With beouf bourguignone, a really interesting set of wines – the Thomas Frères wines coming from an undisturbed Zürich cellar. Wines were served blind…

1966 Thomas Frères, Tastevinage Cote de Nuits Villages
Pronounced, wild aromatics – you have the impression that this could be a young ‘natural’ wine. The palate is all-over the place: decently concentrated and each sip seems differently balanced to the the previous one – clean flavours though. Frankly brilliant for the age/label but sadly it was rather ignored given how good some of the others were…
1967 Thomas Frères, Fixin 1er Cos de la Perrière
This was, quite simply, the wine of the night. Beautiful aromas of fine fruit with a graphite note in the background. The palate was mineral and complex, not really showing it’s age – I may have guessed early 1980s. I wonder if Bénigne Joliet has recaptured this grand cru quality in his last vintages(?)
1968 Thomas Frères, Chassagne-Montrachet (blanc)
The wine we started with – I guessed it was a good condition late 1970s wine. Gunflint, lanolin, power rather than elegance but with great acidity and balance. Excellent.
1993 Jobard, Meursault 1er Genevrieres
Took a little while to open in the glass, but here is an elegant and rather complex wine – lovely aromatics but a very faint musty note in the mid-palate takes away the ‘excellent’ badge – merely very, very good.
1999 Vincent & Denis Berthaut, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Les Cazetiers
I really loved the aromatics here – I guessed it could have been a Bachelet Charmes from the nose. The palate did not deliver the best equilibrium because the acidity was not completely smooth. Because of that, it was another wine (like the 66) that was a bit unfairly ignored. I could sniff it all night though.
2002 Bart, Chambolle-Musigny Les Varoilles
Another wine that smelled gorgeous – I guessed Chambolle, but chose 2006 as the colour looked rather young. The flavour reflected the the aromas too – very excellent wine this for a villages.
2005 Pierre Morey, Meursault Tessons
I really didn’t like this to start with, the aromas were brash and boorish, I’d have guess a non-Burgundian ringer. Yet, over about 25 minutes the aromas gradually became finer and the flavour less solid. It ended up a quite drinkable but still not covetable.
2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Chaumes
Jump out of the glass aromas that speak of Louis-Michel’s vinification but with very, very pretty raspberry and wild strawberry fruit. The palate really surprised me because it is rather more mineral and complex than is the reputation for Chaumes – lovely fine acidity too – just a beautiful wine.
2007 Morey-Coffinet, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Farendes
Young colour. The nose shouts Meursault 2010 to me – oops! It really doesn’t smell like Chassagne to me, but it does smell very, very nice indeed. The entry to the palate was frankly a bit loose / unfocused but as the wine slipped into the mid-palate it was very, very impressive with lovely intensity and something of a peacock’s tail of energy and flavour.

A great night…

1997 Jean-Marc et Hugues Pavelot, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Dominode
Impressively deep coloured wine. Whilst not particularly forward, the aromas offer depth and warm blood – hardly any of those distracting herbal tones that are common with 97s, though it does grow with open-time. Good concentration. The acidity winds up the intensity into the mid-palate where the flavours have more than a hint of bitter-chocolate. What Meadows calls ‘inner-mouth-perfume’ does betray a little herbaceousness, but this remains quite a slick package – smoothly textured with a fine level of acidity. Excellent balance; now this wine is beginning to forget about fruit and look to more tertiary flavours, while still with adequate sweetness to buffer the rest, it’s clearly less tasty than 3-4 years ago – it’s better after 2 hours than to start with though! Whilst it’s a reasonably strong 97, I wouldn’t be tempted to open another in the near future…
Rebuy – Maybe

2007 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée Clos du Château
Just about medium colour – and not all that young looking. Here is such a heady perfume; redolent of stems (even though Louis-Michel insists he de-stems) a very subtle vanilla and just a suggestion of toasted bread too, perhaps faintly reductive… Wow! – just a beautiful freshness of fruit/flavour/acidity – get below 15° this wine actually flirts with ‘tart’, but only then. Very silky texture, though you can drag out a little grain if you chew. Excellence in the finish too – lingering subtlety. Very yum indeed – simply excellent!
Rebuy – Yes

I know they are a different kettle of fish, but the mid-palate and finish here, remind me of the most wonderful 1982 Engel Brûlées…

2010 Edmond Monnot, Maranges 1er Le Clos des Rois
Little more than medium colour. The nose has ‘come hither’ cherry and cherry stone aromas, notes that play equally across tongue. Ripe enough fruit with a lovely level of acidity and a nice extra depth of flavour in the mid palate. The finishing flavours linger with a sweet stoniness. Just a very pretty wine.
Rebuy – Yes

1995 Dujac, Morey St.Denis
A very smelly cork indeed – I assumed the worse – yet the wine in the glass seems fine, except that it seems aromatically rather anonymous. Texturally and from a balance perspective this wine seems both open and ready, yet, like the nose, the wine seems completely anonymous. Despite still being drinkable, I assume that something of the cork has scalped this – shame.
Rebuy – No

There’s really nothing quite like sitting in the garden with friends, in 25°C sunshine, but still with the Springtime smell of hyacinths in the air; and quite unbelievably the 4th day in a row with such temperatures. It will, of-course, end in tears, but these two 2010 wines helped us eek-out every last drop of enjoyment!