Indulgence

Posted on 3 January 2011

I hope the New Year is treating you as well as it is treating me. I’ve been to a great New Year’s Eve party at a friends’ place. It was the first instance since time immemorial I wasn’t asked to provide the wines, so I relaxed and enjoyed what other people brought.

One gentleman was generous enough to contribute the Château Lafite 2001. I can tell you toasting the New Year with Lafite in lieu of Champagne is quite fun! The wine showed beautifully. It’s a really elegant red, with no hard edges and a real sense of balance. A little more forward and mature than I would’ve thought (the tannins are almost completely resolved, or at least they were after 2 hours of decanting), but concentrated with a long, long finish. It’s not remotely worth its price tag, but it’s good to drink a wine like this from time to time.

The French gentleman also brought the Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf La Reine des Bois 2001, a 100-pointer from Parker that is definitely not my style, though impressively preserved. I traded it off for an extra pour of Champagne.

The New Year is a day I celebrate with the best wine and food I can summon in my modest kitchen. Tasted throughout the day, Tarlant’s Cuvée Louis is a superlative Champagne, very powerful and structured (the acidity might be too tough for most palates). Aged in oak and the on its lees in the bottle for 8 years, this is an idiosyncratic, complex wine at the other end of the Champagne spectrum than a non-vintage Moët from the supermarket. I loved it.

You might be confused looking at the above photo. Rosé is not meant to be drunk with snow around you. But this one is special: it’s a deep, complex rosé from Provence’s Bandol. The French term it a rosé d’hiver, winter pink. It would pair well with a pheasant or such (we’ve had seafood paella). It’s incredibly well-preserved for a 2003, and although the bouquet is shy, the touch of rose petal and blood orange fruit on palate is unforgettable. Château de Pibarnon is one of my favourite estates. Drinking more French wines is my biggest New Year resolution for 2011.

We rounded off the day with some Toro Albalá Don PX 1971, a reserve sweet sherry made from the Pedro Ximénez grape. PX is a white grape, but the wine (made from sun-dried raisins) is dark as ink and thick as motor oil. Mindblowingly complex. And really inexpensive: this bottle only costs around 35€.

Disclosure

Source of wines: Lafite, Mordorée – brought by a friend’s friend, Pibarnon – sample from the importer (back in 2005), Tarlant, Toro Albalá – own purchases.