Just in case you didn’t know, there’s a big problem with en-primeur tastings;

Back in January 2002 the 2000 Grand Cru of Clos des Lambrays really stood out for me at a tasting organised by the UK merchant Howard Ripley.

The problem is that the wines are sometimes not representitive of what eventually gets bottled. I drank a bottle of the retail ‘version’ this week and despite lovely fruit, the palate is like chewing wood – very disappointed – this will probably be affecting the wine in 10 years time – Given that there’s a 6-pack in storage, I hope this is just an isolated batch…

Fight the flies and dine in a restaurant with a cellar to die for. It must be the Bison roaming the fields that attract the flies, but I know what attracted me to Farnsburg. Next time I’ll go in winter!

On Wednesday this week I had the really tough job of visiting Joseph De Bucy – a nice man who makes very tasty Meursaults, and Nicolas Potel for a marathon tasting of 2002’s. In between I had to shoe-horn a 3 hour lunch and afterwards a pizza and lots of water to ensure full concentration for the 2 hour drive home. And the wines? – well you’ll have to look at issue two of the www.burgundy-report.com won’t you – only 2 weeks to go – but suffice to say I’m already making enquiries about some of Mr Potel’s wines 🙂

A mixture of a dead laptop and finding the time means I’ve been very lazy of recent – at least in terms of adding material to the site – Burgundy Report is ticking along nicely for next months issue though. Anyway a nice dinner on Friday evening and no TN’s but here’s a brief overview :

1989 Olivier Leflaive, Corton-Charlemagne – perfect condition, waxy and nutty, very long – super enjoyable
1998 Olivier Leflaive, St.Aubin 1er Charmois – same golden colour as the Corton – stylistically similar but in a less forcefull way – very nice wine
2000 Pirramimma, White Label Shiraz – opaque, big juicy shiraz – as it should be 🙂
1993 Chateau Langoa-Barton – Medium-plus colour, blackcurrant and cedar nose, medium intensity palate with just a little grain to the tannins – nice easy drinking wine – a luncheon claret?

Just testing too much Burgundy at the moment for the Burgundy Report so it’s a bit quieter than normal – tough life 🙂