2005 Thomas-Moillard, Volnay 1er Clos des Chênes
A domaine wine whose back-label proclaims the grapes to be ‘biologique’ and that all operations were done according to the lunar calendar. Medium-plus colour. Brooding aromatics but there are glimpses of very fine fruit that slowly turns redder in the glass. Concentrated, lots of very fine tannin that’s largely submerged under fruit – and what fruit it is – intense and edged with cream – it lingers very well too. It doesn’t merit the tag ‘elegant’, rather ‘muscular’ would be better and I think that maybe 2005 is a little early to be influenced by Bernard Zito and Pascal Marchand, but it is a definite rebuy.
Rebuy – Yes

I have a whole bunch of Malconsorts that I might be working my way through in the next weeks!
Direct from the domaine this was only €51 – I was amazed they would still have these (at least at this price) as that’s very cheap for a perfect provenance Vosne 1er, or at least if it’s half-good. Actually it is half-good, that was what left me scratching my head… Maybe the concentration of all those 2005’s gone to my head (palate)?
1991 Pierre Bourée, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Malconsorts
The cork is black were it meets the air, and stained red all the way through – perhaps 2cm of ullage – but the wine is fine. Medium-pale though it’s a relatively young colour. The nose is soft and faintly spicy with hints of strawberry and stems but it’s also rather clean and interesting, occasionally it’s beguiling. In the mouth it’s soft and supple with a little kick in the mid-palate and perfect acidity. The almost-gone tannin is but a transparent screen. Very long, but it’s on a very subtle level – and despite the evident complexity, that’s the problem – everything about this wine is on too subtle a level, it’s like it’s diluted. Yields? Beautiful if you have the patience and lack of distractions but, if I may say, too ephemeral! For all that, every last drop was drunk in about 2 hours, I just wish I’d savoured it a little more, rather than thought ‘if only…’

2005 Billard-Gonnet, Pommard 1er Chaponnières
Medium, medium-plus colour. Directly following the Château de Chorey the nose and palate both seemed attenuated and narrow, only the finish was captivating – much longer than the Beaune. Within 5 minutes the nose showed occasional flashes of brilliance – beautiful red fruits and hints of coffee. The palate is clearly barrel-tight making the acidity seem forward, but the tannin is burried. You only have to experience the finish to know this is a great wine, but perhaps we may have to wait 10 years to see it. Day two there’s a hint more width, but no more.
Rebuy – Yes

1999 Château de Chorey, Beaune 1er Le Cras Vieilles Vignes
Medium-plus colour. Wide, a little herbal and mineral with a dark core of fruit. In your mouth there’s great fruit though it’s wrapped in plenty of structure – it’s relatively smooth but the tannin still needs a number of years. The depth is super and there is a mineral length. Don’t touch again for at least 5 years.
Rebuy – Maybe

2005 Louis Latour Meursault-Blagny 1er Château de Blagny
Medium-pale yellow. The nose is wide and dense, with deep with a concentrated core of chunky pineapple – you have to wait for quite some time before higher-toned, more floral aspects, eventually peek through. Fresh and ebullient on the tongue, starting narrow and widening on the mid-palate. ‘Just enough’ acidity comes late and there’s a nice extra edge of slightly chalky fruit flavour as you go into the finish. The texture is good and so is the flavour, but there’s far from exciting concentration. I would need a little more acid ‘cut’ before I could describe this as mineral. Tasty and clean but initially hard to get worked up about. Right until the bottle was drained, this wine continued to improve. It didn’t speak to me enough to make me want to re-buy, but the wine at the end (3 hours) was far better than the start.
Rebuy – Maybe

Domaine Les Perrières is based in Gevrey, and seemed to be appreciated by RMP Jr himself – including this particular wine – when he published his 1989 ‘Burgundy’ book. RMP noted that proprietor François Perrot made wine from a 2.77 acre parcel of Petit Chapelles – Matt Kramer’s book of the same year lists SC Les Perrières as owning just 1.6 acres, so he must have been farming additional parcels too. So what happened to the domaine? Well it still seems to exist, semi-anonymously, maybe it’s worth a visit…
Anyway, this wine is another auction purchase – I also got a coupe of bottles of ‘64 Clos de Bèze, but don’t expect to be opening those any time soon – given the bizarre performance of this bottle I may open another next week (I got 6) – at least they were cheap. Some you win, ….
1980 les Perrières, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Petites Chapelles
The cork comes out in one piece only with the intervention of an ‘Ah So’ two-pronged ‘corkscrew’ and is incredibly deeply coloured at the wine-facing side. This still has a high fill – only 1cm from the cork. Lots of fine sediment in the bottom of this bottle so it needs plenty of care pouring – it needed 4 days upright to clear. Medium mahogany-red/brown colour but red is still dominant. The nose – ah; sweaty socks, cheese, soil and maybe a hint of Madeira – I think it’s time to take a coffee and return at leisure. Okay, 3 hours later: if anything the nose is slightly worse with a dominant smell of sugary beef-stock. The palate is smoothly textured and shows some fat and good acidity – whatever’s in there has good concentration, but the nose is so overpowering that (whether the flavour is really in there or not) everything seems to be smothered by the beef-stock. Unusual, and not really what I might expect for heat damage. After 5 hours the nose is almost becoming bearable and the palate is rather fine – but that was as good as it got!
Rebuy – No

Bottle number two was exactly the same, 4 more remain…