Several bottles in search of a 70th birthday celebration

Elegant, Touraine Brut, Château de l'Aulée 

Mainly Chenin Blanc with a little Chardonnay

Back to Tuesday 3rd October and a 70th birthday celebration. We warmed up with a bottle of Elegance, Touraine Brut from Château de l'Aulée before moving onto Jacky Blot's Triple Zéro, a firm favourite from Montlouis.   
 

Apéros over it was time for the first course a largely seasonal salad with goats' cheese, lardons and a selection of different mushrooms including cèpes and girolles. This was accompanied by a magnum of the 2009 Clos Saint André, Fiefs Vendéens from Jérémie Mourat. 100% Chenin Blanc this had the richness and soft acidity that worked very well with the salad 

With the main course a couple of plain roasted Poulet de Racan a couple of bottles of the classic 1996 Vieilles Vignes, Saumur-Champigny from Château de Villeneuve. With aged this wine has developed lovely complexity while still remaining youthful. This 1996 must surely be good for at least another 10-15 years and probably more.    

 

Back in time for the cheese with the 1961 Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Demi-Sec from Domaine Huet. Still amazingly youthful it opened out in the carafe and then in glass. I probably should have opened and decanted this several more hours in advance. Even so it was stunning – wonderfully precise with some honeyed tones.  

We finished with a rich chocolate birthday cake. The 1988 Banyuls Cuvée Francis Cantié from Domaine la Tour Vieille with its rich nutty, raisined and coffee flavours. 

Richard W H Bray: Salt & Old Vines

Richard W H Bray: Salt & Old Vines – True Tales of Winemaking in the Roussillon, unbound, £9.99, 195 pages, pbk

Richard Bray started off in the wine trade at Luvians Bottelshop in Fife, Scotland. Then worked as a head sommelier for two years and now works for Swig as well as Luvians. In 2008 he did his first vintage down in the Roussillon in the steep and unforgiving vineyards of Banyuls and Collioure. 

This is a lively and very readable insider’s account of what working a vintage is really like. Certainly recommended.