Canard Duchene - again

So you'll know by now that we like to worship at the temple of Champange, and no time seems more fitting than the beginning of the weekend.

Majestic have before supplied us with this vintage lovely at a price that makes it not too extravagant to have proper fizz on a Friday. The Yorkshire lass and I bumped into some friends visiting the Huddersfield Food and Drink Festival, and we enjoyed a couple of pints with them, before heading up the hill to cook tonight's paella, and open this bottle as a treat.

I've written before about the VFM of this wine, and nothing has changed in the interim. There's sweetness to make it aperitif-tastic, and it really gets the palate going. We're about to eat, so I'll sign off with a big thumbs up. Auzells in the fridge for afters. :)

Booth's Burgundy

This weekend we have been camping in the lakes; we had a great time, the weather was good, had good company and visited the excellent Staveley beer festival. But, no trip to the lakes would be complete without a trip to Booth's.  Whist being a most excellent supermarket for Pies and the like (which pleases the Yorkshire Lass no end), it also has an interesting and inspiring wine aisle.  Always worth a visit.

This weekend we picked up this (amongst others), due to the discounting.

Name                Chambolle-Musigny
Vintage             2004
Country             France
Region              Chambolle-Musigny, Burgundy
Grape               Pinot Noir
Maker               Domaine Digioia Royer
% Alc                13%
Price                 £15.73 (reduced from 23.48)
Source              Booths

An initial look indicates that it is quite purple for its age, probably a good sign as the discounting could be due to this being over the hill.

|The nose presented a dark cherry fruit, cinnamon, like the fireballs you used to get in the sweet  shop as a kid, fennel seed, eucalyptus and a little enamel paint or metal. The scent was relatively youthful.

Once in the mouth it was quite grippy, with a woody twang, and a little liquorice, alongside all the red fruit you would expect from a Pinot Noir; pretty good and certainly interesting.  Any angular or spiky notes seemed to even out over the couple of hours the bottle was open.

But, this is where the question comes, I couldn't decide whether it needed more time to relax (time in bottle) or whether it was starting to go over the edge.  It showed some heavy woody notes (that suggests more age could help) and also some grip. I couldn't come to a conclusion if this was tannin to be softened or the over presence of the appley acid that comes with over age.

I guess I will have to let the other bottle we bought sit around for a bit and see what happens.


UPDATE - Email from Tony (Wine Manager Booths, Kirby Longsdale), Thanks

What I can tell you is that the 2004 vintage in Burgundy was a difficult one. During ripening the feisty Pinot Noir grapes were hit by hail. The PN grape is hard enough to grow and get it right at the best of times, but then to whack the bunches with lumps of ice is a bit unfair The text book definition of PN on the nose is farmyards or rotting veg ie Vegetal. As you said a woody twang. As to bottle number two I would open it sooner rather than later. Two hours before drinking. Also give it half an hour in the fridge. For my more discerning customers I suggest two or three red grapes that can be chilled down. Gamay, Negroamarno from Puglia, Tempranillo even Rhone wines. With chilling you get two flavours, the initial refreshing strawberry, then as the wine warms up in the glass you get the ripe red berry flavours.Do hope bottle number two lives up to expectation. Remember a day without wine is a day without sunshine cheers.

Nathalie - Reuilly

One mission of the cash conscious wine lover is to find wines that that deliver value for money.  One neat little trick that we have up our sleeve is to look for regions that border other well known (and well pricey) regions.  Tonight we have picked up a Reuilly, from the Loire, not a million miles away from the more well known AC of Sancerre.  Other ACs worth looking at from this little cluster include Quincy and Mentou-Salon (See Image)







Name                Nathalie
Vintage             2010
Country             France
Region              AC Reuilly
Grape               Sauvignon Blanc
Maker               Claude and Nathalie Lafond
% Alc                12.5%
Price                 £8.99
Source              Majestic

This is not your big ballsy NZ Sauvignon.  Loire whites tend to be a little more delicate and understated. This wine delivers pretty much as expected, typical Sauvignon notes of cut grass, gooseberry and maybe even some wild herbs and a bit of flint in this one. The girl can smell her best Verbena shower gel too.

This isn't anything amazing, but it is a fair price for a good wine and of a summer food friendly and elegant style of SB that is difficult to find anywhere else but the Loire; a region that keeps us going back for more.   Thanks Majestic, and cheers.

Pensionable Burgundy

Every time you get the Garratts to delve, to satisfy your desire for wines with age no one else seems to be able to supply, you take put your wine adventure into their hands.  Phil will curl his lip and suggest that it may be past it, we will usually partake, knowing his leanings towards caution, but sometimes our adventure is met with a bad un'. He who dares wins (in the majority of cases).

Name                Mercurey Clos Rochette
Vintage             1997
Country             France
Region              Burgundy
Grape               Chardonnay
Maker               Faiveley
% Alc                13%
Price                  ???
Source              Winos






Most of the time, it's a resounding victory, giving access aged wines at great prices. Tonight, a different proposition. When poured into the decanter, the signs weren't good. The cork was soggy, and the liquor in the bottle shared a hue with donkey urine. 

The Mercury it held, was past it to say the least. The perfume was woody and appley, and suggested sherry; a drink welcome in the household, but not characteristics we'd expect in a burgundy. 


Chardonnay fruit was no where to be seen, and there was masses of wax and  honey. A great wine adventure experience, no doubt. But a bottle that was at least half drunk by the drain, and not us. 


Not a good bottle of wine, but for me it is just as interesting, tasting a wine that has gone past it is a mostly rare thing these days in a world of supermarket wine shopping, where moat of the wine sold is too young.  It lets me understand the spectrum of age in wine, when a wine is too young, when it is just about there, and in this case when too old.