Despite an occasional whiff of something more like cork taint – though never on the palate – this wine is that very rare thing; a perfectly stunning example of a cheap burgundy – and to die for…
1999 Francois Gay, Ladoix
Deep ruby red. The nose first shows toasty, spicy oak, straight high tones and occasional glimpses a lovely penetrating red raspberry/redcurrant fruit. In the mouth this is fresh, with black edged ripe fruit, quite linear all the way into the finish accompanied by a slightly astringent, grainy tannin. Excellent.
Rebuy – Yes – in quantity, though unlikely to find…
Entries from 2006
another fine 2004 white
2004 Fontaine-Gagnard, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Romanée
Medium-yellow. Initially, wide but not deep aromatics that hint towards melon rather than the citrus paradigm of 2004; with time, higher tones start to predominate, perhaps with a hint of smoke and citrus! If the nose doesn’t leave you thinking of 2004 the taste does; classical acid-driven citrus notes that run perfectly into a finish that’s just a little more savoury. Versus the best 1er Cru’s of 04 this doesn’t have that painful, moreish intensity, yet it’s very tasty and enjoyable; I’d still be happy to drink this anytime. Rebuy- Yes
wine camp
Craig Camp seems an awfully discerning chap, or at least he’s yet to see through me 😉
savigny, michel gay
1999 Michel Gay, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Serpentières
Medium-plus ruby-red. The nose is forward and deep but to my taste unfortunately pruney – though there is a core of red fruit. The wine is concentrated and well textured – there’s plenty of wine here, ripe and sweet but again there’s that rather blocky, pruney element in the mid-palate, some raisin too. As said, there’s a lot of wine here, unfortunately I don’t like it very much… Rebuy – No
a tollot a day…
2001 Tollot-Beaut, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Champs Chevrey
Medium ruby-red. A nose that’s wide and relatively high-toned, just a slight estery edge over faint, warm, ripe red fruit. The palate is soft and light with sweet red fruit, even a hint of oranges going into the finish. From a flavour perspective, this actually showing quite a bit of maturity. Lighter and more elegant than many Tollot wines, but it’s made in a very sympathetic way, as in this case there is no oak character at all. Very tasty, but not a wine for the ages…
Rebuy- Maybe
bouchard p&f 03 bourgogne
Drunk in a nice restaurant, this was the chef’s choice:
2003 Bouchard P & F, La Vignée Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Nice deep colour – already quite ruby-red at the core – looks good the glass. The aromatics are relatively muted, a little earth and faint underbrush, only occasional glimpses of nice red fruit.
The palate is soft with good apparent concentration, enough acidity and tannins that only show themselves with a little grain as you move into the finish. At its price-point this is a very successful wine, I was only missing a little ‘character’.
Rebuy – Maybe.
non-interventionist writing
Treat yourself to a dose of `non-interventionist´writing. An article that had me smirking on the tram to work; Eric Asimov with his tongue only slightly in-cheek. Here is a great follow-up post – really absorbing, insightful writing – and reading!
Heading to Dutch Siberia (Friesland) today and not back until late Friday – so it will mainly be offline stuff for a few days…
when the corks are okay – tollot-beaut & truffière
2002 Tollot-Beaut, Beaune Greves
Deep cherry-red. The nose is quite super; a deep and forward mix of black and red cherry over subtly creamy oak. Depth, concentration and velvety texture, pushed by the mouthwatering acidity this is very long. There’s still a littly oaky bitterness on the finish, another 2-3 years and I think this will be absorbed. Despite the open nose there’s a real brooding sense of character to this wine. Top-notch Beaune that will amply repay cellar time. Rebuy – Yes
This bottle really improved my mood after the two corked bottles. Also we had a ‘Truffière’ Corton-Charlemagne. I’m still not sure of the provenance of this label, I think it might be a second label of Vincent Girardin(?)
2003 Le Truffière, Corton-Charlemagne
An oversize and overweight ‘statement bottle’ with a super-deep punt. Medium yellow. The nose shouts ‘pear-drops’ before becoming a more subtle blend with classic white blossom and higher-toned alcoholic notes. The palate is quite well concentrated and reasonably long, it just needs an extra dab of acidity to carry the ample mid-palate through into the finish. Almost good. Rebuy – No
a corking saturday (tca, bonneau du martray & marc colin)
What do these bottles have in common?
Well, they were opened 30 minutes apart and both were corked. I’d been looking forward to opening the Bonneau, so chose my birthday – the perfect example of Murphy’s Law, or as the Germans prefer to say; ‘Shit Happens’.
Anyway, post Corton-Charlemagne, I decided to cleanse my palate with Marc Morey’s 2002 Chassagne 1er Morgeots – what a mistake-a to make-a. This (red) Chassagne was even more heavily tainted than the white – in fact so much so I couldn’t even bear to describe how bad.
Fortunately two other bottles came to the rescue – one of which was really excellent, I’ll get to that tomorrow, but for the record, the Bonneau had some (slightly oxidised) potential:
1991 Bonneau du Martray, Corton-Charlemagne
Medium golden. Hints of oxidation – though mild – concentrated, nice texture, more oxidatative notes but acceptable, good acidity and heavily corked…