A Yorkshire lunch – in three acts…

20.8.2021billn

A short hop to Leeds – so a Yorkshire lunch – even if one of us didn’t have the fortune of originating from that county 🙂

(My) Lunch was French onion soup, venison Wellington and nibbling from a selection of cheeses. I can’t remember the last time I saw this soup – is it just a Paris thing? Not a large volume of food but with a few bottles to keep the three of us company it still required our attention for 4 hours!

1999 Rougeot, Meursault 1er Charmes
The label tells that this was recorked at the domaine in 2015.
Now that’s a very lovely nose, sweetly fruited but with a fine focus and just a little age-related complexity – that’s just lovely. In the mouth this is incisive but still concentrated; agile and mineral too. I’m liking the precision and minerality here – a lot! I guess that it’s my wine. Simply super wine!

2009 Comtes Lafon, Montrachet
There’s a bit more basso-profundo to this nose, still a suggestion of oak toast too, so it’s a surprise when it bursts over the palate with energy and a taut style yet is still so broad finishing. There’s a creaminess to this finish that I put down to age, rather than the barrel – I’m guessing a wine of the early 90s (93-95) – I should have taken more care with the colour! – but certainly grand cru from the breadth and length of this wonderful finish – it’s a better wine than the 1999 but not by as large a margin as the label suggests as it’s much less chiselled but given the vintage, no surprise… An absolute treat!

Served as a pair and we knew the vintage:

2006 de Montille, Volnay 1er Taillepieds
Modestly red in colour and very red-fruited too – only with time taking on some extra, saline, complexity. Round in the mouth and very accessible – deliciously accessible – though lacking any great intellectual rigour. Time in the glass showed a wine that was developing in multiple directions and becoming more complex though never losing the ‘easy’ tag for me. I guessed Cote de Beaune 1er but was surprised when the wine was revealed having always considered this cuvée to be something stricter…

2006 DRC, Grands-Echézeaux
Wow – immediately I’m thinking of fine structure and the great grand cru complexity of Cote de Nuits aroma. The first taste doesn’t disappoint either! Structural without pain, accessible but with no lack of complexity – mineral wine but without austerity. Yes it’s young and structured but it’s so drinkably delicious too, despite the authority of this performance. The minerality takes me in the direction of a top Clos de la Roche but never for a moment do I note anything of Vosne spice or the roses of whole clusters – but who cares – this is great wine!

And our last pair…

1996 Dominique Gallois, Charmes-Chambertin
The first wine I ever bought en-primeur!
Ooh – that’s also a rather good nose – of more structure and maturity than the DRC – but not by a lot. In the mouth, broad, fresh and energetic – clearly more acidity and tannin too – though never too much in either area. There are some parallels with the previous wine but that younger wine is clearly more sophisticated. Still, I’m very happy with this and the acidity tells me it’s my wine. Balanced and precise, the structural overcoat still has a few creases to iron out but for a, generally speaking, sometimes slightly bland (grand) cru – in comparison to its neighbours such as Latricières etcetera – here’s a wine with character in spades and I love it.

1997 Ponsot, Griotte-Chambertin
Here the nose is certainly redder and riper than the last – less chiselled indeed a little diffuse but with no lack of invitation. Broad, again red-fruited over the palate, almost disarmingly lush. Simply delicious wine but of this pair, give me the little extra rigour, the strictness and complexity combined in the 1996.

I’d call that a great lunch!

Agree? Disagree? Anything you'd like to add?

There are 2 responses to “A Yorkshire lunch – in three acts…”

  1. goughie1320th August 2021 at 7:33 amPermalinkReply

    Confused.com here Bill. The photo of the Rougeot (a domaine to investigate clearly) suggests Charmes rather than Perrieres ?

    We can’t all originate in Yorkshire even if some like to refer to it as God’s Own 🙂

    • billn20th August 2021 at 7:36 amPermalinkReply

      You’re totally right – I’m not so fast this morning! 😎

  2. goughie1320th August 2021 at 7:40 amPermalinkReply

    Pretty fast typing effort, chapeau, to get the piece on line tout suite this early a.m. from only yesterday p.m

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