Avalon Wijn & Spijs

Throwback to a wonderful Saint-Sylvestre when the chef and his wife from joined for dinner. Some highlights for me where the Krug 2004, the Utopie Creative from Barbou and the Clos Rougeard. I made a 8 course dinner with this great lineup.

This is what happens when you’re at a wine and food event - a table full glasses - shared with different tables! An elegant chardonnay la Gravière ‘18 from Ganevat, with beautifully integrated acidity. The savagnin Les chalasses ‘14 was a bit to much evolved unfortunately. In contrast to the savagnin Antide ‘16 of Ganevat, which was fresh and elegant. Alongside other shared glasses we completed with the point barre ‘20 from Bornard and a vin jaune ‘14 from Labet. All accompanied by beautiful dishes! Thanks and .

Stunning line-up of magnums at a great ⭐️⭐️⭐️lunch Many thanks to Jan, Geert and the rest of the crew. Individual postings with tasting notes will follow

Tonight some guests will drink this Bruno Giacosa Le Rocche del Falletto riserva 2001 from my winelist. At their request I opened the wine early to decide to decant or not. The wine is completely open, lovely nose! So for now, we let it slow ox, tonight we can decide to decant after all

Lovely last minute fun wine event

Catching up with over a lovely dinner with some very fine wines. All three were in good form, but the Ulysse Collin rosé was spectacular: almost as dark as the Barolo, very vinous, and long. Paired well with the croquettes filled with rabbit.

Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot 1er cru 2017 (demi!) and Rayas 2005 were a fitting finale for our visit to Berlin. Grill Royal has a very extensive winelist, with many older vintages (mostly Bordeaux), right back to 1939. Wine treatment is impeccable. Both the Ramonet and Rayas were decanted, and flourished after that. The Ramonet on 0,375 still had some baby-fat, but after about 10 minutes really started to blossom. But of course the Rayas was the highlight of the trip. The nose was intoxicating: spices, blood, small berries, unfolding layer after layer. This continues in the mouth, revealing seductive juice, an explosion of tastes, burgundian, really stunning and super-long. Very great and a long life ahead. Paired very well with the grilled wagyu

Griesel 2016 and Ganevat Antide 2016 savignin were both on fire 🔥 and a perfect match with the dishes at Nobelhart & Schmutzig They kindly requested not to use your smartphone during the dinner, so no pictures of the dishes. This meal was great, using products from local producers who work sustainable (the names of the producers were on the menu and were mentioned affectionately when a dish was introduced). Exciting and inspiring. Very extensive winelist. Good as the Griesel was, the absolute highlight was the Ganevat Antide: decanted it revealed a breathtaking focus and intensity. High acidity, yet full and broad, beautifully balanced. A wine that just ‘is’, mysterious and intriguing. Grand vin

When someone gives you fresh crayfish you need to make something delicious with it😉. I made a bisque from the heads with lime leaves and lemongrass. Finished it with spice, fennel and coconut milk. Then added the peeled crayfish. It paired very well with the freshness and elegance of this Portugese white wine from . The tones of white fruit and lemon lifted the dish.

Very happy all wines performed very well! I’ll post notes and food pairings the coming next days. For now good night!

Roses de Jeanne Les Ursules 2018 by Cédric Bouchard needed some time to open up. Tight when just opened it started to flourish after about 30 minutes. Very nice to find it on the winelist at Bar centraal

Let’s try some of the best producers from Sardinia: Dettori, Meigamma, Altea, Sa Defenza, Deperu Holler, Panevino and of course Giovanni Montisci. Thank you Riccardo for your tips!

Frutte di mare 🤤

Nice when a sommelier recommends a wine not on the list: Mastio Hofmann Banduleri. It is cannonau but white! Very rare. Nice wine. Herbal, good length, really nice with the cuisine of Retrobanco .cagliari

Stellato Isola dei Nuraghi vermentino 2021 from Pala. One of the best vermentino wines, stellar 😉

Buongiorno Sardinia

"Hidden gem" - Lees deze leuke review op de site van Wineberserkers https://www.wineberserkers.com/t/an-exceptional-one-of-a-kind-dinner-in-amsterdam-with-wines-from-croatia-germany-and-champagne/301825

Love this elegant wine: Miani Bianco from Friuli. This blend of Ribolla, Malvasia and Sauvignon Blanc gives minerality and stonefruit, like white peaches, elderflower. A great wine to pair with the beautiful dishes: seafood antipasti, lobster ravioli and sea bass at

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Reserveer voor de Passard lunch 4 juni!

Fun to drink two 2020 Barbera d’Alba’s of Giacomo Conterno next to each other. The Vigna Francia was a bit closed, the Vigna Cerretta on fire: dense red fruit, superjuicy, fresh, a lot of focus. Lovely! Also nice to “pair” it with live jazz music at cantina Bentivoglio

Silvano Zanetti Franciacorta Satèn brut was s very nice aperitif at winebar Vineria Favalli in Bologna. Fresh, delicate bubbles, high quality Franciacorta. Recommended! Note that the winebar has a small list on paper, but a huge choice if you just ask the staff

Lovely visit to Chiara Condello in Predappio. Very interesting to hear her vision on viticulture, choices in the vineyard, blends (or not), soil, experimenting with toasting botti, etc. And of course tasting her wines jncluding the rare Stralisco from concrete is exciting. Thank you Chiara for your hospitality

Osteria La Baita was long on our list to visit and meet the legendary sommelier Ronnie Asioli. It did not disappoint! All dishes are super traditional, deceptively simple and above all very tasty. Their wine collection is phenomenal. When we understood that Ronnie had sold the Monfortino several times but never tasted it, we could not resist the temptation to have the 2013 and shared it with him, which was much appreciated. All winelovers should at least once visit this gem and meet Ronnie

Ahimè in Bologna has a relaxed atmosphere. The restaurant is just a few meters from Oltre, where we ate the day before. The dishes at Ahimè are original and very concentrated (occasionally a bit too much). The first course of the menu was beetroot, teriyaki, sesame, a very nice dish. Friendly prices for the many wines on their winelist. The Barrosu 2019, a Cannonau di Sardegna by Giovanni Montisci, was particularly good. Even with 15.5% it was fresh, nice red fruit and had a lot of energy

Nice dinner at Oltre .bologna in Bologna. Innovative twists to traditional dishes. The sommelier presented a nice selection of exciting wines. The most interesting was a blend of 3 local grapes and riesling for acidity, spontaneous fermentation. But all dishes and wines were good. Recommended!

Alheit Hemelrand Vine Garden 2016 is a blend of chenin blanc, chardonnay, verdelho and muscat. It was interesting when just open, but it grew spectacularly over the half hour or so we had it in the glass. It started like it was a bit too developed, and grew younger, fresher over time. A fine balance between acidity and inviting fruit. Nice with a salad of radishes and a dressing of magnolia and hibiscus kombucha

Hudelot-Noëllat Charmes 1er cru Chambolle-Musigny 2017 was open and seductive, though not very complex. Quite structured for Chambolle, lovely perfume, some spices. Paired very well with guinea fowl with fava beans

Ragnaie Brunello VV 2018 was presented yesterday. In this vintage you have to be careful which wines you buy or drink, because there is a lot of variation. Some vineyards had problems with late rain, others were too warm or the other way round: the grapes did not ripen well. No worries with Ragnaie’s wines. They are clean and fresh, with enough complexity in their best cuvées. Like in other vintages I liked the Vigna Vecchia best. From a high altitude vineyard (600 m+), very classic. Even though 2018 is not a top vintage, happy to buy these. Thank you .nl for the tasting .nl

Terrebrune Bandol rosé 2017 - Bandol rosé is in a class of its own, very nice to drink a bottle with some age. Last year we visited Terrebrune and saw their terroir literally in their cellar (see photo 2). Very old earth and rocks (trias) give their wines a lot of minerality and complexity. This is completely different from the terrace-plonk people often think of when they hear rosé