The other night we opened another 2000 Monthelie les Clous from Daniel Buisson-Dupont, friends gathered. Quite a change from the first time we had it a year ago, this time full of power, thick and full. Why the difference? Well, a few possibilities.

"In a 'terroir' cut like a suit, Carignan has changed its clothes: fruit and grape, rather than veg and grape." Interesting remark, by the growers of this wine: Jean-Louis Poudou. But he's got a point: with Marie-Claude Poudou, Jean-Louis has pulled off a cracker: a fruit-filled oak-free powerful mouthful of superlative wine. Superlative: now there's a word. But anyone who drinks wine, thinks they understand it, and fine powerful wines that, within a couple of glasses, become oak, or leather, or sugar, superlative is a hard word to find.

The Tour de France cycling race is coming up soon, so here are some notes of wines from around the country, which I made for about 150 peoplea at a wine tasting in Paris, France in 2012. The aim was to give them just a rough idea of the wines on show and the broad characteristics to look for. I didn't put the years in my notes because the guests could see them on the bottle, a mistake from the point of view of this post: however, most of the wines were 2009 and more recent, except for a wine from 2004. The best wine of the night was...

I have just come across the Guala seal plastic cork, on a Monthelie "monopole" red. Monthelie is one of the best Burgundies, as I have written before (here) and I don't think this cork has helped it at all.

Now, I bought this bottle of Sancerre "Belle Dame"with great expectations. Two reasons: I read a couple of complimentary blogs about it, and even tweeted this one: How promising, a Romanée Conti for a price I can afford? Second, it cost me more than I'd usually pay for a wine I hardly know, 36 euros: was it worth it? No. It is a good wine, but not worth that much. Nor did it really do it for me as a pinot noir. Okay, it had a certain velvety richness underneath, and a fantastic, heavy, thick Burgundy-style bottle, but I couldn't help thinking there was something other than pinot noir in there, something acidy, something fighting against the through flow of rich flavours.

It's Saturday night and you've got a bottle of white wine or champagne you want to chill fast before the guests come around. What do you do?

It's always nice to serve tall elegant Alsatian wine bottles, but so often what is in them doesn't live up to the billing: too sweet in many cases, too thin in the case of red Pinot Noir. That said, I was intrigued that Robert Parker, the nosey American, rates them higher than Burgundies, if he rates Burgundy wines at all. That's another story. But did you know some Alsatian wines originate in Burgundy?

Charming 4 bedroom stone house for sale on French coast at Perros-Guirec, Brittany. Splendid views from all rooms. [Good memories]