I just opened the 2004 Denis Bachelet Côte de Nuits Villages and if you are sensitive (and I am), it’s cedar-green hell. I’ll give it a chance and return tommorrow when I’ll also open the new-liveried 2005 version…
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Degustation
4 whites while skiing…
A lovely weekend that started with a four hour drive – it should be less than three – through rain, snow and holiday traffic to arrive at Klosters. The snow was still coming down when we went to bed, four white burgundies behind us:
2004 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents de Chien
Medium yellow. Nose starts with savoury oak which slowly fades to nice brioche – wide and interesting – it’s a good start. Soft and smooth texture, widening on the palate. It’s a little mineral and has super balance. Could perhaps benefit from an extra depth, but maybe it’s just tightness that I perceive. Very nice length and the nose remains interesting throughout.
Rebuy – yes
2005 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents de Chien
Slightly deeper colour versus the 2004. The nose is less wide, but deeper with more fruit and fainter brioche. More width and density, plenty of acidity but it’s just a little prickly. More oaky dimension on the mid-palate and more faintly lingering. There is more material here but today it’s a less seamless package than the 2004. Still great value.
Rebuy – yes
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Meursault 1er Les Peruzots
Medium yellow. The nose shows nice floral tones over the faint brioche. The palate shows well-textured concentration with the acidity just bubbling away under the surface before breaking through into the mid-palate. An interesting extra edge of flavour before (very) slowly fading into the finish. A fine example.
Rebuy – yes
2004 Philippe Chavy, Puligny-Montrachet Rue Rousseau
Medium-plus yellow. High-toned green and yellow fruit and, for the first 15 minutes some oak. High-toned ripe fruit on the palate, slightly estery. Very bright in the mid-palate and quite wide too before fading into the finish. This has a rather full and round fruit profile, which is not my favourite style – just seems to lack for elegance. Good wine if you like the style, but doesn’t say ‘Puligny’ to me though.
Rebuy – Maybe
Early next morning (despite the wine!) the snow had stopped and we headed hopefully for the slopes, maybe the skies would clear… We chose the Rhinerhorn on the other side of Davos for the expected mix of piste, off-piste (not me – I don’t need ‘beeps’ and ABS rucksacks for thrills!) and quiet slopes – everything was delivered in perfect blue ski!
Day two saw the weather close in, so forget skiing, we made a two and a half hour walk through deep snow and steep slopes to a restaurant where lunch took over 3 hours (apparently Prince Charles and entourage may make it there this week) – we decided to cancel our evening restaurant reservation and watched Jack Nicholson instead on DVD.
So only one day skiing, but it was a good one. It’s interesting to note that while Switzerland spends billions of francs so that tourist traffic may by-pass (via bridges and tunnels) assorted towns, many of the interconnected network of ‘hills’ which those ski-tourists come for, make do with antiquated t-bars and chair-lifts whilst local gemeindes (councils) argue over 2 million here or there to make refurbishments – comic! Another snippet of gossip; apparently (Sir) Norman Foster is planning a second gherkin for the slopes above Davos – some locals are outraged – but frankly Davos can only be improved by such a construction, it is far from a pretty village, rather one long road with assorted (sometimes nice) buildings on either side – apart from the WEF, I hear that Davos is losing most of it’s cachet (i.e. high-roller tourists) to St.Moritz…
sylvie esmonin 2005 gevrey
I bought one bottle each of this, the Vieilles-Vignes and the Clos St.Jacques to compare and then decide which to purchase more of – but within days everything was sold – so the bigger brother and sister are packed away for a date together in the future.
2005 Sylvie Esmonin, Gevrey-Chambertin
Medium-plus colour. The nose starts with blue and black-skinned fruit over soft base that very faintly hints to stems – slowly the fruit becomes a nice precise currant note with a passing mint-leaf aroma. Silky-soft texture that’s linear to start and widens a little before black-cherry fruit takes over. The finish is distinguished by a slowly lingering softly-sweet flavour.
Rebuy – Yes
2006 bouzeron blanc from a et p de villaine
Short and sweet for a very pretty wine:
2006 A et P de Villaine, Bouzeron (Blanc)
High-toned fruit on the nose. Lovely acidity that carries fresh, sweet fruit into a medium finish. A very pretty and understated wine. Lovely.
Rebuy – Yes
While I’ve been away, two articles of interest:
- Land shapes the wine
- More climate warming discussion – with JF Mugnier
remoissenet 2005 gevrey-chambertin
2005 Remoissenet, Gevrey-Chambertin
(Half-bottle) Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose needs 5 minutes in the glass, but then it sparkles with lovely red berry fruit, though after an hour it’s closed down a lot, leaving only sullen darker elements and faint chocolate. Very smooth texture, decent enough acidity, lovely breadth of fruit across the tongue and just an added dash of creamy oak flavour on the finish. The tannins are currently buried; this is very sophisticated for a villages Gevrey that I might wish had an extra edge of acidity, but I’m being really picky!
Rebuy – Yes
philippe et francis léchenaut 05 bourgogne ‘hcdn’
2005 Philippe et Vincent Léchenaut, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits
A nice, bright medium-plus colour. The nose shows plenty of spicy, deep-toned oak and eventually higher toned, slightly diffuse red fruit. The palate is less dense than the best 05 bourgognes and certainly less sweet/ripe than the majority, but still with a decent intensity, if lots of oak flavour. Actually pretty good with food, less interesting without. Cheaper, but short of the quality of last week’s Jayer-Gilles.
Rebuy – Maybe
05 beaunes from de montille and des croix
Two nice wines to contrast. Both are ripe and forward and both went through different phases but each retained a distinct personality – I suspect less from the winemaking as the underlying terroir. I would very happily rebuy both – if any were available at initial pricing!
2005 de Montille, Beaune 1er Les Perrières
Medium colour with hints of purple. The nose starts wide, high-toned and with a rather candied fruit – quite interesting – and particularly so as it starts to develop a distinct creamy edge that’s not totally obviously from the barrel. In the mouth it is lithe and beautifully detailed – again with a creamy tinge that expands in the long finish – actually one phase during the evening shows this aspect just a little too much, but it slowly subsides to a more considered level. There is a lovely core of acidity with the ripe fruit, precise on the nose and in your mouth. A beauty whose star shines, wanes then shines again over about 3 hours that it lasted.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Des Croix, Beaune 1er Les Bressandes
Medium-plus colour, also with plenty of purple. Deeper aromatics and initially a little reductive – yet only 10 minutes in the glass unlocks round yet full, ripe, dark cherry and higher tones – the aromas cling to the glass. Versus the Montille this is much rounder and fuller in the mouth – it also seems longer, but a fair amount of that flavour is barrel derived. Only about 30 minutes are required for this to fully unwind, yet despite its dimensions, this is a little less complex than the Montille today. Still a super wine.
Rebuy – Yes
lejeune 2005 pommard 1er argillières
2005 Lejeune, Pommard 1er Les Argillières
Tested from a half bottle. Medium-plus colour. The nose is wide with dark fruit, and a little spice with a chocolate edge, unfortunately a resting glass shows just an edge of cork taint. You don’t really taste it on the palate which is wide and concentrated, with plenty of reasonably grained, ripe tannin and again a hint of chocolate. Swirl the glass and you can just about ignore the taint. The length seems a little compromised, but this wine was good enough despite that contamination for me to still finish the half bottle – I can’t think of a much better recommendation!
Rebuy – Yes
jayer-gilles 05 bourgogne ‘hcdn’
Continuing my tour through a few recently delivered 2005 bourgognes:
2005 Jayer-Gilles, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits
Medium, medium-plus colour. A nose that has plenty of oak – dark, slightly toasty and sweet with fainter higher tones. Equally flavour-packed as the previous day’s Lejeune but less fat despite the oak quotient. Good acidity that leaks sweet flavour across the tongue. Plenty of oak but it certainly diddn’t turn me off. This is a very tasty, darkly fruited drink right now.
Rebuy – Yes
But note that the price of this varies widely from good to bad value – for Hautes Côtes anyway.