There can’t be many producers that have done such an about-face in wine style in the last years. Although I found some of these wines marvellously impressive in 2005, it was 2006 that (I think) saw the last of the highly concentrated, and often hard to love, wines from this domaine. 2007 was a new dawn where the wines offered finesse and elegance – and that wasn’t just for 2007 – the approach continues:

2010 Perrot-Minot, Morey St.Denis La Rue de Vergy
Barely medium colour. The nose is soft, warm and very inviting, showing floral hints that evoke whole clusters – it’s very, very pretty. In the mouth it’s no more than medium-weight, but there’s a beguiling quality to the fruit and flashes of perfectly focused red berries. Slowly mouth-watering and very nicely long. This wine’s not really an advert for 1er cru quality. But it remains a beguiling partner for the night! Super-yum!
Rebuy – Yes

Let’s open two of the same – a year apart. Well, what else is one to do on a Thursday?

2007 is a vintage that’s rather looked down upon, yet is better than 2000, and all the people who currently like 2000 complain about 2007 – oh well! Then there’s 2006. A very good Côte de Nuits vintage but then people often pooh-pooh the wines of the Côte de Beaune. I guess I’m really putting myself on the line here, I should probably get danger money!

Anyway, Nathalie Tollot tells me that in recent years, the domaine has rather rethought their hierarchy, and now puts Champ-Chevrey ahead of Lavières. Personally, I’ve always found Champ-Chevrey the friendlier of the two, but thought Lavières the more impressive – I don’t know if that should equate to ‘best’ or not though…

2007 Tollot-Beaut, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Champ-Chevrey
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts with dark oak notes and some complexity of herbs before settling on a wide, slightly darkened-red fruit and something faintly fumé. Lithe, silky and shows direct sweet fruit – this really impresses until you get to the mid-palate and finish, which is dominated by a bitter oak component. Bitter chocolate I like, bitter oak I don’t like. I find this quite hard to drink on day 1 so let’s try another. Day 2 and I’m perplexed – me or the wine? It’s silky, tasty and has no bitterness, neither bitter oak, nor bitter chocolate, or otherwise. Rather tasty.
Rebuy – Yes

2006 Tollot-Beaut, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Champ-Chevrey
The colour is just a shade lighter than that of the 2007. Here the nose is rounder and a little sweeter – there are no obvious oaky references either. The aromas become ever-more higher toned and I might even be prepared to say pretty, eventually, very pretty! Also silky and direct, just a little more width. Whilst it’s not quite as bad, I have a similar bitterness in the mid-palate and finish. Maybe it’s me! I’m not opening a third bottle – let’s see how these are tomorrow. Day 2, and like the 2007, also silky and no bitterness – but this clearly has more mid-palate and finishing heft and complextiy. Very yum and clearly the more impressive of the two vintages – for today. (If not Thursday!)
Rebuy – Yes

Was it me or the wine? Hard to know – I wasn’t ready to open a ‘known’ third bottle, and nothing else Iate or drank that day seemed odd. But day two, these wre fine. Oh well…

2006 Confuron-Cotetidot, Vosne-Romanée
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose has just a few ‘pinched’, high-toned seconds before opening its aromatic wings; depth, great red+ fruit, spice and a very slowly growing floral aromatic. Class! Even before the nose kicks into gear, the palate is full, round, and bedded in a lovely blend of ripe tannin and mouth-watering dark fruit – almost chunky in the mid-palate. This clearly something of a baby, but something of a honey too!
Rebuy – Yes

Two for the price of one!

At the weekend I drank Domaine Bernard Moreau’s 2012 Bourgogne Pinot Noir and it was just a lovely, friendly, round, ripe and concentrated wine for the label. A real beauty!

Here, a wine from Aubert and Pamela. It has a little more structure, but is built from the same basic cloth of enjoyment and round young fruit that the wine from Moreau showed. I have to say, at the risk of excluding myself from many of the best addresses, that I have rarely over the years been as wowed as most commentaries (about these wines) would suggest (I should have been!) but this is simply lovely:

2012 A et P de Villaine, Mercurey Les montots
A warm, round, ripe red-fruited nose that encourages you to take a (big) sip. Time in the glass and there’s a more herbal complexity too. Very round but nicely shaped wine, with good but not imposing structure. I’m really enjoying this wine. Very easy drinking but very tasty drinking too.
Rebuy – Yes