I decided to buy the last bottles at the shop before publishing this, shame there were only 2 left! If I were you I wouldn’t believe the winesearcher result for switzerland for the next few days 😉

This wine is not yet the ‘full package’, but in terms of aroma and texture, coupled to no flaws, this is easily the most compelling wine I’ve drunk at home so-far this year!

1999 Jean Raphet, Chambertin Clos de Bèze
Medium-plus colour. The nose is a precocious and heady mix of sweet dark red and black fruits covered by a heavy floral scent; what’s the word I’m looking for(?) – ah yes – Gorgeous! It becomes a pure beacon of blackcurrant as some other great 99s show. Silky smooth with a hint of fat – there is real executive texture here. No fireworks, this 99 is restrained and linear right the way into the mineral / fruit with a creamy undertow finish. Subtle but very, very long. Wow, where have you been all my life Jean Raphet(?) Despite how friendly it is, clearly the palate is just a little tight yet there is ample material here for the future – such a shame there were only 2 more.
Rebuy – Yes

2002 La Pousse d’Or, Volnay 1er Clos des 60 Ouvrées
Medium, medium-plus colour but quite an amber caste – I wonder how this has been stored. The fruit has a pronounced jammy aroma and some dried cranberry, eventually widening to give a dark cherry and some dark minerality at the core. Sweet in the mouth and there’s fine texture, too – the acidity has a slightly bitter prominence, but not enough to make you wince or regret the next sip. Actually it drinks very well. I have the feeling that it might have been stored at a high-ish temp at some stage during its lifetime, but it clearly survived the trip to all the way to the bottle-bank…
Rebuy – Yes

Well, it’s not Musigny Vieilles Vignes, but it is very drinkable…

2006 David Clark, Bourgogne Au Pelson
Medium-plus cherry-red colour. The nose has dark flashes of oak, suggestions but never any hard evidence of reduction and a very nice brambly dark fruit. Intense, very good fruit and a good villages-level of depth and complexity. Mouth-watering modestly in the finish. David delivers another superb bourgogne. He confided in me that maybe his 2007s were not so exciting as his 06s or 08s – I’m quite content to pay to find out. Stunning bourgogne and even better that the BGO…

1997 Comte Georges de Vogüé, Musigny Vieilles Vignes
Do you ever find yourself trying to find an excuse to drink a corked wine? Initial cost of purchase may have had something to do with it. I have to say that for about 3 or 4 minutes I’d convinced myself that if I swirled the glass I could hardly smell it, and the taste wasn’t so bad, indeed it was very long for a corked bottle. I passed the glass to my wife who muttered something about me trying to poison her and she needed a beer to take the taste away – I was back, grounded. Very corked and very yuk.
Not Rated

So what to do while watching all the visitors (5,450 during the day though only 3,600 unique…) pile into the Spring report. Something modest, but very tasty methinks…

2005 Albert Bichot, Nuits St.Georges
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour – it still looks a baby. The nose is a little tight but still manages to round-out the dark red fruits with herbs, faint spices and a suggestion of cream. Quite silky until the tannins give a little more bite in the mid-palate. A little fat remains, padding out the sugary dark red fruit on the palate. Excellent acidity and there’s an additional dimension of dark oak-led flavour in the mid-palate. Still drinking rather well, and if anything the bottle empties too soon. I could criticise and call it facile and ‘easy’ as it’s much too elegant for a Nuits(!) but there’s an underlying ‘oomph’ (perhaps ‘the typical depth of 2005’ would make me sound more like a pro!) that means I may have to buy a few more…
Rebuy – Yes