2009 Roty, Gevrey-Chambertin La Brunelle
I’m yet to meet a 2009 that I love – certainly the ones that I bought – but this wine is getting nearer and nearer – I’m hoping that it’s only a matter of time!
A silky but slightly dumb, round, nose. In the mouth, there’s also some ripe roundness to the shape but the flavours have more sense of purpose than the aromas. It could indeed be a wine from Gevrey and it has a fine texture too. Well concentrated though possibly still 3-4 more years away from offering something properly interesting.
Rebuy – Maybe

2021 Famille Chasselay, Éphémère
A pale colour – described by the domaine as Blouge! This is a fermented blend of layered gamay, chardonnay and pinot grapes with elevage in an amphora with no added sulfur. Served cold from the fridge.
When tasted at the domaine more than 6 months ago, I loved this. This was my first bottle that I opened and my guests loved it too! Pale colour – pink indeed. Fresh crunchy fruit aromas with the same across the palate – energy and deliciousness – and with only a faint hint of sweetness. Delicious, moreish, wine!
Rebuy – Yes

2019 Olivier Pezenneau, Brouilly Combiaty
Lots of colour. Decent enough freshness overlays a breadth of glossy dark fruit – but without the extra ripe character of many Brouilly of recent years – nice! Cool, direct, sinuous wine – the flavour expanding over the palate with dark cherry and a little licorice – always with a nice energy to both the flavours and shape of the wine. A lovely drink – and another winner from Beaujolais in 2019!
Rebuy – Yes

2017 Clotilde Davenne, Irancy Paradis
This time, it’s a nicely robust cork.
Medium, clean red colour – it’s only the wines with some césar that show any depth of colour in 2017. The nose offers a little warmth of red berry and just a suggestion of flowers – easy – but an invitation all the same. The palate is a broad wave of red fruit with a stonier leading edge to the flavour – like cherry stones. There’s a burst of flavour as you head into this finish and then a little, modest, finishing bitters to keep me in order. Tasty wine, and an easy wine to drink – a very pretty pinot…
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Lejeune, Bourgogne
It’s at least a couple of years ago but the last bottle of this was super – a rare 500ml bottling of which, way back when, I availed myself of a whole case. On this particular occasion (bottle), it was obvious that I was faced with a very spongy cork who would most-likely have some ‘dimensional integrity‘ issues – and so it was. A few minutes later, I managed to get all the pieces out of the neck without losing any. How did the cork smell? Well, no TCA – good! – but within the sweetness of fruit the aromas of brett mingled too. I tried to drink a glass – the rest of the wine putting up a good show – but the performance was overly dominated by the brett. I’m far from the most sensitive to this issue – but this was comfortably beyond my personal limits – the wine went down the sink. Over a certain age, it is often said that there are no good wines, just good bottles – well, this was neither of those.
Rebuy – No – hopefully some of the remaining bottles fair better…

Just a simple evening of four winners shared with Marko de Morey et de Vosne… 🙂

1993 Joseph Voillot, Meursault 1er Les Cras
Plenty of colour but not a hint of oxidation. A width of really appealing wet wool, sweet citrus with white chocolate too. Silky texture. The flavour starts direct but broadens with a ripe citrus and slightly chalky impression. Holding with creamy, ripe yellow, citrus – that’s delicious – what a wine – unfortunately my last of these!
Rebuy – Yes

2009 Dujac, Morey St.Denis 1er Monts Luisants Blanc
For my taste the 2007 and 2021 of this were great whites – period – not just great whites for the Côte de Nuits!
Good light colour. Vibrant, wide but there’s also plenty of richness to this aromatic – exotic fruit with a little caramel too but tons of overt complexity. In the mouth the acidity is fine but the fruit is also rich. A wine of power – not to mention 14.5% alcohol too. Time in the glass makes this ever better – the oak still evident from the salted caramel flavour-profile – the salinity ever-more prominent with air. For my taste, slightly behind the ’93 for balance but so complex and still so young too.
Rebuy – Yes

1996 Arolt, Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos des Forets
Lots of colour. The nose is full and shows plenty of bloody iron, graphite and the perfume of the clusters too – this is lovely. Silky, wide, with super acidity but always balanced. A wine that seems to shrink in the finish but then hold very long… Some iron flavour again and lots of complexity. A wine to contemplate and far from an acidic 96 – indeed it’s a beautifully balanced wine – yes!
Rebuy – Yes

2006 L & A Lignier, Morey St.Denis 1er Cuvée Romain Lignier
A width of finer, cleaner, deeper aroma – less exciting today than the more mature Arlot but all the same, inviting. Directly more tannic and acidic than the 96 – there’s a surprise – but this is still fine textured wine and it’s long finishing too with more finishing width than the Arlot. Wiry and tannic, yet deliciously impressive – structurally it’s still something of a baby – I’d happily wait until it’s 20th birthday to try another.
Rebuy – Yes