On Saturday November 9th, we held a  brainstorm at the Curtis household on how to serve 11 consecutive vintages of Lurton’s marvellous Brane Cantenacs. A Smaragd Wachau Riesling kindly hidden from the night before and the Soli pinot provided the inspiration for the daring format. (Advice from Michael Schuster and Mike Ritchie MW not withheld.)

It was to be:

• Round 1:  2001 v 2008  ( age and elegance)
• Round  2:  2010 v 2011  ( Blockbuster V stuggling vintage – or so we thought)
• Starter: terrine pate with Brane 2004
• Round 3:  2003 v 2006 v 2007 ( hot years, cool years )
• Main: confit of canard with 2002 ( or meant to be)
• Round 4: 2005 v 2009 (blockbuster years)

Served as above and the crowd loved it. Lurtons optical sorter at nearly half a million Euro threw us with the 2011 v 2010.

The lovely Corinne from Brane helped the evening flow, and it would have been the perfect night except for the taxi driver dropping her at Charing Cross Hospital not Hotel!

Apologised profusely at the UGC tasting at the Royal Opera House on the 12th November and may well have sorted a joint Chateau Smith-Haut-Lafitte-Chateau Coutet tasting for WanderCurtis for 2013. Roll on the New Year, we will keep delivering.