What a lovely bourgogne! Lots of concentration, soft too but not in a negative ‘easy’ sense – I was told to try this with strawberries, but there are none to hand 🙁

And testing? Well, I wrote this (slowly!) on a Blackberry – I’ve seen worse photos too – might be useful next week when I’m in Beaune 😉

2002 Nicolas Potel, Aloxe-Corton Les Boutières
Bottle 7 from 12. On opening I hardly recognise this wine – the colour still has that young medium-plus cherry-red hue, but the nose has a slightly ashy, oaky aroma and the flavours are quite strident – what’s needed is a little aeration. Et voila: 3 minutes from opening this is aromatically singing, creamy deep redcurrant, indeed so creamy it’s faintly lactic but it is really wonderful. At the core there is a hint of something a little more mature, the ashy element has become a hint of leafy undergrowth, but just a hint. Clearly the acidity is a little ascendant now, but the mid-palate concentration remains enough that the wine is not mortally compromised and there is still an edge of tannin too. A long way from real maturity and still showing sufficient density and energy to keep me coming back for more.
Rebuy – Yes

I don’t remember a burgundy cork with ‘Grand Vin de France’ on before!

1985 Tortochot, Gevrey-Chambertin Clos des Corvées
A beautiful, bright, medium-intensity colour. My that’s smooth! Getting ahead of myself, sorry. The nose on first pour is a little meaty, but only a few seconds are needed for that to clear and show a pretty and sweet strawberry over a slight undergrowth depth that eventually develops a jam tart (baked) fruit – it seems very clean. There is sweet depth, the (aforementioned) silky texture and there’s depth and intensity to the mid-palate that still shows more than a hint of a fine tannic spine. In a way I’m sad, but only because this wine deserves a wider audience than it’s getting tonight.
Rebuy – Yes

A good vintage and a perfect performance for a villages Gevrey – it seems that only 25 years are needed – though if I remember, the ‘juvenile’ 1990 was also performed rather well! Hmm, I guess the 1976 can’t be on the same level – can it? Watch this space…

I think I can only remember one other wine from this domaine:

2008 Roux Père et Fils, St.Aubin La Pucelle
Medium yellow colour. There’s a faint savoury lift to the fresh nose, it’s more pleasantly mineral than fruity. I don’t think the 33°C weather is fooling me, it really does have decent concentration and a nice texture. Very good acidity offsets slightly mineral (again) flavours – I like this very much, and I’m sure I still would even if the weather were cooler!
Rebuy – Yes

The weather remains hot – it’s now about 4 weeks of that – after a cold/cool start it’s become a mini 2003 (so far).

Bottles at home are (hardly surprising) of the freshest variety – that’s mainly bourgogne blancs about which I’ve written quite enough already. Just for a change this week I opened up a 2006 JC Boisset, Morey St.Denis Monts Luisants Blanc – it’s lost much of that rich, coconut inflected flavour but retains density and good underlying acidity. Drunk over two nights it’s less moreish than in its first flush of youth, but very tasty all the same – I’d still rebuy this….