I’ve always loved Champagne but have no wish to follow the boringly well-trodden route of burgundy reviewers taking on Champagne – and, effectively, reducing their commitment to Burgundy 🙂 It’s enough that half of the (also quite expensive) bottles that I try are a little too oxidative for my taste – but this one was recommended by someone who understood my tastes and it was VERY well-chosen. This was obviously showing its pinot content – I tend to prefer blanc de blancs – and the bubbles started with some aggression – but an hour after opening, it was singing…

2023 Nicole Lamarche, Hautes Côtes de Nuits
The modest colour of many from 2023. A pretty, airy quite transparent red fruit – strawberry style. The aromatic fruits has the same style in the flavours with a small cushion of creamy oak – I prefer my oak more discrete, but this is deliciously done. The aftertaste has a fine width, with plenty of earthy, cherry-stone, graphitic style – also very 2023. Just drinking beautifully already – there’s no shame in drinking this now !!
Rebuy – Yes

Clément Boillot-Barthod opened this wine last week – semi-blind – we knew that it was from a ‘cold’ vintage because – “Warm or Cold vintage?” – and we chose cold…

Blind: 1996 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle-Musigny Veroilles
Ooh – now that has plenty of very attractive maturity – but perfume too. Direct, starting silky, but the tannin grows, I’d still call it velvet, I think of vintages like 98 and 99 in terms of maturity, I also think of ’98 in terms of the residue tannin – I must admit that I never once considered 1996! I went for 1998 – but it’s 1996 !! And how well is this drinking!? “Yes, though it was really too acid for many, many years – and if we made the same wine today that we made in the 70s and 80s could we sell it(?) – maybe not…”
Rebuy – Oh Yes – I would buy it !!

1986 Raveneau, Chablis 1er Butteaux
Plenty of colour – just as I remember. The nose is large and forward, offering obvious botrytis and still plenty of energy – blind, I might suggest Sauternes !! Nicely vibrant flavour with a good base of minerality and sweetness – certainly very long and quite torrified in a tarte-tartin style. Whilst both delicious and impressive, it would be quite a stab in the dark to come up with ‘Chablis’ if tasting blind…
Rebuy – Probably !!

2019 Didier Fornerol, Côte de Nuits Villages La Rue des Foins
Didier is now retired, but this was a cuvée of only 1k bottles on a stony limestone, with almost no clay…
Lots of colour. Broad, subtly spiced with riper dark red fruit, even a small perfume. Delicious, but almost liqueur-style concentration and shape. Surprisingly easy to drink for this concentration. Super !!
Rebuy – Yes

Just a modest single bottle this weekend, as the last glass from last week’s Chablis, kept in the fridge, was still very drinkable !!

2011 François Gaunoux, Pommard 1er Rugiens
A robust cork but a stinky one – I steel myself for a corked wine – but no – hurrah! Also, a wine with no suggestion of the pyrazines that plague many reds from this vintage…
The first aromas are deep, with some obvious leafy development; there’s the implication of some structure here which also follows through into the wine, but with air, both the nose and flavours soften admirably. There remains a small smoky accent to the nose, but the flavours expand with quite some perfumed fruit, and there’s extra width as the structure fades into the background. The slowly mouth-watering finish is beautiful – such a delicate and lasting perfume to this flavour – whilst not powerful, that’s a great finish. That’s a super 2011 – and with a short decant, or an hour of patience after opening. This really was special !!
Rebuy – Yes

1998 Denis Mortet Gevrey-Chambertin
I don’t know what they used for glue in those days, but overnight in the fridge, buth the neck and main label fell off !
Still plenty of colour – it’s not old looking. What a large-scale nose of bloody fruit and higher tones that are modestly redolent of the barrel – but now a long way from the cigarette ash oak of this wine’s youth – that’s a fine invitation. Energy and fine, cool complexity in the mouth – it’s long too. Certainly the best from this case of 12, but maybe only one more remains. Patience is a virtue, but for this 12-case, I was mostly lacking. Today, it’s an excellent wine…
Rebuy – Yes

2021 Alain Geoffroy, Chablis 1er Beauroy Signature
A modest volume of aroma with a little ripeness. Boom! Fresh energy – citrus energy – yum! This is one of those ‘dangerous’ 20221 – you lose concentration for a second, and the bottle has been emptied !! So good !!
Rebuy – Yes

2006 Camille Giroud, Corton Chaumes
The first from a case of 6. David Croix’s first wine with whole clusters – 50%! It was an homage to a great wine of whole bunches the night before. The last vintage for these 80-year-old vines before they were pulled out to replant with chardonnay – it’s now Corton-Charlemagne here – a no-brainer of a decision from a financial perspective! A clean cork – but one that broke in half. The rest extracted as a single piece – good!
Hmm – young in the mouth, perfumed too – not a bit gothic – that’s very lovely. There’s still plenty of structural finishing tannin – it’s still a Corton, after all, but the flavour is fine though – but the nose is just getting better and better – that’s really super… The floral perfume in the glass – it’s coming into the flavours too – I’d decant today – the finish is comfortable and long too. I think that I’ll wait another 3-4 years before opening bottle number 2 !!
Rebuy – Yes

1998 Dominique Laurent, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques
A decent cork which started to move (down!) before the ah-so cork remover was fully in place – but I still managed to get it out in one…
Modest colour. An equally modest nose; the aromas are old, but not too old, faintly of white mushrooms. A silky, quite fluid entry with a small generosity and a tasty depth of flavour – widening over the palate into the finish. Still some finishing bitters – but not too bitter! Holding very impressively with a width of roast flavours like coffee and chocolate, holding really impressively. I honestly wouldn’t guess the vintage – the acidity is not so strong – I might even go for a 1997 blind! The finish haunts the palate – it has great length. Something of a stealth wine and beautifully put together…
Rebuy – Yes

2024 Chablis Terroirs de Fye
In Chapelots part of Montée de Tonnerre, but the villages part.
Modestly deep colour. Clarity – what a lovely nose this is – accented by the fruit but also mineral and saline. Fluid, mouth-filling wine but with a complexity that matches the aromatics. Really great – a wine that was drunk all too quickly !!
Rebuy – Yes

2003 Michel Juillot, Corton-Perrières
All of the previous bottles have been ‘average.’ This one is surprisingly above average – almost good !! Plenty of colour. Faintly spiced, sweet macerating dark plum aromas. Large in the mouth, with plenty of richness and fine texture. The finish is large in scale and with plenty of finishing bitters – perhaps too much bitters for the age of the wine – but I’m happy taking another sip – and I haven’t said that about many other bottles of this !!
Rebuy – Maybe