2011 Buisson-Charles, Meursault Les Tessons
Medium-pale colour. Fresh, obviously Meursault aromatics – a little diffuse though. To start with there’s a barely perceptible level of dissolved CO₂ but it’s enough to render the wine just a little unfocused and certainly contributes to the diffuse nose. I double-decanted, left it in the fridge, and returned 2 hours later. A big change! The nose and palate are more focused and the texture is definitely smoother – now it’s a much more ‘together’ wine. The acidity isn’t super intense but keeps the wine plenty fresh, and it has a sweet citrus bite to it. Decanting really made the difference between an ‘okay’ wine and a very good wine! Like many, 2011s the cut and intensity of 2010 is absent, but there’s no denying how very, very tasty they are!
Rebuy – Yes

2011 Philippe Livera, Côte de Nuits Villages
Pound for pound, the 2010 of this wine was simply magnificent. This is almost equally deep-coloured, amazing for a 2011. The nose starts with hint of reduction, so I double decanted – 30 minutes later the wine is cleaned of that note, unfortunately a P note is starting to take its place – that’s a big shame, as this wine didn’t show the note from barrel – but there’s plenty of innate density about the nose too, mixing oak and a hint of musk. Width in the mouth and really good, balanced, concentration for this label. The P is sufficient to be a flavour component too. For all that, this wine drank very easily today…
Rebuy – No

2011 Digioia-Royer, Nuits St.Georges Les Charmois
Deeply coloured, yet still paler than the Livera. The higher-toned nose also has hints of tobacco, but never develops any P. There’s plenty of structure but it’s not too heavy, rather it’s more apparent by the texture of the wine – still no astringency though. The sweet red fruit’s sucrosité is a good enough foil today. The mid-palate has good dimension, though with a faint bitterness (oak, probably). For all that non-committal sounding note, this was tasty drinking with upside potential. A wine you can enjoy.
Rebuy – Yes

2011 Ramonet, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Clos des Boudriotte
After the wine wines from the Côte de Nuits, this is rather pale – only just medium coloured. There are no stems to blame, just the wine-making choices chez Ramonet. The nose is high-toned with a twist of mint and herb – but sweet. Sweet in the mouth too, but still a shade less ripe in character – overall this has a lovely fresh and interesting character. The flavours are quite long and this remains a very enjoyable wine. No P today, either!
Rebuy – Yes

A trip to Germany this week, brought a wealth of wine riches. The following were tasted blind with dinner and each was unveiled only after writing my notes:

2004 Romanée-Conti, La Tâche
A beautiful floral nose with an obvious whole cluster character. There is good width on the palate and pretty fruit flavours. There seems plenty of acidity in the mid-palate though despite that, not that special energy or dimension, but clearly a very classy wine.
Rebuy – Yes

2004 Romanée-Conti, Romanée St.Vivant
This nose has darker, deeper fruit and is less padded-out with whole cluster character – but there is still some. In the mouth this is lithe and beautifully proportioned – better tonight than the last wine due to more concentration, muscle, dimension and energy. Yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2007 Jadot, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques
Aromatically, this shows pretty, clean, deep red fruit – it is very fine. I really like the width and dimension in the mouth, then comes an extra dimension in the mid-palate – this is excellent and has a cool character that reminds me of Latricières…
Rebuy – Yes

What great ‘off-vintage’ wines! I didn’t spot any ‘vintage character’ even after returning to the glasses armed with vintage info – interesting that the RSV is currently the more impressive of the two DRCs. The Jadot was also brilliant!

Weingut Philipp Wittmann

Weingut Philipp Wittmann

Nierstein

14th November…

I have to say, that moving this from Beaune to Gevrey was a great success. More tasters and more wines – actually too many for this taster, I gave up after 100, with two tables of GCs still to go – I needed a shower before dinner, that was my excuse anyway! Really great to see so many producers participating in the dinner in the evening too. Great stuff!

For those with an interest; the Hotel Deux Chevres was a great find, literally 50 metres from the ‘Espace Chambertin’ tasting, with fine views over the Gevrey Clos des Meixvelle. It’s not particularly cheap, unless you factor-in the cost of taxis to and from(?), or losing your driving licence – but you get what you pay for, just lovely rooms. A really fine addition for Gevrey, and a great breakfast too!

I really don’t know too much about how the two brothers have variously split up what was once, one of the finest addresses in Puligny – It/they didn’t appear in my book for the simple reason that whatever had been newly set-up had no track record at all. But this wine is a very tasty start, hopefully there will be many more good bottles to follow…

2011 François Carillon, Puligny-Montrachet
Nutty, floral – very pretty aromas. In the mouth there’s a little oak as back-drop to lovely, insinuating acidity and pretty, pretty sweet fruit. Short and sweet – nice wine.
Rebuy – Yes

Friends over for the weekend, so an extra couple of bottles:
2011 Domaine Masse Père et Fils, Givry 1er Champ Lalot – am ashamed to say that we drink this quickly and easily – it really supports that process 😉 I noted no P, just a wine of balance and ease – pretty enough!

The 2005 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Volnay – my main question here, is – is the nose getting a bit volatile, or is it just a variation on the Volnay flower(?) Whatever, silky, sinuous, concentrated – without it ever taking its coat off and dancing. Über Kompetent wine…

The 1995 Daniel Rion, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Beaux Monts – right from opening, the nose was a lovely depth of spiced plums, the palate need time to out, however. initially a bit solid and uninteresting, about 20 minutes of air was enough to give width and interest – drinking quite well right now!

The Mountadam Red (1997) had a classic Australian essence of fruit nose (it’s a Cab/Merlot blend) but the palate was narrower and a little spirity – perhaps not quite the intensity of Port but a very similar palate sensation. A bottle that really wasn’t as tasty as it smelled…