My end of last week meeting with Marko de Morey de la Vosne brought the chance to taste a three (excellent) recently opened bottles – here you go:

2017 Michel Noellat, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots
Medium-plus colour. Ripe, but this is still a nose of fine-berried precision – lots of depth to the aroma. Hmm, that’s wide, sweetly fruited and showing only a modest tannin in the mouth – long with faint bitters in the finish, but also a wine that shows a nice plump but not fat texture. Admirably long and decadently super – if you must drink one of these now, this is the one!
Rebuy – Yes

2017 Michel Noellat, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Beaux Monts
Perhaps a faint shade less colour than the Suchots. Aromas that are a little more airy and high-toned – precise berries again but with a different shape to the Suchots. Narrower in the mouth – the Suchots is a wide wine, this a wine that’s narrower but showing more drive and direction – a wine that’s got somewhere to go! Less weight of flavour in the finish but no less long, here with a perceptible oak in the finish – though faint. The Suchots catches the eye more today but in 8-10 years I think the gap will be much narrower. Yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2017 Michel Noellat, Clos de Vougeot
Medium-plus colour. Not a big nose but one of purity and depth – very inviting – the precision of berries of the last with a little extra aromatic transparency. Ooh – that’s sleek with driving flavour – and the flavour is vibrant in the certainly more structured mid-palate. Ooh, this will be lovely but it’s quite the baby wine today. Long, long, finishing. Excellent!
Rebuy – Yes

Bonnefond 1993 Ruchottes – Roumier

Jean Claude Bessin 2014 Chablis Valmur

2014 Jean-Claude Bessin, Chablis Valmur
A small but perfectly formed nose – a wine that is clearly far from open – except that it opens wide and with such persistence in the middle and finishing flavours. Pure, crystaline, only modestly complex today but pure, pure, pure – what a beautiful, if seemingly delicate thing today – practically ephemeral – so good!
Rebuy – Yes!

1993 Bonnefond, Ruchottes-Chambertin
A wine that’s been in my possesion for a long time – bought at Berry Bros & Rudd many years ago – I saved it for one of my end-of-vintage encounters with Marko de Morey – and this year I remembered!
In my evening lighting, this is a wine with plenty of colour – and not obviously aged colour at that. The nose is far from massive but what a nose – complex, growing, precise – pure yet with modest earth and dried leaves – it’s a real sniffer’s wine! Beautiful over the palate – so transparent though with a faint extra bump of tannin in the incredibly long finishing flavour.So elegant, so complex – practically timeless – I probably wouldn’t have guessed a 1990s wine despite the aromatic complexity. Really quite something – a wine that dances over the palate and stays long, long, long – bravo! Plenty of tannin solids drop into the glass with the final pour.
Rebuy – Yes!

Okay, the black and white ones were Friday night, but that’s practically the weekend!

2016 Chablisienne, Chablis Grenouilles
Honestly, I never used to understand why La Chablisienne would serve this cru last when I was tasting their range – I never thought it as good as the other grand crus – until this 2016 vintage – the 2017 is also great. This wine reinforced my memory, with its silky, concentrated, damn near seamless delivery of great flavour – like a slightly less flamboyant (maybe due to less wood) but still great Corton-Charlemagne. Everyone loved this!
Rebuy – Yes

1995 Dujac, Morey St.Denis
I think the last one of the 6-pack that I bought 20 years ago! The cork came out slowly – without breaking – just! It was an unpleasntly smelly cork, so I didn’t have a lot of hope for the wine – happily I was proved oh-so wrong! Yes there was a little herb on the nose, but only as part of a wonderful complexity of aroma; sous-bous, dried leaves and spice, stems, some sweetness – oh that was so good! The palate has the merest anecdote of the tannins of 1995 – but very mild. Incredibly long for a village wine – we all contemplated this wine for a long time before talking about it. Great villages!
Rebuy – Yes

2018 ‘Les Bertrands,’ Fleurie Coup d’Folie
Hmm – for a low/no sulfur wine this has excellent aromatic purity and such a welcoming fruit. The palate has a cushioned depth of rich, layered flavour – unctuous and rewarding wine – yum!
Rebuy – Yes

Back home from the harvest, I decided on a little grand cru to celebrate:

2017 Julien Brocard, Chablis Les Preuses
I have only a couple of these – unfortunately – this being one of my top dozen, or-so, wines from the vintage. This showed a little less broadness of flavour vs tasting at the domaine in January, but what a wine – even at the €58 (or-so) price at the domaine/shop – frankly a bargain for such greatness. So long, full of melting flavour and holding not just my interest. Bravo wine without a doubt!
Rebuy – Yes

2008 Laurent Ponsot, Griotte-Chambertin
This the first vintage with the ardea ‘corks,’ and I note that the base of this seal seems completely discoloured by the wine, though a little rubbing removes the colour. The wine’s just a little cloudy. The nose starts with a suggestion of brett followed by a fine vibration of rich, dark fruit aroma – quite pure despite the ripeness. In the mouth there’s clearly more depth and cushion to the flavour extract versus the couple of other 2008s tasted during the week – the acidity is not a bit forward – this being a very drinkable if not particularly complex wine. On day two the nose is in full elastoplast mode – not nice – but if you can avoid that, it still drinks in a tasty way. A shame…
Rebuy – No

Dujac Morey – Chablisienne Grenouilles

Fleurie Coup d’Folie

2008 Ponsot Ardea

Julien Brocard 2017 Preuses