Lynda's sparkling cake

The menu

Last night and early into this morning we had a great birthday party with Lynda at Hugo Naón's El Nacional in Bordeaux. The food was excellent, in particular the lamb grilled on the parrilla – the special Argentine grill that Hugo had installed in the restaurant and which is the centre piece of the cooking.

Champagne Nicolas Maillart to start

Derek and a glass of Maillart

Lynda


2009 Rémus, Domaine de la Taille aux Loups

Unfortunately Bordeaux doesn't grow Chenin Blanc, so Lynda and Derek had to import some 2009 Rémus in from Montlouis to the party's general approval. Although 2009 is likely to be less long lived than the very precise and classic 2008 Rémus, I think the 2009 fitted the bill better last night as it is rounder and softer than the 2008. It also went very well with the assortment of tapas and charcuterie served for the first course.

2007 Château l'Eglise, Montagne Saint-Emilion

The lamb

Santé!

2007 was a difficult vintage in Bordeaux with the wines not expected to have a long life. However, this softly textured 2007 and I suspect others are drinking well at the moment. This went very well with the delciously succulent lamb. An example of a wine that high not get a high score in a tasting but which was abolutely right for the occasion.

Digestif: 10 ans d'Age, Bas Armagnac, Francis Darroze

Back in August we had lunch at El Nacional and it was clear that there were some teething problems. These have clearly been sorted out as last night was excellent. I gather from Hugo that he is now doing 2000 covers a month, which is considerably more than he thought he would be doing at this stage in the restaurant's first year. Hugo will have to keep this level up as his girlfriend is expecting their first child due next July!

Hugo

 

Hugo and Derek

Young chef

Vivek Singh: Cinnamon Club

bottle chandelier

Jazz pianist who started the evening off

Some more pics:

Lynda and one of the servers

The amazing cake

Derek and Sue

Roalind Cooper: The Wine Year, Merrell £24.95 (US$39.95), 224 pages, hbk, col pics

Roz’s book is about the seasons as she explains in her introduction: ‘Wine is a product of the seasons. From the earliest signs of growth in the spring, through the crucial flowering period of early summer, to the final fruition of harvest in the autumn, the vine’s fate is tied to the annual cycle.’

The book is naturally dived up into 12 chapters taking a month at a time beginning with January. Within each chapter there are four sections: knowledge, entertaining, travel and an interview.

January’s chapter, for instance, starts with ‘growing great grapes’ then moves to entertaining with a sparkle, next visiting the vineyards of Champagne and concluding with an interview with Stéphane Tsassis, the CEO of Champagne Laurent Perrier.

(This is a well-designed book and Roz has taken a refreshingly different approach. Although not nominally an introduction to wine, this would certainly be an interestingly different book for someone looking to learn more about wine.)   

**

James Lawther MW: Finest Wines of Bordeaux, Fine Wine Editions in association with Aurum and University of California Press , £20, 320 pages, photos by Jon Wyand. pbk

This is the third title in the Fine Wine Editions series. It follows the same pattern as the first two (Michael Edwards on Champagne and Nicolas Belfrage on Tuscany) by concentrating on profiling the region’s leading châteaux after an introductory section.

The introductory section covers the history, culture and market; climate, soil and grape varieties; viticulture and winemaking; classification and regulation and Paris 1855 to Parker. James explains briefly and succinctly Bordeaux unique system négociant and courtier system.

The châteaux profiles are from the Médoc, Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, the Graves plus Sauternes and Barsac.

Foreword by Hugh Johnson 

(James lives in the region and his knowledge and understanding of Bordeaux shows in this authoritative book. Fine photos, as usual, from Jon Wyand.)

A TGV arriving at Tours station

The first TGV (Train de Grande Vitesse) arrived in Tours on 30th September 1990 bringing Paris just less than an hour away from Tours. The idea to build a TGV Atlantique network was conceived in 1976. The TGV Ouest has two branches one to Le Mans and the second to Tours. Work started in 1987 and the TGVs to Le Mans and beyond serving Angers, Nantes, Rennes etc. on the existing conventional lines started running in 1989. Those to Tours started running the next year.

The dedicated TGV line stops just to the south of Tours. Work is just beginning on the LGV (Ligne Grande Vitesse) extending the fast line to Bordeaux. The complete line is due to be finished in late 2015/ early 2016. When it opens Bordeaux will be 2.05 hours from Paris (3 hours now) and 1.40 from Tours (2.20 at present). The line is being built in two stages – Bordeaux-Angoulême (service starting in 2013) and Angoulême-Tours.