I didn’t have time to write about it before I went to Beaune, but on Sunday we drank a very, very impressive rosé.

It was a 2009 made by David Croix for Domaine des Croix; It was 100% pinot noir, a saignée from their 2009 Beaune 1er Les Cents Vignes (overnight so about 8 hours) fermented and then placed in a tank outside in the cold to ensure no malolactic fermentation. The tank actually spent much of the cold 2009/2010 winter with a semi-insulating cover of snow! So we have in our glass a very pretty medium-pale pink wine that didn’t go through malo, hence, had a pH of around 3.25. There was a bentonite fining and no filtration.

Apparently about 1,000 bottles of this screw-capped rosé were made, and none remain – I’m not a bit surprised! The aromatics are drop-dead gorgeous – full of violets and fainter red fruit. Let the wine warm in the glass and it starts to get a little fat, but direct from the refrigerator it was joy. Unfortunately it looks like I’ll have to wait for the 2010 if I want some more bottles!

That was Sunday, Thursday I opened a 2005 St.Aubin 1er Dents du Chien from Françoise et Denis Clair – it’s quite disappointing. I know all the other bottles from this case have been quite okay, but this one has some oxidative aromas. A dodgy cork, or real p.ox – it would be unfair to conjecture based on only one instance – but I won’t wait around for the remaining bottles….