2010 Nicolas Rossignol, Savigny les Beaune 1er Aux Fourneaux
The last Bourgogne was deep and structured with a little oak – yet drank very quickly. This wine simply ticks all the boxes, and the bottle is empty quicker than you expect. Quite a deep colour. The nose is wide, with a faint accent of spice to fine red fruit – lots of attractive precision here. Red fruited again in the mouth, with very smooth texture, energetic yet with an inner sucrosity and absolute deliciousness that belies a Savigny label. A wide panorama of flavour in the finish. Simply first-class stuff – bravo!
Rebuy – Yes

2007 des Chezeaux/Ponsot, Clos St.Denis Vieilles-Vignes
The cork – and yes it is cork, this was the last vintage before changing to the ‘plastic’ Ardea seals – is branded Clos St.Denis Tres Vieilles Vignes like the labels of Laurent Ponsot. The bottle is simply labelled as Vieilles-Vignes (as always for Chezeaux), the bulk (presumably) of this parcel remains on the vines planted in 1905.
The nose sometimes offers glimpses of excitement, but generally offers a wide and easy complexity of fruit and herb over quite limited depth. In the mouth this is simply wow – but you have wait for it! The wine starts narrow, quickly growing in intensity and massively growing in width – the long wave of fine-balanced flavour in the finish is simply of the highest class – what comes before is fine if less remarkable – that’s the vintage talking. Half a very great wine – so really a great 2007.
Rebuy – Yes

It was a hot weekend – 27-30°C – so you might expect a couple of ice-cold bottles of Dr Loosen’s 2015 Riesling were (somehow) consumed too 🙂

You have to to search for the appellation here, but in small letters there’s Appellation Bourgogne Controlée.

2010 Nicolas Rossignol, l’Héritière Expression
The nose starts with a little spice and plenty of reduction – together you would be forgiven for thinking that it’s oaky – though there’s some of that too! I gave this wine a number of ‘Fourrier shakes’ and there was plenty of dissolved carbon dioxide here. Time keeps the spice with a subdued red fruit at the base – the last drops start to show a more attractive side with a suggestion of florals. To start, the palate has so much more going for it vs the first nose; a width of flavour with good freshness and an ingraining, mouth-watering sweetness of fruit. Plenty of structure, some oak but fine tannin and a flavour that really adheres to the palate. This needs a few more years – but it will be worth it – this is a wine that is easily of good villages quality. Super wine, but to wait for and ideally give this a vigorous decant – the accent of reduction the flavours was there, right to the end…
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Michel Lafarge, Beaune 1er Grèves
Following the 2005 DF Volnay from yesterday, here is my other goto 2005 for gauging how those tight 2005s are performing – I started with a full case of each, bought for precisely this exercise.
If the Volnay was showing good signs of blossoming, this remains very-much on a younger footing. The nose has a depth, indeed a weight of deep and herby dark-red fruit – but there’s certainly more aromatic volume than it showed before. In the mouth there’s impeccable balance and really super intensity. This wine needs aeration but shows lots of energy – it’s impressive – but at the same time it’s a very young wine. On the positive side this is significantly more giving that in previous years. Super stuff that is, at least, now showing how good a young wine it is. Super, and drinkable at last, but no signs of maturity.
Rebuy – Yes

Ignoring for a moment that this wine is in my glass, for two other reasons, I’m happy to see that this wine has become very tasty – 1) because it’s always been a very tight wine and 2) that it hopefully augers well for all those other ‘tight’ 2005s!

2005 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Volnay
Such a bargain this wine – it has a large proportion of 1er cru in the mix for a very modest price – so a shame then that this 2005 has been so unyielding – until now. The nose has an attractive and sleek red fruit – it’s very inviting. Sleek is a useful word to describe how it shows in the mouth too – but then it opens with energy and complexity – at last! This is very tasty, with plenty of freshness, silky texture and great red-fruited intensity.
Rebuy – Yes

On the negative side I’ve drunk half a case to get to this stage, on the positive side I’ve still six more! Plus there’s the bonus that I might not have to be so reticent with other 2005s – which would be good – given that I’ve 40 mixed cases! 🙂 I think it’s time to try another 05…

Dinner with friends on Friday, so no note-taking, just a ‘hazy’ memory jotted down a couple of days later…

The house prosecco got the evening moving before changing gear with Chandon de Briailles’ 2007 Charlemagne which was golden coloured, smelled a little of oak, nuts, honey. The mouth showed power, muscle and again a little oak but great balance though a suggestion(?) of oxidation. Great wine, but perhaps showing a tad older than its 10 years. I’ve 2 more, so I’ll use one at Christmas to decide if the last is a short-term drinker or no.

The 2009 Chandon de Briailles Volnay 1er Caillerets was a rented vineyard at that time but unfortunately they no-longer have the contract. This was decanted, as previous bottles needed lots of air – I think it worked. Transparent, mineral and intense with beautiful clarity of fruit – you’d be hard pressed to guess that it came from 2009 – super!

Next up was the 2009 des Chezeaux/Ponsot Chambertin. This wine is often described as being a modest intensity Chambertin, but clearly it had more concentration, dimension and complexity than the Caillerets that it followed. Really great fruit – worth the Ponsot tariff? Not for my money, but for the Chezeaux label (exactly the same wine) then yes indeed. Not mind-changing Chambertin, but a great wine all the same.

There was a need for more wine 🙂 So I pulled out my last bottle of the 1991 Savour Club, Chapelle-Chambertin – and the best for last! This clearly had the best, most robust cork of these 1991s, it was also the only one of the last 3 or 4 bottles that was clear and bright in the glass. Actually the nose was a little behind my last bottle, but it was a tour de force in the mouth – complex, robust, great intensity and a peacock’s tail of flavour dimensions – great wine!

To revive the palate the next two days, two from Camille Giroud:

The 2010 Camille Giroud Bourgogne Cuvée L showed gorgeously floral aromatics that also carried over onto the palate – transparent and beautiful though missing a little mid-palate sweetness(?) Not as good as the magnum opened during Christmas 2015, but a great Bourgogne all the same.*

Finishing on Sunday with the 2007 Camille Giroud Corton Le Rognet – a wine that started with very modest aromatics, if deep. The palate shows another level of interest and complexity – really showing brilliantly today – like many 2007s. Muscle but with some cushioning texture and mouth-watering sweetness if long-lasting flavour. Excellent!

*’Bourgogne’ in name only. The few vintages where a cuvée L was produced saw all the lees from all the cuvees – Santenay to Chambertin – blended and then left to settle in tank for another 6+ months before bottling – so really its a blend of villages from Maranges to Marsannay with all the 1ers and grand crus included along the way…

2010 Rebourgeon-Mure Pommard 1er Clos Micault
Last time out, this was so über-delicious that it bested the domaine’s 2010 Grands Epenots, since then it has tightened a little, though it’s still a fine and moreish wine, just not quite at the same peak of drinking as before. The nose remains bright, berry red-fruited, with just a little extra depth of aroma for padding. Fresh with a really fine intensity of red berry fruit before the flavour opens out more and more in the mid-palate. Lasting flavour too. Versus its youth, unsurprisingly, this has lost a little of the padding that made the wine so complete only 2-3 years ago, but fear not, there’s everything here for a proper mature wine in another 5-10 years – we’re just entering the ‘intermediate’ phase with many 2010s now. Still yum!
Rebuy – Yes