A drop of decent wine goes a long way

Ah, but I'm a lucky fellow for, despite my impoverished state, I have been allowed by the fates to drink some good wines recently. What a pleasure that was.

Let me explain: by good wine I don't necessarily mean something with a stratospheric price tag and a name that wine snobs everywhere would drool over, though sometimes these coincide, but rather a wine with a bit of class, a bit of age and good balance; it has to be ripe, concentrated and complex, but not to the nth degree.

Thanks to improved technology, wider oenological education and more attention to detail there are plenty of decent wines around today at all levels, and fewer complete disasters, so the average drinker has a much easier time selecting a bottle to accompany their next meal or just for a pleasant sip. In the last year I have had many everyday wines, all impeccably made and pleasant, if mostly unexciting, but few stirring bottles. Then last week I had two, one of which was very good indeed.

Fittingly this was a second wine of a chateau that for years had been one of my favourites, as it always seemed to offer superb value for money, Chateau Pichon Baron. This perhaps used to lack the sheer finesse and complexity of its sister property (they were once joined) Pichon Lalande, but was usually unctuous and pleasing, and especially successful in off vintages. The Baron's second wine - les Tourelles de Longueville - reflected all that in the 2012 vintage, delivering a superbly balanced, classy, rich mouthful. Not a wine to blow you away, this was deeply satisfying stuff and the best glass of red wine I have tasted so far this autumn. What made this even more pleasing was drinking it at home (the home of a friend, obviously, as I no longer have one!) with simple food that played a supporting role.

The following night we went out to one of his local restaurants, where unfortunately the Rhone wine I had pinpointed had changed vintage to one of less grace. My friend chose another second wine from Bordeaux, of less illustrious pedigree but from an easier vintage and with a bit more age, La Dame de Malescot 2009 of Chateau Malescot St. Exupery. This was very good indeed, though showing some hard tannins and lacking the richness of the wine from the previous evening; it is, of course, less 'richly' priced as well, an important consideration, especially in a restaurant!

So after a slightly fallow period, partly due to a severe cold, I ended up having two good wines in two days. Will my luck hold until the end of the year, to include at least four more stunning wines, now that my pocket cannot dictate the pace? Will I continue being lucky? I promise to report any further excitement, and may even include some day to day stuff if the quality and style warrants it.

Wait and see...