2024 Beaujolais Nouveau Cuvée Novalis
This is my local (Swiss) Coop’s wine. As always, producer details are opaque – ‘Coop Bâle’ are the only details – except that the wine originates from Beaujolais! Some years this is to protect the obviously guilty – as the wine can be so bad – but this year, it’s a pleasant surprise – particularly given the variability of the 20024 primeurs. I do ask myself who makes any money here – this, 2 weeks after Nouveau Day costs only 4.75 Swiss franc with its 20% discount. Screw-cap.
Modest colour. The nose needs a couple of swirls but quickly offers an open, clean, quite bubble-gum aromatic – it’s not bad. Decent width of fresh flavour and a properly juicy, almost creamy depth of very tasty flavour – I took a second glass. The tannin is ultra-fine with just a faint initial dryness but afterwards I didn’t really notice. For the price it’s excellent – and I can’t say that every year about the Coop’s wine…
Rebuy – Why not!

2009 Gilles Bouton, Chassagne-Montrachet Les Voillenots Dessous
This was far from my favourite vintage on release – it seemed just too ripe – little did I know that this would be the template for just about every vintage post (and including) 2015!
Neither a deep colour, nor an obviously ripe nose – in fact this nose starts a little meagre. The palate too – there’s decent scale but a herby complexity and an obvious structure – the the finish is quite good. This is a wine that still needs some aging because on day 2 it was more acceptably softer and accommodating in flavour – it was quite good. At this stage not good enough to make a special search to buy – but a serviceable bottle. Probably much more approachable in 4-5 years…
Rebuy – No

2001 Frédéric Esmonin, Chambertin Clos de Bèze
2002 is a more consistent vintage than 2001 – but most of the best wines come from 2001 – there I said it!! I break far too many corks in bottles that are pre-2010 so I went straight for the Ah-So – so no problems.
More than medium colour but clearly a colour with some maturity. Ooh! That’s deep – and it’s inviting too – a silky depth of macerating red fruit and darker cherries – far from tertiary. Mouth-filling and silky too. Here is energy and complexity – some last vestiges of creamy oak but only as part of a large scale of complexity. Still some small finishing bitters too – but already quite silken. The finish haunting. More sensual than ‘grand’ as the structure is so hidden – but sensual works for me too*
Rebuy – Yes

Ah the weather !!

Just to add a little to this year’s precipitation figures, the snow arrived in Burgundy on Thursday. One of the first frosty mornings gave way to snowflakes starting to fall around 10h30 and quickly filling the rows between the vines – of course, it’s picturesque!

Only by chance did I consult Google on Friday – before leaving for home – and what luck that I did !! Here I found that my normal route home was closed, adding 7 hours additional journey time if I hadn’t been forewarned. So my Plan B route took me over the Jura – not quickly – as you can see above but the roads were always open and flowing. This added only 20 minutes to my usual journey time – what a lucky boy!

I left home on Sunday evening with 2°C, returning to 15°C at 8pm in Beaune – and all the snow was long gone – unlike at home. But the weekend had fortified me with:

2021 Château Thivin, Cote de Brouilly La Chapelle
Not my best buying choice – a wine still riddled with pyrazine aromas and flavours – but seemingly the least pyrazined of their range in this vintage. It’s not improved over the time in my cellar…
Rebuy – No

2018 Laurent Tribut, Chablis 1er Montmains
Well, there’s no doubting that this is from Chablis – incisive and mineral – nicely textured too. There a depth of riper, almost honied, flavour which has developed and this isn’t my favourite flavour profile – but a wine I can still drink with plenty of pleasure.
Rebuy – No

2005 AF Gros, Vosne-Romanée Clos de la Fontaine
Still deeply coloured and darkly aromatic – it’s still retaining some smokiness from the oak of it’s youth. Part the wine and part the elevage (probably) there’s plenty of spice in both the aromas and flavours. A wine of scale and still a baby – but now it’s an open one. Nearly 20 years old and probably not at its best for at least another 4 or 5 years – but a wine you can probably depend on for another 20 years…
Rebuy – Yes

2023 snow – part 1

2023 snow – part 2

2023 snow – part 3

weekend wines…

Right: Grassl & Sydonios (or Sy)

Last week whilst tasting some very nice Clos de Tart, winemaker Alessandro Noli asked me if I’d like to compare two different glasses. I was up for that – it also turned out to be a fascinating experience!!

Our tasting used the ‘traditional’ Sydonios Esthète glass as in multiple previous tastings here. But for a couple of wines, we compared our first impressions, made with that smaller Sy, with the larger bowled Grassl offering – and my takeaways were:

Wine #1 now with the Grassl
Of course, a larger nose now fills this larger bowl – but the effect is more airy and it’s also less easy to find the precisions. The wine on the palate seems more direct and fluid – the tannin softer/less evident – still great but it doesn’t really seem like the same wine – hardly!

Wine #2 now with the Grassl
A less concentrated but larger nose – here some spiciness not seen in the small glass. Supple, almost fluid again – a wine that melts more over the palate – I think more accessible too, and again partly due to more softness to the tannic structure. And, yes, a similar finishing shape, intensity and flavour to the smaller glass – except that the amplitude seems dialled down, it’s less intense but still ultra-long. Dumbed down? That would be unfair – but made a little easier!

If you have to make a choice – large-scale, important reds will seem more accessible as the texture of the tannin seems silkier – so maybe good for the table. Personally, I preferred the more visceral, full-volume performance of the smaller bowled Sydonios. The wine when served in this glass will be, for sure, stricter. But you know that I like strict 😉

Anyway, I want full volume when I’m tasting wines…

Sunday, November 17^th saw the 164^th edition of the Hospices de Beaune wine sale – the oldest charity wine auction – again under the auspices of Sotheby’s plus a cadre of national and international actors as cheerleaders for the sale. It delivered an overall total of €14.4m which includes the €460,000 raised by the ‘President’s Barrel’, this is the only lot in the sale that excludes a buyer’s premium fees. When including buyers’ fees, the total was €15.2 million.

Without looking into the details of the sale, the total amount achieved by the sale was much lower than other previous vintages. It is, however, important to note that this was due to the challenges of the vintage producing one of the smallest crops in recent years – only 2021 was lower, see the table to compare below – just 449 barrels being offered in the sale. The average price of the reds did fall by around 5% but the price of the whites increased by 8%. This resulted in the 3rd highest average barrel price.

2024 Pièce des Présidents
The record price for a ‘Presidents’ Barrel’ was set in 2022 at €810,000, for a barrel of Corton Grand Cru. In 2023, the ‘Presidents’ Barrel’ – a Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru – sold for €350,000. This year the barrel contained a 2024 Beaune 1er Les Bressandes – and didn’t it do well – €360,000 plus a further donation from another bidder of €100,000 to support the twin charities* that were championed by its sale. This taking the final result to €460,000 !!
*Médecins Sans Frontières and the Global Gift Foundation

A few stats

The hammer total for the 164^th Hospices de Beaune wine sale was €14,404,200 including the Pièce des Présidents. So how does this sale compare? Since the vintage 2021, the totals (Sotheby’s) also include the President’s barrel – the earlier years’ values (Christie’s) are stated without including the President’s barrel. All the figures are ‘net,’ so without the respective auctioneers’ commissions.

*The 449 lots on offer comprised 441 barrels of red and white wines, 1 Presidents’ Barrel, and 7 barrels of spirits.

Domaine Michel Gros Vendange 2024 – Day 4, Tuesday 24th Sept

All the usual suspects at breakfast this day; older individuals, mostly longtime regulars, and including Philippe Durand – probably my favourite colleague along with Acho’s Italian owner. Philippe is an older guy family man from Belfort & I believe has, or had, a senior position with his local Sapeur Pompiers. For me he’s immensely likeable. His vendange role is as one of the principal tractor drivers. He’s always immaculately and neatly turned out & neat in everything he does, including eating his breakfast for which he has a very smart folding Laguiole knife to trim his fruit. Philippe is also my ‘weather man’ & today, first thing over breakfast was adamant in response to my enquiry that there’d be no rain today.

Destemmer debris Gros cuverie

Giraffe conveyors & destemmer ‘downstream’ from triage table

Gros triage table close up – Pierre in grey hoody

Pierre Gros’ intriguing looking cuverie testing bench

Two Gros employees ‘feeding’ the triage table

Our initial destination on this grey, overcast morning was a similar surprise as yesterday when we’d returned to Morey En la Rude de Vergy which I’d thought we’d finished the day before. Today, with a personal sinking feeling, having been glad to exit yesterday, we went back to the plateau of Boncourt (le Bois) beyond the railway line for more Bourgogne Rouge fruit. After the quasi horror show, largely waste of time/effort of yesterday, to day was rather better & ‘more like it’; if the grapes weren’t ‘great’ at least there were some. Our work here took us to mid-morning but, you guessed it, despite Philippe’s confident over breakfast weather assertion, as neared the end of our session we were lightly showered/rained on – and guess who had no rain jacket or hat ?

Looking north from NSG Chailots – Onyx firmly held on his chain given roadside

Looking south from NSG Chailots

Looking south from NSG Chailots

Our next destination was familiar from 2023 but w. hat wasn’t ‘familiar’ was our route to it and for quite a while I was baffled where we might be headed for. Our Renault minibus, chauffer Fabian, followed sub team leader Louis in the domaine’s large white ancient panel van. Louis took THE most circuitous route one could imagine to, ultimately, the south side of Nuits-St-Georges. Initially he headed east away from Boncourt & Vosne on the D109G which led us past the Aerodrome de Nuits-St-Georges with a couple of light aircraft and a helicopter on the apron, then turning on to the D116 into the eastern suburbs of NSG, briefly onto the D8 main road as leads to the Autoroute or into NSG Centre, then weaving through what seemed backstreets, past the Gare (Railway Station) de NSG, and ultimately onto the D35 to its junction with the D(RN)974, just south of the ibis NSG Hotel. Bizarre ! I’m guessing Louis was seeking to avoid the main road through NSG and its, to me, infamous traffic light controlled junction on the north side where the Moillard premises are. So convoluted was Louis’ route, albeit impressive in terms of local knowledge/geography, that for a time I was wondering if he was seeking to ‘kill’ time ! We were headed for the Gros plot of village NSG Les Chaliots as borders the D974 & has NSG 1er cru ‘Les Poirets’ above it. This plot is the only one south of NSG owned by the domaine. Its notable for being crossed by electricity lines and a large pylon. We parked on the roadside verge, starting our picking from there, which occasioned Onyx’s owner keeping him on his chain whilst himself working to avoid any road related harm coming to our furry friend (Acho and his owner had remained at the domaine today with a few others as on triage table duty). We made 2-3 passes here, meeting the rest of the team for the first time this week, who were working downwards, circa half way up the rows of our second pass. We finished here in time for an early lunch, it not being worth starting anything/anywhere else. Lunch was notably good as entrée of couscous with vegetables in a tomato sauce, followed by nice pieces of salmon with pasta.

Break gathering after 1st pass upslope to summit NSG 1er xxxxxxx

Descending in NSG 1er to start cutting upslope

NSG Town ‘proper’ from top of NSG 1er xxxxx

Tractor cases collection at conclusion of NSG 1er xxxxxx

Zoom view of NSG Town Centre & north residential edge from NSG 1er xxxxx

For the afternoon the whole team went to the domaine’s two adjacent NSG high, top of the slope, village crus once a transport problem I’d sort of seen coming had been resolved – somehow ! From day one there had been only two hired Renault Minibuses which, for me on first sight, clearly weren’t going to be enough. Our sub-team had been exclusively using one so I’m not sure how the rest of the main team had been getting about other than walking to the Vosne plots as had been the case in 2023. Seemed a logistical shortcoming, unless deliberate, to only have the two vehicles to supplement the various domaine vehicles. The adjacent plots, separated by a narrow grassy vertical path, had puzzled me in terms of identity in 2023 when Michel (Gros) had clarified matters for me. Just north of NSG, at altitude, such that views south over NSG town, and north towards Vosne are quite something, right at the top of the slope before one gets into scrub of grass and shrubs, we worked a part of Aux Champs Perdrix and then En la Perriere Noblot. Fruit from these sites is blend with that of ‘Aux Athees’ (by the Intermarche), Les Lavieres, and ‘Au Bas de Combe’ for the domaine’s NSG Village. We worked 3 uphill passes of long rows as, with a couple of rest breaks, took us through the afternoon to just after 17.00 hrs. Re-joining with the rest of the team though had one major negative after the relative freedom, peace and camaraderie of our small sub-team as we had joyously been spared the nonsense and stupidity of the Belgian youth scumbag yobs which this afternoon had manifested itself again in their attempts to dump buckets of crap over one of their own number or some other targetted unfortunate. Fortunately, I was always far enough away but, whilst never struck, I did ‘suffer’ with others, the odd bunch of green or other grapes whistling through the air close by directed at one’s person. The nearest one such bunch came to me was a couple of feet away into the leaves of a nearby vine as their aims were well off & the throws being at some distance away. Utter nonsense as could have caused damage/injury to anyone unfortunate to be hit. Absolutely not needed. Hey ho.

Back to base, shower, laptop photo work, dinner & bed. The above was the end of our Cote de Nuits activities, Day 5 Wednesday seeing our first trip to the Hautes-Cotes and that evening the domaine’s vendange Paulee. As I know my enthusiasm for the Hautes-Cotes isn’t, it seems, widely shared I’m minded to condense all our remaining days into my next instalment – but will see when commencing that !
MdMdLV

An interesting comparison:

1999 JF Mugnier, Chambolle-Musigny
Hmm, the colour is still good but what’s this aroma? Yes, a little brett… It cleans up just a little in the glass but my hopes of this previously ugly duckling transforming into a swan seem to be dashed. But. What’s this this? A depth of sweet flavour, more generous than I can remember since it was 2 years old – and what a delicious flavour too! Here is extra and something rather complex too. Not a wine for sniffing (an attribute almost as important as the taste) but a wine that I can drink with pleasure. Not something that I’ve said about this wine for a very long time.
Rebuy – No (sorry to say – and maybe I have 1 or 2 more…)

2021 Mélanie & Daniel Buland, Côte de Brouilly Cuvée Mélanie
Ooh – perfume. Some of Daniel’s 21s have a little pyrazine – but there’s none of that here, just the ultra-inviting perfume of flowers and darker red fruit. Vibrant in the mouth, fresh, melting, juicy purity of fruit – still accented with the flowery perfume of the nose. What a simply great wine. If not totally in the flavour department, certainly a step up from the Mugnier as a complete wine – and you can have half a dozen of these for the 1999 Mugnier…
Rebuy – Yes