A lovely nose with a waxy impression and aromatic depth – very fine and pretty. The flavours are mineral and elegant – structure like fine bone china. There’s a little coconut oak in the finish – I’d be looking for that to fade, but this is a little beauty.
Chambolle-Musigny
1969 Thomas-Bassot Chambolle-Musigny
The nose needed just a few minutes to deliver its perfume of cushioned dark red fruit – perhaps not as ethereal as the first bottle, but lovely none-the-less. Once more a very clean and tasty wine delivering volume, dimension and still a little tannin. Very nice length, that’s still dominated by the fruit. What a lovely, elegant yet still robust wine.
1999 Arlaud Chambolle-Musigny
Rather deeply coloured, and it still looks quite young. The nose is deep and a little meaty, yet is classically (some might say clichéd) Chambolle-Musigny with its very pretty floral top notes – the bass notes are perhaps meatier than your average Chambolle but that’s probably the slow march to maturity. Round, clearly with plenty of extract and a lovely diminuendo into the mouth-watering finish. The tannins give a little astringency if you keep the wine in your mouth, but if you ‘just drink’, the word that comes into my mind is ‘luxurious’. Young but very drinkable. I can only dream that the rest of my 99s would perform to this level right now.
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.
1969 Thomas-Bassot Chambolle-Musigny
Older bottles of villages wines are not quite a lottery but the odds of having a great experience are similar to tossing a coin, even when well-stored. We tossed well. This time the cork was removed in one piece; the aroma was disjointed and dark to start but in the glass you needed only ten minutes for it to transform into a beautiful musky, sultry, almost velvety dark red fruit – you had to be there! In the mouth there was both volume and dimension, sweetness and good length. A clean and very tasty wine indeed – I wonder if my second bottle will be so good…