2019 Raphael Chopin, Beaujolais-Lantignie La Savoye
Dark colour. Dark fruit too but with very nice detail and nothing overdone. Mouth-filling with just enough softness – maybe just a mm or two of padding but here is silky, delicious, wine. Finishing wide over the palate then very slowly fading with a small uptick in intensity and a touch of graphite. Holding well too. Just a super, and still young, wine…
Rebuy – Yes

Triple Richebourg – nearly

First of all, this year has been a little different: For the very first time when tasting wines, when prompted with the thought ‘wait 10 years, better 15…‘ I’ve started calculating my own age in 15 years, and it takes me way past 3 score and ten! So I’ve started (roughly!) estimating how many bottles are in my cellar and even with an assumption that I will still be happily drinking at age 85, it seems that I have to drink 6 bottles every week for more than 20 years. Today I hardly drink 3 – and rarely actually finish any of those 3.

My cellar is intentionally an uncatalogued free-for-all: I love the intention of looking for bottle X but, by chance, first finding bottle Y – and drinking that instead. The Grivot in the image above was already standing in the cellar, waiting for Christmas, but I just happened on these other two when finding last week’s 2001 Bèze…

Just as I was partway through these bottles, I caught sight of note this week on the 99 Richebourg – brutal! So I put it back in the cellar for another 2-3 years – though my better half pointed out that maybe I shouldn’t be making plans for in 5 years(!!) so maybe I’ll open one anyway – as I do have more… 🙂

1974 du Clos Frantin, Richebourg
The domaine named after the parcel which is now called the Clos d’Eugénie – such a loss of history for this domaine. Plenty of black mold under the capsule. I opt for an Ah-So but the first touch of the prongs and the cork drops into the bottle – plop! I revert to a sieve and a carafe!
I didn’t dare properly smell the wine whilst filling the carafe but the colour and clarity were really not bad. Once in the glass – fresh, leafy though direct and a little metallic too – but really no faults – maybe the mold had made enough of a seal to keep the oxygen out !! In the mouth, a narrow, slightly mineral entry but then the wine widened out with good energy and many dimensions of sweet flavour. This was actually very tasty wine – to benchmark, honestly not better than a very good 2010 Chambolle 1er – but you enjoy it more when you take into account that it’s 50 years old and from a far from great vintage. Indeed all told, for the age and vintage this was still a great wine with such caveats in mind. I loved drinking three large glasses too. The tiny balsamic note from the first evening was hardly magnified on the second – not even even a trace of oxidation – given 24 hours in the carafe, and the age, what a robust performance!
Rebuy – No chance!

1985 François Gros, Richebourg
Bottle #79 of 320 – having previously drunk bottle #78 more than 10 years ago. Again with the Ah-So, this time a more robust but shockingly short cork.
Slightly less colour than the ’74. Cleaner smelling and similarly direct in character to the Frantin. A small but sweet start to these flavours and there’s extra structure visible too – but mild vs a 5-year-old villages! The middle flavours are a little more mineral but less ‘growing’ and less delicious too – it’s still very drinkable, but behind the ’74. A slight balsamic character – more than the 74 – but character is still an apt word for this performance. A long way from a great Richebourg – but still with the proper excitement of opening a 40-year-old wine. At roughly 30 years-old bottle 78 showed more oxidation – that’s old short corks for you – but at least this one didn’t fall into the bottle with the slightest touch!! Overall, I gave it to the Clos Frantin by a short head!
Rebuy – No Chance!

2024 Beaujolais Nouveau Cuvée Novalis
This is my local (Swiss) Coop’s wine. As always, producer details are opaque – ‘Coop Bâle’ are the only details – except that the wine originates from Beaujolais! Some years this is to protect the obviously guilty – as the wine can be so bad – but this year, it’s a pleasant surprise – particularly given the variability of the 20024 primeurs. I do ask myself who makes any money here – this, 2 weeks after Nouveau Day costs only 4.75 Swiss franc with its 20% discount. Screw-cap.
Modest colour. The nose needs a couple of swirls but quickly offers an open, clean, quite bubble-gum aromatic – it’s not bad. Decent width of fresh flavour and a properly juicy, almost creamy depth of very tasty flavour – I took a second glass. The tannin is ultra-fine with just a faint initial dryness but afterwards I didn’t really notice. For the price it’s excellent – and I can’t say that every year about the Coop’s wine…
Rebuy – Why not!

2009 Gilles Bouton, Chassagne-Montrachet Les Voillenots Dessous
This was far from my favourite vintage on release – it seemed just too ripe – little did I know that this would be the template for just about every vintage post (and including) 2015!
Neither a deep colour, nor an obviously ripe nose – in fact this nose starts a little meagre. The palate too – there’s decent scale but a herby complexity and an obvious structure – the the finish is quite good. This is a wine that still needs some aging because on day 2 it was more acceptably softer and accommodating in flavour – it was quite good. At this stage not good enough to make a special search to buy – but a serviceable bottle. Probably much more approachable in 4-5 years…
Rebuy – No

2001 Frédéric Esmonin, Chambertin Clos de Bèze
2002 is a more consistent vintage than 2001 – but most of the best wines come from 2001 – there I said it!! I break far too many corks in bottles that are pre-2010 so I went straight for the Ah-So – so no problems.
More than medium colour but clearly a colour with some maturity. Ooh! That’s deep – and it’s inviting too – a silky depth of macerating red fruit and darker cherries – far from tertiary. Mouth-filling and silky too. Here is energy and complexity – some last vestiges of creamy oak but only as part of a large scale of complexity. Still some small finishing bitters too – but already quite silken. The finish haunting. More sensual than ‘grand’ as the structure is so hidden – but sensual works for me too*
Rebuy – Yes

An interesting comparison:

1999 JF Mugnier, Chambolle-Musigny
Hmm, the colour is still good but what’s this aroma? Yes, a little brett… It cleans up just a little in the glass but my hopes of this previously ugly duckling transforming into a swan seem to be dashed. But. What’s this this? A depth of sweet flavour, more generous than I can remember since it was 2 years old – and what a delicious flavour too! Here is extra and something rather complex too. Not a wine for sniffing (an attribute almost as important as the taste) but a wine that I can drink with pleasure. Not something that I’ve said about this wine for a very long time.
Rebuy – No (sorry to say – and maybe I have 1 or 2 more…)

2021 Mélanie & Daniel Buland, Côte de Brouilly Cuvée Mélanie
Ooh – perfume. Some of Daniel’s 21s have a little pyrazine – but there’s none of that here, just the ultra-inviting perfume of flowers and darker red fruit. Vibrant in the mouth, fresh, melting, juicy purity of fruit – still accented with the flowery perfume of the nose. What a simply great wine. If not totally in the flavour department, certainly a step up from the Mugnier as a complete wine – and you can have half a dozen of these for the 1999 Mugnier…
Rebuy – Yes

It’s been a while since I posted any tasting impressions here – though you should know that my research never ceases 🙂 See below just the September & October bottles – but here’s such a counterpoint that I thought it worth marking…

2004 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents du Chien
Brown and oxidised. This is the first sub-standard (worse than!) bottle of this cuvée that I’ve ever had. A cuvée that I bought from its inaugural 2001 vintage chez Gambal until Boisset bought the domaine and bottled his 2017s for him – I just, maybe foolishly, passed on the 2003 vintage. Originally all were in cork – so these two – and there was a small DIAM interlude prior to Boisset who returned to cork.
There’s nothing else to say, this was thrown down the sink and it was my last of the domaine’s 2004s.

2005 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents du Chien
There’s a small discolouration at the top of this cork – a cork that slides out rather more easily than I’d like – it’s got the mark of wine up 90% of its length too – hopefully, this was opened just in time…
The colour is deep – but it’s still a yellow-gold – nothing brown. What a nose! An acidulated but ripe yellow citrus – it’s particular; I won’t try to be a pseud and say Amalfi or Menton lemons – but it has character and a great invitation. In the mouth – great definition and depth of flavour and I really like the structure – it’s an architectural wine with plenty of supporting minerality – it’s got muscle too. I went for a second and a third glass of this wonderful wine. My only half-critique was that blind I would have guessed a 1990s wine – that old creamy depth of finishing flavour seeming a little older than the label – and perhaps that was down to the cork. But I’m hoping my last 3 glasses on day 2 will be just as good. This was a wonderful ‘old’ burgundy…

‘Early onset oxidation’ is little reported these days as the story has been re-hashed so much and so often. Many producers remain set in their ideas on what works and what doesn’t – so we still have many oxidised wines – my last, a 2014 Corton-Charlemagne. Outside of DIAM or screw-cap sealed bottles, it’s still a mug’s game if you wait 10 years…

Wines in September & October:

A slightly green weekend !!

2021 Chateau Thivin, Côte de Brouilly La Chapelle
This La Chapelle was the least green of all Thivin’s 2021s as tasted at the domain. But on this day, the pyrazine was quite pronounced. It didn’t work for me…
Rebuy – No

2019 Armand Heitz, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents du Chien – Rouge!
I think that this is the only red from this vineyard – which presumably is what prompted them to write monopole on the label. I would understand ‘monopole’ if this was a Clos within the vineyard – and so named – but only for a colour change I’m surprised it’s allowed. So, a monopoly for sure – but a monopole?
Sealed with an impressive DIAM¹⁰ which is probably the reason that it starts a little reduced – 5 minutes later and all is good though. Deeply coloured – and a nose with lots of dark cherry freshness and even a suggestion of rolling tobacco. In the mouth, we have concentration and fluidity – such that there is only a modest generosity – but what deliciousness, accented with a modest sucrosity! The fruit flavours mirror the nose with dark cherry. It gives me the feeling that I’m tasting a red from a white terroir – like a Pernand red too – but this is simply excellent. I didn’t buy enough!!
Rebuy – Yes

And the 2004 project? Some you win, some you lose!