Degustation

melon de bourgogne

By billn on May 10, 2021 #degustation

Melon de BourgogneMelon de Bourgogne is an assuredly old Burgundian grape – though you would be forgiven for only ever having come across it in your glass when labelled as Muscadet – or Muscadet sur Lie.

Le Melon, as the (rare!) aficionados call it, has all but vanished from Burgundy – only about 2 hectares remain in production – 60% with one producer (in two plots) just outside of Beaune and the rest in the Yonne, near Tannay. Not yet in production, Armand Heitz (of Chassagne) has also just planted a plot!

This is a late-ripening variety with recorded local roots in the 13th century. Philip II of Spain, who was also Duke of Burgundy, banned its plantation in 1367 – not disloyal just not good! – but even back then, the locals didn’t like being told what to do! There were still around 40 hectares recorded in the Côte d’Or in 1960 but 30 years later there was just 1 hectare left!

Partly responsible for this decline is that Le Melon is not one of the ‘allowed‘ grapes of Burgundy – as you may note from the label, above, this wine is an IGP Saint Marie la Blanche – the words ‘Burgundy’ or Bourgogne’ are not allowed anywhere near the label!

Anyway, 3 notes for you here and an ‘allowed’ grape or not, I’ll add a section on Le Melon here later in the growing season – when I’ve images of something worth photographing 😉

2018 Melon
Plenty of colour. A narrow nose but deep and suggesting a faint oxidative salinity. Wide, vibrant, yes a slightly oxidative style – almost apple flavour – a grain to the texture almost a grainy complexity. I find the finish rather spicy – it’s supposed to be the same as muscadet but not here – nop!

2019 Melon
A little extra green tinge to the colour. Also a deep nose but here it’s due to a faint reduction. Fuller, a faint impression of oak – extra freshness – nicer fruit here. There’s only 2% barrel elevage the rest is in tank – this rather creamy but I assume I’m tasting something other than those barrels.

2020 Melon
In bottle 1 month.
This the most higher-toned and floral nose – it’s very attractive and certainly the freshest. In the mouth too – vibrant, fresh, more saline and intense – lovely acidity here. Whilst I loved the creaminess of the last, the nose was slightly sullen – this is a great around wine though!

If you are interested in something a little different, just 7km form the centre of Beaune, you can buy this wine (and their other Bourgognes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Aligoité, Crémant)) at their domaine shop, here

mid-weekers, week 18 2021…

By billn on May 07, 2021 #degustation

midweek wines week 18 2021

Last weekend there were no wines for me – but not because I was on the wagon – rather because I received my first covid-jab on Friday evening – Pfizer – so I let that do its thing before opening something a couple of days later…

2019 Yvon & Laurent Vocoret, Chablis
Whilst I personally prefer DIAM for whites, here is a winemaker with convictions – it’s cork but even for his entry-level Chablis, it’s NDtech cork! No cheap alternatives here.
A forward of aroma here – attractive and deep, reflections of fresh citrus. Good energy and not with the forward sweetness that many recent Chablis show chez Nanson – but still all the deliciousness of 2019 – I prefer this. Structurally sound, suggesting some salinity in the finish – that’s an excellent and delicious Chablis.
Rebuy – Yes

2006 Albert Bichot, Beaune 1er Champimonts
Plenty of depth to this colour and it’s now starting to show a little age. Creamy, some depth of more mature notes – and some, now, attractive last vestiges of oak. Ooh, that‘s a rather silky texture and there’s concentration here too. A width of flavour, sweetness of old fruit and still some (now) quite modest bitters – probably originally from the oak but still bringing a sense of dryness to the texture. The nose is getting better and better with time – freshening up and becoming more fruit-focused. It’s drinking but in terms of the submerged depth of tannin and those finishing bitters, still far from a fully ready or fully delicious wine. If I had more – I don’t know if I do! – I’d be tempted to wait for its 20th birthday. I’ll have to find something nicer for the weekend…
Rebuy – No

wines from weekend 16, 2021

By billn on April 26, 2021 #degustation

wines - week 16 2021

2018 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Clos Berthet
Modestly yellow coloured. An incisive, fresh nose with a touch of oak and even some aniseed. Hmm, that’s a lovely wine, just a slight depth of cushioning but still with fresh energy and even a little salinity too. Slowly widening as it lingers in the finish. Easy but delicious.
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Gaston & Pierre Ravaut, Ladoix 1er Le Bois Roussot
A good strong cork in this one
Medium-plus colour that’s starting to show a little age. Ooh + now thats a very lovely nose – roast red fruit but with a vibration of deeper aromas, partly from a little maturity – that’s a great invitation. Wide over the palate, a wine that quickly grows in mouth-watering intensity and then sustains a lovely finish. There are many Cortons in other vintages that are less accomplished than this. A wine that’s really starting to come into a great place…
Rebuy – Yes

And you noted a third wine, didn’t you! I got 3 of these Gevreys as part a mixed auction lot around 2009. The first bottle was eminently drinkable around that time – a second more recent bottle was not, all mean and astringent, what charm it once had was departed. I didn’t even taste this one, it went straight into the beef bourguignon – and that, let me tell you, was delicious!!!

David Clark’s now 14-year-old Bourgogne…

By billn on April 21, 2021 #degustation

David Clark 2007 Bourgogne Au Pelson

2007 David Clark, Bourgogne Pinot Noir Au Pelson
A great looking dark/untreated and robust cork.
Plenty of colour. A cushioned width of darker-fruited aroma, oh-so faintly accented with the first impressions of a little more mature complexity – that’s a really great invitation to drink, for a Bourgogne. Silky attack but there‘s concentration here that’s framed with an über-fine tannin that adds a very faint phenolic dryness. Widening towards the finish, properly structured but showing extra floral complexity and just enough sweetness to keep you coming back for another sip – this is the best this wine has ever tasted! Still a young wine, but with a combination of structure and clarity of flavour that’s generally uncommon in 2007s – a great showing.
Rebuy – Yes

Christophe Savoye’s 2019 Chiroubles Cuvée Loic

By billn on April 18, 2021 #degustation

Savoye Chiroubles Cuvée Loic2019 Christophe Savoye, Chiroubles Cuvée Loic
Plenty of colour. Here’s a welcoming nose of dark fruit with a graphite mineral depth – that’s a great start. First, there’s intensity, then there’s width, then a sizzlingly sweet and dark fruit. Fine texture and no grain to the tannin – this wine has my attention in all departments – finishing with small ripples of persistent flavour that recall the nose. A wine that’s sweet but not oversweet or cloying but it is certainly very delicious. Bravo!
Rebuy – Yes

another nice wine this week – 2013 Bienvenues

By billn on April 15, 2021 #degustation

2013 Olivier Leflaive Bienvenues

This week we celebrated a birthday in a nice Swiss hotel, so for pre-dinner, I brought a bottle of my own. Bought direct from OL on release. This wine has spent quite a long time in a refrigerator as the apartment gets too hot in the Beaune summers – perhaps why it showed so young – but sealed with a DIAM10, there were, of course, no problems…

2013 Olivier Leflaive, Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet
Hardly a medium-yellow colour – very young looking. Such a forward and impressive nose – still plenty of oak showing in these youthful aromas – I could have easily guessed 2017 from the colour and freshness of aroma – it turns out not just the aroma! To start with I’m really impressed by the acidity – tinged with a rasp of salinity – then it’s the mineral-laden finish that just goes on and on. The fruit is obviously of ripe yellow citrus but richly packaged and with oak references too – but never overtly of spice, cream or vanilla – or anything else so gauche. The acidity is the key to balancing the richness and concentration of this wine – and it’s completely delicious in a very young style – the finish is wide and haunting. Layered gorgeousness here as opposed to the layered rigour of my last hyphen-Montrachet (my last post). A simply great and still baby 2013, bravo – I knew that there was a reason for buying some!
Rebuy – Yes

drinking to excess…

By billn on April 14, 2021 #degustation

drinking to excess(?)

Excess, in this case, not necessarily volume-related…

I’d planned to post on this modest line-up of bottles early last week – but the frost-related events of the week made me reconsider my timing – despite bottles such as these being the marketing livelihood of the region – or at least the central part of the Burgundy region.

Whilst it’s no surprise that we began with the white, I’m more often inclined to drink great Montrachets/hyphen-Montrachets at the end of a tasting – the reason? There’s extra glycerol and a mouth-coating nature that can dull the reds that follow – any level of red and it can last for quite a time too – up to half-an-hour – but anyway:

2005 Leflaive, Chevalier-Montrachet
It’s hard to believe, but in the great scheme of things these bottles were relatively inexpensive – certainly versus their retail price today. A wine that was impressive young, and then impressively impossible to drink when 5-6-years-old. What would today hold?
A deeper yellow colour but no overt oxidation – not aromatically either. The nose was powerful and mineral, practically a salinity hovering above the depth of ripe but still fresh fruit, an accent of creaminess suggesting a little age. In the mouth a blend of muscle and richness – the almost brutal structural minerality that I remember from my last bottle, fortunately, now only that – a memory. This wine opened wider and wider with aeration – no mean feat from a great start. I’m so happy that I retained a modicum of patience with this wine. Incisive, powerful, complex and with just enough of the minerality of this place that you might even have a chance of guessing (blind!) where it came from. Over 3 hours a wine that never waned but I would still say super-impressive rather than delicious…
Rebuy – Maybe at the old price

2007 Comte Liger-Belair, La Romanée
My last bottle of this vintage Рthe first drunk during our Paul̩e meal at the end of the 2011 vintage in Beaune. Probably the vintage of this wine that I have drunk the most Рso often was it served by Louis-Michel Liger-Belair in the first 15+ years of his tenure.
A little aeration is required but here’s a nose that adds more and more weight – there’s a complex foral and spice mix that overlays the fruit – one might say a typical very great Vosne – particularly as there’s plenty of evidence of sous-bois/dried leaves to this wine now. Mouth-filling – but with a roundness too – no space is spared in the mouth. The flavour sweeps you towards the finish, finely textured but then widens over the palate in the finish like only a great wine can – so impressively spiced here – a great, great finish. Not the best vintage but a wine that would transcend its neck-label – if it wore one!
Rebuy – Yes at the old price!

2001 Romanée-Conti, Romanée St.Vivant
My only bottle of this. A wine of great, great repute when young, so I decided 20 years should be enough time to check on that!
The colour here is not much ‘older’ looking than that of La Romanée. What a nose; stems, spice, redcurrant purity, florals – I am very impressed – a notch more impressive than the 2007, though it’s also had more maturation time – just a brilliant perfume. Textural sweetness, starting in such a seductive way – it’s the combination of texture and balance that does it. The flavour clearly delivering delineated layer after delineated layer of deliciousness, not just fruit and spice but a suggestion of coffee-complexity too. In the end, I think I chose the correct order for the reds – it didn’t seem much of a step up to the RSV from the La Romanée but going in the other direction showed a smaller wine in the mouth – albeit, only modestly smaller – the clarity of middle-flavour of the RSV took it in this case though. A shame I didn’t have the chance to compare the same vintages.
Rebuy – would love to!

weekend 14 2021, some wines…

By billn on April 13, 2021 #degustation

weekend 14 , a few wines...

Yes, mainly Chablis but with no regrets, just utter enjoyment from all this weekend:

2019 L&C Poitout, Petit Chablis
A vertical nose – high and low tones but not so wide – there’s a floral freshness here. In the mouth the width that was missing on the nose abounds in the mouth; volume, complexity and an engaging purity- more important delicious drinkability – bravo.
Rebuy – Yes

2016 Laurent Tribut, Chablis
Not a strong colour. The nose – ooh, here is a perfumed wine. In the mouth, we have lots of concentration and an oily silkiness to the texture. A sweetness, an unctuous nature that isn’t hyper-energetic but then it doesn’t need to be – just so moreish – it’s literally begging me to take another sip. This is the character of the best 2016s and I absolutely adore it. Bravo.
Rebuy – I would love to!

2019 Cyril Gautheron, Chablis 1er Montmains Vieilles-Vignes
80 year-old-vines near Forêts
A beautiful nose, modest intensity but with a clarity of agrume/complex citrus fruit here. Open, easy over the palate but beautifully composed, open and nicely energetic, fringed with a proper Chablis salinity. Now that’s why I bought a case!
Rebuy – Yes

2019 Château de Rougeon, Fleurie Poncié
The first vintage for this wine Рno prizes for guessing from a parcel in Ponci̩, in this case previously worked by the Chateau Ponci̩.
There’s plenty of colour. A nose of graphite depth and energetic width – that’s a fine if not so floral welcome. There’s depth to this wine, the graphite minerality of the nose and a layered delivery of ripe, dark fruit – not cliché Fleurie – but then these vines are up higher than much of Fleurie and sit close to Moulin à Vent. My first impression is of a sweeping, more mineral style to this wine but with aeration, it grows more depth and texture – just like a great Fleurie but with a slightly different flavour profile. It’s simply excellent, delicious, wine.
Rebuy – Yes

Additionally, there was a blanc de blanc crémant from Armand Heitz in Chassagne-Montrachet – yellow colour in a clear bottle – the cuvée name was Marcelle Lochardet – it was pure, fresh and delicious – zero dosage but nothing hard or sharp – not the typical mirabelle aromas of crémant – you could easily think it was a good Champagne – simply an excellent wine…

weekend 14 2021, drinks…

By billn on April 05, 2021 #degustation

weekend 14 2021 wines...

2018 Vocoret, Chablis 1er Montée de Tonnerre
Despite the 2018 vintage, here’s a wine that could only come from Chablis – fresh and inviting aromas. Plenty of mouth-filling presence, lovely citrus energy too. A year on since last tasted, this wine is now in a very good place. Easy but delicious drinking.
Rebuy – Yes

2019 Alain Gautheron, Chablis Emeraude
Thats got a lovely citrus-fresh aroma – perhaps a blend of yellow and green – a lovely invitation. Wide, just a little cushion between it and incisive. But there’s a lovely, almost zesty, orange-flesh freshness here too. That’s completely delicious – and a good job too – I bought a dozen – remember buying wines in 12s?
Rebuy – Yes

2019 Lauren & Remi Dufaitre, Brouilly
This nose starts a bit diffuse and unattractive – far from the performance on the palate which was just so moreishly delicious – fortunately, air brings big aromatic improvements. The nose goes deeper and darker, almost wrapping itself around your senses. Plenty of freshness but concentrated and textured too – ooh – that’s lovely. Simply delicious – no wonder that I, with some help, almost finished the bottle on the first day – next time I will. Bravo wine on day one, still very, very good on day two…
Rebuy – Yes

2013 François Gaunoux, Volnay 1er Clos des Chênes
A nice cushion to this red-fruited nose. Silky, direct, a little mineral too. The flavour widening – here just a touch of more herby flavour – not an easy year in 2013 – but the flavours broaden out in fine fashion in the finish – a cherry-stone impression here. Long too. Refreshing and very tasty wine.
Rebuy – Maybe

2013 Clotilde Davenne, Bourgogne Aligoté Vieilles-Vignes
A steely, slightly smoky, reductive nose. In the mouth this is briskly fresh, showing a hint of the aromatic reduction – though less than the nose – and plenty of mineral and citrus complexity. The reduction sticks around for about 20 minutes before fading into the background. Still very young, highly attractive wine that’s better to decant – Yum!
Rebuy – Yes

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