Here is a bottle designed to cause injury to delivery personnel – at about 50% heavier than the standard bottle it will add 4 kilos (9 pounds) to a 12-pack – though perhaps they only come in six-packs. Some might call this a statement, but it’s a more like ‘mine’s bigger than yours’ if you ask me…

Anyway I’ve wanted to get to grips with a wine from this maker for a while – he seems to polarise opinion; ‘brilliant wines, but not my style’ say influentiul critics. I’m assuming there will be a lot of oak – but let’s see.

2004 Lucien Le Moine, Bourgogne Rouge
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. Obviously a 2004 with soft cedar top-notes that mingle with raspberry and eventually redcurrant. When opened there is too much carbon dioxide; you can see the density and good texture but little else. I stoppered it and returned next day. The CO2 is gone and the fine texture and good depth remain. I’m sure there’s more villages wine than than ‘regional’ in this blend – it’s almost good and apart from the texture I see little overt oak. So what’s the rub? – Well, €18 per bottle (in Beaune) – it’s good, but not that good.
Rebuy – Maybe

I probably won’t pay the (high) entry price to check on the more famous labels.

1998 Robert Arnoux, Vosne-Romanée
Bright, shiny, medium, medium-plus ruby-red colour. The nose starts with quite a waft of spicy, toasty oak but fortunately this hangs around for only 10 minutes or-so. The end result is wide, with higher tones and mainly red fruits that have just an edge of black about them. There is good concentration with even an extra kick in the mid-palate – it’s all coupled with good, smooth texture too. Excellent acidity and long finishing – very successful and better than many a 1er cru.
Rebuy – Yes

Two interesting pieces I noted in the interweb in the last days; one on terroir and the other about a burgundy ‘transplant‘.

Enjoy…

Back home from a few days travelling and I was really looking forward to a nice bottle. No1 was an excruciatingly corked Clos de la Roche. Now things were getting desperate so here is bottle No2; I bought this from the producer’s shop and thought it might be useful substitute – wrong…
1998 Thomas-Moillard, Vosne-Romanée 1er Malconsorts
A rather unnattractively muddy, if deep mahogany red colour. The nose is high-toned but the fruit seems a little cooked in profile, wide but unappealing in a stewed tea kind of way. The tannin rather sticks out and I suppose that this was one of those hideously astringent 98’s in it’s first couple of years, but the tannins have moderated – if only a little. The acidity is quite clean and good and eventually you find the one redeeming feature of the wine; nice fruit in the finish with a creamy edge and an understated length. Only two more lie in the cellar, fortunately, and I expect that in the normal Thomas-Moillard style they won’t be close to mature for at least another 10 years. I think they will always be rather uncouth and lacking style. Shame, as the starting material hints of much more potential. It’s very rare that I ‘waste’ wine, but this bottle was poured down the sink on day 2…
Rebuy – No

1999 Dujac, Morey Saint-Denis
Medium-plus ruby-red colour. The nose is brown-sugar sweet with quite some understated density, very subtle stems and eventually a mix of black cherry and a last note of redcurrant. The palate is very well textured with fine grained tannin offsetting dense fruit and very good acidity. The only negative today is a little oak-driven bitterness on the finish. This is showing as a very young wine – much younger and denser than the 1995 at the same stage of evolution (or perhaps better to say age) – I wouldn’t open another for 3-5 years. Perhaps it’s time to dig out another 95…
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Joseph Drouhin, Laforet Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Bright medium cherry-red with a trace of purple. The nose is like a bowl of fresh cherries, a little tart and high-toned with just a faint edge of garden mint. The palate shows plenty of freshness and an unexpected intensity in the mid-palate. The texture is good and tannin only shows as transient rasp on the tongue before a almost good finish. In any other vintage this would be a great bourgogne, in 2005 it is ‘merely’ well above average – and did I mention the value – it’s only around €10.
Rebuy – Yes

2000 Bouchard Père et Fils, Beaune 1er Clos du Roi
This was lovely for about a year after release, was far less pleasant for about 2 years thereafter, but now it seems to be coming back into favour. This is made with purchased grapes from a long-term contract and is usually great value wine – if relatively simple vs their Beaune 1er du Château. The colour is medium ruby-red. The red-fruited nose just about avoids a baked/cooked effect and is high-toned and sweet with a hint of garden mint. The palate has just about enough acidity, a little fat and an interesting length. The finish has more than a hint of oak about it, but all the positives from oak and none of the negatives. Soft sweet and friendly – a nice wine.
Rebuy – Maybe

1996 Jean-Claude Belland, Chambertin
The colour is a rather deep mahogany with just a hint of ruby-red in the reflections. The nose shouts of toasty oak when first poured but rapidly starts to show a super depth and even height of red shaded fruits then finally some floral violet notes – super complexity and quite impressive. After the 2000 Thomas-Moillard St.Vivant this is excredibly lithe, tight and acid-driven – it takes a few sips to adjust before calm is restored. There’s real intensity here and though the finish is quite understated, it is very long. You sense rather than feel the tannins due to a faint astringency, but they are very well behaved. Slowly the density builds in the mid-palate rounding the wine out more and more – I’d say this conservatively needs another 5 years to make the next step from impressive to excellent. This was really super value costing ‘only’ ~€50, I seem to remember the price jumping significantly for the 1999 vintage, today I’ve lost touch on the pricing.
Rebuy – Yes

Another en-primeur purchase – this time for around €50. Just like the Bonnes-Mares, these vines are now owned by Dujac – I expect the 2005 vintage will also be rather aspirationally priced! I opened a 99 last year and found it incredibly young so decided to pop my lone 91 for comparison – blind you would have difficulty spotting which was which! Time to see how approachable the 2000 is…
2000 Thomas-Moillard, Romanée Saint-Vivant
A lovely medium-plus ruby red colour – still just a hint of cherry red at the rim. The nose starts just a little meaty and beetrooty – not so great – but soon there is creamy black cherry but with a hint of reduction, finally it becomes redder, softer, more floral and much more interesting. This wine equals the concentration of the Bonnes-Mares but with a totally different and much more elegant personality. The tannins are in there somewhere, but the super-smooth, high quality fruit is the main attribute. The finish is borne on nicely judged acidity and again hints towards cream-edged black cherry – oh and it’s excellent – really long. Very young, but this is a wine I should perhaps have gone for the ‘full 12′ rather than the 6, it’s also more ‘honest’ about the vintage than the Bonnes-Mares was; obviously ripe with understated acidity and just a little plump. Versus the 1999 at the same time last year this is all the more interesting, elegant and drinkable – the 99 probably needs 10+ years to excite.
Rebuy – Yes