So, as you do, we called the Connaught and booked one of their private rooms, with dinner to be cooked by Hélène Darroze’s 2 Michelin star team. Unsurprisingly I’d been looking forward to the dinner for quite some time.
After a quick tour of the Connaught’s small but exceedingly good wine cellar (worth asking for if you’re there) it was time to open some wine and await our guests. Drinks started round the table so Baptiste and Julie could say Hello to everyone with some of their Château Grand Village Blanc 2013. Grand Village is the home of Jacques and Sylvie, and they produce excellent red and white wine from the vineyards around it; I’ve tasted quite a few vintages of Grand Village and can say I’ve got a big soft spot for them. New vintages of both cost under £10 per bottle, which is incredibly good value considering it’s made in exactly the same way as Lafleur, by exactly the same team. The 2013 Blanc was delicious, refreshing and palate-cleansing. It’ll be fantastic this Summer for sipping in the sun.
Then we got down to the main event; dinner and some side by side tasting. The oyster amuse-bouche, served in a Martini glass, was accompanied by a glass of Château Grand Village, A Louima, Blanc, 2012. It slipped down nicely before the second wines were served: Château Grand Village 2008 and ‘G’ Acte 2 2010. Both of these are Merlot/Cabernet Franc blends, the Grand Village 2008 having a smaller amount (10%) of Cabernet Franc than the ‘G’ 2010, which has nearly 50% Cabernet Franc. ‘G’ is a project they started in 2009 (Acte 1) so it was great to actually taste the result after a few years bottle-ageing. Side by side they both showed really well – Grand Village felt more traditional, ‘G’ more modern in style and both had a lot of fans round the table, as did the exquisite starter called ‘Onion’, a pasta dish with onion, black truffle, barley and lardo di Colonnata.
All we knew about the main course was the rather terse description on the menu: ‘Lamb’, Panisse, Taggiasca olive, basil. However by now we had 2 glasses of Lafleur in front of us and the evening was going swimmingly! The point of the evening wasn’t so much to show off the great vintages of Château Lafleur, rather to taste a couple of wines from less well-known years to show just how good the wines are. So, we started with 2007 Pensees de Lafleur (their second wine). Delicious, and a really good showing in a pretty-difficult vintage, but rather overshadowed by the glass of Château Lafleur 2004 next to it. The 2004 was a bit of star – still young and from a less than stellar vintage, this is the kind of wine that proves Lafleur are at the very top of their game. The lamb was stunning too, beautifully presented as was every course. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made use of a lot of tweezers in the kitchen to prepare food, the attention to detail of each plate was some of the best I’ve seen. It’s not hard to love food that looks this good.
Coming to the end of dinner, it was time to pour the 2 magnums of Lafleur 1999 that had been sitting on the side. Along with some simple but delicious Comte, the Lafleur brought the dinner to an end brilliantly. At the other end of the spectrum to the 2004, being far more mature, this was another example of great wine coming from a tough vintage. It’s still a ‘big’ wine but the density is now being replaced by some gorgeous aromatics.
Thanks to Baptiste and Julie for coming over – it was a tremendous night and a perfect reminder of how good Bordeaux can be. We all know about the pricing and the problems we’ve had with Bordeaux over the last few years; sometimes you need to remind yourself it’s about the wines. When Bordeaux makes great wine like this it really is the greatest wine in the world.
PS: I asked Baptiste “without going mad and spending the earth, what vintages of Lafleur and Pensees should people buy now?”. He replied “Lafleur 92, 93 and 94 for drinking, Lafleur 95 for laying down. Pensees 99, 2000, 2001.” Straight from the owner’s mouth…
- Nick Clarke, Private Client Account Manager
