The first from a magnum dinner – it will take me a few days to get them all to you…
2001 Ambroise, Bourgogne Blanc
Medium yellow. The nose is quite reticent; sweet and creamy with well-absorbed wood and an almost sherbet top note. The palate is reminiscent of a 2004 with tight acidity that’s hardly covered by the extract. The finish is a little rough, but given that I don’t have an idea of the price I would say (overall) not bad, maybe even almost good if it’s cheap enough! Rebuy – Maybe
1997 Hospices de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru Charmes Cuvée Albert Grivault
(From magnum, Maison Ambroise) Golden colour. The nose starts in a relatively forward and creamy way with a little oak-toast in the background. Slowly the aromatics get wider and more fruit-driven, providing a real extra dimension. The palate is quite fresh and just a little petillant to start (this is soon gone). I find a faint oxidative element but the length is rather good. There is certainly a bitter element in the finish which is oak-derived and which I would have expected to have melted by now – though perhaps the magnum-size makes the difference. It’s a good if not great 1er cru that gets better all the time from an aromatic perspective, but remains relatively static from a taste perspective. Rebuy – Maybe
1997 Bonneau du Martray, Corton-Charlemagne
(From Magnum) Medium golden. The nose starts both wider and deeper than the Meursault, but less intense, eventually settling into a very mineral expression of better intensity, but neither the finishing depth nor sweet width off the Meursault. The texture is not the smoothest but in the mid-palate there is a real extra dimension vs the Meursault – a clear burst of interesting concentration. Once more there is the suggestion of a little oxidation – though only when first poured. This is a long, very mineral wine – perhaps more than one has a right to expect from 1997. From this format we have a very young wine. Rebuy – Yes

Tomorrow will kick-off the first of about 8 days of concentrated tasting; I start with a dinner with 12 super wines – all from magnum – then Tuesday will see a large Pommard tasting, Thursday and Friday I have visits at a number of domaines. Saturday sees yet-more 2004’s. I won’t have time to write up all the notes before the next report – but c’est la vie!
2001 Laurent Ponsot, Morey St.Denis Cuvée des Grives
Medium ruby-red. The first impression from the nose is of soft, dark oak plus an equally soft red and black berry fruit. The palate is red fruity with a little tartness to the acidity, medium density and reasonable length. The texture is almost good, just a little grain to the medium-minus tannins. This is another (junior) Ponsot from 2001 that misses a little ripeness – or at least that’s the impression from the acidity – though it’s a lttle better than the village Gevrey. Rather like that Gevrey (who’s aromatics I prefered) it’s a wine that I can enjoy, but I wouldn’t buy it again.
Rebuy – no

Despite an occasional whiff of something more like cork taint – though never on the palate – this wine is that very rare thing; a perfectly stunning example of a cheap burgundy – and to die for…
1999 Francois Gay, Ladoix
Deep ruby red. The nose first shows toasty, spicy oak, straight high tones and occasional glimpses a lovely penetrating red raspberry/redcurrant fruit. In the mouth this is fresh, with black edged ripe fruit, quite linear all the way into the finish accompanied by a slightly astringent, grainy tannin. Excellent.
Rebuy – Yes – in quantity, though unlikely to find…

2004 Fontaine-Gagnard, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Romanée
Medium-yellow. Initially, wide but not deep aromatics that hint towards melon rather than the citrus paradigm of 2004; with time, higher tones start to predominate, perhaps with a hint of smoke and citrus! If the nose doesn’t leave you thinking of 2004 the taste does; classical acid-driven citrus notes that run perfectly into a finish that’s just a little more savoury. Versus the best 1er Cru’s of 04 this doesn’t have that painful, moreish intensity, yet it’s very tasty and enjoyable; I’d still be happy to drink this anytime. Rebuy- Yes

1999 Michel Gay, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Serpentières
Medium-plus ruby-red. The nose is forward and deep but to my taste unfortunately pruney – though there is a core of red fruit. The wine is concentrated and well textured – there’s plenty of wine here, ripe and sweet but again there’s that rather blocky, pruney element in the mid-palate, some raisin too. As said, there’s a lot of wine here, unfortunately I don’t like it very much… Rebuy – No

2001 Tollot-Beaut, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Champs Chevrey
Medium ruby-red. A nose that’s wide and relatively high-toned, just a slight estery edge over faint, warm, ripe red fruit. The palate is soft and light with sweet red fruit, even a hint of oranges going into the finish. From a flavour perspective, this actually showing quite a bit of maturity. Lighter and more elegant than many Tollot wines, but it’s made in a very sympathetic way, as in this case there is no oak character at all. Very tasty, but not a wine for the ages…
Rebuy- Maybe

Drunk in a nice restaurant, this was the chef’s choice:

2003 Bouchard P & F, La Vignée Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Nice deep colour – already quite ruby-red at the core – looks good the glass. The aromatics are relatively muted, a little earth and faint underbrush, only occasional glimpses of nice red fruit.
The palate is soft with good apparent concentration, enough acidity and tannins that only show themselves with a little grain as you move into the finish. At its price-point this is a very successful wine, I was only missing a little ‘character’.
Rebuy – Maybe.

2002 Tollot-Beaut, Beaune Greves
Deep cherry-red. The nose is quite super; a deep and forward mix of black and red cherry over subtly creamy oak. Depth, concentration and velvety texture, pushed by the mouthwatering acidity this is very long. There’s still a littly oaky bitterness on the finish, another 2-3 years and I think this will be absorbed. Despite the open nose there’s a real brooding sense of character to this wine. Top-notch Beaune that will amply repay cellar time. Rebuy – Yes

This bottle really improved my mood after the two corked bottles. Also we had a ‘Truffière’ Corton-Charlemagne. I’m still not sure of the provenance of this label, I think it might be a second label of Vincent Girardin(?)
2003 Le Truffière, Corton-Charlemagne
An oversize and overweight ‘statement bottle’ with a super-deep punt. Medium yellow. The nose shouts ‘pear-drops’ before becoming a more subtle blend with classic white blossom and higher-toned alcoholic notes. The palate is quite well concentrated and reasonably long, it just needs an extra dab of acidity to carry the ample mid-palate through into the finish. Almost good. Rebuy – No

What do these bottles have in common?

Well, they were opened 30 minutes apart and both were corked. I’d been looking forward to opening the Bonneau, so chose my birthday – the perfect example of Murphy’s Law, or as the Germans prefer to say; ‘Shit Happens’.

Anyway, post Corton-Charlemagne, I decided to cleanse my palate with Marc Morey’s 2002 Chassagne 1er Morgeots – what a mistake-a to make-a. This (red) Chassagne was even more heavily tainted than the white – in fact so much so I couldn’t even bear to describe how bad.

Fortunately two other bottles came to the rescue – one of which was really excellent, I’ll get to that tomorrow, but for the record, the Bonneau had some (slightly oxidised) potential:

1991 Bonneau du Martray, Corton-Charlemagne
Medium golden. Hints of oxidation – though mild – concentrated, nice texture, more oxidatative notes but acceptable, good acidity and heavily corked…