By billn on June 1, 2007
2000 des Chézeaux, Gevrey-Chambertin
Medium-pale ruby-red. The nose starts with a waft of sweet oak, 2 minutes later it’s gone, replaced by a forward and ripe mix of strawberry/raspberry against a developing, more tertiary background. Sweet and soft with a good intensity in the mid-palate, the slowly mouthwatering finish is not bad either. This is a medium-weight wine that’s relatively easy drinking and simple but very tasty – shows the friendly side of the vintage.
Rebuy – Yes
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - Yes (2007) |
By billn on May 30, 2007
This wine has wonderful packaging – Faiveley (who currently make this wine) will certainly not achieve the same level of interest – I expect, however, that the contents will be significantly improved, even if you don’t like the Faively style!
1996 Jaboulet-Vercherre, Beaune 1er Clos de l’Ecu
Medium-pale ruby-red. The nose has a high-toned start with a little resinous/green background, slowly a little jammier depth comes through. The palate is a little thin, with tart acidity, mild tannin and a rather unripe finish – if you persevere, your palate adjusts a little and there is some apparent sweetness – but I wouldn’t recommend it. Is this the worst wine I’ve opened this year? – well there was that 96 Lamadon Echézeaux, but more on that another day – for now this has that dubious award.
Rebuy – No Way
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - No (2007) |
By billn on May 29, 2007
2005 Jean-Claude Boisset, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er La Serpentière
Deeply coloured with a purple rim. Wide and high-toned aromatics on opening, very slowly deepens with black cherry and a snip of cream. Lithe entry, expanding in the mid palate with perfect acidity. The well-covered tannin is quite silky. Finally the nose is of redcurrant with a twist of tobacco – very nice. It’s young but a little easier to drink than the 05 Hautes Jarrons and certainly more elegant, but I just tend more towards the personality of the Hautes Jarrons – from 2012+
Rebuy – Yes
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - Yes (2007) |
By billn on May 28, 2007
1996 Hospices de Beaune, Beaune 1er Cuvée Nicolas Rolin
A Chanson Père bottling. Medium-plus colour. The nose is deep and forward but throughout most of our time together it was always a little uncouth – there was finally a pretty red fruit note to save it. The palate is much better; density, very good acidity, background tannin and rather long – though like many from 96 the flavour profile is just a little metallic. Quite tasty but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy more.
Rebuy – No
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - No (2007) |
By billn on May 25, 2007
1997 D Rion, Nuits St.Georges Vignes Rondes
Medium-plus ruby-red. The nose starts with deep, musky oak, only very slowly does a lovely red berry note start to come through – actually it becomes very nice indeed.
The palate is lithe though concentrated and shows balanced acidity. The tannin is there but you must search hard to find it. The finish is long, but like the nose, rather oak driven and, hence, just a little bitter.
A good wine that is not at all easy to spot as a ’97 and needs at least another 3 years to start coming into maturity.
Rebuy – Yes
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - Yes (2007) |
By billn on May 24, 2007
Hallelulia! I was beginning to fall out with Guy!
His wines are honest and tasty, never the nth degree of class or complexity – but always fulfilling that important question: Did you enjoy it? – yes. Last week I came home from travels and decided what better to recover than Guy’s 1999 Clos de la Roche – hmm – horribly corked! So last night after a hard couple of days I though; ‘okay the 1998′. First sniff was okay, second… cork., I swore under my breath!
So why not continue the sequence with 1997…
1997 Guy Castagnier, Clos de la Roche
Medium ruby-red colour with more than a passing shade of amber at the rim. The fresh nose has some lovely componets; high tones, coffee, sweet undergrowth, unfortunately they don’t really meld together in a particularly interesting way. The palate has more interest, starting with a narrow entry it opens nicely on the mid-palate and shows good intensity. The acidity sticks out a little but there is sweetness and a very impressive length. Overall there’s no real class here – it’s very drinkable despite the rough edges, but hardly a grand cru experience – at least it wasn’t corked!
Rebuy – No
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - No (2007) |
By billn on May 22, 2007
2005 Jean-Claude Boisset, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Hauts Jarrons
From 45 year-old vines. Frankly on opening this reminds more of shiraz than pinot – Clarendon Hills style – you can take that as a criticism. The colour is deep purple – only just see-thru. The nose starts deep and, well – shiraz like; some high tones and mineral with a faint sweet topping. The nose very slowly unfurls, first with black cherry then red berry fruit – now we’re talking – day 2 and it’s lovely. The palate is linear and intense but there’s no expansion in the mid-palate, rather a laser-like run for the finish making it almost ‘lean’. That finish is quite long and also a little mineral, but very understated. The texture is, however, textbook pinot noir with soft tannins underpinned with very good acidity. If the nose was a little more fruit-driven (day 1) and if the mid-palate was to fill-out a little, you could easily mistake it for Leroy. Note that other ‘JCB’ Savigny 1ers like Serpentières and Dominode are better still, yet all cost only about €16! Hard to drink today as this needs lots of time, but infinitely better, yet cheaper, than most ‘luxury’ bourgognes…
Rebuy – Yes
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - Yes (2007) |
By billn on May 21, 2007
2005 Camille Giroud, Bourgogne Pinot Noir
A wide and ripe nose with red-shaded fruit – eventually a toffee note comes through too. On the palate there’s still some dissolved carbon dioxide – 2005 was the first year that David Croix didn’t rack during elevage. There’s good depth and balance and a very above average length for the appellation. A very easy re-buy choice, as blind you would think this at least a villages wine.
Rebuy – Yes
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - Yes (2007) |
By billn on May 21, 2007
Did you already eat?
The ingredients (other than blood and guts):
Bertrand Celce is bringing plenty of colour to your desktop…
Posted in Other Sites |
By billn on May 20, 2007
2004 des Chézeaux (Ponsot), Griotte-Chambertin
The nose starts high-toned with a backdrop of vintage 2004 cedar. Slowly the cedar recedes giving space for a much more mineral aspect than is usual for this vineyard and certainly less alluring. The palate is silky with fresh acidity and super intensity, but unusually the length is again very mineral. It’s actually quite super, but I’d never pick it as Griotte. Day 2 the nose is transformed to the classic soft, but deep red cherry, perhaps including also a shade of raspberry and importantly the cedar is totally vanished – that’s very promising. The palate gains a little more depth and the finish remains unchanged – mineral but very long. This could become a super wine – but wait for 2015 as a minimum – I think it will need it as it was even slightly better on day 3!
Rebuy – Yes
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - Yes (2007) |
By billn on May 18, 2007
Many people – pundits included – like to have a definitive answer for why there is the green-streak in (possibly) a majority of 2004 reds, some growers say that even whites show it. The most common response (given reason) is phenolic maturity with equal second place (should that be third?) going to hail/rot. Well many that show the trait saw no hail and also no rot – the phenolic ripeness crew are now looking smug – but wait: Here is a wine made by Laurent Ponsot – the last of the late pickers – that shows the trait, do you really expect me to believe it’s a ripeness issue? On opening, his Griotte initially shows it to an even higher level, more of that when I eventually write the note.
In the end I feel pretty safe to continue describing this as a ‘post-bottling vintage phenomenon’ which I hope will fade as it arrived i.e. unheralded, because the unimpaired 2004′s continue to drink like 1996′s with fruit – in fact fresh fruit coulis wines.
2004 des Chézeaux (Ponsot), Chambolle-Musigny 1er Charmes
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. The nose starts virtually cedar-free with a tight, round core of red fruit. Slowly there develops a lovely deep red cherry note and bit-by-bit a background of cedar emerges – not enough to spoil the wine, just enough to point to its origin. Good texture and lovely acidity, it’s a wine that starts narrow but opens wider and wider, expanding into a good if rather mineral-infused finish. There’s a reasonable amount of tannin but it’s finely grained. I’d leave this about 5 years before revisiting. Day 2 the cedar is 90% gone (hopefully a positive sign) and we have a lovely, long and tasty wine that would be a certain rebuy.
Rebuy – Yes
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - Yes (2007), The Market |
By billn on May 17, 2007
Here is a bottle designed to cause injury to delivery personnel – at about 50% heavier than the standard bottle it will add 4 kilos (9 pounds) to a 12-pack – though perhaps they only come in six-packs. Some might call this a statement, but it’s a more like ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ if you ask me…
Anyway I’ve wanted to get to grips with a wine from this maker for a while – he seems to polarise opinion; ‘brilliant wines, but not my style’ say influentiul critics. I’m assuming there will be a lot of oak – but let’s see.
2004 Lucien Le Moine, Bourgogne Rouge
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. Obviously a 2004 with soft cedar top-notes that mingle with raspberry and eventually redcurrant. When opened there is too much carbon dioxide; you can see the density and good texture but little else. I stoppered it and returned next day. The CO2 is gone and the fine texture and good depth remain. I’m sure there’s more villages wine than than ‘regional’ in this blend – it’s almost good and apart from the texture I see little overt oak. So what’s the rub? – Well, €18 per bottle (in Beaune) – it’s good, but not that good.
Rebuy – Maybe
I probably won’t pay the (high) entry price to check on the more famous labels.
Posted in Degustation, Rebuy - Maybe (2007) |
