Could it be the hyphen in the names?

The wines are too expensive – there’s no argument – but they offer the opportunity to deliver something truly sublime. Last night it was multiple Coche and Meo washed down with a bottle of Armand Rousseau. Today it was the 2004 reds from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti – most weeks are not like this!

I will probably wait for the next ‘issue’ to give you the notes – otherwise it will be a very thin edition! But despite a number of older Coche wines, only one of them really ‘hooked’ me, and that was a villages. The Meo’s were very good, the Rousseau even better, but the DRC’s are a dream to anyone who wants to make their opinion known: if you’re a believer, they are elegant and transparent, and they are guaranteed to improve for 20+ years. If you’re a non-believer, they are light, insipid and have no chance to get better – everyone’s a winner!

By the way, I’m a believer…

Many apologies for the ‘piece-meal’ approach to delivering these notes, but frankly I don’t have the time available to write them all in one shot – besides it might get a little boring around here if I gave you 20 notes and nothing else for the next week 😉
The wines below are all Côte de Beaune reds and were tasted after bottling. I have notes from another 3 bottled wines from the Côte de Nuits and lastly 8 sampled from barrel about 2 weeks before bottling which will followin the next days. I’d buy any othe wines below – no problem – but special mention (for my preferences) goes to the Volnay 1er Caillerets.
2005 Nicolas Potel, Volnay Vieilles Vignes
Medium-plus cherry-red colour. There’s a concentrated core of red fruit on the nose, pure but linear. The palate is very serious; there’s plenty of faintly grained and slightly astringent tannin. The acidity is fine, and leads to a very good, mouth-watering length. Super villages.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Nicolas Potel, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Peuillets
Again, medium-plus cherry-red colour. The nose is about sweet, focused fruit, plus occasional hints of malo. Sweet and ripe, the palate remains very fresh. Quite narrow in the mid-palate, but much longer finishing than I was expecting. Very nice, but certainly needs at least 1+ year to integrate…
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Nicolas Potel, Volnay 1er Caillerets
Medium-plus colour – almost purple. A wide and really interesting nose of black-shaded fruit over a base of coffee. The finest tannins yet – they are only faintly astringent, despite their abundance. The fruit on the palate is very clean and understated yet very long. This is a fantastic wine and worth a special search.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Nicolas Potel, Pommard 1er Rugiens
A nose of real depth with forward black fruit and just a touch of reduction. The palate shows real concentration and plenty of tannin, but the tannin is amply covered by black shaded fruit. The fruit widens and widens into the finish. Large-scaled and concentrated without being over-blown. Impressive juice.
Rebuy – Yes

I really enjoyed the 99 Santenay from the other day, but this 96 didn’t quite do the business…
1996 Jacques Germain, Beaune 1er Les Teurons
Medium-plus ruby-red colour. The nose is high-toned and wide with a pronounced meaty/savoury aspect – characterful but it didn’t work for me. The main impression from the palate is the acidity – forward but quite soft. The wine is certainly intense and long, but at this stage in its development the aroma and flavour profile don’t endear it to me – more of a spotty adolescent than mature interest. Previous bottles have been much nicer so I will give this the benefit of the doubt. Remaining bottles will not be touched in the next 3-4 years…
Rebuy – Maybe

I always enjoy my visits chez Potel; the wines usually offer value, start with ‘good quality’ as a baseline, and occasional cuvées can be stunning. More importantly, because the house style is largely consistent and neutral (and you have a wide palate of cuvées), you can get a great feel for the vintage in almost half a day, without the wood getting in the way.

First up a few whites that are already bottled. Fabrice Lesne has been working at the domaine for a while now, his prior experience came at the Hospices de Nuits, Domaine Bertagna and also looking after the Meursaults of Bouchard Père et Fils. After going through the bottles Fabrice put me on the spot and asked with a smile, “so, what did you think?” I replied that I preferred the delivery and minerality of his 2004’s as the 05’s seem rather rich at the moment – he shrugged – keeping his big smile and said “of-course, but that’s the vintage!”

There’s a lot of wine packed into these bottles and it will be interesting to see how they settle. Today they all more about rich and poweful delivery, than taught, structured intensity – many will prefer them to the 2004’s – but not me, not yet.
2005 Nicolas Potel, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Maltroie
Medium lemon-yellow. The nose is high-toned with a little citrus and deep segments of fruit. Rich but round flavours expand in the mid-palate and show good length. This is a clean, powerful and quite interesting wine.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Nicolas Potel, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Champs-Canet
This wine hails from the Meursault side of the appellation. The nose is narrower, tigher and more melon influenced – it really doesn’t give any clues to the label. The palate is quite opulent, almost 2003 in delivery – though with much better acidity. On the finish there is still a texture from the oak – nothing major, and it will probably be gone within 6 months. Again this is a rich, powerful wine that today shows none of the classic Puligny tension.
Rebuy – Maybe
2005 Nicolas Potel, Meursault 1er Genevrières
A nose of real width, at it’s centre an intense core of agrumes with (perhaps) just an edge of marzipan. A soft and understated entry, but real mid-palate power is evident that effortlessly carries into the finish which today mainly shows sweet oak flavour.
Rebuy – Maybe

I should subtitle this as “don’t worry about the price of 2005 Musigny”. Given that the average 2005 will be (a little) better than the average 1999, this excellent wine really exemplifies what treasures await in 05 – and from all sorts of appellations too – don’t worry about the trophy wines, just fill your storage space with good 05 village and 1er Cru wines and you have the opportunity to drink well for the best part of the next 20 years; and if 2007 is hailed as even better than 2005 – so what! – you can go on holiday to the Maldives instead of chasing the en-primeurs…
1999 Jean-Claude Belland, Santenay 1er Comme
Deep colour – actually there’s still just the merest hint of cherry-red at the rim. The reticent nose is rather brooding, alternately showing some lovely pure blackcurrant fruit then a rather more mineral note – not unlike the graphite of a Paulliac, perhaps hints of licorice too. Very well textured – you really have to roll the wine around your mouth to find the tannins as they still have plenty of dark fruit coverage – faint grain can be found eventually. There’s real concentration here and quite a burst on the mid-palate too. The acidity is just right, only on the finish does this wine hint at its origins – medium-plus length at best. This wine delivers much more than I expected, and in a very understated way – it probably requires at least 3-5 years more in the cellar – but this bottle was far from sacrificed.
Rebuy – Yes

What a nightmare, here I am with a lovely glass of wine that I can hardly concentrate on. Even someone who visits the Côtes every second month or so gets excited when the next issue of burghound is released – particularly so when it’s his first look at the 2005’s. I know some laughed at the hyperbolé of “these wines will define the benchmarks for a generation” – but Allen basically exhorts you to sell your house, wife and dog to buy these wines…bugger…what about the tax-man(?), on second thoughts, I have no chance of selling him!

Back to this wine:
2002 Nicolas Potel, Vosne-Romanée 1er Aux Malconsorts
Medium, medium-plus cherry red – there is very little colour development. The nose starts faintly sweet over a brooding base that threatens at anytime to explode – but never does – slowly there is a cool fruit aspect with just an edge of cream and eventually something a little more savoury. The palate has an understated entry, but with the help of some flowing acidity it really comes to the boil in the mid-palate and onwards – nice, complex density here. If you look hard you will find some fine grained tannin. Despite the understatement of the finish, it has exemplary length – if a touch saccharin – but it’s young. In a word – yes!
Rebuy – Yes
Note by clicking the green dollar sign above I found out that this wine is cheaper than many Vosne villages from 2005 – now that’s silly!