Another bottle from the man and his horse. A good wine, but it suffers in comparison to the wines of the last evenings…
2005 Olivier Guyot, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Champeaux
Deep colour, some purple at the rim. After the two wines of Marchand-Grillot in the last nights, the nose is a little more diffuse with oak influenced coffee notes over an espresso depth. In the mouth this is intense and shows lovely acid balance and quite some extension into the finish. The flavours reflect the nose in that they are a little diffuse and oak dominated – no oak texture, but plenty of toasty coffee. Today this is more than a nose behind the M-G wines but I suspect will be much more together in a year or two. I’m undecided on this, hence the rating.
Rebuy – Maybe

2005 Marchand-Grillot, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Petit-Chapelle
Deep colour. The nose starts quite savoury, only slowly offering a deeper black-fruit core that has a faint white pepper coating. In the mouth this is much more mineral, the acidity is more obvious but retains good balance. The tannins are a little more visible and help the flavour stain your tongue. Good, mineral length with a twist of coffee. Overall a little more (obvious) structure and much less comely than the Perrières today, but qualitatively its equal. Another wine I shall buy.
Rebuy – Yes

Apart from an itinerant Chambolle and Morey Villages, Marchand-Grillot are a source for site specific Gevrey villages, a couple of 1ers and a Ruchottes. Not a producer I know well, but if this wine is anything to go by, they are worthy of more attention.
2005 Marchand-Grillot, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Les Perrières
From 50 year old vines. Deep cherry-red, perhaps a little purple at the rim. An open and forward nose of minty, earthy, brambly blackcurrant fruit that falls into a creamy and eventually a redder depth. Ripe, a little lush, lightly grained tannin and excellently balancing acidity. The fruit flavour is very tasty in the mid-palate, almost a crystaline ‘black jelly’. Decent length. No tightening here I think – absolutely delicious right now.
Rebuy – Yes

Suffers in comparison to the de Croix Charlemagne, but with the Mischief and Mayhem still in mind…
2005 Jean-Marc Boillot, Puligny-Montrachet
Medium yellow. At first the nose shows some high-toast oak, but this slowly mellows to give a slightly diffuse but fresh and high-toned effect. The palate is fresh and balanced, but just a little dilute in the mid-palate. Medium length. Tasty but far from a benchmark.
Rebuy – Maybe

2006 des Croix, Corton-Charlemagne
Medium yellow. The nose is wide and shows a complex mix of fruits; pineapple, melon, lemon and a white blossom note. Rich concentration with real intensity in the mid-palate and nicely-judged acidity. The flavours in the finish start slightly savoury and fade in a creamier way. Very young but has good potential.
Rebuy – Yes

Getting ahead of my self a little as this is one of the wines that I’ll report on in the summer issue, however, it was good enough that I bought some and already popped a cork at home. So here you see the second of my two notes, but first…
2006 Mischief and Mayhem, Pulgny-Montrachet
Medium-pale yellow. Good depth to the subtly creamy nose. Fresh and a lively on the palate, with decent intensity a good length. An understatedly fine villages that’s highly recommended.
Rebuy – Yes (and I did)

2005 Doudet-Naudin, Bourgogne Pinot Noir
A large heavy bottle with a punt you could lose your fingers in, shame the attention to detail misses the cheapest of cheap plastic capsules. Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts with a little oak, but it’s quickly lost, becoming wider with plenty of high tones and a faintly cedar depth – eventually a nice red berry note too. Some fat and reasonable depth – in fact it’s very tasty. On the negative side the acidity is slightly lifted and the flavours are a little muddled together. Not exactly cheap for a bourgogne either at 20 Sfr, but far from a bad value bottle – and as I said it’s quite tasty.
Rebuy – Maybe

It’s the first time I’ve seen wines from this domaine and Olivier seems a bit of a character. Manually harvested Bourgogne (an idealist obviously) and a picture of himself and his horse (Indigo) on the label. His website is as individualistic as his labels and has lots of info. I also found this lovely quote:

This wine is from Olivier Guyot. He is considered somewhat eccentric by some of his neighbors, as he has sold his tractor and gone back to organically horse farming his vineyards. He feels it is better for the land, and that he gets better fruit from doing so. The grapes are hand-harvested, of course, and the wine is bottled without filtration. The domaine has passed from father to son since the 16th century…

The Marsannay based domaine is about 15 hectares so that’s a lot of standing behind his horse! I also have one of his Gevrey 1er Champeaux in the cellar – looks like fun!
2005 Olivier Guyot, Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. The nose has a dense and slightly rustic core, but above soars beautiful and very fine fruit. There is some fat and a dense core that reflects the nose. The acidity is slightly bright but that’s par for the course for many tightening 2005 wines. Finer fruit than the appellation might suggest but with good fat and an engaging hint of rusticity. On day two, even that rusticity is gone – super! – I bought a couple more.
Rebuy – Yes

The wines of Claude seem to have passed me by; they have a great reputation and they may be far from cheap but they tend to be harder to find than to afford!  So here’s a villages at a little under twice the price of the average bottle of villages Gevrey, it’s also my first from Claude!
2005 Claude Dugat, Gevrey-Chambertin
Medium-plus cherry-red colour. Wow, what a nose; a beautiful and rather haunting perfume of hedge-row flowers, elderflower and soft red fruits with a suggestion of oak. A soft entry with understated concentration, velvety tannin and a creamy oak coating to the finishing flavours – it’s also very long for a villages. It’s not perfect though, the flavours have just a little oaky bitterness, but the sour-cherry fruit coupled to wonderful aromatics make this a compelling glass.
Rebuy – Yes – even at the price of some Clos de Vougeot!