For background on this domaine I recommend you check out Bert’s super piece here. These were my first taste of wines from this interesting Beaune estate, and given the vintage I think I’d be very happy to try more:
1997 Emmanuel Giboulot, Rully 1er La Pucelle
Golden colour. The nose is honied and very faintly oxidative – but in a mature wine way rather than a premature problematic way. This is a big mouthful of wine with soft, nice texture coupled to toasty depth. Ready now and very good.
Rebuy – Yes
1997 Emmanuel Giboulot, Côte de Beaune Le Grand Chatelaine
Pale golden. The nose is similar to the Rully and quite interesting. The palate is ripe, pleasant and has almost good acidity. Not the punch of the Rully but a nice, mature drink still.
Rebuy – Yes
1997 Emmanuel Giboulot, Beaune Lalune
Roasted red fruit notes on the nose. The palate shows good concentration, sweet ripe fruit and a good balance. There is still some tannin and no rush to drink this. A very successful 97.
Rebuy – Yes
Degustation
3 more whites
1997 Domaine Stéphane Aladame, Montagny 1er Cru
(Magnum) Pale yellow coloured. The nose is high-toned – plenty of ripe fruit yet remains quite fresh. Good fruit with nice enough acidity – a successful wine.
Rebuy – Yes
1997 Jean-Yves Devevey, Hautes Côtes de Beaune, Les Chagnots
(Magnum) Pale yellow. The nose is unusual, lots of peardrops and just a little sickly to me. The palate, however, is has plenty of acidity that is not perfectly refined but there’s plenty of dimension and good length. A bit of a Curate’s Egg.
Rebuy – No
1997 Louis Jadot, Auxey Duresses
Pale yellow. A deep oaky nose. Lots of dimension on the palate and quite some depth too. The acidity is just a little spiky, but this is serious and very interesting – oh and tasty too!
Rebuy – Yes
49° aux soleil
Looking down the hill over Vosne-Romanée La Combe Brûlée – it may be only 31°C in the shade, but at 3:00pm the thermometer in the direct sun registered 49°C. By 4:15pm the sky was full of thunder and lightening and the rain came – life was much improved at the tasting I attended – 24°C was enough for everyone! The winemakers have already pencilled-in late August for harvesting this year, but much can happen before that.
I think I’m a slow taster – there was at least 100 wines, but I only managed write something for 77 of them – I needed food after 2 of three tables – coming back ‘refreshed’ someone had drunk all the Richebourg and Musigny – c’est la vie! Anyway I add three notes for you, a white, a Côte de Beaune and a Côte de Nuits:
1997 Domaine Olivier Merlin, Macon la Roche Vineuse Vieilles Vignes
(Magnum) Pale yellow. The nose is slightly yeasty but fresh enough behind. Ripe palate with unassuming acidity. Tasty with some depth too. The finish lingers well enough. This is nice wine.
Rebuy – Yes
1997 Domaine du Clos Salomon, Givrey 1er Clos Salomon
(Magnum) Medium ruby-red. High-toned nose that is ripe though with a trace of ‘funk’. Plenty of strawberry depth on the palate. Long, nicely integrated acidity and still some drying acidity on the finish.
Rebuy – Maybe
1997 Domaine de l’Arlot, Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos des Fôrets St.Georges
Sweet, smoky stems on the nose. Plenty of high-toned fruit in the mouth couples with equally density of fine tannins. Long and interesting, this is pleasant, balanced and showing very young
Rebuy – Maybe
dujac 1995 morey st.denis
This cuvée doen’t usually start singing until it reaches it’s 15th birthday – the beautiful 1985 is still right in the middle of it’s drinking window. Time to open the lonely six-pack for a status report…
1995 Domaine Dujac, Morey St.Denis
Medium-pale ruby-red. The nose is heavy with the musky scent of strawberry, raspberry and the smoky stems – it’s a beauty. The palate has a soft entry that nicely widens with the help of understated acidity. The equally soft tannin is still there as an undercurrent as you head into a finish of creamy baked red fruit and still just a little bitterness – here for the first time the acidity is not so seamless. As is usual for this village cuvée in a reasonable vintage, it’s still not quite ready to drink at 12 years of age, but I’m happy there are more in the cellar!
Rebuy – Yes
roulot bourgogne blanc 2005
Maybe it was the lunchtime samosas but the first night it didn’t taste right. Here’s with the benefit of day two:
2005 Domaine Roulot, Bourgogne Blanc
Plenty of toasty bread and brioche on the nose. The palate is very much about a savoury intensity wrapped with excellent acidity. There’s little here for instant gratification, rather a linear, mineral wine constructed for the longer term. I have no issue with the style and the quality is undeniable, but find it out of place in a bourgogne – even an expensive one such as this. Bourgogne’s should be fun, this will require a few years of slumber to provide that.
Rebuy – Maybe
lignier-michelot 2005 morey st denis vv
2005 Domaine Lignier-Michelot, Morey St.Denis Vieilles Vignes
Deep colour with a purple rim. The nose has vibrant dark-shaded fruit with a soft undertone of mocha/coffee – after twenty minutes the coffee’s gone. The concentrated fruit expands even further in the mid-palate. There’s plenty of tannin, and though it’s not the most sophisticated, it’s quite well textured and very well covered by the fruit concentration. The finish is long, giving a slow diminuendo. This is quite a villages wine but will require plenty of slumber – excellent.
Rebuy – Yes
roulot 2005 bourgogne rouge
This is another very nice 2005 bourgogne – though an expensive one – at this price I would question the value when great Savigny 1ers (for example) cost only 1 euro more. That said if you find good regionals for less than €12 you should buy deeply. But how do these 2005’s stack upto the impressive regionals from 2003? I may be no great fan of the vintage, but the bourgognes remain exceptional; I opened a Chanson 03 which is a decent example of the genre (though desperately simple compared to the Camille Giroud 2003) and it ‘wowed’ the crowds when compared to this Roulot which was a little austere by comparison. Just one more angle…
2005 Domaine Roulot, Bourgogne Rouge
Another 05 bourgogne that’s deeply coloured and quite purple. Close your eyes and the first sniffs could convince you that it’s white wine in your glass – lightly toasted bread and well mannered oak of some depth – you have to concentrate to spot the background black cherry. The palate is fresh, showing plenty of mouth-watering acidity, some astringent tannin and good length with a faint edge of bitterness. Lots of personality again and again recommended, but at €16.50 it certainly doesn’t show the value of the Lignier-Michelot – or if your prepared to wait, the Arlaud.
Rebuy – Yes
Of the three 2005 bourgognes of the last nights, I would place the fun and interesting Lignier-Michelot in first place, followed by the much more sophisticated Arlaud which is demoted because of it’s not very great aromatics – at least on day – I would still probably spend my money elsewhere. Last place goes to the (still very good) Roulot simply because it’s so expensive, but on the plus side, it also shows character.
2005 lignier-michelot bourgogne
This cost a little less than one Euro more than the Arlaud, and for its character alone if your drinking now, it’s worth it – but if I’m honest, the Arlaud has a little more sophisticated texture and is certainly longer finishing.
2005 Domaine Lignier-Michelot, Bourgogne
Medium-plus colour with plenty of purple. Very understated nose – very little to say for the first glass, but glass two shows black cherry and a lovely red berry note as it drains. The palate is quite full, nicely textured and has good acidity that rolls into the finish. There’s a nice little burst in the mid-palate before you feel the slight astringence of the tannin. Lots of character here and enjoyed from the start.
Rebuy – Yes
arlaud 2005 bourgogne roncevie
2005 Domaine Arlaud, Bourgogne La Roncevie
Medium-plus colour with more than a hint of purple at the rim. The nose is (for me) disappointingly more like Beaujolais than pinot – for 60 minutes it’s completely unchanging. If the aromatics don’t really impress, I have to say the palate is a little more interesting: A narrow, lithe entry, quite some depth and dimension plus there’s lovely acidity pushing the finish rather long – probably too long for gamay. Overall I’m a little disappointed – the wine ‘only’ costs around €12 but tastes like a (almost good) €10 Beaujolais – I think it’s sourced from Gevrey vines but I get little sense of pinot, never mind Gevrey. In the interests of fairness I left some for day 2; it smells more like pinot – still understated, but almost good – it’s well crafted and there are no hard edges. Perhaps then, it will be more interesting in 2-3 years.
Rebuy – Maybe