Down at his local with J.

The observant among you may remember a lunch last summer at a friend's house in South London, where copious - what a surprise, eh! - quantities of excellent wine were consumed by said friend and yours truly, to expand our wine knowledge but mainly to have a good time. We wine trade delinquents like our wine and, occasionally, consume a fair amount of it, for better or for worse.

You will know, dear reader, from following my scribblings, that I have been on enforced exile from my natural habitat of London, entirely due to my inability to:
a. Find gainful employment
b. Finance a life in London, as a direct result of (a).
While this does not mean that I have retreated to a monastery or live a cloistered life, it has certainly limited my vinous excursions. Back in London I have made a - small - effort to put this right, so had lunch with my friend J.; he kindly provided a couple of bottles to entertain and amuse us while we scoffed delicious food down at his local hostelry. As a warm-up we had a pint of beer each, and I availed myself of a delicious pint of Wandle, perfectly served.

Pub food has come on in leaps and bounds in the last 30 years, even disregarding gastro pubs (some have extremely ambitious menus), of which this is one. Most pubs can now serve food that is at worst acceptable and at best very good indeed, and the Jolly Gardeners is at the very good end of the scale, with a simple but imaginative menu and a rather splendid selection of bar snacks. In fact if someone locked me in there with a constant supply of the various snacks I would not be disappointed, so long as I also had a pint or two of their splendid beers on tap.

Our two wines, a white and a red, were both interesting and eminently quaffable, with the white the clear winner for me: pineapple and butter, pronounced yet subtle at the same time, signposted a superb chardonnay from New Zealand that, but for a slight exuberance, could have been a star from a top Burgundy vineyard. Lots of complexity and character without the typical New World exaggeration make the Kumeu River 2016 a cracking bottle of wine and a real treat for me, as it was the first time I had come across it.

The red was a Bordeaux from the 2012 vintage, a St. Emilion Grand Cru to be precise, not a frontline performer but an impressive bottle nevertheless, coming as it does from the Ausone stable; we possibly did the Chateau de Fonbel a disservice by drinking it now, as the wood was presently dominating the relatively subdued but substantial fruit. I would really like to re-taste this in two or three years time, perhaps with a juicy steak or equivalent, rather than the excellent but diverting hamburger of today. This is young and vigorous, as you can see from the colour, but presently without the plush juiciness of its appellation.  Don't get me wrong, though, this is still a superb bottle of wine but, the living and evolving thing that it is, may be better in the future. And, dear reader, as you well know, I prefer wines with some age (as much age as possible???) allowing them to show their full 'true' colours.

I must admit that we were rather, if not entirely, well behaved and limited our consumption compared to other occasions, as we both had further commitments during the day, professional or otherwise. All you need to know is the we had a good time catching up, enjoyed ourselves and that we are already looking forward to meeting up again. Hopefully soon.

And I'm looking forward to returning to The Jolly Gardeners soon to enjoy some more of their warm hospitality, with the friendly atmosphere of a perfect local and the kind, considerate staff. What's not to like?