Great little wines, great little evening

As far as I'm concerned, wine is the answer; the question hardly concerns me. I cannot conceive of my life without the enrichment that wine brings to every meal, adding colour, smell, taste and texture (pace, Yanni!). Nothing else comes close to allowing a meal to reach its full potential, and that is not to factor in the alcoholic effects, welcome or not as they may be. My loyal reader will know that my current circumstances limit me from too many independent wine explorations aside from the occasional trade tasting, so that invitations by friends to dinner with interesting wine are welcome and always gratefully received.

The YT/MT duo are also well known to my loyal reader, as they - most generous of hosts - regularly invite small groups of friends to their flat for a glass (or three...) and a bite, many of these occasions reported to you faithfully by yours truly. The food is invariably excellent, be it simple or elaborate, and the wine is always ultra-gluggable but also often challenging, rare and interesting to any oenophile (and yes, if there was a sexual angle to our love of wine we would be called oenerasts NOT oenophiles). So they, two other friends and I were at their place yesterday evening to taste, eat, discuss, remember, enjoy.

We kicked off the evening with a splendid old white wine from the Jura region of France - a 2002 Cotes du Jura Chardonnay from top producer Ganevat. The normal cuvee - Ganevat has an old vine version as well - this was as fresh as anything, its golden colour the only hint of its great age.

Our next wine was an even bigger surprise, a 2003 red from ET (no, not that one, Austrian grower Ernst Triebaumer) single vineyard (Mariental) and a single grape variety (Blaufrankisch - blue- Frankish) popular in Central Europe but of rather obscure lineage. Very old vines, a very specific microclimate and poor limestone soil combine with expert winemaking and passion to make an amazing wine - at 15 years of age it showed little signs of ageing either in the colour or the substance. What a wine: concentrated red fruit aromas, mainly of strawberry and sour cherry, chunky yet complex, bursting with fruit but maybe just a touch short. If I'd encountered this in a blind tasting I would have been totally lost!

The next wine was a 2004 Barolo Bussia from Parusso, traditionally a big, big wine. Our bottle, however, was evolved and lighter in colour, which to my mind made it far more sensual and complex than some Barolos, perhaps younger, I have tasted in the past. This was full of juicy red fruit, delicate tannins and good balance, warmth, and more a charm than a power wine.

And for dessert an amazing 2007 Riesling eiswein (ice wine) from Dr. Deinhard, deliciously luscious, sort of liquid lychees, juicy and complex. Eiswein is something rare - the grapes are picked late and frosty - and the wines are always concentrated, sweet and never cheap to produce, a product of passion, not balance sheet. I've never come across one I didn't like!

The food was an accompaniment, simple and scrumptious. We started with a few slices of Bresaola and lightly smoked venison (from the Czech Republic) with a red cabbage salad, simplicity and yet perfection on a plate. The main course was vegetable lasagne with fresh pasta and an amazing homemade tomato sauce - were I not already overweight and pretty full I could happily have eaten all of it.

The conversation? Great, fuelled by great food, lovely wine and friendship! Is there anything better?

What was that question?