Long gone is the 60 Euro bottle of Romanée St.Vivant, but I retain a decent back catalogue of the Thomas-Moillard / Charles Thomas bottle (actually just 1998-2003, but hey…). TM were a hard organisation to work out – clearly their wines were made with a minimum 10 years of aging in mind, 20 would be all the better, but in less heralded vintages such as 98 and 2000 they excelled, in 1999 they made something as hard as nails – still, I’ve plenty of time, I think…!

Having tried the largely charmless 2000 Hudelot-Noellat a couple of weeks back, and contributor Rick saying that the 2000 Follin-Arbellet was pretty much the same, I thought I’d give this an outing. To start with it seemed to offer much more charm than those RSV 2000s and certainly a much better drink right now, but as time passed maybe it did resemble those wines a little…

2000 Thomas-Moillard, Romanée St.Vivant
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose shows a gorgeous floral top-note, but is underpinned with just a hint of vanilla and a deeper core that is beginning to show some savoury aspects. Lithe, growing in concentration, the flavours peaking in the mid-palate before a mineral, salt-tinged finish that eventually shows a bitter-chocolate tannin flavour that has more than a little in common with the aforementioned Hudelot-Noellat. The acidity in 2000 terms is quite fine, the tannin still holding some grain but there’s flavour therein too, though far less fine than the nose. This is a wine that teases you, adding a little rhubarb and meat (in a few years brett?) so the nose becomes less fun, but the palate becomes more and more involving. Worth the ride. I’ll update this with the other half from the bottle on day 2!
Rebuy – Yes

It’s not every day that you go to eat eat at the Hotel Walserhof in Klosters; we did it one time before, perhaps seven or eight years ago, and it was everything that you might expect of a ‘renowned table’ in Switzerland; efficiently serviced, tasty food but it wasn’t really ‘inviting’.

Yesterday we were in the Walserhof once more and the service team is currently in transition to new managers from Bad Ragaz – but what a difference. Still, the food is very, very good, but yesterday it had a cosy charm about it – it invites you to return – very nice!

I was lucky to tag onto a group who were to have a ‘degustations menu’ pared with the wines of a local domaine from just down the valley in Jenins – Weingut Eichholz. Irene Grünenfelder is the ‘one-woman-domaine’ and she was on hand to chat about her wines.

• Crémant. I didn’t note if it was ‘vintaged’ or not, but this was a medium gold with lovely aromas – made from a classic Pinot noir / Chardonnay blend – I found it a touch sweet for my taste at the core but it was a good apéritif.
• 2010 Chardonnay. Elevaged in 400l barrels, this is made from very young vines – only 4 years old. The nose was buttressed by some sweet oak notes to fill out the clean chardonnay aroma – but swirl and the oak fades quickly. A nice lithe wine showing little of its oak on the palate though the finish is relatively quick – then, surprise, a subtle reprise of flavour – chapeau!
• 2011 Pinot Noir. Here the elevage was in 1,600l wooden tanks. The aromas were pure pinot with a hint of underripe. In the mouth this was delicate, balanced and reasonably tasty with just a hint of bitter flavour to reflect the nose in the finish – definitely drinkable.
• 2010 Eichholz Pinot Noir.. From a single plot of vines, elevaged in standard 228 litre barrels. The nose starts with a waft of oaky reduction and something a little dirtier – sulfites – but a little aeration clears it up perfectly. And what a surprise, a subtle stem aroma that treads the line between strawberry compote and roses – lovely! I asked, and up to 20% whole clusters might be used in the fermentation. This wine is deeper coloured than the previous one and has a fine texture and the fruit has a full ripeness. A lovely wine that could easily come from another place – lovely! (And Irene thinks her 2011 will be even better!)
• A ‘Port-style’ wine. Made from an old Swiss variety (whose name 12 hours later I’ve already forgotten!). Very drinkable indeed – not just a curio, it’s a super wine!

Two more than acceptable bottles yesterday evening.

• 2006 Mischief & Mayhem, Meursault Goutte d’Or
  This was honeyed and almost with a hint of caramel – some people may be shouting ‘p.ox’ but there was not a hint of classic oxidation, simply a wine to curl up with and enjoy – and we did. No blowsy 2006 this, lovely understated balance.
• 2004 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin Les Murgers du Dents du Chien
  The same colour as the M&amp:M, but here nose is biscuity and a hint more savoury. Lovely taught, tasty wine – really approaching its apogee perhaps(?) Anyway it was singing and we were happy bunnies…

Now where are my boots?

Looks like a sunny day

but a cold day…

Like two ships passing, by some fluke, there was a space in my agenda on Friday, at exactly the same time one appeared in Ray Walker’s.

Ray’s 2011s seemed excellent to me, though who knows how long you will have to wait to take delivery; citing the slow malos, Ray still has his 2010 Gevrey Les Corbeaux in barrel – I’m still waiting on that one myself 😉

Most interesting for me was our chat: My general impression is that Ray might have gone with the flow a little in 2009, it was after-all his first vintage, but piece by piece and operation by operation he seems to have taken a more considered view on whether ‘tradition’ makes sense to him or not. And he’s done so with the freshness of eyes that can come only from somebody new to the game.

• Topping-up – forget it, he uses marbles to keep the levels in his barrels.
• New Oak – who needs oak flavours? Not Ray.
• Chaptalisation? Forget it. One of Ray’s 2011 Moreys is down at 11.2 alcohol – can you tell? Whatever ‘received wisdom’ suggests, no you can’t, it’s a lovely wine.
• Does he need critics to come and taste his wines – no he doesn’t.

Ray’s also pretty much finished the manuscript for his new book, so who knows what he’ll have time for next!