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2005′s from nicolas potel pt.1
I always enjoy my visits chez Potel; the wines usually offer value, start with ‘good quality’ as a baseline, and occasional cuvées can be stunning. More importantly, because the house style is largely consistent and neutral (and you have a wide palate of cuvées), you can get a great feel for the vintage in almost half a day, without the wood getting in the way. First up a few whites that are already bottled. Fabrice Lesne has been working at the domaine for a while now, his prior experience came at the Hospices de Nuits, Domaine Bertagna and also looking after the Meursaults of Bouchard Père et Fils. After going through the bottles Fabrice put me on the spot and asked with a smile, “so, [....]
belland 99 santenay 1er comme
I should subtitle this as “don’t worry about the price of 2005 Musigny”. Given that the average 2005 will be (a little) better than the average 1999, this excellent wine really exemplifies what treasures await in 05 – and from all sorts of appellations too – don’t worry about the trophy wines, just fill your storage space with good 05 village and 1er Cru wines and you have the opportunity to drink well for the best part of the next 20 years; and if 2007 is hailed as even better than 2005 – so what! – you can go on holiday to the Maldives instead of chasing the en-primeurs… 1999 Jean-Claude Belland, Santenay 1er Comme Deep colour – actually there’s still just the merest hint [....]
visiting domaine joseph drouhin pt.2
After the whites we made a short tour of duty with reds – with a fine finish: 2004 Jospeph Drouhin, Chorey-lès-Beaune Lovely high-toned pinot fragrance – this is super – slowly starts to develop a cranberry note. The palate shows sweet, slightly dense fruit, it’s got a nice minerality to it and more dimension of fruit on the palate than you expect from Chorey. The mildly grained tannin is well-hidden in the background. This is very, very good. The empty glass smells lovely too – hows that for value… Rebuy – Yes 2003 Joseph Drouhin, Beaune 1er Clos des Mouches It’s a wide, slightly dense nose that slowly develops baked red fruit notes. The palate is also a little dense, showing plenty of grainy tannin [....]
visiting domaine joseph drouhin pt.1
When last in Beaune I had the opportunity to visit Domaine Joseph Drouhin, it was too long since my last visit so I so it was time that I made ammends. Jean-Pierre Cropsal was my guide – I had just missed Laurence Jobard as she had retired just a couple of weeks earlier after 34 years as winemaker. Jean-Pierre and I spoke on many subjects – in fact so much so that we didn’t have all that much time left to taste – but we are professionals, so we coped…;-) It was Jean-Pierre that spoke those words “these wines will define the benchmarks for a generation”, and there was no element of self-serving hype in his delivery as Jospeh Drouhin has largely pre-old their 2005′s; [....]
02 potel vosne malconsorts
What a nightmare, here I am with a lovely glass of wine that I can hardly concentrate on. Even someone who visits the Côtes every second month or so gets excited when the next issue of burghound is released – particularly so when it’s his first look at the 2005′s. I know some laughed at the hyperbolé of “these wines will define the benchmarks for a generation” – but Allen basically exhorts you to sell your house, wife and dog to buy these wines…bugger…what about the tax-man(?), on second thoughts, I have no chance of selling him! Back to this wine: 2002 Nicolas Potel, Vosne-Romanée 1er Aux Malconsorts Medium, medium-plus cherry red – there is very little colour development. The nose starts faintly sweet over [....]
premature oxidation research
I was recently able to meet the press attaché Cécile Mathiaud and Michel Baldassini, the head of the main Burgundy wine growers’ association, the (BIVB) – he is also head of the Cave Coopérative de Lugny. My reason was to try and get a perspective in the research of the BIVB into the phenomenon of ‘premature oxidation’ – or as the BIVB prefer to say – ‘pre-aging’. If there is one thing about this whole episode that particularly rankles, it was the impression that the growers association was rather tight-lipped about the issue. Given that it became apparent that research was underway, I thought it pertinent to ask ‘since when?’ and ‘what the trigger was to start?’: Actually, concerning our researches we did it in [....]
interesting wine in a new(ish) beaune restaurant
I had a very nice lunch in Beaune last week, and it provides me with an opportunity to give you a nice new restaurant tip and also to mention an uncommon, but tasty wine. The restaurant was called Clé de Voûte. If you enter the ring-road around Beaune from the direction of the (Lyon) auto-route, almost immediately on your right is a large antiques shop with its own small courtyard. If you have the chance, park in one of the spaces directly in front of the antiques shop – if you subsequently buy something from them, I’m sure they won’t mind – and just another door or two further-on is the restaurant. You head down the steps into a nicely converted cellar and more importantly [....]
the greeny-red wines of 2004 – pt.2
I addressed this observation to all the winemakers I met last week and culled the following information: Winemaker 1. “Yes I know exactly what you mean – it’s also there in some whites. We see this to a lower extent in many vintages, but I have to admit it’s on a much higher level since we bottled. I’m keeping my eye on it but fully expect it to fade – though for this vintage maybe not entirely – actually, there’s a good chance that this may give a very interesting component to those wines 5 years down the line.” Winemaker 2. Him: “Really? No I’m not aware of that”, me: “Well it’s kind of like we are tasting right now…” Hmmm – change of subject… [....]
beaujolais: you should buy
Frankly I drink almost no Beaujolais – two months ago there was that glass of ‘nouveau’, okay, half a glass – well, almost half a glass… Putting aside the quality of the ‘nouveau’, it’s not for a lack of available quality that I don’t buy ‘Cru Beaujolais’, rather (for whatever reason) it’s just not in my mind while I’m handing over my credit-card details. Perhaps the merchants need to be more proactive and start listing Beaujolais with all their Burgundy offers – both ‘online’ and in print. Even the most expensive of the wines below will only retail for ~12 Euros – there is far more value here than most regional burgundies. I had the chance to taste some of the Potel-Aviron wines again this [....]
chartron & coche-dury in chassagne
Three of us decidied it would be a white wine night at the at the restaurant Le Chassagne. The service was both excellent and friendly, the wines were very well priced and the food was very well presented – but like our choice of wines, the food was good rather than great. The company was, however, ‘very fine’. 2004 Jean Chartron, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Clos de la Pucelle Medium lemon-yellow. The wide, high-toned nose shows a little citrus interest and some faint oak artifacts – it’s quite interesting, but could do with a little more density. The palate is delicate rather than dense – I feel there is something missing – perhaps the yields were a little high(?) The good acidity brings you quickly into the [....]
benchmark for a generation pt.2
I thought I would just let that initial comment hang there a while Of-course that comment is aimed at the red wines of the vintage; whites are opulent and rich (2003 with acidity) – with the potential exception of Chablis they may not be everyone’s cup of tea – but don’t worry 2006 looks like being an even better 2004; perhaps these will define the whites for a generation, assuming they don’t oxidise… The problem today is that it’s almost impossible to separate the annual hype from comments that may have some merit. From some producers there is much to validate such a suggestion; let’s take at a look at the competition for 2005: 1999 was a fantastic vintage but could have been even better [....]
“2005 will benchmark vintages for a generation”
There is always hype of some kind associated with the launch of each new vintage – but comments like the one above are not the norm. That the comment came today from someone who has already largely pre-sold all their 2005′s is telling – even internally at the domaine they are carving up their remaining bottles; “If I give you three bottles of this, I want 3 bottles of that in return…” – there will be almost no showings of their 2005′s – instead they will move direct to 2006′s for customer days! I will add more info as I visit the domaines this week…
