly good nose. For all its thrusting focus, penetrating purity and fruity, fancy finesse it explodes with complex, compelling rich, totally charming fruit. How can I possibly describe this palate of total sexy and intellectual hedonism? It has incredible, spell-binding acidity, amazing candied fruit and screaming minerality of consciousness-expanding brilliance. The complexity and length are twisting my mind with their beauty. Drink it now, boys and girls, but only share the bottle with your most appreciative of friends.

All of us Northern Rhone old hands will think of Jaboulet or Graillot when it comes to Crozes-Hermitage (Chapoutier are crap, obviously): these days we should also think of Domaine du Colombier. His wines are very expressive and merit serious consideration.

Crozes-Hermitage ‘Cuvee Gaby’ 2007, Domaine du Colombier
The nose is quite unfeasibly peppery, both the green (bell) and ground kinds. It is very earthy. As I suggested with the 05 Hermitage recently, Colombier wines tend toward the reductive when young, and this has hints of that beetrooty character. There is plenty of fruit, though, and it is a really earthy, mineral bugger. With a bit of a swirl in your glass this shows itself to be really expressive and complex, a classy Crozes alright. The palate has dark fruit and pepper, with good, ripe tannins and a sophisticated earthiness. This is one of the most buttock-bitingly delicious Crozes I’ve had in a while: complex, interesting and with bags of character. Lovely now, especially with serious decanting action, but probably best in 5-7 years or so.

As an aside, I am really taken with Domaine du Colombier wines in recent years. The basic Crozes is a fun drink, Cuvee Gaby is a properly serious, age-worthy Crozes of class and distinction and the Hermitage is throbbingly intense and stylish. These are the kind of Northern Rhone wines we want to drink, and they are not too expensive either.

2005 was clearly a very ripe vintage in Burgundy; this example is certainly chock-full of fleshy fruit. Given my unabashed love of Morey I find myself liking this quite a lot.

Morey-Saint-Denis Premier Cru les Faconnieres 2005, Lignier-Michelot
A dense, ripe nose with layers of fleshy fruit. Indeed, the fruit is like some ultra-concentrated liqueur so intense is it on the nose. Not pretty or light, but voluptuous, buxom and charming. And there is a lot of charm to this wine. The palate has more of that fleshy fruit and a pleasingly ripe tannic structure. There is also a reasonable degree of acidity keeping it fresh. The balance on the palate is really quite good, and even if this is not a super-complex premier cru it is undoubtedly a fun, frolicsome mouthful. Burgundy is all about having fun, isn’t it? Showing most attractively now but there is enough to this to merit it probably deserving more time in the cellar.

We are aware that Cabernet Sauvignon is rubbish apart from those made by a select handful of people (Diana Seysses (at Snowden in California), Tim Adams and Mr Moss Wood), so how about Cabernet Franc? I've had some good CabFranc wines before, but never one claiming to be 15% as this does. It certainly is ripe.

Chinon 'Clos de l'Echo' 2005, Couly-Dutheil
Hell's bells, it is quite dark. The nose is amazingly ripe, with lots of sweet fruit and alcohol richness. There is some green pepper ('bell peppers' to our US friends) on the nose, with mere hints of leafiness. It is a boozy tart of a nose. The palate is ripe and polished, with a hint of spikiness to the tannins and slight acidity. It is reasonably charming, but not that long and sadly it seems to lack complexity. It doesn't seem overblown, but just a rather simple. Nice to finally get to try this wine, especially in such a flattering vintage, but I don't feel the need to buy it again.

If I may add a postscript we had a bottle of Tim Adams The Fergus after this; this is also a large scale wine. It made the Chinon look monolithic, boring and dull. So interesting things are more interesting than boring things even when they contain so much alcohol you could light them.

Jean-Laurent ‘Le Homme’ Vacheron makes brilliant Sancerre in both colours. This was certainly up to his very high standards, but I feel it was not showing its best. A few more years and this should be most interesting.

Sancerre Rouge ‘La Belle Dame’ 2005, Domaine Vacheron
The nose is a bit subdued, but there is some good fruit there. The flinty, smoky minerality is most intriguing, this positively reeks of Sancerre. The palate has a reasonable amount of fruit, and some grassy, green acidity which is most Sancerre in character. It is not as expressive as it could be, I feel. Pinot Noir can go through a closed patch in its middle age and I feel this is what is happening here. I am enjoying this a lot, but with some more age it should be a even more fun.

I remember, many years ago, an Austrian wine tasting in which Gruner Veltliner was compared to Chardonnay from other countries. I didn't think that it was really a reasonable comparison, as I thought GruV had more in common with Riesling. When I try this wine I am not so sure I was right.

Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Loibner Berg 2001, FX Pichler
A dense, deep nose with some white pepper, but lots of lemony fruit. It has the roundness of Chardonnay, the fruit too. It is certainly very mineral, and you've got to love its vivacity. This is a seriously complex, compelling nose of great style and class. It reaches the heady level of being interesting and thought-provoking. The palate has plenty of weight as well, but it is rather elegant. The fruit is lemony and, once again, it is quite white peppery. This has real interest. Even though ageing it has not changed it so much, the change is a improvement. This is one of the best GruVs I've had since I was regularly drinking with my chum Gernot. This is good. Damned-good.

Dan, Non-Stinky Jeff, the partner and I dined at Hawksmoor earlier. It is a brilliant place to eat and on Mondays they charge a fiver corkage if you want to take your own wines along. We did. Some bloody good wines if I say so myself.

Chambolle-Musigny 2006, Dujac Fils et Pere
The nose is very fragrant and attractive. A lot of fruit here that is very pure and refined. This smells absolutely lovely. The palate is smooth with fine, ripe tannins and a good acidic backbone. Plenty more of that fruit here. This is open and bursting with life, ready for you to dive in and enjoy all of its loveliness. A very good bottle of Chambolle which just begs to tickle your fancy.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1998, Chateau de Beaucastel
A highly scented, perfumed nose of grilled meat, dark, ripe fruit and the merest hint of sheep shit. There is also a strong herbal character as well. Mourvedre-based wines like this can smell so complex and interesting, this is no exception. Sure, the palate is quite a mouthful, but it is surprisingly elegant, with a lot of fruit and fine tannins. Throbbing with complexity, too. This is drinking fabulously well now and providing one hell of a lot of pleasure. It’ll keep for many more years, though, if you want to wait. I decanted this two hours before we drank it and this was a good thing to do.

Chateauneuf-du-Pape 1998, Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe
Ah, the different styles of Chateauneuf. This is more fruit-driven than the Beaucastel: lots of soft, ripe plums. Very earthy, too. This is quite a large-scale nose, not refined but bursting with fun and fruit. There are big but ripe tannins on the fruit and more of that soft, plummy fruit. It is pretty complex, though. Delivers plenty of pleasure, and again is quite up for drinking.

Shiraz Clare Valley 2005, Tim Adams
Bang! A serious fruit-bomb on the nose, with some leather and sweaty saddle characteristics. It is big. Very big. The palate is also huge, with massive amounts of fruit, and lots of ripe tannins. There is plenty of oak here. This is a big, broad, crowd-pleaser of a wine, you can see people smile when they smell and taste this. Sure, it may not be the world’s most complex wine, but there is still much to enjoy here.

Earlier tonight we ate reasonably well and had some truly mind-bendingly good wines. This is what life is all about. One wine, however, disappointed. Shame, Olivier Humbrecht, shame!

Brut Chardonnay 1996, Pol Roger
A wonderful, dense nose of bread and digestive biscuits. Very complex, and just beginning to show a reasonable degree of maturity. That being said, I think this wine will hang around for a while yet. There are layers of fun, frolicsome entertainment on the palate which we just lapped up. This is drinking really well now but I don’t see keeping it for a few years longer doing it any harm at all. A really great blanc de blancs which would charm the most jaded Champagne drinker and positively entertain those who are less jaded.

Riesling Clos Windsbuhl Vendanges Tardives 2000, Domaine Zind-Humbrecht
A vaguely pleasing nose of petrol and citrus, it seems surprisingly one-dimensional, though. Surely there should be fireworks here rather than boredom, don’t you think? Oh dear, the palate is even more flat and lifeless. Sure, there is  some sweetness and quite a bit of acidity, but not much more than that. When this was young it exploded with life and flavour, now it just seems like vinous wallpaper. There is nothing here to compel the lover of fine things. I find myself feeing quite bored and vaguely vexed that I bothered ageing this, and downright despondent that I paid for it. The ZH flame gets even dimmer for me after trying this.

Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru ‘Clos des Ruchottes’ 2001, Domaine Rousseau
I used to be brilliant at getting this wine right when blind tasting, I can see why: it has personality. The fruit is very distinctive in quality: ripe yet pure and refined. Quite lovely, too. The fruit/acid balance on the palate is very attractive and the whole experience of this wine draws you in to drink more. Once you’ve tasted it you want more alright. Don’t we all want more wines like this? Wines with great fruit, bags of personality and style? Tickled my fancy, a top class bottle of Burgundy.

Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru les Cras 1999, Domaine G. Roumier
I last had this in Oxford many years ago with my chums James and Gernot; great memories, eh chaps? I loved it then and tonight it delivered much the same pleasure in a slightly more mature manner. It is clearly Chambolle, but really quite ripe and dense Chambolle. There is a lot of high-class action as far as the fruit is concerned, a depth of ripe, rich style to it. It has layers of character that we greatly enjoyed penetrating, diving into its heady, voluptuous power and seeking out all its deliciousness. Probably needs a bit more age if we are honest, but we had a whale of time drinking this bottle tonight. If you have a few bottles you should really be keeping it.

Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Gruenchers 1999, Domaine Dujac
In the name of all that is evil and wicked, what a nose! This is totally compelling, you have to love this from when you first smell it. This is screamingly beautiful, fragrant, sensual Chambolle of the very highest order. Am I being positive enough about this wine? Probably not, my mere words cannot begin to convey how totally pleasurably this wine is. And then we get to drink it. Again, I feel inadequate to the task of describing how much I love this wine. There is beautiful fruit, perfectly balanced acidity and the most wonderful, detailed texture. I like a lot of things about this wine, but that texture does it for me: silky, svelte and sexy to the nth degree. Wow, just when things are going so well they suddenly get even better. Those Dujac kids deliver the goods once again. They always do, if we are honest.

Hermitage 2005, Domaine du Colombier
The Colombier wines often tend toward the reductive in style and this is no exception: it is quite beetrooty on the nose. However, there is also a good earthiness and plenty of blueberry fruit and, even though I think this is quite an elegant example, it is still not lacking manliness. It is Hermitage alright. The palate has pleasingly refined tannins and bucket loads of weighty fruit. There is enough complexity here to mark this as the real thing, even if it does not cost as much as Hermitage from Chave, Jaboulet or Chapoutier. I am pleased to own a couple more bottles of this which I feel easily merit the compliment of deserving more years in the cellar. This is the address the smart Hermitage buyer goes to these days.

Riesling Auslese Wehlener Sonnenuhr 1993, Joh. Jos. Prum
All that the ZH was lacking in terms of being a late-harvest Riesling this presents for enjoyment and fun. Oh yeah. Enjoyment both in a visceral but also a thobbingly intellectual manner. The fruit charms totally, the ripeness engages your senses and the acidity wakes you up and slaps you around a bit. This is a wonderful bottle of Riesling. Really wonderful. And to think some people counselled against buying the 2007 Auslese for my cellar…

I started this website four years ago with a rant and a Burgundy (what else) tasting note. Alas I have not kept count of the number of wines I have reported on, but I’d venture it has been quite a few. I hope there have been a few jokes as well.