Entries from 2022

The calm before the storm that is harvest-time minus one day!

By billn on August 30, 2022 #degustation#vintage 2022

Today was the, relative, calm before the storm.

Yesterday, the small matter of more than 2.5 hours jogging in the mountains – with nearly 1,100 vertical metres of climbing – and even more of descending. Good training for tomorrow’s harvesting start in Beaune? I think my legs disagree today 🙂

As for our harvest timing – we are far from the earliest – but I would say roughly in the middle of the starters. I note multiple ‘famous’ domaines in Vosne-RomanĂŠe were already picking their grapes yesterday.

Just to tie a few loose ends together – here are a few notes on the most recent wines at home – with, of course, a few interesting wines lined up for the harvest lunches!

2009 Gilles Bouton, St.Aubin En Creot (Rouge)
In handy 500ml bottles
If I’m honest, it’s taken this many years for this to come into a nice phase of drinking – balanced, not overly ripe (in the modern context) and very tasty.
Rebuy – Yes

2012 Dampt Frères, Chablis Les Preuses
A magnum
The last of my 3 mags and, whilst seemingly faultless, the least interesting of the three. Very good wine but previous experiences brought a level of anticipation that remained unfulfilled…
Rebuy – Maybe

1981 Clavelier, Corton-Rognet
A magnum, and of course, that’s the Clavelier on the way to NSG – not Bruno Clavelier in Vosne…
Pale colour but a nose of engaging – indeed inviting – clarity. The flavour? Well, this was singing on all fronts. Medium bodied for Corton but with proper growth of middle and finishing flavour to mark it out as a grand cru – lacy and pure in style – that was a brilliant 1981!
Rebuy – Yes

2006 Lucie & August Lignier, Morey St.Denis Vieilles-Vignes
Yes, yes, yes! Kellen made some great wines but also some ordinary ones but here we have a winner on all fronts. Aromatically engaging, complex, with aromas and flavours on the cusp of proper maturity. Completely delicious and with some power too – all was finished on the same day!
Rebuy – Yes

2020 JA Ferret, Pouilly-FuissĂŠ, Clos des Prouges
I tasted this earlier this year on the day of its bottling and was wowed – an order quickly followed.
The oak is clearly more visible than my tank sample suggested – but air dislodged some of that. Day two and it was singing – 80% of the oak had left the scene leaving a wine of extraordinary dimension, precision and shape to fill my glass. I won’t open another for 2-3 years but this is a great PF!
Rebuy – Yes

2020 Roland Lavantureux, Chablis Vieilles-Vignes
Another wine showing some oak – though less than the Pouilly. I like the shape and dimension of this and if there is any pyrazine, the oak has it completely smothered – I can’t see any. Give it 2 years for that oak to fade – it could be a super 2020!
Rebuy – Maybe

2019 Laroche, Chablis Vieille Voye
What a wine – precision, fine, driving, energy and super Chablis precision – no oak to be seen. Classic, delicious, and bravo 2019!
Rebuy – Yes

2017 Maison de la Chapelle, Irancy
A highly floral nose but with obvious pyrazines in tow too. Open, delicious floral-infused flavour but, like the nose, with a lot of pyrazine accompaniment. I could still find enjoyment here but too much pyrazine…
Rebuy – No

2020 Tupinier-Bautista, Mercurey 1er En Sazenay (Blanc)
There’s plenty of oak showing on this young wine too – but what a lovely, sizzling, acid-intensity to this flavour. I love the ride that this wine provides – great, great Mercurey Blanc!
Rebuy – Yes

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a cheeky pair of midweek classics…

By billn on August 24, 2022 #degustation

week 34 2022 wines

There have been many others over the last month – and maybe I’ll get a quick summary of those to you too – but yesterday, with visitors, a couple of classics – the appellations and the vintage too.

2010 Ramonet, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Ruchottes
Tears or joy? This time it was joy – a wine in perfect condition though 2 of this 6-pack were oxidised. Now they are all done. An impressive-looking Trescasses cork did a good job in this case.
A strong but fresh lemon-yellow colour – this looks quite young. The nose is airy and clean but missing a little fireworks – unlike the palate. In the mouth we have expansive wine with quite enough freshness at this age – I thought it lacking here when younger. The middle and finishing flavours are muscular yet slightly lush and creamy – still with a suggestion of finishing oak but only as part of a wide palate of fine flavour. Super drinkable despite obvious concentration. Really a super thing!
Rebuy – this bottle!

2010 Nicolas Rossignol, Volnay 1er Chevrets
Nicolas, together with Henri Boillot, account for most of this climate – which is surrounded on 3 of 4 sides by Santenots and Caillerets – with the typical unbranded cork of Nicolas during this period
Medium, medium-plus colour – one of middle-age and no browning. The nose just got better and better with air; starting with a little turned earth before becoming ever-more perfumed and Volnay in style. A little more muscle and less absolute clarity of flavour than a Caillerets (his 2010 still waits in my cellar) so possibly more in the stylistic direction of Santenots. Simply excellent wine – and the proof of the pudding? No drop left for day 2!
Rebuy – Yes

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23-Aug – Harvest 2022 – it’s warming up…

By billn on August 23, 2022 #vintage 2022

Whilst the majority of domaines are still testing grapes and not yet committing to their harvest dates, I’m virtually stalking a few domaines that have come to their 2022 harvest date decisions:

Chateau Thivin – yesterday
Marcel Lapierre – today
Armand Heitz – today
d’Angerville – today
Chandon de Briailles – today
Lafarge – 29 August
Roblet-Monot – 29 August
Pinson – 29 August
My home domaine in Beaune – 31 August
Perrot-Minot – 31 August
Nicolas Rossignol – 01 September

In 2020, an even earlier vintage than this year, the whites were not the first to be ready – it’s looking similar this year too – so yet another year where we don’t have the opportunity to marvel at who will be the first in Meursault :))

Another point of interest for this vintage is that recent hot ones have seen harvesting only 90-or-so days after flowering – this year it will be more than the traditional 100 days. They are all different, just saying…

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tada – and onto the 2022 harvest…

By billn on August 21, 2022 #travel pics#vintage 2022

a tower or two...

Just back from our holiday of touring in Normandy and Brittany – a lighthouse tower or two above.

But, of course, you want to know about the harvest!

Grapes have already been picked – since the 17th of August but for crĂŠmant and also in Beaujolais too – red ones as below – but, for the moment, we are still waiting in the rest of the CĂ´te d’Or, the southern cĂ´tes of Chalonnaise and Mâconnais and, of course, Chablis.

In Chablis, one month ago, they were thinking that they would start around the 25th of August but many domaines are waiting for Monday the 29th. Likewise, many had been projecting a mid-August start for the whites of the CĂ´te d’Or – underlined by the butchers in Meursault! The butchers? Yes, they are also traiteurs (caterers) and were already booked by several domaines to start delivering food from Monday the 15th – but the 15th came and went.

As one vigneron of Beaune explained to me before my holidays; “You learn at wine school that the vines put their energy into growth and then into maturing the grapes – not both. We would have expected the growth to have stopped by the end of July and so the vines’ energy would then have been focused on maturing their grapes but it hasn’t worked out that way – the vines are still growing (end July), we are still having to cut the extra growth of the vines. It’s probably because of that that our veraison is so variable. Anyway I’d initially planned to be picking my reds towards the end of August but I’ve pushed everything back a week, maybe 10 days and certainly into September…”

I spotted 2 well-known vigneron(ne)s of Volnay in Beaune’s market on Saturday (Lafarge & Roblet-Monot) and both were suggesting that another 6 days would be enough – so Monday 29th August.

My own home domaine in Beaune had also been planning to be in the vines by now but given the slow advancement in maturity, only began their maturity tests in the last few days – the current projection is to start on Friday the 27th or Tuesday the 30th of August – they will decide tomorrow.

Ready for blast-off then! It’s certainly going to be an interesting one – another in the, seemingly, never-ending series of hotter vintages but a hot vintage with by far the most rain in recent years – there was more at the end of last week. Couple that with the expectation of quite a large crop and we have the making of a vintage that could properly differentiate itself from other recent offerings – let’s see!

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New on Burgundy Report

By billn on August 02, 2022 #reports

Just as a heads-up, a new Burgundy Report is online. Here.

The image above also references stories in these diary pages in the last days too.

I hope there’s something interesting for you.

Thursday is holiday touring for me – no wine visits – but there will be some in the car for emergencies 😉

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Armand Heitz | Le Cellier, Pommard

By billn on August 02, 2022 #degustation

I took the chance to visit Armand Heitz’s ‘Cellier’ in Pommard. You pay a modest fee to taste, but you are tasting commercially available wines direct from the producer – a very good producer, at that. I tasted a mix of 2020s and 2019s – but all bottled and available in this shop.

Decent paid-for tastings in the CĂ´te d’Or are rare but here’s one I can wholeheartedly recommend…

2019 St.Aubin 1er Les Murgers des Dents du Chiens Red
Have the monopole of red from here – in this vintage
Broad, airy above, slightly heavier in the depth. Silkier and much more impressive in the mouth than the nose suggests. Saline – wide, and lots of layers to this flavour. That’s a very good wine…

2020 Pommard 1er Clos des Poutures
The domaine’s monopole made with 50% whole clusters with about 20% new barrels
The whole clusters are more visible here but it’s still a very good invitation. Supple, silky, layered wine. I love the energy and growing intensity. That’s a really top villages – bravo!

2020 Volnay 1er Les Santenots
A nĂŠgoce wine.
A nose of airy width and finely growing perfume. More structural and open in the mouth – that’s very classy – I love the energy here. Depth of flavour too. You could drink it now but better in 3-5 years!

2020 Pommard 1er Rugiens
From ‘haut’.
Spiced, perfumed aromatics from the whole clusters. Rounder but nothing over-generous or fat here. Wide, seamless finishing – great, great finish – and simply excellent wine.

Les Whites:

2019 Meursault
A négoce wine that’s a blend of more than one parcel.
A nicely direct nose, not so deep or high-toned but attractive all the same. Hmm, there’s a relaxed style to this that does make me think of Meursault, layers, mouth-watering and even vibrant finish – what a great finish again.

2019 St.Aubin 1er Les Murgers des Dents du Chien
Wider, a fine intensity to this riper fruit. Vibrant and mineral counterbalanced with some ripeness of fruit but never too much. Holding a strong, long finish. More than very good wine…

2020 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot
From Petit Clos, there TĂŞte de Clos is bottled separately under that name.
There is power here but it is delivered with restraint. Wide, extra mineral, fine texture. Here is a quality wine, the finish extended by slow-moving waves of finishing flavour – very impressive…

2020 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er 1er Maltroie
That’s a super nose – cushioned, more airy and fine perfumed – personally I like this more. Gorgeous, seamless wine – apart from the mouth-perfume I could see this as Meursault-Perrières. It’s a beautiful wine – bravo!
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Chablis 2020 pyrazines – mea-culpa

By billn on August 01, 2022 #degustation#ladypyrazines

Mea culpa because I feel remorse that I should have emphasised this even more in my reports:

I did, however, warn you (my subscribers) with my chapter “The small sting in the tail of 2020 white burgundy” and subsequent discussion in my January report – but, truth be told, like this summer, the situation has moved on from an occasional mosquito bite to something of a wasp-problem…

It’s not quite the hornet’s nest of a problem that we saw with the reds of the 2004 vintage – these 2020 Chablis remain, essentially, drinkable – but if you are sensitive to this chemical then you will be, like me, in a state of constant distraction.

2-Methoxy-3-isobutyl-pyrazineIn my January trip to Chablis, I visited 64 domaines and found a little more than 10% of the wines to be tainted with ‘the green.‘ In March I returned and visited another 20 domaines and this time I would say that more than half of the domaines had some green wines. Last week in Chablis I tasted a couple of grand crus that were free of the taint in January but that’s no longer the case. In my January report, a number of winemakers suggested the possible reason for these pyrazines.

Right now, I would say that almost all 2020s that I am opening at home are starting to show these notes – an evolution that recalls what happened with the 2004 reds. The problem is widespread across the Auxerois – red and white – but not (yet!) 100%.

In the CĂ´te d’Or I have noted in my reports some reds with plenty of pyrazine – isolated in general so with a significantly lower occurance than (I initially found) in the whites of Chablis. Of course, those reds were tasted back in my October-December tastings but recent bottles remain fine. I haven’t noted any greens – that I can recall – in the whites of the CĂ´te d’Or or further south in Chalonnaise/Mâconnais.

That’s about it for now – but I would most definitely taste before I buy today – your possibilities for that will vary…

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Clive Coates RIP

By billn on July 31, 2022 #sad losses...

Clive CoatesClive Coates, wine-buyer turned wine educator, author and critic, died in Hospital 1 week ago.

The first news trickled out only on Friday – I waited for further corroboration before offering a small note on Twitter.

Clive was open and generous, starting his wine journey in the lesser appellations of France before majoring on Bordeaux – Burgundy came later – but Clive became a reference on the subject.

Clive was particularly a reference for wine-buyers; I still have all the copies of his (roughly!) monthly periodical ‘The Vine‘ starting from his reviews of the 1995 Burgundy vintage until he closed his publication and retired to a house near the hills of Beaujolais.

Multiple were the tastings in his living room in Chiswick where I often asked stupid questions – only to receive enlightening answers. Afterwards, we met in many tastings in Burgundy, Clive always remained approachable despite becoming harder of hearing. I sadly lost touch in the covid years – how quickly 3 years pass.

He was only 81 and he will be missed. The education and joy that he brought to a generation of enthusiasts is incalculable…
*Image, initially, with the permission of Clive when he first reviewed my book – I subsequently find that the originator is Michel Joly – apologies to him for using his image, it’s not clear (to me) who had the copyright…

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Chablis 2020 – trouble at’ mill – weekend 29 2022…

By billn on July 26, 2022 #degustation

weekend 29 2022 wines

At the risk of boring you, the hot weekend weather demands a cool bottle – or three – of Chablis. Unfortunately, this was a very unsatisfactory bunch. I feel a note to subscribers coming on – of the mea-culpa type – these 2020 pyrazines are becoming more and more invasive…

2020 Chablisienne, Chablis 1er Montmains
This was a bravo wine – pre-bottling – why else would I have ordered a dozen of them(?)
A nose of impact and good freshness but also of green-citrus skin and pyrazines. The palate is nicely structural in shape – those green-citrus bitters and energy are abundant but so are the more pyrazine style of flavours too. Ouch! So far, all bar one of my 2020 purchases – all of which I (obviously!) thought pyrazine free – are far from pyrazine free…
Rebuy No Only 11 more to go…

2019 Eleni & Eduard Vocoret, Chablis Les Pargues
Wine of the weekend but from a hobbled field! The problem with this wine today is the strongly visible oak – creamy, almost vanilla. Blind, I’m sure I’d be drinking something from the CĂ´te de Beaune. If I’d wanted something from the CĂ´te de Beaune that’s what I would have chosen, not a Chablis! On the other hand, this is delicious, perfumed, wine it’s just that the oak is wearing today. Wait for 3 years and I think it will be transformed…
Rebuy No

2020 Oudin, Chablis
A favourite producer – but! The cork was a little smelly but the tight nose seemed free of TCA. A muted aromatic, more of yellow citrus than the wine of the Chablisienne and only a faint suggestion of pyrazine. Tight, structural wine giving almost nothing away – but as it warmed in the glass the reason was apparent – faint TCA. After 3 such wines I cut my losses and instead of searching for a 4th bottle, I made some tea!
Rebuy – No

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