Lunch at the Square

Elsa and I met Elaine for lunch after a mad rush from the Cotswolds in the morning. The nice leisurely lunch was a good way to unwind after the hustle. Food was good, the port that ended the meal was excellent.

• 2005 Domaine Marc Roy Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Prieur 89 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin

  A bit in your face at first, this took a little time to come round. Nose had a healthy dose of alcohol and varnish at first blush, only dying down after some time to show earth, bramble, leather and rich, sweet plums along with cherry liquer. Rather imbalanced on the palate at first also, with some heat, especially at the finish, where a wash of alcohol closed the wine off. Again, this took awhile to die down and integrate, upon which pure sweet cherries came to the fore, along with metallic mineral notes towards the finish. Good acidity lifted the otherwise rather heavy wine as well. Not bad overall.

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• 1985 Graham Porto Vintage 93 Points

  Portugal, Douro, Porto

  An absolutely lovely port, and a real treat with stilton cheese. Stunningly young though. Along with lovely spice cake, figs, raisins, toasty smoked nuts and mahogany tones on the nose, there was also a fresh dark fruit component, perhaps shading into quince preserve, that ran through the nose an into the palate. And what a palate that was too. Superb balance, lively acidity lending a great freshness, very well fruited with more of that lovely dark fruit, almost liquered, and lovely secondary characteristics of vine leaves, all in a clean, lithe package with the lushest tannins. There was a really nice expansion of fruit in the mid-palate as well, very quince-paste like flavours. Finish was nice and bright, with a linger of smokiness and prickly acidity. This still has a very long way to go, especially when compared with the 1983 and 1980, which seem miles more developed. Excellent. I would have rated this even more, if not for the fact that there seems to be a little gap, a little hidden complexity in there that will take some bottle-age to coax out. A real pleasure on the day though.

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