One of the more interesting things about writing on one subject for a number of years is that you slowly get to know more and more people. Friday evening I was very happy to finally take up the invitation of meeting a Swiss correspondent (of some years) and his wife plus an equally ‘focused’ friend.

With homemade faire we managed to get through 2008 villages St.Aubin from Thomas Morey, 1999 Bernard Morey (Thomas’s dad) 1er Puligny Les Truffière, 1996 Serveau Morey 1er Les Sorbets and as a coup de grace 1982 Sérafin Charmes-Chambertin. Lots of fun I have to say. Quickly from memory I would say 1-tight, 2-linear, young, reasonably concentrated, 3-slow to open, elegant more and more detailed as you waited, 4-extra fat, interest and mid-plate complexity and you would never guess the age – I might expect a few guesses around 88 but probably younger – this was a proper tour of interesting Burgundy. As far as I’m concerned, ‘interesting’ always wins…

Switzerland has never really had the consistent merchant activity of some other countries so real enthusiasts got in their cars and made the trip to the Côtes – my host blames Becky Wasserman! – in 1974 or ’75 he read an article in the International Herald Tribune that she’d written, an article that made him decide on a trip to Burgundy, something he’s done at least once per year ever-since. Actually he is sad that during a recent clean-up he threw away an example of those less touristic and ‘informed’ days, an old price-list from Domaine Cathiard in Vosne, a price-list from 1976 – Romanée St.Vivant was just 15 francs per bottle – he bought a mix of bottles, about 100 in total! This type of purchasing went on for years, not just knowing the father, the mother (who usually took the money!) and son, but often having lunches together on their annual visits and following the generation changes and wines they made.

There was no room in this for a list of critical scores – from what I could tell, the wines from this cellar did not lack for that!