I’ve always loved Champagne but have no wish to follow the boringly well-trodden route of burgundy reviewers taking on Champagne – and, effectively, reducing their commitment to Burgundy 🙂 It’s enough that half of the (also quite expensive) bottles that I try are a little too oxidative for my taste – but this one was recommended by someone who understood my tastes and it was VERY well-chosen. This was obviously showing its pinot content – I tend to prefer blanc de blancs – and the bubbles started with some aggression – but an hour after opening, it was singing…

2023 Nicole Lamarche, Hautes Côtes de Nuits
The modest colour of many from 2023. A pretty, airy quite transparent red fruit – strawberry style. The aromatic fruits has the same style in the flavours with a small cushion of creamy oak – I prefer my oak more discrete, but this is deliciously done. The aftertaste has a fine width, with plenty of earthy, cherry-stone, graphitic style – also very 2023. Just drinking beautifully already – there’s no shame in drinking this now !!
Rebuy – Yes

Clément Boillot-Barthod opened this wine last week – semi-blind – we knew that it was from a ‘cold’ vintage because – “Warm or Cold vintage?” – and we chose cold…

Blind: 1996 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle-Musigny Veroilles
Ooh – now that has plenty of very attractive maturity – but perfume too. Direct, starting silky, but the tannin grows, I’d still call it velvet, I think of vintages like 98 and 99 in terms of maturity, I also think of ’98 in terms of the residue tannin – I must admit that I never once considered 1996! I went for 1998 – but it’s 1996 !! And how well is this drinking!? “Yes, though it was really too acid for many, many years – and if we made the same wine today that we made in the 70s and 80s could we sell it(?) – maybe not…”
Rebuy – Oh Yes – I would buy it !!

1986 Raveneau, Chablis 1er Butteaux
Plenty of colour – just as I remember. The nose is large and forward, offering obvious botrytis and still plenty of energy – blind, I might suggest Sauternes !! Nicely vibrant flavour with a good base of minerality and sweetness – certainly very long and quite torrified in a tarte-tartin style. Whilst both delicious and impressive, it would be quite a stab in the dark to come up with ‘Chablis’ if tasting blind…
Rebuy – Probably !!

2019 Didier Fornerol, Côte de Nuits Villages La Rue des Foins
Didier is now retired, but this was a cuvée of only 1k bottles on a stony limestone, with almost no clay…
Lots of colour. Broad, subtly spiced with riper dark red fruit, even a small perfume. Delicious, but almost liqueur-style concentration and shape. Surprisingly easy to drink for this concentration. Super !!
Rebuy – Yes

To give you a little colour and flavour from the last days in the Côtes…

The Moulin…

Clos d’Audignac

Beaune’s La Superb is closing, but the food still lives up to the name…

All lost! A mere 2 barrels of 2024 Bâtard !!

A lunch…

Jööö

Scritchh !!

🙂

When the wine from these vines was cheap(er)

Chez PVG

Montrachet

Saturday Market #1

Saturday Market #2

Newly opened

Not bad for a Sunday…

But where are the horses?

A brute !!

The frosty legacy in Chablis Les Clos

Just a modest single bottle this weekend, as the last glass from last week’s Chablis, kept in the fridge, was still very drinkable !!

2011 François Gaunoux, Pommard 1er Rugiens
A robust cork but a stinky one – I steel myself for a corked wine – but no – hurrah! Also, a wine with no suggestion of the pyrazines that plague many reds from this vintage…
The first aromas are deep, with some obvious leafy development; there’s the implication of some structure here which also follows through into the wine, but with air, both the nose and flavours soften admirably. There remains a small smoky accent to the nose, but the flavours expand with quite some perfumed fruit, and there’s extra width as the structure fades into the background. The slowly mouth-watering finish is beautiful – such a delicate and lasting perfume to this flavour – whilst not powerful, that’s a great finish. That’s a super 2011 – and with a short decant, or an hour of patience after opening. This really was special !!
Rebuy – Yes

My first thoughts, if asked to isolate just four major owners of grand crus that (for those with very deep pockets) would be hyper-attractive ownership propositions, would be to choose Leroy, Camus, Thénard and Damoy – roughly in that order. It seems that my list has already shrunk to three…

More details will doubtless come to corroborate, or otherwise, the suggestion of up to a 500 million Euro price-tag – it doesn’t sound all that expensive for significantly the largest owner of Clos de Bèze – but given the more challenging marketplace for red grand crus right now, who’s to say…

*Also the first Genesis album that I purchased !!