Yes – it’s already week 49!
Above, the people who said ‘yes’ to a visit by me this week! And this week, no surprise, some great wines!
I’m starting to wind down now, just another ~8 visits next week, followed by a smoking keyboard – actually the keyboard doesn’t get that hot as my typing seems to get less and less accurate each year!
Cheers!
My white report will be out in not much more than a week, covering over 40 domaines’ wines and the white vintage assessed in detail.
But here’s a weekend red – my first bottled 2018 red burgundy at home – and it’s more than a good one for the vintage – though I’ve only visited 44 (mainly) red domaines so far. Dominique Gallois has made super, punchy, balanced wines with fine energy in 2018 – they are well above the average – but here you can see, firsthand, the (my) stylistic conundrum of the vintage:
2018 Dominique Gallois, Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Very deep colour. Directly from the fridge (as all my wines), I can’t really describe this as pinot from Burgundy, it smells more like a good gamay cru – but at least there’s no bubble-gum here. Likewise in the mouth, this starts in direct, concentrated, even assertive style. It’s fresh, you might even convince me that it’s pinot – but, initially, not from Burgundy. As the wine warms in the glass the texture becomes more overtly velvet, the structure and flavours relax over the palate – even the nose smells a little more like pinot. It’s absolutely delicious wine of sufficient freshness, purity of (dark) fruit, no hard edges and a concentration that you don’t often find in a villages wine. It is a great regional wine – if you like the style – I can happily drink it despite its overt sweetness, but stylistically, 10,11,12,13,14 are all much more attractive to me. And blind, I still wouldn’t guess that it was from Burgundy…
Rebuy – Maybe
Above, the people who actually said ‘yes’ to a visit by me this week!
The weather was very changeable this week – lots of rain, plenty of winter mist, but some patches of sun too – even in the hautes côtes 😉
I loved a quote from one of the vignerons pictured above; “In 2019 it was easy to work in the vines, the weeds hardly grew due to the dry heat. Now, at the end of November, we have plenty of rain, so they are starting to grow!” And you can see just that as the ‘herbs’ and flowers start pushing in some images below, in Mazis-Chambertin.
Now a weekend in rainy Switzerland before returning for the appointments of the next two weeks…
I should mention that the September report for subscribers is online – all you could concievably want to know aboout the 2019 vintage before the 2018s are ready!
Look out for the first 2018 report – 10th December – for 2018 white burgundy. Provided my keyboard doesn’t wear out 😉
Just the first two days in Beaune this week – so only 10 visits, but I’ll be back next week. I needed to be home to catch up on my growing mountain of typing! The 2018 reds remain highly variable – stylistically – whilst far from homogenous, the whites are significantly easier to appraise and position this year.
Onwards…
Weather for ducks in Burgundy this week – literally. Or perhaps penguins – some cars even sported a little snow on their roofs on Thursday morning – specially imported from the Hautes Côtes.
Good visits this week – even if not always good wines – the difference between the ‘fresh’ and the black, partly volatile ripeness (“we were looking for phenolic ripeness”) is stark but hyper-interesting. 2018 reds are really a remarkable vintage, also remarkably diverse. Some have absolutely nailed it, but others – even great names – sadly, have not……
Next up, I suppose there may be a wine auction this weekend!
This week’s lucky recipients of my visits for October’s report!
It’s been a pleasure to be in the Côtes this week; the vines resplendent, though – photographically speaking – the light has been sub-optimal for the best photos, with mainly greyer skies. But still a pleasure!
The leaves in some places have dropped – whole sections – clearly there are places where clone type trumps the weather – but generally all is still beautiful – maybe the chance of some nice pictures over the weekend.
Some very classy wine tasted this week – my thanks to the domaines that made some time available to see me – of-course all will be in the October report, published next month.
The week was a mix of sun and much needed rain – the latter, of-course, less photogenic. We also had the first day with typically autumnal weather – a misty morning that slowly gave way to sunshine – that was Wednesday. A week with 400,000 km on the clock of the scoobydoo too!
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