Plenty of oak-toast on the nose, augmented by a little reduction – slowly there’s a dark-ish red fruited dimension. Concentrated and quite lithe in the mouth, with good structure and length.
Pousse d'Or
2010 Pousse d'Or Volnay Caillerets
2009 Pousse d'Or Chambolle-Musigny
Just a hint of toasty oak on the nose; dark fruit bubbles below. Fresh, good acidity here though currently offering a rather narrow flavour-impression. There is obvious oak as a flavour component which obscures much of what I’d hope to find in a Chambolle. I like the shape of the wine but time will tell how good it is as the oak fades.
2009 Pousse d'Or Volnay Caillerets
Medium-plus colour. Crystallised dark fruits play on the nose – with less overt oak than the villages Chambolle. The flavour of the oak is obvious but the wine has good tannin with just the right amount of ‘grab’ for a young wine – excellent width and complexity. This is a very engaging wine but without the common minerality of a Caillerets – perhaps it will develop as the oak fades.
2009 Pousse d'Or Volnay Clos d'Audignac
Medium-plus colour. There is a more meaty depth to the fruit than was the case for the Caillerets. In the mouth this is very finely proportioned, offering a lovely balance between the tannin and the understated (though just about perfect) acidity. The oak is here as a flavour component too, but it seems to be in a more supporting role than some of the other wines.
2009 Pousse d'Or Chambolle-Musigny Les Grosseilles
2009 Pousse d'Or Corton Clos du Roi
Medium-plus colour. Notes of ripe dark fruit mingle with equally dark oak – or is the latter colouring the former? After the nose this is much more lithe than I was expecting – really lovely intensity and some ripe tannin too. Long-finishing flavours of dark fruit and licorice; this wine seems to have absorbed the toasty flavours more than the others.
2002 Pousse d'Or Volnay Clos des 60 Ouvrées
Medium, medium-plus colour but quite an amber caste – I wonder how this has been stored. The fruit has a pronounced jammy aroma and some dried cranberry, eventually widening to give a dark cherry and some dark minerality at the core. Sweet in the mouth and there’s fine texture, too – the acidity has a slightly bitter prominence, but not enough to make you wince or regret the next sip. Actually it drinks very well. I have the feeling that it might have been stored at a high-ish temp at some stage during its lifetime, but it clearly survived the trip to all the way to the bottle-bank…