Hot on the heels of my trip to the US I headed off to Devon for a meeting of the NTHKWS (Not the Hong Kong Wine Society), UK Chapter. We now outnumber the donor branch which, given that there is only one criteria for membership: you had to be a member in Hong Kong, is perhaps no surprise.

Sadly Shivs was unable to attend due to a (now receding) case of shingles, but the rest of us had a very good tasting of '89 and '90 Clarets. In all 16 of us - including the original founder - were in attendance.

Our devlish host - we'll call him Old Sea Dog (he may not approve, but Mrs L would concede at least 2 out of 3 are on the money) - did pop in a ringer, which is traditional.

For once I could not agree with the group (no, really I'm normally pretty close) with their selection of 7th place... I had it first. Anyway, for the record, here's the result:

1 Ch. Pavie, St. Emillon 1er Grand Cru Classe '90
2 Ch. Palmer 3eme Cru Classe '89
3 Ch. D'Angludet Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel '89
4 Ch. La Croix du Casse, Pomerol '90
5 Ch. Batailley, Pauillac 5eme Cru '90
6 Les Forts de Latour (2nd wine of Ch. Latour) '90
7 Ch. Talbot, St. Julien 4eme Cru Classe '90
8 Caves de Weinert, Mendoza, Argentina '92

For me the Pavie, Talbot and D'Angludet stood out.... perhaps the Palmer, which was a very good wine, just wasn't as ready as the others which - for me at least - were drinking better at this age.

Anyway, we had the usual argument about it afterwards accompanied by a splendid dinner followed by a little Armagnac and a lot of snooker. Or was it the other way round?