Yes I thoroughly enjoyed the day also , I have to be meticulous in planning living miles from nowhere and the day sort of broke down when I got to Newbury as the taxi no showed and it was the Festival Of The Eid
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A belated happy birthday from me as well
My very best wishes
Ian
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Thanks Ian.
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Best wishes @Eoink and glad you are enjoying claret again. Hope this decade is marked by good dinners and wines.
Peter
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Belated birthday wishes “old boy” 
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Thanks Peter and Alan.
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I’m shouting “Happy Birthday” through a SW facing open window.
You getting me at all?
Aw ra best @Eoink. 
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Congrats an your milestone - may there be many more.
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Our Christmas get together at La Trompette yesterday was tremendous fun and a massive achievement by all the staff serving 64 discerning diners and pouring 640 glasses across the eight tables. We were very blessed on our table especially with not one but two magnums to kick things off and both the 1998 Piper Heidseck Rare and the 2011 Vernon Condrieu were exceptionally lovely. Then a Ravenau and a Gagnard - wow. Our reds were also highly enjoyable thoug sadly one of the Allemand Cornas bottles was corked but with 1999 Sassicaia in reserve was not too big an issue. The Mullineux Olerasay Number 1 worked so well with Christmas pudding and cinnamon ripple ice cream.
Some great wines on other tables including Krug 168 and Musar 1981 from magnum. A very happy start to the Christmas season. Hope everyone else is able to open some lovely bottles and look forward to seeing them.
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Chateaux Tour Saint Bonnet, 2014. Another offering from TWS; its tannins still predominate, but there is a hint of tabaco on the nose and in the mouth once it’s opened out after 30 minutes in the decanter.
Served with stir fried venison and pilau rice.
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I bought this in Waitrose because it was on offer and the chick on the label reminded me a bit of Ese. It’s rather nice!
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It’s generally too warm here for a full bodied red but this went well with our early Christmas lunch
We’ve had quite an eventful few days it’s nice to now enjoy a glass.
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Nothing can beat a good Chateau Musar, which needs to be opened three or four hours ahead of time to allow it to breathe - although some people don’t like it, and complain that it’s like drinking mud!
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It was a lot of fun to drink this Parusso Perarmando 2018 for dinner yesterday. Ruby red, full body, long finish. Excellent in our opinion.
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… and then we finally finished this bottle of El Candado that had been happily living at home for many years, I thought on pure decorative duties. We found licorice and quite a bit of sediment, but we drank it without mercy.
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Opened this evening. Bought a case in the eighties and still have nine bottles left. Hadn’t been stored in ideal condition and wanted to see if it had survived so I could potentially serve it on Xmas day. It is pale but still has complexity and some fruit - very tasty . Now just have to make sure I don’t over indulge .
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