Good wine, good friends

Wine is a social lubricant and an adornment for any meal, as it combines with food to create a palette of tastes that enhances the experience and, indeed, life itself. Of course abuse of wine - or any other alcoholic drink - leads to serious health problems and negates the previous sentence, but then any type of abuse is damaging. Wine is, therefore, to be appreciated, enjoyed and even, occasionally, revered; it must never be abused.

Make no mistake, wine is an amazing social lubricant and almost always best enjoyed when shared with friends or like-minded people. The solitary wine drinker is a relatively rare phenomenon, for it is at its best consumed in convivial company, more often than not with food of some description. The taste and texture of wine enhances that of the food and helps create appreciation and well-being in the consuming individuals, moulding them into a closer unit, a group of sorts.

So it was in very convivial company and over a pleasant lunch that I recently had a couple of excellent bottles of wine, courtesy of an old wine trade friend whom I had not seen for the best part of a year. The white was a lovely old vine Chablis from a tricky year (2013) but a good producer and an excellent single vineyard, not a 1er Cru but with all the finesse of one; a classy, seemingly delicate, wine with a rich, restrained  complexity concealed underneath, plenty of creaminess and a lovely roundness on the palate.



The second bottle was a red burgundy from the minor appellation of Irancy and the excellent 2010 vintage. This looked to be light in colour but was deceptively ripe in taste and typical in style of an older period, before deep-coloured wines appeared in Burgundy to conform to worldwide stereotyping. This was a lovely, juicy wine that really showed why the pinot noir at all levels, from grand to humble, is best coming from Burgundy; in this case it is blended with another local red variety (Cesar or Romain) by up to 10% but still shows all the typicality you would expect. This is not luscious in the way some red from further south can be, but still elegant and seductive.  Winemaking in the area goes back to the time of the Romans and in the past I believe the wines were as highly regarded as their Cote d'Or cousins. Luckily for Burgundy lovers they are currently not fashionable and, therefore, more reasonably priced.

The hallmark of a good wine is a long, clean, lingering finish, where the taste stays in your mouth after the liquid has disappeared on its way to your stomach. These two wines in their different ways illustrated this beautifully. Both wines went like a dream with the food, neither being exactly perfect but both being hugely enjoyable. They also allowed my friend and myself to really relax, enjoy each other's company and catch up on last year, with all that's transpired for both of us. And to plan a repeat, hopefully sooner than this time.

I am incredibly fortunate to be able to share lovely wines and good moments with my friends, who are going out of their way to look after me during this difficult period in my life when all is uncertain and difficult. To all those who are rallying to my aid I am deeply and humbly grateful, and a decent bottle of wine just reinforces that feeling.