THE FLIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
PETER TOMPKIN WINE TASTING
Thurs 19th November £48 pp
Starts at 6pm
(finishing 8:30pm for those booking cabs)
We’re going to need you to trust us on this one.
Because when Peter from Goedhuis Waddesdon sent through the line-up for our November tasting, somewhere around the words ‘2009 St-Émilion magnum’, ‘£190 Napa Cab’ and ‘20-year-old Tawny’ we stopped pretending to be sensible. This is quite a flight!
Nine wines, drawn from producers including the Hundred Acre group, Penfolds, Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite and Edmond de Rothschild, running from seriously good fizz and single-plot Chardonnay through Pinot Noir, mature claret and Napa Cabernet, before finishing with two things we suspect you’ll still be talking about the following morning.
And FOUR of them will be making their first appearance in the UK at our tasting!!
It also happens to fall rather beautifully a month before Christmas. We’re not serving Christmas dinner – absolutely nobody needs turkey in November – but if you’re wondering what to put alongside the smoked salmon, what might deserve a place next to the roast, or what on earth to drink with the Stilton, consider this useful research.
ON THE NIGHT
BALLARIN LIQUEUR DE SAUTERNES
BRUT CRÉMANT DE BORDEAUX – £22
FIRST UK POUR
Bear with us. This is Bordeaux Crémant using Château Rieussec as its dosage. Yes, that Château Rieussec. Ridiculously good value and a rather magnificent way to begin.
RIMAPERE PLOT 101 SAUVIGNON BLANC 2023 – £30
A single-plot, barrel-aged Sauvignon from Marlborough and a former Decanter Platinum medal winner and Best in Show. Sauvignon, but not quite as you know it.
AKARUA CHARDONNAY 2024 – £28
FIRST UK POUR
Only 100 cases have been allocated to the UK and, until now, none poured publicly here. A rich, single-plot Chardonnay from Central Otago. We feel rather smug about this one.
ALTAN D’AUSSIÈRES 2021 – £21
Part carbonic maceration, part traditional winemaking; smart, elegant and thoroughly modern. Peter rates this very highly, which is enough for us.
SUMMER DREAMS SUPER CHILL 2021 – £150
Pinot Noir from a tiny plot on the Sonoma Coast, with just 50 cases allocated to the UK. From the Hundred Acre family and very much not your everyday Thursday-night Pinot.
CHÂTEAU DES LAURETS BARON
PUISSEGUIN-SAINT-ÉMILION 2009 – MAGNUM £120
FIRST UK POUR
Now we’re talking. Eighty-year-old Merlot vines, a beautifully mature 2009 vintage and poured from magnum. Plush, generous claret with Christmas written all over it.
FORTUNATE SON THE DREAMER 2021 – £190
A seriously highly rated Napa Cabernet from the Hundred Acre group. A mighty 15.5%, yet remarkably soft, layered and complex. One of those bottles most of us would very much like somebody else to open first.
PENFOLDS 20 YEAR OLD GRAND TAWNY – £65
The style of wine that began the Penfolds story in 1844. Deliberately oxidised and maderised, then matured through a solera system containing wine dating back, in part, to the 1960 vintage. Christmas pudding, hard cheese, fireside… you know where we’re going with this.
NEIGE ICE CIDER – £24 / 37.5CL
FIRST UK POUR
And finally: bear with us again.
A half bottle containing the naturally cryo-extracted juice of around 80 apples, and quite possibly the best thing you’ve never thought to put beside blue cheese. This stole the show at Peter’s portfolio tasting. We intend to find out why.
So yes, it’s eclectic. No, there’s nothing vanilla here.
And, frankly, how often do you get to taste a £190 bottle, mature Bordeaux from magnum, 20-year-old Penfolds and an ice cider made from 80 frozen apples in one sitting? Exactly.
