What should you drink at lunchtime? Nothing, has always been my advice, or at any rate nothing alcoholic. How can you enjoy your evening's drinking if you don't come to it eager and inspired? But there is another school of thought which maintains that a few glasses of wine at lunch animates body, soul and conversation at the critical moment of the day when business can be done, deals concluded and relationships set on a new, or even an old, footing. Another advantage which lunch has over dinner is that it can be brought to an end by pretending to have some urgent appointment. And when the company of another person, however boring, has a clear and proximate end, you can afford to be more affectionate than you feel. In all these ways, lunchtime drinking contributes to commercial and social success, which explains why neither have come my way.
But how to get through the drinking without thoroughly spoiling the afternoon in the library, when the "urgent appointment" card has finally been played? The answer is Burgundy. Not a premier cru or a single village wine too good to share with some establishment bore, but a lightly coloured, generic wine, with a little bottle age, and nothing remotely suggestive of a headache. Fortunately, Corney & Barrow has some fine Burgundies to fit this description, such as Chanson's well-known and reliable house Burgundy, which has maintained its quality even though Chanson, the oldest negociant-owner in Beaune, with medieval cellars beneath the ancient town walls, has now been snapped up and globalised by Bollinger et Cie.
Fuller and more complex, but still in the lunchtime category, is the Cotes de Beaune Villages from Olivier Leflaive. It is difficult to know what to think about these villages wines, which come between light generic Burgundies such as Chanson's and the single village or single vineyard concentrates that are no longer affordable. Reserving judgement, therefore, I pass to the same negociant's Chablis. Leflaive, after only 20 years in the business, is universally esteemed for his craftsmanlike white Burgundies, and this Chablis fully justifies his reputation. As full as the average premier cru, with a combination of forward fruit, bite and a hint of sweetness, this wine would ease you through lunch with the most embittered ex.
The generic white Burgundy from the Domaine Matrot is an evening wine. Clean and fruity, with no pretensions to the buttery depths of a Puligny Montrachet, this is still a cut above the over-fleshy Cotes Chalonnais wines that have now flooded the market. We drank it with Harry, the calf from next door, and he tasted all the better for being cooked in a wine (Macon Blanc) that was a pale imitation of the wine that washed him down.
