Tonight I deserve to eat and drink badly (actually I tend not to drink badly – I prefer to abstain!); I’m alone in a hotel and a colleague has given me the name of two good restaurants – the thing is (without a driver) I’m far too lazy to arrange taxis in each direction – that’s my main excuse, though the fact-is, I have more than enough work to do to fill each waking hour. So it’s time to take my ‘medicine’ and accept what the hotel is serving up!

My experience leads me to believe that hotels are (typically) worse than restaurants when it comes to wine. Middle-ranking restaurants often have wine sourced from one supplier – and usually very bad value wine at that. Hotels are even worse, even half-decent hotels typically keep wine-lists that appall. So tonight I shall spend in a Hotel Mercure (part of a very big chain), in that cultural hotspot – Zwolle! Who would have thought? Grand Cru Chablis from a good producer is a mere 25 Euro per bottle (I paid just 15 Euro for the half bottle!) and a very good village Vosne-Romanée (Bichot) is 32 Euro – seems rather churlish to say ‘they are only 2003’s’ – bravo Mercure, some merchants charge more!
2003 Jean-Marc Brocard, Chablis Grand Cru Bougros
Medium yellow. The cooler the wine, the more mineral the aspect, but at the correct temperature, aromatically this is a more about honey than rocks, with just a faint savoury edge. The palate is soft and supple – ripe obviously – good texture and a medium-plus length. The vintage is doing the talking here, so this is not a great Bougros, but it is a great value wine enjoyed in a restaurant.
Rebuy – Maybe