1986 Taltarni French Syrah

10 Oct 2010: I was given this bottle of wine as a leaving present from Loic Le Calvez, the COO and Chief Winemaker of Taltarni.  I thought I would save it for a special moment to open it.  A deep ruby hue.  Aromas of black cherry, red fruit, liquorice, cloves and herbal notes leapt out of the glass.  Medium-full body, firm acidity, with medium tannin but on the palate, the fruit did not quite show, initially.  I was intrigued enough to leave the wine in the decanter.  Every half hour, I went back to check the wine....a dramatic improvement resulted in the fourth hour of decanting when the wine suddenly regained a new life, took on more complexity and length; it started showing very pure ripe fruit, black cherries, blackberries, plums, liquorice, spices, cloves, black pepper, spicy oak, herbal.  On the palate, it reminded me of a cool climate Syrah, like a very well-made Cornas or Hermitage.  In fact, I kept the bottle for another day and it tasted as fresh as it did the day before.  Medium bodied, good level of acidity, softened tannin, plenty of fruit, medium length finish.  A very well made wine and true to its name of French Syrah, made in the Pyrenees of Australia!   What an amazing discovery!  A 24-year old Shiraz from Australia, made in the French style, and with only 13.2% alcohol!  Almost unheard of these days!

1989 Haut Brion

9 October 2010: Saturday night.  Grouse dinner, with redcurrant jelly, red cabbage and mashed swede.   After a disappointing half bottle of 1982 La Mission Haut Brion, which turned out to be bretty and showed very little fruit, drying out finish with rather unbalanced acidity, we decided to open a half bottle of 1989 Haut Brion.  The wine was rather closed initially.  After half an hour in the decanter and in the glass, it gradually revealed an exuberant bouquet consisting of ripe fruit, with notes of blueberry and blackcurrant preserve, complemented by a slightly burnt fruit note characteristic of this hot vintage, tobacco, gravel, leather, cedar, violet, and even a hint of dried fruit peel.  The well-knit structure of firm acidity and soft ripe tannin carried the fruity, spicy, chocolatey and minty flavours across the palate and they lingered to leave the impression of an intellectually serious wine, that spoke of majestic expression, purity, complexity and richness.  An opulent wine that required time and patience to understand perfectly.  The wine continued to improve over a 2-hour period.  Judging from this half botle example, I have no doubt this wine will continue to evolve over the next 15 years.  19/20

1971 Rousseau Chambertin

6 Oct 2010: A very simple supper at home and we were curious about this bottle that had lost its label and the cork was feeling rather loose. So we opened the bottle, tasted it and were so intrigued that we rinsed the cork to see what lay underneath! We were totally flabbergasted to discover that we actually pulled the cork of a grand vin!!


What a gem! An intoxicating bouquet of wild rose, violet, chocolate, mocha, cinnamon, tobacco, compounded with the complexity of earthy farmyard vegetal notes. The wine started on the palate with a deliciously sweet entry, almost caramel-like, tasting still so fresh and with a subtle concentration of red fruit, floral and mineral flavours and a silk-like texture that caresses the taste buds. Classic elegant first class Burgundy by a top winemaker for a year that was not without its share of problems. 19/20

What a marvellous flight of top wines!

30 Sep 2010: The eve of the Chinese National Day.  We felt very privileged to be invited to a special dinner at the China Club where we were served some marvellous first class wines, and from rather large formats!  We were welcomed with a glass of 2003 Louis Roederer Blanc de Blancs, which was ever so refreshing!  The red wines that followed formed a truly impressive list:  2003 Pavie, 2000 Cheval Blanc (Jeroboam), 1995 Mouton Rothschild (Jeroboam), 1989 Margaux (Imperial), 1990 Lafite (Jeroboam) and 1990 Latour.  Pavie and Latour were the only two wines in 750 ml bottles.  I was impressed on two levels: one was the visual impression that these large formats created, just a marvellous sight; and the other was how the 1990 performed and best of all how the 1990 Latour performed on such an evening!  The Latour spoke of power, concentration and length, the Lafite, more about complexity and elegance. I was equally impressed by the 2000 Cheval Blanc, which drank beautifully, with soft blackcurrant and plum ripe fruit notes, coffee and chocolate character, and would be developing for a very long time.  Despite its perfumed nose, 1989 Margaux was a little overwhelmed on this occasion - it seemed much more delicate and less structured, even for its Imperial format.  The 1995 Mouton perhaps was the weakest in my view.  Pavie was very much burnt fruit character, great with food but perhaps did not quite have the complexity and length of the others.  If I had to rate them, despite each being a great wine on its own merit, it would look like this, from highest to lowest score: 1990 Latour, 2000 Cheval Blanc, 1990 Lafite, 1989 Margaux, 1995 Mouton and 2003 Pavie.  Incidentally, it was a great idea to organise such tasting dinner at the China Club, which did a fantastic job with both food and service.

Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons

Veggie garden salad

24 Sep 2010: We love staying at Le Manoir in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, UK. It’s one of these unique places that combines quintessential English charm and French excellence. It has this most meticulously tended vegetable and herb garden that produces the most delicately flavoured vegetables! We took the suite called Lavande which has a fireplace in the sitting area. Naturally, we took advantage of this and with a glass of Madeira in hand, it felt almost surreal!





Hen's egg ravioli



My first course was a vegetable garden salad – just a most delicious salad, beautifully dressed, surrounded by a medley of steamed garden vegetables, including carrots, beetroot, turnips, green beans, as well as baby tomatoes of different colours and artichokes. Really delicious! Richard had the hen’s egg ravioli, filled with spinach and mushrooms, with pan-fried girolles and a parsley sauce. While the filling of spinach and mushrooms was quite delicious, the ravioli itself was far from delicate and it was dry around the edges. (In fact, I had the same 2 evenings later and the result was the same and mine wasn’t even lukewarm – it was barely above room temperature.) For this course, we had a half bottle of 2007 Meursault Les Luchets, Roulot. Fabulous nose of citrus, lime, mineral, smoke, vanilla, spicy oak. Delicately creamy texture, with refreshing acidity. The wine needed aeration to round out. Would recommend decanting. 17.5/20



Delicious grouse

Piglet dish

For main course, I had the grouse, which was probably the best grouse dish I’d ever had! The meat was so moist, tender and full of flavours. The bread sauce with cabbage and bacon was a great accompaniment, as were the bruised berries. An “incontournable” dish! Richard had the piglet, which was tasty but did not have the “wow” factor!

Petrus 1970
in excellent condition

Our red wine was a 1970 Château Petrus, which had been quietly waiting in the same cellar since 1973, when it was first bought. The level was remarkable. A medium ruby core. Complex and perfumed nose of violet, rose, blueberry, cigar box, mocha, with a hint of sweet burnt cream. Fully integrated oak character, still showing some fine-grained but much mellowed tannins. Balanced and poised. Initially a hint of madeirisation was detected and the wine tasted a little dry on the finish. After 2 hours of opening, the wine completely transformed. All we could say was one harmoniously aged wine of real class, with a lingering sweet finish. Drinking at peak now and will continue to do so for another 10+ years. 19/20

We had a small platter of cheese, including some maroilles, fouget, an English cheese that tasted like Ossau Iraty and munster. A tip here: munster is just so disastrous with red wine! The Meursault was great with the fouget, as would be a racy but elegant Chablis!

We returned to Le Manoir after a wedding. For our second evening, our focus was a 2007 Chablis Les Clos, René et Vincent Dauvissat. Initially very closed, stoney, mineral, citrus and a hint of cashew. We had the wine decanted. After about an hour, the wine showed some tropical fruit character, pineapple, as well as some greengage and apple, and a touch of smokiness. The wine also took on some weight from the aeration, giving a much more rich and rounded character. It went very well with the stinking bishop cheese that Richard organized for later! 18.5/20

Cocotte of fresh veggies

We both had the same salad as first course.  For main course, I had the ravioli and as mentioned earlier, it was a rather disappointing dish. Richard had seabass with langoustine in a red wine sauce. He said the seabass was delicious but could not quite see the need to include the langoustine and the red wine sauce was appropriately lighter than the version at L’Atelier de Robuchon. However, where the restaurant really impressed us was the two cocottes of freshly cooked garden vegetables – just the sweetest and juiciest vegetables I had tasted: sweet corn, turnips, carrots, green beans and spinach soaking up all the jus and olive oil at the bottom! Almost a meal in itself!

Seabass and langoustine
in red wine sauce

Richard would always have a bit of red. So to finish off the evening, we had a half bottle of 2008 Gevrey Chambertin Vieilles Vignes, Frédéric Magnien. It tasted very young, bursting with ripe red fruit.

Le Manoir is just the perfect place to relax and indulge. It has this special charm that makes you feel at home almost immediately. Don’t miss out on the afternoon tea….even if you are not too peckish….a pot of tea comes with a couple of slices of this most divine lemon cake, so lightly iced at the top and so refreshingly citrus! Breakfast is quite an affair and there is such a choice of fruit at the French buffet, an oxymoron in itself! I had a most delicious sausage and mushrooms and Richard said the haddock with poached egg and spinach was just the perfect start to the day, complete with well cooked toast!

3-Michelin Stars for Over 25 Years…..in a Little Village Called Bray

23 Sep 2010: My birthday, which I felt like I’d been celebrating all week, starting on Monday with a really yummy Thai meal at Pattara with Nick, who drove up from Henley just to have dinner with me. I felt very special!

Tuesday dinner was a treat – home-cooked supper in the kitchen of my boss’s home, with a bottle of 2006 Le Serre Nuove over a (not so) spicy spag bol. A very vivacious and velvety-textured Le Serre Nuove (second wine of Ornellaia), a rich and spicy nose of blackcurrant jam, black cherries, blackberries, figs, liquorice, black pepper, cloves, violet, cedar and mint. Still tasting very young. Drinking well now, but will continue to develop over the next 6 – 8 years. 17/20 Le Serre Nuove is about 2/3 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1/3 Merlot, with the balance made with Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, pretty much made and aged in the same way as Ornellaia, except that the vines are much younger – so really great value to have a taste of the grand vin! Richard (my boss) served a delicious Vin Santo with dessert – 1999 Vin Santo di Carmignano, Fattori di Bacchereto, with aromas of dried apricot, raisin, orange peel, orange marmalade, grilled nuts and honey. Vin Santo is just one of these dessert wines that I find do not shock the palate as much, especially when moving away from a feisty red. It has this spicy sweetness which refreshes the palate. With a bit of age, like this example, it offers an elegant rancio character, which puts it in the same beguiling category as marmite, which is an acquired taste for the connoisseurs!

Wednesday was dinner at Kicca with Graham. The food was rather disappointing at Kicca – I had quite high expectations because like me, Graham enjoys the finer things in the gourmet world! We had a delicious bottle of Guado Al Tasso 2005, which I thought was not ready for drinking, but I could see the potential for development into a true beauty. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot, that would marry well the power, elegance and character of all its composite grape varieties, when given the right amount of time. It tasted very New World and very new oak.

So when it came to the actual day, I was full of expectations! And I had every reason to be, as Richard arrived from Hong Kong in the morning and we left London to drive down to Bray about 3:30 pm. My second visit to The Waterside Inn. It is just a magical spot: the “establishment” and its riverside terrace, against the backdrop of the River Thames and the geese regaling up and down the river and the occasional boats passing by, conjure up a most romantic scene. We took the same room as last time – La Regate. I love the apple green and mauve colours of this room – so refreshing. We went for our traditional walk round the village and paid our respect to the “menu” of the Fat Duck……we’re such traditionalists that we still haven’t felt the urge to taste the food at the high temple of molecular cuisine. That day will come, no doubt! Just not today!

Paul turned 25 again, for the 10th time!

18 Sep 2010: Paul and Julie invited us and other friends to his birthday dinner at On Lot 10, our favourite restaurant, which I probably reviewed more than once! So this time I would just say simply “I’ve never had a bad meal at On Lot 10 – what I really admire is the winning formula of the consistent quality of simple but delicious bistro-style cooking, dishes for sharing by large groups and efficient service dished out with military precision. In my view, two aspects have so far firmly put On Lot 10 in the private kitchen category: the rule of two glasses per guest and the inadequate cheese selection, which you could improve by discussing with the chef in advance!)


Salad, frog's legs,
steamed artichoke, rillette, etc.

 Paul ordered a selection of starters including really delicious and very tender frog’s legs (perfectly seasoned with garlic, parsley and a squeeze of lemon at the end!), water cress salad, grilled sardines, pig’s head rillette, country pâté and foie gras.



Roasted fish with tomatoes
and Mediterranean herbs



Salt-baked seabass

Then we had the famous fish soup, which was really tasty, bursting with flavours, perfectly seasoned and well-textured, without being too smooth. We had two fish to share, one baked in a salt crust and the other baked with tomatoes and herbs. The fish was so tender for both dishes, that it readily dissolved in your mouth. If I were to choose one I preferred that evening, I would have gone for the one baked with tomatoes and herbs, as the acidity and the intense flavours in the tomato-garlic based sauce was probably a more worthy partner with the Chablis on this evening. The salt-crusted fish was delicious too but perhaps just a little too delicate when compared to those intense flavours in the fish soup and the starters.



The famous suckling pig dish



Entrecote on a bed of cos lettuce
and duck fat potatoes

Two meat courses followed, the famous suckling pig and its now famous apple sauce (as my neighbor David asked for his own helping of apple sauce as his main course), and the really sensational côte de boeuf served with potatoes cooked in duck fat and chopped up cos lettuce that would soak up the lovely jus. Paul took my advice to discuss cheese in advance with Chef David and he had ordered a lovely epoisses for us, perfectly melting…….(I went back to the Chablis for the cheese course.)