Rebuy – Maybe (2011)

2008 Bouchard Père, Beaune 1er Beaune du Château Gradually there are some higher, floral tones and eventually a few flashes of tobacco too, but mainly this has a deeper register of dark fruit buttressed by equally dark oak. Round, plenty of sweet depth, just a little cushioning, balanced by close to perfect acidity. There’s plenty of flavour here, but I really can’t find the ‘Beaune’, and that’s because such a large part of the flavour profile is the sweetness of dark oak. Despite that oak, this has quite a measure of elegance – this is a lovely wine – but it needs to shed a lot of non-grape derived flavour before it becomes a lovely Beaune. Rebuy – Maybe

1989 Cave du Dauphin, Bonnes-Mares Medium colour. There is a hint of roasted to the fruit but generally this is not so bad, rounded with a faint pot-pourri note. The fruit is ripe enough and actually shows a good mineral tension; not the last word in intensity, but not bad either. The acidity is just fine and you can still get a few grains of tannin too. Probably not an exceptional Bonnes-Mares, but a nice enough bottle. Rebuy – Maybe

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 [....]

2009 David Clark, Bourgogne Au Pelson Does my nose deceive me? This smells of stems – not entirely smoky, more the slightly herbaceous version – it’s better if you keep it below 18°C. Very good freshness, intensity and length too but the flavour although there is some sweetness also has a borderline ripeness about it. The finish is very good. Although I don’t find stems ‘criminal’, this wine is far from it’s drinking peak today – based on my experience of other stemmy cuvées (I’m assuming that there really are stems within) this will have a great perfume, but only from 2014… Rebuy – Maybe Note: I checked David’s website, and this wine was actually 100% whole cluster. Just give it time… And bringing you [....]

This was beautiful two years ago – still as good now? 1996 Maison Leroy, Bourgogne Medium colour. The nose starts a little disappointingly with something that reminds me of brett – this is backed-up with a metallic taste – my first bottle like this. Time in the glass and the aroma is less overt, eventually showing a baked tart red fruit. In the mouth the metallic taste is transient, leaving a smooth, nicely acidic wine with decent intensity of warm round fruit and a mouth-watering finish. My last bottle was much finer but if brett is the culprit, all or none of my remaining bottles could have it. Still as the character faded this was very drinkable indeed. Rebuy – Maybe

I openly admit that I’m an advocate of letting wines age; I may not be searching for near-death experiences but I’m also interested in letting wines express themselves. With a rush (rash?) of decent vintages starting to pile-up what should you expect if you stock up on 2009s and look to play the ‘long game’? 1985 was a ripe vintage, analogous might be 1990, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2009, though that middle trio will have more acidity and perhaps even more aging potential. It’s a simple test: take a couple of basic, twenty-five year-old villages wines from 1985 and see what awaits. In this case one is from a no-name negociant which nobody has heard of but apparently was still making wines in at least [....]