Entries from 2008

2007’s

By billn on July 15, 2008 #vintage appraisal

I was planning to write a few notes on the 2007’s for the next burgundy report – another 2 weeks? – but there are too many requests on the subject to ignore.  Briefly you only need to look here to see what the winemakers were up against in the vintage, but moving onto what’s in barrel:

Whites
Life is relatively easy here, not too many problems with the grapes but there was some botrytis in a number of plots.  The whites have the necessary freshness and it seems quite some depth too – the good run for white burgundy continues (ignoring post-bottling issues).  On average it seems that the whites will exceed the quality of the reds.

Reds
I will naturally restrict my commentary to those that made a good selection of grapes.  Since the turn of the year, and in both Côtes, the wines have been about fruit, fruit and fruit – soft and red and very comely.  They have been very attractive but without great weight or structure.  Post malo and resting on their lees they have slowly put on weight – many have become quite serious, particularly in the grand appellations of the Côte de Nuits.  Using that terrible phrase ‘on average’ they will be for drinking before their counterparts from 2006 and certainly 2005 but should exceed the quality of the 2004’s.

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latest from the côtes…

By billn on July 14, 2008 #vintage 2008

Back from the Côtes.

The weather was more than a little changeable; blue sky and 30°C Thursday, 22° and intermittent rain on Friday, indeed thunder in Savigny, but none in Beaune. This lack of consistency has been the only constant factor this year. The teams go out and spray against whatever they want to spray against – then 3 days later they have to do it again because the rain washes it away – of-course, then it rains again!

Still the vines are in rude health. It seems too early for mildew, but there is plenty of ‘millerandange’ of the grapes i.e. very small and sometimes uneven grape development – this year caused by a uneven (due to weather) flowering – this is potentially a good thing for quality, as such small berries have a higher solids to juice (mainly water) ratio.

UPDATE, From a local winemaking correspondent:

For the moment the mildew is pretty much confined to organic, or less-than-perfectly-conventionally-sprayed, vines in the plain. A picture of the mildew situation in the plain below Chambolle – shame my photographic skills aren’t up to much! It doesn’t show, but the young leaf top-left is also 100% infected. It’s a well-tended and often-sprayed vineyard too, farmed by a well-known organic domaine. I think the grapes are safe now, but they won’t get very ripe without leaves!

100 days from flowering to harvest is the usual rule of thumb, so those who want to plan a trip to the Côtes for harvesting, should pencil into their diaries September 20th and onwards.

I also tasted lots more 2007’s – but that’s another story…

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i wonder how many trees…

By billn on July 14, 2008 #the market

New Seguin Moreau barrel-making facility opened at Chagny in Burgundy

On July 10, 2008 – The Oeneo group inaugurated its new Seguin Moreau barrel-making plant at Chagny in Burgundy. The new, state-of-the-art facility covering a E2,5 million investment has a capacity to produce at least 20,000 barrels per year. Production will be increase progressively in the next 18 months.

With this new barrel-making plant, Seguin Moreau is reinforcing its range of “barrels made in Burgundy”, which are particularly suited to wines made from pinot noir and chardonnay grapes and which are seeing strong growth, especially in the United States and in Australia. The investment is backed up by a new partnership agreement with the Institut Universitaire de la Vigne et du Vin in Dijon for a R&D programme on wood-wine interactions.

The Oeneo Group, the world’s leading barrel manufacturer through its Seguin Moreau, Radoux and Victoria brands, is thus equipping with new development capacity and confirms its growth ambitions in a market that remains upbeat.

Having strongly improved its economic performances over the last three years, Oeneo shows its capability to make further investments to stimulate growth and create value for the Group.

The Oeneo Group will publish its first half 2008 sales figures on 29 July after close of trading.

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thibault liger-belair, 2005 hcdn la corvée de villy

By billn on July 10, 2008 #asides

thibault liger belair 2005 hautes cotes de nuits la corvee de villy

People I’ve asked have been polarised about the style of this domaine, so time to check! Very nice presentation, even a half length capsule that shows the end of the cork – in this case it’s more than cosmetic as the cork shows the wine and vintage in small text at it’s base. I guess it’s unlikely that Thibault’s Hautes Côtes will be the focus of counterfeiters, but maybe his Richebourg…
2005 Thibault Liger-Belair, Hautes Côtes de Nuits La Corvée de Villytry to find this wine...
Medium, medium-plus cherry red colour. The nose starts with quite a dose of high toast oak, but over an hour this moves more into the background to show a little bacon and slight reduction – even after a couple of hours I didn’t get to the fruit. In the mouth it’s ripe and sweet and the oak is very much in the background. Medium-bodied with largely hidden tannins and very nice acidity. The length is excellent and far from woody. Despite the oak style being my least favourite and the nose missing a little dimension, this is a delicious wine that’s nicely pinot.
Rebuy – Yes

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dugat-py 2005 chambertin, telesales with a difference…

By billn on July 08, 2008 #the market

dugat-py chambertinMy phone rang in the office this afternoon.  Once the lady accommodated me by agreeing to switch from Swiss-German to ‘High’-German, it transpired that she had 1 remaining bottle (from four) of Dugat-Py’s 2005 Chambertin for sale.  ‘As there was such a demand’, would I like to bid for it based on a starting price of 980 Sfr the bottle(?)

In the context of the 2005 market, that is currently an ‘okay’ price, though as we can see from the entry below about 2005 naysayers, who is to say it will remain that way.

I decided to stick with my lonely bottle of his 2004 Chambertin – besides I need food this month…

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the first of the 2005 naysayers(?)

By billn on July 08, 2008 #other sites#the market

one must read between the lines. “More red fruit than black” connotes a lighter body, and “lively and dynamic” hints still further at a youthful, bright vintage whose maturity will be rapid and difficult to predict.

I’ve been waiting for you.

John Mariani is the first I’ve seen, but there will be many more. Aside from disagreeing with both of his assertions above, it’s true that there’s a whole boat-load of love missing from the 2005 wines now versus the latter half of last year – even more-so than from barrel tasting. What John is missing (I suspect) are those benchmarks. It’s also time though for me to ween myself from opening these bottles. I did, however, find the Voillot Volnay 1er cru to be similar to John’s reflection of the basic villages (maybe I got there too late), mind-you, I re-bought a number of other Voillots.

As a side-note, Bloomberg has become quite an interesting source of articles in the last months…

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claude dugat 2005 gevrey-chambertin

By billn on July 08, 2008 #degustation

claude dugat 2005 gevrey chambertin

The wines of Claude seem to have passed me by; they have a great reputation and they may be far from cheap but they tend to be harder to find than to afford!  So here’s a villages at a little under twice the price of the average bottle of villages Gevrey, it’s also my first from Claude!
2005 Claude Dugat, Gevrey-Chambertintry to find this wine...
Medium-plus cherry-red colour. Wow, what a nose; a beautiful and rather haunting perfume of hedge-row flowers, elderflower and soft red fruits with a suggestion of oak. A soft entry with understated concentration, velvety tannin and a creamy oak coating to the finishing flavours – it’s also very long for a villages. It’s not perfect though, the flavours have just a little oaky bitterness, but the sour-cherry fruit coupled to wonderful aromatics make this a compelling glass.
Rebuy – Yes – even at the price of some Clos de Vougeot!

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