1996 Dominique Gallois, Charmes-Chambertin
The first wine I ever bought en-primeur – one of the first anyway – there was more than one wine bought in this year (December 1997!) Just 4 bottles of this were left in the cellar before opening – none of the previous has let me down – does anyone else remember when buying 12-packs of grand crus was relatively normal?
Clean, bright, medium-plus colour. This nose has an invigorating mix of darker red berry and a little graphite-style minerality – so pure, so lovelY – it’s relatively rare that wines are brett free at this age but here is one! Time even brings a little youthful floral perfume too. Sweeping lines of fresh, juicy, but also concentrated flavour. Holding a great finishing line – these vines are more than 100 years old today and you can feel the concentration – so persistent is the finish. Fresh, detailed and with a super-fine texture. Charmes is so often an also-ran grand cru – not this one. Bravo!
Rebuy – You Bet!

Nice to, eventually, have one bottle showing great at the weekend 🙂

2008 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents du Chien
A little mould on top of the cork but it looks robust enough – not much of pop when it comes out though – maybe the issue here! This is the very first of multiple cases of this cuvée from most vintages 2001 to 2017 where there’s some oxidative ageing.
The nose starts faintly oxidative but with air, the oxidative note fades leaving a more cider background but also a good energy and creamy depth to the nose. Mouth-filling, lots of energy concentrated with good texture and a vibrant, creamy finish. The oxidative impression never fully leaves the palate – a performance where I’m still going to take a second glass – but not a third. Any oxidation completely removes context for me – context such as Burgundy? Or even Chardonnay! But quite tasty all the same.
Rebuy – No

2008 Camille Giroud, Bourgogne Cuvée L
A cork that easily breaks in the middle – I suppose it could be responsible for the more developed style of this wine – but probably not…
Medium colour. Some age-related development and a bit of less interesting beef-stock aroma. Very silky, very mouth-filling- I really love the energy in here. Long, mouth-watering and mineral. Truth be told, this cuvée peaked about 4-5 years ago and that was in magnum too – this is now on the downward. But no hard edges and it’s very drinkable – I opened a 2010 of this not so long ago and that’s still nicely vigorous and complex. Time to say goodby to the last couple of bottles of this one though – drinking a bit better than the Gambal today…
Rebuy – No

See, it’s not always foggy in the Autumn! – Volnay, looking down over the Clos des Ducs

All these wines (over the last 12-14 days showed well. I won’t re-bore you with notes for either the Château Thivin or the Gauthier Montmains as they are practically house wines – only to say that both remain in a groove of showing well.

2018 Domaine Monternot – Les Jumelles, Beaujolais Villages Vieilles-Vignes Reserve
As deeply coloured as might expect for a 2018 – though still modest by the standards of many 2020s! A wide swathe of aroma – modestly spiced darker fruit but a width rather than height or depth. Obvious concentration though still supple. Faintly grained and growing in mouth-watering presence – clearly, a wine approached far too young – I don’t know how long I’ll wait to open my 6-pack of the 2019! But the texture is fine and the liquorice finish is very, very long. Great wine – but give it another 2-3 years as a starting point.
Rebuy – Yes

2010 Michel Rebourgeon, Pommard
Hmm – now that’s a very inviting nose – floral with a fine clarity of slightly darker-red fruit. Yes – that’s quite an executive villages Pommard – the texture is silky and the flavours recalling the floral style of the nose – a very perfumed and elegant Pommard but not wanting for concentration – completely delicious – bravo! It’s a long time since I had a sub-par 2010!
Rebuy – Yes

2012 Henri Rebourseau, Clos de Vougeot
Very deeply coloured. The nose has a lot of density but everything seems clean and quite attractive – darker fruit with some obvious energy. In the mouth another big wine – really concentrated yet with decent balance too. Obviously, a wine that needs to open out a little more. So, not easy to drink today but the density and clarity of flavour bode well for the future.
Rebuy – Yes

1993 Faiveley, Clos de Vougeot
Such a lovely aromatic of dried leaves and herbs, really complex. Full and round yet still structured with luscious, delicious fruit If the Rebourseau grows up to be anything like this one, it will have done brilliantly. Holding strong – still a great wine – none made it into day 2 😉
Rebuy – I wish!

2018 Benjamin Leroux, Meursault 1er Santenots
From the list in Meursault’s Le Souflot.
Plenty of colour but the nose is of fresh, spiced bread and whilst ripe and round is also clean and fresh. Not a laser-like Meursault but there’s some mouth-watering minerality showing through the pure, round flavours. A very tasty wine with more than enough energy to avoid ‘contemplative’ – which is okay at home but not in the restaurant 🙂
Rebuy – Yes

Young Vigneron's trophy, 2021 – the first wave of judging…

I was tasting a bunch of 19s this morning – single-blind as I knew the vintage and AOC. What was clear to me from 8 whites was that none of the aromas sung – one nearly – and that was one of the fresher wines. Essentially, this freshness was the ‘missing’ in this selection of modest crus…

A single crémant interlude – which tasted more like cider – heralded 9 reds for me.

The reds – there were 9 – where not ambitiously oaked for Bourgognes(!) – began with a bit more definition – certainly not all were deeply coloured, indeed this selection had more airy and open wines than dense, deeply coloured samples.

From these 17 samples of still wines, I had a preference for the reds today – only a small sample though…

I was tasting a bunch of 19s and 20s today – but when I got the chance to taste some older wines from magnum…

They started a bit rustic but became better and better and that’s the vintage – some great wines and many very good wines that are less sophisticated…

2015 Cave des Producteurs des Grands Vins de Fleurie, Fleurie
Now thats deeply coloured! An inky deep nose with that faint marsala accent of impending maturity that many BJs develop. Big, structural, still lots of drying tannin – some nice flavour complexity in the finish – but this structured wine begs at least 2 or three more years in the cellar.

2015 Marrans, Fleurie Clos du Pavillon
Also deeply coloured. A more compact nose with some faint pepper-spice. A width of chunky flavour here that’s both melting and mouth-watering – almost a 2015 that you can start drinking. Long finishing through a little tannin and a nice extra floral accent…

2015 Château de Fleurie, Fleurie La Madone Réserve Caveau
Lots of colour – of course! Quite a silky nose, faintly spiced and wide. Supple but becoming massive in the mouth and with plenty of tannin in the back end – wide, faintly but long finishing. Very good, but definitely for keeping a few years more…

2015 Thierry Condamine, Fleurie Les Moriers
Strongly coloured but transparent. The nose, like most here, showing the onset of faintly spiced maturity, the pepper more to the fore. Here is lovely energy – concentrated and structured but neither impose themselves too much. The finish is delicious – less dense but the most approachable of all these wines so far. Lovely wine.

2015 Lafarge-Vial, Fleurie La Joie du Palais
Plenty of colour – though a little younger looking than some. Round, fresher, sleeker, super texture, lots of flavour energy too. There’s some textural drag from the tannin – there’s no grain – which suggests waiting but this is, frankly already great – Bravo!

2015 Chateau Poncié, Fleurie les Moriers
The darkest, deepest, colour of all – almost saturated. A nose of some roundness and a slight Mushroom de Paris accent. Full, mouth-filling – but so fresh and saline accented. The tannin is beautifully fine and shows with practically no dryness. Only a suggestion of oak to be seen right at the end of the finish – the only wine where it’s visible. Also great, but very different from the Lafarge-Vial – bravo again!

The three peaks to the left; the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau. The big (closer) one on the right is the Niesen.

I said that there would be some birthday wines – but first, today came a nice walk in the shadow of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains as seen over lake Thun – not bad!

Another recipe from Tanya Grandits and a couple of decent wines too:

2016 Olivier Leflaive, Bâtard-Montrachet
This is a domaine wine. For a number of years, O Leflaive produced the better wines of the two producers of that name in Puligny, certainly from the 2006 vintage. Only from this 2016 vintage had Domaine Leflaive pulled up their bootstraps sufficiently to have at least equivalent quality. 2016, despite the wines’ frosty rarity, is one of my favourite vintages for whites – some critics, bizarrely, describe this as poor vintage, with too many ‘over-concentrated’ wines. Bullshit I say!
Still a very young colour. That’s a very good if not quite great nose – mineral, deeply white-flower-scented and accented with a little caramel – some of that depth undoubtedly coming from a slight firework reduction. Direct, mineral, concentrated and oh-so-pure flavoured. This wine opening out so impressively in the finish – a great, great finish that somehow sustains itself like a mythical perpetual-motion machine – wow! Crystalline, chiselled, with the purity of a waterfall – never for a second do you think that there is insufficient energy for the concentration on hand, never for a moment do you think ‘fat.’ Bravo – this is a grand vin for sure – drinking brilliantly but with a life that will extend to decades with this DIAM¹⁰ seal.
Rebuy – Yes

2000 Thomas-Moillard, Bonnes-Mares
I have often recounted that Bonnes-Mares can be a wine that’s a bit too brutal for me, hence, I (generally – the 2005 de Vogüé excepted!) prefer to give them a few years in the cellar. A six-pack of this wine was bought on release – this is one of the last, perhaps the last, that I have.
Deeply coloured. Oof! What a nose! So large that you have much of the detail long before your nose is in the glass: Very clean – not a hint of bret or any other unhappy signs of age, deeply impressive notes of soil, tobacco, turned leaves in an Autumn forest – and even fruit too – if rather bloody fruit! Seemless concentration in the mouth – this wine is coming into a great place for both flavour and texture. I’d like a hint more energy to really beg me to take the next glass but the flavour is just so good that I’m anyway on message. Big, big wine – grand cru wine – but also a wine that can caress!
Rebuy – Yes and who wouldn’t at the old price!

2019 Louis-Clement David-Beaupaire, Beaujolais Villages
Pale coloured – more of a heavy rosé. The nose is that attractively fecund invitation that comes with many of the natural persuasion but behind is more than a suggestion of perfume and fine fruit. The flavour is equally natural but delicious – rarely are natural wines also terroir wines and that’s certainly the case here but it’s still a fun wine. Tasty and enjoyed though I wouldn’t look to cellar it much longer…
Rebuy – Maybe

2017 Jean-Marc Vincent, Santenay 1er Les Gravières
That’s a serious looking DIAM 10 Origine seal.
Plenty of colour for a Santenay in 2017. The nose draws you in – not just a width but a depth of cherry-red fruit too. Direct, beautifully fresh for the vintage – at first silky, then a little tannin that emphasises the relative youth of this wine. A faint twist of barrel too. I very much like the shape – the architecture – of this wine but it’s elevated to the next level when coupled to such purity of flavour. No simple 2017 this, it’s a great example of what was possible in the Côte de Beaune in this vintage. Deliciously bravo despite its youth!
Rebuy – Yes

And another 2016 Beblenheim Riesling from the family Trapet of Gevrey-Chambertin – this case is now almost gone – you know that I will have to make a replacement purchase!

I last remember attacking some 1999 Clos de Vougeots some 7 years ago – they were all young but some were still drinking enjoyably. Time to try another:

1999 Jean Grivot, Clos de Vougeot
This from a cheeky half-bottle – but not such a cheeky wine! The cork is tightly in place and needs some energy to remove – it’s robust but embarrassingly short for a grand cru – 44mm – did it have a role to play in my lack of enthusiasm? Probably!
Still deeply coloured though starting to show some browning. The nose is powerful and deep – but faintly oxidative and there’s a suggestion of brett too. Mouth-filling and with a super texture despite the structural architecture of the wine – impressive but also with a modest suggestion of oxidation in the flavour. Very concentrated and a little saline. For the first glass, I remain impressed by the shape and texture but not by the grace or any of the flavours of the wine. The finish is impressively long if also lacking any semblance of deliciousness. The second glass brings no relief. On the positive side, I didn’t pay for a whole bottle of this – though presumably, those longer corks may have done a better job…
Rebuy – No