As Dan and Mike, in the comments, were interested. Here are some notes from a previous post plus some other bottles too:
2019 Berthaut-Gerbet, Bourgogne Hautes Côted de Nuits
Medium-plus colour. Perfumed with dark-red fruit. Nicely sweeping lines from this middle-weight wine, a wine that was drunk in one evening – elegant and pure. it really hit the spot
Rebuy – Yes
1993 Comtes Lafon, Volnay 1er Santenots de Milieu
A cork that came out like the wine was just 2 years old – a loud ‘pop!’
A wide, structural, interesting and super-clean nose. Like the nose a structural wine, wiry, some minerality here too. Just a little austere but beautifully boned – I wouldn’t hesitate waiting 2-3 more years for this, I have the feeling it’s not going anywhere fast!
Rebuy – Maybe
1999 Marquis d’Angerville, Volnay 1er Fremiet
Here the nose is showing some leathery characteristics – it’s not got the Volnay purity that I like. On the palate, however, this is lovely; more floral and elegant than the Lafon and simply delicious today – its structure is less obviously visible. Delicious but not the best aromatic.
Rebuy – Maybe
2018 Charles Lachaux, Vosne-Romanée
The current pricing of these wines is eye-watering but we took this from a wine list and tried to keep an open mind. We were rewarded!
Very modest colour – it could be a 2017. Aromatically captivating! What a fabulous and elegant, frankly ethereal, perfume – yes! It’s the same on the palate too – ethereal, intoxicatingly perfumed, elegant wine. It transcends AOC – it doesn’t have the weight or concentration of a grand cru but most grand crus don’t satisfy as this wine did – a little marvel!
Rebuy – I wish!
1986 Romanée-Conti, Grands-Echézeaux
The cork came out in one – not bad with this age!
Another wine with super perfume – more complex and more rugged than the Lachaux – but doesn’t quite transport you to another dimension like that wine. In the mouth, this is an old lady – all in place, easy to drink – not special (like the nose) just a fine and satisfying drink. On its way down, I think, but still very good.
Rebuy – no, it’s no-longer worth the tariff
2001 Georges Mugneret, Clos de Vougeot
I bought three of these on release. The first I opened about 5 years ago and it wasn’t a very interesting bottle. Has 5 more years made a difference?
Not a forceful nose but one with some pretty floral elegance. The flavour profile is similarly floral; the structure present though modest for a Clos de Vougeot. Not an amazing grand cru but certainly a delicious wine!
Rebuy – Maybe
2001 Louis Jadot, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques
Like the previous wine, my last one of these was unsatisfying – in this case seemingly muddied and bretty – this was altogether better.
Airy, partly floral – good complexity with plenty of maturity starting to show. Engaging, open wine. Like the Mugneret a 2001 that’s very much on the elegant scale but delivers satisfying complexity, texture and length. That’s a lovely wine – I have much more hope for my remaining bottles.
Rebuy – Yes
2019 Françoise Andre, Corton-Charlemagne
A little on the young side – both aromatically and from the flavour perspective – just a little tight. Yet, engaging and fun to drink, all the same. The finish impresses. To see again but very good.
Rebuy – Maybe
2x 2017 Chablis
Great to compare and contrast the VV from Gilbert Picq with the wine of Laurent Tribut:
The Picq, as most of my wines from them, is just a bit young and tight – I feel the shape and love the clarity but a wine to be more patient with than the example that I set. To the contrary, Tribut’s wines often seem to have that little extra pizzaz at the same stage – maybe the lack of (stated!) VV in this case – but here’s a wine that is already drinking deliciously; structural and deliciously mouthwatering. For a villages – absolute class.
Rebuy – yes, one to keep and one to drink
2017-2019 Coche-Dury, Meursault
Not everyday drinking, for sure, but with occasional friends in town and a restaurant that sells locally for about 25% of retail, there are some opportunities here 😉
The first I tasted was the 2018; clearly a good wine, in fact a very good wine, but I didn’t really see the Coche-ness with this one. Delicious but a hard sell even at this price. No problem, a couple of weeks later it was sold out! So then came the 2019 – and wow! This is a beauty, subtly rippling muscle and signature reductive elements – now we are talking. But given that my acquaintances had drunk too many bottles of this, our host has removed it from the wine-list, worried that it will be sold out long before it is possible replenish stocks with the 2020s. However! They had done similar with 2017 and there is still some of this, only for an increased tariff, now €300! I can honestly say that this is also the real deal – precise and very Coche. Another beauty.
Rebuy? – I’d happily drink any of them but I’d only buy 2 of them!
2019 Jeremy Recchione, l’Ambroise
An interesting assemblage of aligoté and gamay (70%). Zero added sulfur
Still plenty of colour. A nose that’s not the height of interest but still intriguing. In the mouth this is quite direct and has a flavour profile that’s hard to pin down. Drinkable for sure but just a little anonymous in style – and you know that burgundy addicts like to be able to put their finger on a map when it comes to wines.
Rebuy – No
2016 Maison Harbour, Gevrey-Chambertin La Justice
A nice wax top to this bottle – I know some buyers don’t like this – but I do 🙂
Relatively pale colour. The nose and flavours are hardly even those of middle-weights but the fragrance and perfume in the flavours is lovely. As the wine reacts to the air, structurally it becomes just a little jarring, structurally, in the middle and finishing flavours – a nod to the difficult 2016 vintage – but still great perfume.
Rebuy – No
That’s enough for now – but later today I’ve a 2016 Juliénas to check in on 😉
There are 2 responses to “just a few recent wines…”
First and foremost, commiserations regarding the passing of your friend. I’ve lost a few myself recently and it remains tough to come to terms with.
Then, thanks for the notes: they are very useful. I always suspected that the Mugneret mother & sisters team needed a couple of years to come to terms with the passing of Dr. Georges. I remember being blown away with the quality of their 2003’s -not even a vintage I particularly cared for- after the slightly ordinary 2000/2001 vintages. Believe it or not, 2004 was a real success at that address and I never looked back afterwards.
While it may be time to start with the 1999 d’Angervilles I’ve been eyeing in the cellar lately (don’t have any Fremiets, but some stock of the other 1ers), I am almost sad to hear that the Lachaux wines are really that good. I fear that the boutique-winery scheme they adopted will be the undoing of the region…
Hi Mike
Appreciate your comments.
I was lucky enough to taste with Marie-Christine just a few days ago and they are indeed on something of a roll but allocations will be way down for the 2021s as they have a very small quantity. I personally didn’t like their 2004s but no surprise there 🙂
I’ve some 99 Clos des Ducs in waiting – Guillaume suggesting that it’s now starting to drink – which is why I tested the Fremiets first! I think I’ll still wait for the Ducs 25th birthday – I think many 99s will be peaking by then.
As for the Lachaux, I was also sceptical but the sommelier promised that we would be in for a treat – and so it turned out. I still have to think that the high end market can’t cope with more than a dozen or so ’boutique-winery’ approaches but that’s probably my age – I still can’t forget buying most Cote de Nuits GCs for under €50 🙂
Cheers
Well, at lunch at Le Soufflot in November, 2019 our table of six shared a bottle of the 2017 Coche Meursault. There was a limit of one bottle of Coche per table. It was indeed excellent and I couldn’t walk past it at 100E. The equally fine 2014 Raveneau Chablis was at the “giveaway” price of 35E while the superb 2015 Chassagne Clos St Jean Rouge for 55E rounded out the 32E/hd lunch supremely. Aaaah, those were the days!