Day two in the Côtes, grey again – or is that my eyes – a group of us ‘professionals’ didn’t leave the bistro until 1am, it’s purely rumour that we left a lot of bottles behind (some rumours say 8+ and mainly drained). 8am for an alarm-call seemed somehow unfair…

My favourite wine of the night was a Domaine de Bellene 2008 Bienvenue, though interestingly you could interchange it (without detriment) with a brilliant 08 Buisson-Charles Meursault 1er (a long lieu-dit I haven’t had before and would have to took up again to remember!), the Meursault was that good, though I noted the unusual nose; slightly saline, toasty / oxidised (a poor word to use) that reminds me a little of Coche-Dury – chapeau!

Showered, I arrive at my 9am appointment – as is so often the case the producer is elsewhere, but in this case he’s back in only 5 minutes. We taste through a range of 2009s; unlike some places where the malo were finished already in November, here it’s a mix of recently finished and not quite finished. You can contrast the colours and the depths of flavour, but little else when some are recently sulfured, some still have malo aromas and others some petillance.

Then I have the first casualty from the late night – the battery in my iPod dies – in my ‘tired’ state the night before I forgot to recharge it!

I emerge from the cellar to unaccustomed brightness, there is even some hint of blue sky – I haven’t seen that for 1 week – but typical, here’s me with a car full of wine as the temperature goes up – makes it hard to find a parking space out of the sun! Two more hours with a new producer to me before firing up the road from Beaune to Morey for lunch – the Clos de Vougeot looked magnificent as I passed because only the the château was in the sun.

Back to Beaune (such is life…) to meet the maker of the previous night’s Bienvenue – the first time in 3 years – and he’s on great form, just like his wines. Having tasted enough, I hit the road home – 2 super days.