By billn on January 7, 2012
Olivier Lamy’s high density planting in St.Aubin is for me, one of the iconic wines of Burgundy – despite vines that were planted only about 12 years ago – as such the wine can only get better! Here is a nice video showing them using their ‘Swiss plough’; the slope is too steep for a horse, downhill anyway. To go with the earlier pictures, here is a video also gives you an hint of the difficulty you may have if you visit Olivier – he speaks the fastest French I ever encountered – I think he’s running at only 70% of usual speed for the video
Posted in Producer Update |
By billn on July 20, 2011
Perhaps the most astounding wine I’ve tasted this year is the ‘Haute Densité‘ of Olivier Lamy. He kindly sent me a few pics showing his team and the hard work needed to tend 30,000 vines per hectare!
Posted in Producer Update |
Visited and tasted 28th June 2010. Interesting that I came away wanting to buy Corton – and at my age too! – preferring the stricter, and much more precise, Cortons in preference to a range of very good xxx-Chambertins. The old wines still surprise here – if not beguile – they are far too bold for that! 2007 Camille Giroud, Beaune 1er Les Avaux Medium colour. Ripe red fruits with hints of coffee and minerality. Wide with a little more acid balance after the Cras if not the same density. A very pretty wine. 2007 Camille Giroud, Beaune 1er Aux Cras Medium colour. The nose delivers warm, slightly creamy red fruits. Width, warmth, plush, unctuous mid-palate. Very tasty though after an 08 you will miss [....]
A small selection of wines from 2007, tasted in September 2009. I thought that I noticed some slight development of style but wasn’t sure whether it was because of the vintage or because I was tasting ‘later’ from bottle rather than barrel – the usual oak tannin texture was missing in the finish of these wines, so I asked David Croix if he’d changed anything: Apparently there was slightly less newer barrels, in-part a response to a slightly more ‘tender’ vintage. Before the 07 notes, a few comments about the 2008s that I tasted here (from barel) at the end of October 2009: 2008s – With the single exception of the Beaune 1er Cras, a wine of pure jellied black fruits, bracing acidity and an [....]
By billn on June 24, 2008
Grégory Patriat scoops Gold AND the Pinot Noir Trophy for Jean-Claude Boisset with his 2006 Chambolle-Musigny. I happen to think that he made even better wines in 2006! Chapeau!
Posted in Producer Update |
By billn on May 28, 2008
I spotted this while taking a tour around Vosne the other week. It seems that (Château!) Domaine de Eugenie are not just increasing the prices for their wines, they are actually spending some money on facilities and updating them too! I know the owner of the building in the picture, so asked what was happening, but apparently no contracts are currently signed, so I won’t say who is selling the facility and why – not yet anyway Also I found an engrossing story about a couple (He Japanese, She Korean) making their life as producers of Burgundy. I love this quote – sums it up for me too: The couple say they want to make wine that makes you wonder what the next glass will [....]
Posted in Asides, Producer Update |
By billn on January 29, 2007
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 [....]
Posted in Degustation, Producer Update, Rebuy - No (2007), Rebuy - Yes (2007) |
By billn on January 28, 2007
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; [....]
Posted in Degustation, Producer Update, Rebuy - Maybe (2007), Rebuy - Yes (2007) |
By billn on November 5, 2006
I visited Domaine d’Ardhuy on Thursday. That meant that I had to visit again of Friday. Why? – well to collect the wines I ordered after the tasting of-course. It’s just one of those occupational hazards that one has to be prepared for…! Carel Voorhuis took me through a few barrels of pre-malolactic 2006′s, and then some of the remaining 2005′s in barrel. Finally we took a look at a few wines in bottle – quite a number of the 2005′s are already bottled at this estate. See some of my notes below from those already bottled wines: 2004 Domaine d’Ardhuy, Ladoix Blanc High-toned sweet nose. Nicely round palate with a good finish. Sound value. Rebuy – Yes 2004 Domaine d’Ardhuy, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Sous les [....]
Posted in Producer Update, Rebuy - Maybe (2006), Rebuy - Yes (2006) |
By billn on November 3, 2006
As discussed in my report back in July, the team at M&M have opened (only last weekend) their new ‘cellar-door’ facility – rather nice it is too – but if today was anything to go by, in January the refridgerator will be used to keep the wine warm! Best news from this follow-up visit is that I no-longer have taster’s angst – I liked the wines a lot in my first report, but Burghound was lukewarm – to be fair, Dr Meadows had the wines in the post only 5 days after they were bottled – anyway that bastion of good taste the wine spectator (actually Bruce Sanderson) weighed in with scores in the range 91-92/100 – shame then (for me) that M&M have already [....]
Posted in Aloxe-Corton, Producer Update |
