The Bucks Head Godden Green Kent

This is one of my favourite pubs. It is situated next to the National Trust property of Knole Park in Sevenoaks. My wife I  often walk here across the Park on a Saturday for lunch when the pub is not so crowded. You have to book on a Sunday.

The pub has a number of qualities which we both like. It has welcoming hosts and bar staff who treat you as friends rather than customers. The drinkers are a convivial mixture of local people and visitors of all ages. We have never  met anyone who has been drunk, boring or aggressive. The food, drink and service are excellent.There is no intrusive music or the clanging of one armed bandits. There is also a garden at the rear and a patio at the front.

It is a good place for family and friends to meet and just talk to one another.


I am a lover of Shepherd Neame cask conditioned beers. Last weekend I tried Kent's Best Bitter Invicta.
The beer, like all the others here,  was in perfect condition. The Landlord certainly knows how to look after it and it was served at the perfect temperature.

The ale was a crystal clear amber colour. It smelt fresh and clean. The taste was very similar to the nose: hops, nuts, fruit and the savoury taste of yeast and malt. Any sweetness was well balanced by the bitterness typical of this type of beer. The beer is perfectly described by a beer expert on the website below.

We dined on wild rabbit casserole sourced from the Weald of Kent. I have not eaten wild rabbit for a very long time. It was delicious and well flavoured and spiced with bacon, wine , tomatoes and cloves. It tasted as if my wife or her sister had cooked it at home. We had eaten farmed rabbit in France the previous weekend. A wild rabbit, of course, tastes stronger and a little bit more of game.

The food did not have Michelin Star presentation but what does that matter, it deserved many a star for taste.

You may be asking why didn't I drink wine with it? Well, I do not get the opportunity to drink such well kept beer so often. The beer went really well with the rabbit. It is the beer equivalent of a Grand Cru Bourgogne wine but at a price which is in the lower atmosphere. What more could I ask for? So it's three cheers for the Bucks Head.

http://www.shepherdneame.co.uk/pubs/sevenoaks/bucks-head

Sylvain Bois 2006 Bugey Rouge

At a party in France recently my brother-in -law introduced me to a wine I had never heard of before: Bugey Rouge. Sylvain Bois produces this wine from his small estate near the village of Béon in the Savoie region of France. Savoie borders Switzerland and you can feel the resemblance between the local wines and  Swiss wines here. The vines are grown in a cool mountain climate reminiscent of Switzerland.


Sylvain's Bugey Rouge is made from the Mondeuse black grape from the locality. The 2006 is a particularly fine example: it is mature and ready to be drunk now. The wine has its own particular style represented by the grape variety and the wine making tradition. Mondeuse noir is not grown it the rest of France as far as I know.


It is a wine for drinking with food rather than slugging back. We drank it with venison. The wine is rich in red fruit tastes, with a hint of spice and the tannin has now softened. It had long length on the palate and also had all the complexity and concentration which makes a good wine.

The Mondeuse grapes are grown on calcareous clay soils which I am certain add to the complexity of tastes.
The tannin and acidity will help these wines to keep and mature for a number of years.

Not only is this very good wine, it is also excellent value for money. You can buy it  for about 5 Eur a bottle direct from the cave. It is well worth paying the postage for delivery if you are unable to visit. This wine has individual character. You can tell that the producer has respect for the soil, his vines, the climate and of course his wine.

Once again my brother-in-law has come up "trumps". I am hoping for another surprise the next time I visit.


http://www.ocavo.com/accueil.php?viti=86

http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-savoie

http://fringewine.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/mondeuse-noire-bugey-france.html

Mercaptans

In the early part of this week a French chemical factory in Rouen accidentally released a cloud of methyl mercaptan gas into the atmosphere. Mercaptans are some of the smelliest substances known to man. Humans can literally smell them at a few parts per billion concentration. This is why mercaptans are injected into natural gas which is normally odourless so that we can smell gas leaks. Mercaptans are harmless.

On Tuesday evening the gas had spread to the UK and my wife and I could smell it in the atmosphere when we went for a walk. My wife smelt it first. It felt like we were walking through a large gas leak.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/22/french-bad-smell-mercaptan-rouen-france-foul-odor_n_2525587.html

What has this got to do with wine you may ask. Well  methyl mercaptan and ethyl mercaptan can sometimes be smelt in wine as they are both by-products of the "reduction" of sulphur compounds. These sulphur compounds are present both naturally and artificially in the wine.

Burgundy Red wines are particularly prone; there is often a slight aroma of rotten cabbage, or even shit - if you pardon the expression. Methyl Mercaptan is produced in the human digestive system. Some wine commentators regard the presence of methyl and ethyl mercaptan as being a wine fault which should be eliminated. Others regard it as being part of the character of a wine. My wife and I are of the latter view.

We have both enjoyed aged Burgundies which have a very slight scent of rotten cabbage amongst the complexity of other tastes and aromas. If it is a fault then it is very difficult to get rid of it without letting some oxygen into the wine "to reverse the 'reduction'". Oxidation creates its own problems so there is a fine balance here.

Even though mercaptans can be detected on the nose at extremely low concentrations some people are not sensitive at all. They must be the lucky ones unless they have a gas leak or are partial to some older types of Burgundy



http://www.wineanorak.com/mercaptansinwine.htm

http://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/wine/columnists/dan-berger/identifying-wine/article_19a639b2-508e-11e2-8c96-0019bb2963f4.html

The Christmas Wine Festive Season

We drank these wines over the Christmas period and some of them were exceptional value for money, especially the Champagne.

Louis Jadot, Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru (2008)

On Christmas Eve my wife cooked some hake which was gently spiced and it was jolly good too. She thought that a good bottle of white Burgundy would go down well with it and she was right of course. The wine tasted of nuts, apples and citrus fruits  with vanilla spice and oak. It was concentrated and complex and had a long length on the palate.

It had all the qualities of a good wine. I do not like wines with a heavy taste of oak but this one was subtle enough for my palate. The smokey taste went well with the fish. 

 I have seen it priced at around £30 a bottle. I cannot remember what we paid for it in France but the price would have been much lower. I am not prepared £30 for wine of this quality. It is good wine but it is not outstanding. For this price I expect something better, even from Louis Jadot who is one of my favourite négociants.

http://www.thewinereserve.co.uk/store/white-wine/louis-jadot-chassagne-montrachet-1er-cru/

Château Chevrol Bel Air Lalande de Pomerol 2001

We drank this wine on Christmas day 2012 with some rib of beef from the English border with Scotland . The beef was cooked to perfection. I was not disappointed , in fact I was very pleased. The wine was fully mature and ready to drink. It displayed all of the qualities of a good Bordeaux from the Libornais area.. This wine, is from Lalande de Pomerol not far from its more illustrious neighbours in Pomerol and Saint-Émilion

It was still full of concentrated fruit but with tannin which had now softened. It had retained its complexity and had long length on the palate. I do not know where I bought the wine but it was possibly in France. If you can still find a bottle then I recommend that you snap it up and drink it now with some good food. It is not outstanding wine but it is very good.

http://www.chevrolbelair.fr/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_wine_regions#The_Libournais

Côtes du Rhône red  Vidal-Fleury 2010

I bought this wine from Majestic near Sevenoaks Kent  upon the recommendation of the Sales Assistant. It was well recommended. It had all the qualities of a good Côtes du Rhône red at £8.74 a bottle. We had a small party  just after Christmas and everyone enjoyed the wine with a roasted ham.

I looked at some of the reviews on Majestic's website  to see that one reviewer said that he would not advise buying this wine. He must have had a bottle which was faulty perhaps it was corked or oxidised. This wine was of very good quality and represents very good value for money.  If you get a bad bottle then I am sure that Majestic will give you  a refund if you return it in good time. It merits four stars in my estimation. The press review is spot on.

http://www.majestic.co.uk/find/product-is-06275

Mâcon Villages Blanc 'Les Roches Blanches' 2011 Louis Jadot

We also drank this wine at our party. I bought it from Majestic at the same time as the Côtes du Rhône red -as I said I always like to drink Louis Jadot wines and could decide for myself.  I bought half a dozen bottles at a discount for £47.94. This represents excellent value for money even in England. I preferred this wine to the  Premier Cru above;  it had the taste of the nuts, apples and citrus fruit without the oak.

The wine is more versatile as it went down well on its own and with the roasted ham and dessert. I also preferred the price. This is good quality wine that shows no pretension. I recommend  it.  On the Majestic scale I give it 4 stars too. The press review is interesting but perhaps a little over the top.

http://www.majestic.co.uk/find/product-is-04117    

Daniel Le Clerc Cuvée Gabin Non Vintage Champagne.

My brother- in- law found this champagne for us. It is a prize winner from the Aube region of Champagne. It is matured in oak. The oak, however, is very subtle and just lends a slight flavour of spice.  It is exceptionally good value for money and great for a Christmas party. If you are ever in the Aube why not pay them a visit and buy a case or two ; you will not be disappointed.

They also produce an excellent and cheaper NV Cuvée Brut Tradition. On the Majestic scale both of these wines would be 5 star in terms of value for money.

http://www.champagne-daniel-leclerc.fr/fiche-2-1-Cuvee_Gabin.html

http://www.champagne-daniel-leclerc.fr/fiche-3-1-Cuvee_Brut_Tradition_.html