Big Red Diary
2001 Chandon de Briailles, Corton Maréchaudes
Medium, medium-pale. The nose is oh-so scented, an obvious note of stems is intertwined with floral aspects over warm, red fruit – raspberry. Smooth and balanced, with an almost ethereal melting flavour impression. Like the nose it’s a warm red ‘comforting wine’ impression. It’s very ‘giving’ but that’s far from the same thing as ‘mature’ – tasty now but will live and growfor many years in the cellar…
Rebuy – Yes
It’s easy to throw bricks at the demenour of many participants on the eRobertParker web-forum, but it is (sans doubt) one of the best sources of info – provided you follow the right people 
Kevin Harvey is a winemaker whose posts on burgundy I enjoy following. Here he is, just back from a trip to burgundy with tons of useful and interesting information; 2007,2008,2009 vintages, p.ox and even “Gout Moisi-terreux” – frankly something which I haven’t heard very much about. It’s worth you working your way through the (currently) 2 pages as conversations develop and are added to by other winemakers like Blair Pethel.
NB: I didn’t point you in this direction just because everything he says is pretty-much in-line with what I’ve been writing here for months 
2006 David Clark, Bourgogne Passetoutgrains
Deep colour – plenty of purple too. The nose shows lots of reduction – about 90 minutes is needed for it to fade though it is never completely gone – deep brambly fruit and a herbal top-note. Linear entry and rather fine tannin – good balancing acidity that amplifies and widens the flavours across the mid-palate – it finishes really impressively. This is a relatively big wine – much more so than the domaine’s 2006 Morey St.Denis for instance. Well-done!
Rebuy – Yes
Just a quick apology and pre-apology!
The apology is for those users of the NoteFinder:
Leider benötigt Ihr Web im Moment 260 MB RAM. Ihnen stehen laut Vertrag jedoch nur 64 MB zu. Daher haben wir uns entschlossen Ihr Web auf 160 MB RAM zu begrenzen. Dies ist aus Schutz, da Sie sonst im schlimmsten Fall den ganzen Server für andere Kunden blockieren bzw. die Performance erheblich beeinträchtigen.
That basically mean that the ‘application’ is too successful so they will now make it fail in order to push me to spend 10x what I currently spend to make it work – nice huh! So sorry to those users that are fed up with how it works right now.
The pre-apology is because a few things could get quirky around here while I move it – TADA! – to a new solution. Hopefully it will be online by the weekend and will work
Apology mode over!
And now, from The Pour – A bargain at half the price…
Just back from Burgundy, and I feel such a relief knowing that my wines are under my own roof. Everything just seemed to fall right into place. The day of the move, I received my long awaited negociant license allowing me to move my wines to my own facility. Within two hours, I had rented a truck, found some friends to lend me the use of their forklifts and threw myself into the moment without taking time to think too much. Thankfully, this tactic didn’t bite me on the butt…too much.
With six of my barrels loaded up on the flatbed truck, silicon bungs in place, I headed out from Saint Aubin making my way to Nuits-Saint-Georges. Shortly after making a left around Puligny-Montrachet, I looked in the rearview mirror to spot wine spouting upwards and out of the barrel due to an escaped bung. Looking inside the barrel and on the floor of the flatbed, just a small amount managed to get out the barrel. Coming to a quick stop, I checked for the bung coming up empty handed. I was lucky enough to have a fresh dress shirt I had planned to wear after working. Today, it worked as an emergency bung until I got to a winery equipment shop in Meursault. I replaced all the silicon bungs with wooden bungs. These bungs are used along with a piece of burlap which sits between the wooden bung and the bung of the barrel. I pushed on toward Nuits, realizing that at any moment my move was being put in danger.
Arriving in Nuits, I picked up the forklift of a friend and went to work. It was quite an experience having my new neighbors stand outside the door to my courtyard watching, waiting for the new guy to mess up. Well, never to let anyone down I did just that. Luckily, no one was watching. Getting off the first two racks went quickly. The last was where things went pear shaped. I ended up driving too deep onto the dirt near my courtyard. Due to the recent snow and rain (you can see where this is going…) the dirt was now mud in some spots. I ended up digging the right side wheels deep into the mud, causing the drive wheel to be raised off the ground. I tried all sorts of ways to get the wheel down, at times just managing to burn rubber on the ground. Due to this delay, I was unable to make another trip that night. My friend came by later that night and helped free the forklift. He had a rope and I basically used the truck to drag the forklift in a downward motion which gave him traction to be freed.
The next day, my last of the trip, I started out at 6am. Two trips were made bringing the barrels over. I had made the choice of foregoing pumps early on which left just a few options. I could find a way to bring the barrels down my cave stairs full or siphon out using a tube. I chose the tube method. Placing empty barrels in the cave on the mares (runners) went without a hitch. Full barrels were placed at the top of the stairs with a food grade silicon tube measuring 15 meters stretching from the cave entrance to the placed empty barrels inside the cave. My friend was there to help siphon the first three barrels with me. At around 11:30pm, my friend noted how it would be impossible to finish that night. I said I would continue on, though I had a 5:30am. After he left, I just went about it knowing I had to finish up.
The empty barrels were easy to bring down. I placed them horizontally, wrapping my arms on each side. Walking backwards I would make the trip down the stairs without stopping. If I needed to rest, I’d place the barrel on the closest step above me. Once the process was in motion, the last barrel drained was left with it’s lees (I did cuvee by cuvee) so I had to be sure to carry the barrel, bung side up. Of note, when the temp dropped below freezing, all of the water that I sprayed at the top of the stairs turned to ice. A bit more dangerous. But, things still went rather quickly and efficiently.
By 5:30am I had completed the last eight barrels without issue, leaving just one barrel of Morey Saint Denis – Les Chaffots to be siphoned. My friend had offered to finish up whatever I left. And, with a 5:30am cab, 6:31am TGV in Dijon and a 1pm flight from Paris, I needed to get going. Just as I was about t close my eyes on the TGV my other friend called me up asking if I needed help. Within an hour, the last barrel was siphoned. With all the Maison Ilan wines finally under my roof I could rest. I can say that I have never slept that good before.
I needed to take the oxidative taste from my mouth. With the exception of 2003, I’ve bought every vintage of this since its inaugural 2001 – my expectations are high:
2007 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents de Chien
Pale greeny-yellow. Effusive, wide, fresh but there’s a serious core – even if the layers above do much to obscure it. It’s hard to talk of texture because the acidity, ‘augmented’ by a hint of petillance, means that the wine doesn’t hang around on your tongue for long. Plenty of extra dimension in the mid-palate and the fruit has a very nice tang to it. Slowly lingering flavour. This wine certainly exhibits the rawness of youth so needs a little cellar time to settle down but I’m sure the wait will be worth it – on day two everything was much more composed!
Rebuy – Yes
Friday was a day in the Côtes – and pretty cold it was too! White (mainly) fluffy stuff was hitting the car and ground for 99% of the journey to Beaune, but 5km from the Beaune exit and the snow was gone – unfortunately rain prevailed – still I wasn’t going to be walking the dog was I?
I managed a mere 3 visits during the day – and whilst the wines did their best to cheer people up, the mood was mainly sombre; A number of producers expect/hope to ’sit-out’ the economic malaise during 2010 and see the 2009 vintage as their saviour. Time will tell…
The normal antidote to any malaise is to spend a little time with Bernard Repolt of Maison Remoissenet, so our last visit of the day was a cheery one. This time Bernard had to dash, but he left us in the more than capable hands of Claudie Jobard who made the wines – we left with a good feeling, despite my spitting! – back home at a not unreasonable 9:15pm…
So, what to open? I’ve loved both this vintage and the 2002 from Guyon, but here’s another example why you shouldn’t save white burgundy too long…
2000 Antonin Guyon, Corton-Charlemagne
Medium straw colour. The nose shows oxidative notes, nuts and a hint of lanolin. In the mouth the texture is good – concentrated and silky – intense, dry, very well balanced, but the flavour that obscures much is an oxidative one. Drinkable – but without joy – probably opened 6-12 months too late and, if anything, was slightly worse on day 2…
Rebuy – No
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For those with an interest, above are links to the merchants’ offers for the usual (UK) January EP-a-thon…
My most recent thoughts on the vintage can be found here, and I’ve already bought wines in both colours. Jancis has also just added a little detail in her weekend FT column, which you can see here and additionally here.
For clarity, the merchants have paid a token fee for listing & I make no comment as to the merits of each offer, or who I’m buying from!
2006 Nicolas Potel, Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles Vignes
Medium, medium-plus colour. A wide panorama of aromas; acid cherries, a deep, dark, slightly musky base and some violet aromas above – lots of interesting components if not quite a ‘together’ impression. The texture is okay, you’re drawn to the slight astringency more than anything, but there is an excellent intensity for a villages wine. Reasonably narrow on entry but the flavour becomes ever-wider and and quite long too. There’s plenty of slightly floral pot-pourri together with the fruit. Good acidity and an evident back-bone of structure. No simple ‘villages’ this, today it’s not perfectly ‘together’ either aromatically or in the mouth – it will need some cellar time – but the basics are here for a very good performance. Wait – perhaps – another 5 years or-so…
Rebuy – Yes
2007 Cornu, Ladoix 1er Le Bois Roussot
Medium colour. The nose has a little oaky vanilla and a mineral infused but faint red fruit. Nice soft texture backed by an oak-spiced red fruit. There’s width and complexity in the mid-plate, but the density could be better considering that this is a 1er cru. Day two and the oak is much less prominent, though the acidity is less soft. Quite nice overall – for now, decant for an hour and drink on day one.
Rebuy – Maybe
What a little gold-mine this book turned out to be!
A compact, if not quite pocket-sized, volume of around 120 pages. Published by Pitman in 1977 and reprinted (my copy) in 1978 – also signed by the author. But what of the author? – it’s the first time I’ve heard the name.
According to the introduction, Graham has a background of 25 years in the business (ITB), and whilst he indicates some work together with Pierre Maufoux of Santenay, it’s not initially clear if that is in France or the UK. About 40 pages into the book we find that he works (worked) for Laytons Wine Merchants.
The book is structured around the following sections:
Early on, Graham suggest that he’s not much of a writer, and there are a couple of ‘clunks’ in the opening pages, but then either he got into his stride or I got into mine, because it reads well and his depth of knowledge and pragmatism shines through. He does seem rather ’suspicious’ of the trend towards domaine-bottling, but there’s an ‘old shipper’ for you
Given that this was first published in 1977, we can assume the text was put together sometime 1975-1976, yet portions of that text could be culled from almost any generation:
“when Burgundy prices, even for the more ordinary wines are rising sharply and some of the cherished names are now in a price-bracket that seems beyond decency…!”
I liked the early discussion of various ‘fraternities’. We all know the Chevaliers du Tastevin and most have heard of the Piliers Chablisiens, but what about the Cousinerie de Bourgogne or the Comité de Bourgogne et l’Ordre des Grands Ducs d’Occident? There is even a hint of a Neal Martin – style observation:
[Observations on a Clos de Vougeot banquet...] “At intervals the whole company in invited to join in by singing the Ban Bouguignon, a song that consists chiefly of the syllables ‘la, la la’, with wagging of the hands held above the head and clappings”
Clearly from the text, the 1970s was a time when many smaller vine-owners came home from a ’steady’ day-job to tend their vines – I assume a slightly better ‘living’ has been made from the vines for that last 10+ years.
Anyway, despite a good history section, this is a book worth having on the shelf as a snapshot of the 1970s, rather than for specific grower histories (there’s none of that). Some attitudes are timeless, others fit their time. I’ll leave you with a few:
[Millerandage, a term used today to sell a vintage, not-so in the 1970s] “A result of coloure, when bunches of grapes do not fully ripen, millerandage leaves only small green berries on the vine. If these bunches reach the winemaking stage, they impart a harsh and bitter flavour to the wine”
“…the sale of grapes in Burgundy by the grower to the shipper (négoce) is declining today”
“It is also alleged that the Côte de Nuits are beginning to suffer from over-fertilisation of the vineyards to force up production. My experience is not extensive enough to assess the truth of this particular anxiety. However, colour in these wines does seem to be lessening. Too many are lacking in body and, often, they do not have the rich generosity characteristic of the exceptional finesse found in the best wines.”
“Remember never to drink labels – just because the name, vintage and presentation appear great, do not automatically assume that the wine will be equally great. Always go directly to the wine – let it speak for itself. …Certainly in Burgundy the best dressed bottles often contain the dreariest wines…”
“Look out for the off-vintage, gradually learn to trust the shippers whose wines you enjoy by recording the taste impressions. It is no value to blindly follow one shipper or group of shippers because ‘you are told X is a fine shipper’. Discover for yourself – do not accept reputations that can be commercially advanced without quality. Decide for yourself, remain open-minded, be critical and be reasonable enough to change your mind with grace. After all, Burgundy is fun.”
Amen!
