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31st august – this time savigny & beaune
Tightly cut rows in Meursault After finally crawling into bed at close to midnight, and with the distinct impression that crocque monsieur and ille flotante were perhaps an unwise supper combination – at least with a 2003 Barolo and a 22 year-old Volnay – I survive to report that the sky is again cloudless and things are a couple of degrees warmer: At 10am it’s 18°C in the shade – the equivalent was 16°C yesterday – still, it’s hardly August. Apart from one or two tractors giving the chardonnay vines a final haircut, the ‘white domaines’ of the Côte de Beaune seem a long way from considering it appropriate to bring in their chardonnay – probably starting next week said one grower. The Côtes look [....]
30th august – beaune & savigny
Last night was enjoyed; dinner with two winemaker friends in Beaune. The location was Bistro de Beaune, attached to the Hotel de Beaune which adjoins Place Carnot. Nice, relaxing decor and a Bressé chicken to die for. Despite still being nice people, the only negative was their service; bringing the vegetables when we were already halfway through the main course, never bringing the milk for my coffee and taking 15 minutes to bring the bill – 3rd time of asking – were the main complaints. We also enjoyed an amusing interlude; I plumped for a 2000 Henri Boillot Chassagne 1er Les Chaumées. As it was poured it was obviously rather darker coloured than our expectation, only a sniff was required in confirmation; it was rather [....]
29th august – wet côtes
Harvesting in La Tâche I left Switzerland at 7:00am – accompanied by thunder and lightening. It’s 240km to Dijon where the BBC assured me I would find unbroken sunshine, but for the first 200 of those kilometres it rained – sometimes biblically. 40km to go and the rain stopped, 25km to go and we even have traces of blue sky and flashes of sun – amazing! It’s obviously rained overnight in the Côte d’Or and it’s hardly unbroken sunshine either but I’m not complaining. I started my tour of ‘vine inspection’ in Marsannay, slowly working my way south. Lunch at La Maison Vigneron (Chambolle), after lunch an appointment with a producer before continuing south to my harvest ‘home’ in Beaune. The grapes in the Côte [....]
itchy grape-sorting fingers
Tomorrow I’m in the Côtes. My normal harvest ‘home’ will start with minor appellations on Thursday so I will have plenty of time tomorrow to look around the vineyards and see the plight – or not – of the grapes. I know that some have already started their harvests, while others tell me: “We will begin the 4th of September, we must wait, it’s not enough ripe everywhere. The weather forecasts are not bad so we take the risk …” Certainly the weather was poor last week, but this week and next it is set fair (allegedly!) but still rather cool for the time of the year, exemplified by the graph above (which I stole from Météo Savigny-lès-Beaune) that shows you how much colder August [....]
varia
Long, but eminently readable – this is an excellent article on the Koch/fakes/Rodenstock saga as it unfurls…
chablis 2006 tisserandes
2006 Chablis Les Tisserandes This is a cheap cuvée sold each year and bottled for the Co-op in Switzerland – I don’t know who by – almost always on a special offer and in this case for just under 10 Swiss francs – about £4 or €7. Each year I buy a bottle, but rarely more – in such a vintage as 2005 it was somehow watery and inconsequential – how could they have made a decent in in 2006? Don’t expect miracles at this price-point, but this is actually not bad. Medium pale green-yellow. A wide if faint, but interesting high-toned nose. Clean, well textured with a very nice crescendo of acidity coming into the mid-palate. Medium length. What helps this wine deliver is [....]
vitis vinifera/pinot noir genome unravelled
The finished sequence is the work of a consortium of French and Italian researchers led by Patrick Wincker, a geneticist based at Genoscope — the French national genetic-sequencing facility in Evry. Full analysis of the more than 30,000 genes contained within the sequence could aid breeding strains with novel flavours or better pest resistance. Source Link to the project at the Centre National de Séquençage. Clearly the PFVini will be unhappy!
potel 99 bourgogne maison dieu
1999 Nicolas Potel, Bourgogne Maison Dieu Medium, medium-plus ruby-red colour. The nose is deep, with dark oak coating more distant baked red cherry, topped by higher-toned alcoholic notes. Initially good acidity starts to turn a little bright in the mid-palate and even faintly bitter as it runs into the finish – but I’m being picky here. To focus purely on the acidity ignores reasonably well grained tannin and ripe, oak coated fruit. This remains an above average and quite young bourgogne that is pretty well balanced and still needs a couple more years in the cellar – I decided it would always retain its oaky base, but to prove me wrong, on day two the remnants were largely free of it and very nice. Rebuy [....]
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The trails and tribulations front of house… The top restaurants; pole dancing, vomiting “happens all the time”, sex in the washroom – no it’s busy, let’s try under the table…
le montrachet, j-f bazin (1990)
“At first it seems ridiculous to devote a whole book to a few acres of stony hillside, owned through the ages by an ever-changing, ever-squabbling gang of greedy rustics, producing a mere 30,000 bottles of wine per year.” So starts the foreward by Nicolas Faith who edited this English translation of Jean-François Bazin’s 1988 publication in French, Le Montrachet, and it’s about the only tongue-in-cheek moment in the whole book. Don’t let that put you off. Despite the profiles of the domaines that own parts of Montrachet (or it’s hyphenated neighbours) being 20 years out of date, this 190 page book is worth any second-hand purchase you might find. Bazin meticulously works his way through the history of the area and the families that owned [....]
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Adding fuel to the bottle replication fire, this is an excellent piece. Snails, hired women, Paris Hilton, Tina Turner, Pommard and Ketchup – in that order! And this I like very much – Chateau Pétrogasm Finally, does (should) wine have a gender?
dujac 95 clos de la roche
1995 Dujac, Clos de la Roche The colour is starting to take on a shade of mahogany, not perfectly bright – but see through. Aromatically it’s about heavy stems over pretty red fruit – cherry, strawberry and raspberry – and a little ‘raised’ balsamic impression. The palate is well textured and apart from a little extra width and intensity in the mid-palate, the wine is about understated, balanced delivery. The finish is almost good – no more. I think my last bottle was 3-4 years ago, the colour is a little older and the tannin is softer. Certainly very good, but my expectation is for outstanding. Rebuy – Maybe
