2006 Château de Marsannay, Gevrey-Chambertin
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose begins with deep but narrow aromas with a little mint-leaf and occasional but very pretty flowers and cream. There seems not too much tightening of flavour yet – there’s still a little rasp of tannin and a reasonable width of flavour too. Good acidity, which helps further expand the flavours in the mid-palate, which also shows a nice floral aspect. A more than adequate wine for the label!
Rebuy – Yes
2001 Joseph Drouhin, Echézeaux
Medium colour. The nose offers occasional floral flashes, there is little on show here, perhaps just a little warm brown sugar. Sweetness of fruit and just a faint sour edge to good acidity. There’s a nice core of flavour, still with a faint rasp of tannin and quite some complexity – like a creamy cinnamon flavour but it’s all in the mid-palate and finish. This, grand cru or not, is a wine of subtle complexity rather than intensity and/or concentration. There should be no rush to drink this, but this is hardly even a middle-weight of a wine – that said, it was lovely!
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Henri Naudin-Ferrand, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune
The label says ‘Orchis Mascula’ – not sure if that’s just a bit of decoration, or the name of the cuvée. Dark, slightly spicy aromas, hints of sweet smoke – almost certainly some stems – approaching a floral perfume. A nice width of flavour, then the acidity comes to the fore – but no problem – a hint of tannin too as you head into the finish. An hour later and it’s rounder, better balanced and quite tasty with a clear strawberry flavour. Good wine – a second bottle in the cellar should be quite interesting with a few more years…
Rebuy – Maybe
And not corked!!!
Maybe it’s my biorhythms – I don’t know, but this is the third bottle out of the last four I’ve opened that is irredeemably corked – triple-ouch!!!
I’ve been lucky enough to both drink and taste a reasonable amount of Comte Lafon’s wines, but I’m ashamed to say that I’d none in my cellar before I bought this. There’s plenty of white Lafon for sale at auction – no surprise in these times of p.ox – but the reds are much rarer, so it is with some irony that the first of this immaculate looking 6-pack turned out to be lightly corked – grrr, that’s two in a row – but what about the second?
1992 Comtes Lafon, Monthélie 1er Les Duresses
Beautiful medium-red colour, no obvious browning or bricking. The nose is highly engaging (this time!); a macerating, baked redcurrant note with just the merest hint of a creamy coating – interestingly there’s a little 2004-style pyrazine here too – of ~2/10 green meanie intensity – a level that adds interest, rather than turns the stomach. It starts with a narrow flavour profile, but it’s balanced, indeed fresh – a little time in the glass allows the shape of wine to fill out some. The fruit has just enough ripeness and a very faint astringency (still). I might be tempted to say that I’m drinking this a little young, but I’m finding much of interest here. At a good price I certainly might buy again.
Rebuy – Maybe
For interest, just like young oak can mask parts per trillion of pyrazines, it seems so can parts per billion of TCA – it was possible, but very much harder to discern the pyrazine component in the corked bottle, whereas (at my level of sensitivity) it was rather easy for this wine. Blind I would have 100% guessed it was a 2004, indeed, this actually has better colour than many 2004s!
I really don’t buy Fourrier any more, it’s become just a little too expensive, but 1999-2005 it was on my annual purchase list. With sausage and rosti coming up, it seemed that this 2003 would have been just the job, but (my first for quite some time) it is completely and utterly corked.
To quote Patrice Rion: “imagine all that work, spoiled…”
Drunk at the weekend (the bottle not me!), and like the Remy of yesterday, this was also the second, and last, of two – this time ‘almost’ as good as the first.
1969 Thomas-Bassot, Chambolle-Musigny
The nose needed just a few minutes to deliver its perfume of cushioned dark red fruit – perhaps not as ethereal as the first bottle, but lovely none-the-less. Once more a very clean and tasty wine delivering volume, dimension and still a little tannin. Very nice length, that’s still dominated by the fruit. What a lovely, elegant yet still robust wine.
Rebuy – Yes
My second, and last, bottle of this – a similar performance I think.
1985 Louis Remy, Clos de la Roche
Ten minutes are needed for the nose to open, but when it does…
Stunning, sweet-inflected red blood, faint smoke and precise layers of fruit – glorious stuff. The palate is very fine, showing ripe fruit and nice acidity – just a little minerality too. I still expect more oomph from a Grand Cru – the intensity and concentration is more that of a villages – churlish to complain (perhaps) as this is both complex and compelling. Just beautiful wine. This time around, none was left to oxidise overnight!
Rebuy – Yes
Some burned leaves in the Côte d’Or today – Santenay mainly – frost and ice on very young leaves from the buds that have already burst – I hope it’s rather limited.
In theory we were 2-3 days ahead of (even) last year, which predicted another harvest start in August, but this may have made live much more difficult / more heterogenous.
1999 Thomas-Moillard, Romanée Saint-Vivant
The colour’s quite dark. Aromatically this is rather monolithic for quite some hours – only on day two do you have more of a Vosne impression, but there is still a solid core of dark, almost roast, licorice-laced fruit. There’s good acidity and balance – just a little lithe in shape and it’s also sneakily, mouth-wateringly long. Whilst it’s not very tannic, there’s the clear impression that everything that could have been extracted, was extracted. Drinkable but despite that, a mile away from drinking ‘nicely’. Wait at least 10 years…
Rebuy – Maybe
Well, what else are you supposed to do when it rains? Maybe a note or two over the next days! In the meantime to give your mouse something to do, try Lettie Teague‘s view of 2010 blanc.
