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1974 joseph drouhin chambolle les amoureuses
1974 Joseph Drouhin, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Amoureuses Clean, bright medium coloured, clear at the rim. The nose has depth, initially with a hint of must – I’ll come back to it. In the mouth this is clean, indeed has cleansing acidity but without being tart. It seems linear and a little dilute – only in the mid-palate does it begin to unfold and deliver waves of decently intense flavour. By now the nose has tidied up and there’s a hint of pyrazine, but it’s more coal than coal-tar and adds an interesting dimension, another hour on and it smells fabulous with perfect red berries over a faintly musky base. So, this is silky and subtle, but with clean and long-lasting flavours and just the right [....]
panos does burgundy 2008 vs 2009…
An article in France Today, yesterday! No comments from me as my own 2011,2010,2009 trilogy will be online in couple of weeks – except(!) – I wish I’d been there [archive]
pavillon 2009 volnay 1er les santenots
2009 Domaine du Pavillon, Volnay 1er Les Santenots Medium-plus colour. Deep, dark fruit with floral top notes and a hint of mineral – limited width but great top to bottom dimension. Full, rounded and quite sensuous; not too sweet and there is good buffering acidity. Dark fruit tones and a velvet tannin that you have to search for. Long lasting on a mineral note. More challenging than the Bouchard ‘baby Jesus’ today and a better wine for it – the future can look after itself. Super wine and something of a bargain. Rebuy – Yes And two fun things: Is Keith having a joke at the expense of Alice ? Plus cartoon of the week!
Wine, Millefeuille Press, (2011)
Subtitled: The basics of wine. When this book arrived, I have to say that I was surprised; from the picture you have the impression that this book is constructed very much along the lines of the recent book by Jasper Morris, only after it is delivered you realise that it is actually half the size – A5. The presentation if this book is actually first-class: The format is of a heading and a descriptive text and a nice photo. No subject gets more than two pages of text, usually just one, and as you will see below, the text pages are really half-pages. The text has been supplied by Romana Echensperger, Fiona Morrison and Filip Verheyden, a mix of MW and MW candidates; an insert [....]
from the sublime to the ridiculous…
you choose – here or here… Thanks for a tip-off from Ray Walker for the latter…
l’enfant jesus and old man jacques…
Just an average Saturday night… 1959 Roger Moreau, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques Deeply coloured – still. The nose has a little oxidation – wait 20 minutes and it is only a memory; still hints of pure fruit from a largely understated nose. In the mouth you have the same as the nose – some oxidative flavours that entirely cure themselves with about 25 minutes in the glass. Full, round, good texture and still an underlay of great structure. Plenty of glycerol mouthfeel that gives an opulent impression. Could I guess it was from Gevrey? – no I couldn’t, did it spoil the enjoyment of comparing two wines with fifty years between them? – certainly not! Rebuy – No Chance 2009 Bouchard Père et Fils, Beaune [....]
1985 michel voarick pernand-vergelesses
1985 Michel Voarick, Pernand-Vergelesses What a nose; this jumps out of the glass, deep, musky, sweet, probably still plenty of dark oak – if you’d been told it was a Richebourg you wouldn’t be disappointed – not until you put it in your mouth anyway! The nose writes a cheque which the palate will never pay; there is a little fat and a nicely sweet lingering acidity that flows into the medium-plus finish. There is just a hint of tannin still and also some dimension to the mid-palate flavours. Overall this isn’t too bad but I’m left with the impression that I’m mainly sampling quercus, rather than Pernand. Fun and very much alive, if not quite my pre-eminent style-choice, yet it would be churlish of [....]
daniel rion 1995 vosne 1er beaux-monts
Plenty of new reading on my desk… Here’s a wine that I bought for a song at auction – hopefully it’s drinkable as there are 11 more in the cellar! I have a number of younger vintages (05, 07 and 09 – I must like ‘odd’ vintages!) all of which seem to me a bit more stylish than this, though I don’t know if that is down to the winemaking, the vintage or subsequent storage of the ’95. 1995 Daniel Rion, Vosne-Romanée 1er Beaux-Monts Medium-plus colour. The nose here is of just faintly roasted, spice-edged deep red fruit – not roasted enough to be off-putting but enough to be slightly sub-optimal for me – but it’s wide and involving and rather forward too. In the [....]
dubreuil-fontaine 1995 pernand 1er ile des vergelesses
1995 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Ile des Vergelesses Medium, medium-plus colour. Just like the 2008 of this wine there’s a hint of musky vanilla to go with a lovely red fruit. Initially there is fat and a lovely balancing acidity – nothing of the harshness of many from the vintage – quite some intensity of red, slightly sweet raspberry fruit too. I’m very impressed by how sophisticated this is. Day two and it’s still a little musky, but the vanilla is gone, it’s also starting to show something more common with other 95s; whilst there’s no rustic or harsh tannin, the intensity of the mid-palate flavour is just hinting at the stridency of others from this vintage. All I can say id drink-up and be impressed; [....]
1985 gevrey-chambertin clos saint jacques…
I’ve seen some very ordinary notes (12/20) about ‘Cave des Dauphin’ wines – that was an old Savigny – in fact that’s all I’ve seen, I’ve no info about the name. I’ve seen wines under that name from the 1950s and as late as 1989 but know nothing more. A négoce? or perhaps somebody in Switzerland or Germany who bought barrels and bottled locally? I don’t know, but a lot of 1985 Clos St.Jacques and Beaune Grèves plus 1989 Bonnes-Mares was too tempting at an auction – how bad could they be (joke!)? Well cosmetically how bad do you need? – the labels were virtually remnants. Anyway if you’ve any info, feel free to drop me a line or comment… 1985 Cave des Dauphin, Gevrey-Chambertin [....]
oldtimers…
Drank over two nights with new friends from the 2011 vendanges. The first two bottles, and particularly the second, underline the loss to the world of the concept of aged white burgundy… 1978 Bouchard Père et Fils, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Les Pucelles Golden. No hint of oxidation on the nose; there is some impact but it’s a little foursquare, hints of lanolin escaping from the glass. In the mouth – now we’re talking – good acidity and a lithe impression of restrained power. Decent length too. Belying its 33 years – this is lovely old white burgundy. 1984 Yves Boyer-Martenot, Meursault 1er Les Charmes Golden. Hmm now this also shows no oxidation and has a little spicy honey on the nose. There is less direct impact [....]
