We started with a Rosé champagne (Rosé de Saignée). Regis Fliniaux is a very small grower in Ay with just over two hectares in production, of which almost three quarters are Pinot Noir. His Rosé Brut is a Saignée of 100% Pinot Noir. There's also an oaked version (Brut Rosé Fut de Chêne), but I found the unoaked version to be more fitting as an apéritif and later for dessert, which was vanilla ice cream with fresh raspberries. This went very well with the dessert. It's not the most complex Rosé Champagne, but really quite good.

For the coq au vin, we started with 1993 Mongeard-Mugneret Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru Aux Boudots. I should have pulled the bottle from the shelf earlier since it still seemed to have a little sediment in it (the colour was quite cloudy). It was very good to drink though, especially with some air time. We then continued with 1996 Robert Sirugue Vosne-Romanée, my last bottle out of five. While I was a big fand of Sirugue's 1997 Vosne-Romanée and Chambolle-Musigny "Les Mombies", I never really got warm with the 1996 VR, which was always a bit too sour and edgy for my taste. This last bottle was quite good though and I wished I still had one bottle to look into in another year. We then finished with the 2004 Jean-Marc & Hughues Pavelot Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru Les Vergelesses, which was a bit young still, but already decent to drink. I picked up some green notes, which were just agreeable though. The very earthy character of the wine needed some getting used to, but it really drank quite well.