I know that I’ve had flu and had to postpone all my Christmas wines – but this wasn’t a Christmas wine, it was a harvest lunch wine – but I caught covid 🙂

I’m starting to sound like a very sickly type – but it was my first covid – that I’m aware of(!) – and my flu was despite my annual flu-jab. I haven’t had flu for at least 20 years, but this year…

Still, my hill repeats whilst jogging were quite quick this afternoon – so things are coming back to normal!

2001 Frederic Esmonin, Chambertin
Bought en-primeur with a number of other wines from this producer.
Hmm – the first aromatic impression is of quite resinous oak – it recalls the Thomas-Moillard RSV of a week ago. Slowly the oak is lost and there are some faintly perfumed florals – but this wine still isn’t going to win many prizes! In the mouth, the wine has good scale but the flavours are a little gentle and loose-knit – very red fruit and the width of deep notes impresses – but the good parts are still below my expectations for the label – oh, and the time I invested cellaring it. The 2001 Bèze, Mazis and Ruchottes from F.Esmonin were all better wines than this Chambertin – but in those days the price for this was a snip – £36 in bond – though, of course, the better wines were even cheaper! Part of the fun is owning a wine since it was released and waiting for the right time to open it. This is not a bad wine – I drank every drop, finishing it on Saturday – and it held up well – but it lacks that extra ‘sparkle’ that I expect from Chambertin.
Rebuy – No

Getting the old taste buds back into action !!

2020 Chablisienne, Chablis 1er Montmains
This was great wine – pre-bottling – I ordered a dozen. After taking delivery, it was obvious from the first bottle I opened that there were pyrazines in here though – shit! This is my first bottle for quite a while – and there are 5 more in the cellar. The nose starts saline and with a fine citrus-backed attack – the small pyrazine notes slowly grow as the wine rises from refrigerator temperature. Super shape in the mouth – structural and with mouth-watering clean energy – but these flavours still have a trace of pyrazine too. A shame, though the insensitive will love this wonderfully classic Chablis!
Rebuy – No

2005 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Volnay
This wine, from the beginning, has only begrudgingly showed it’s worth. The pricing was great and it contains plenty of 1er cru juice – but like some other 2005s – it was closed tight for years. I have the impression that my last bottle (2-3 years ago) was more open than this one! Yet. Day one – stridently intense – this is a hard wine to drink – it’s simply ‘too much!’ On day two, the the nose has relaxed and is inviting the flavours are more accessible too – that’s tasty! Day 3 – the nose is slightly less good but the palate is even better. This is still something of a baby. But I remain highly confident, despite having drunk more than half of the 12-pack by now!
Rebuy – Yes

2014 Henri Gouges, Nuits St.Georges
Ooh – that smells lovely – a very cherry/red berry nose – it doesn’t speak much of Nuits to me but the fruit is really inviting. Direct, fresh – ‘a little classic’ but this is a wine that delivers its flavours with crisp purity and an acid-led juicy finish. I really loved it. Delicious wine.
Rebuy – Yes

Okay, in this instance nearly 25 years of patience for this, the last of the ‘cheap St.Vivants!’

Okay, cheap is certainly relative; this 1999 vintage still cost 80 Swiss Francs a bottle on release – about £40 a bottle at the prevailing exchange rate – I bought a whole case – remember 12-bottle cases? That price was the same as Engel’s Grand Echézeaux and Leroy’s Domaine Savigny 1er Les Narbantons – I bought those on release too, but that latter wine was finished 2 years ago…

This parcel was sold to Wilf Jaeger in 2005 who passed it on via a fermage agreement to Dujac to make the wine. I later heard from more than one source that all was not well between the two parties, so it’s no surprise that Dujac never show the wine – I hope that things are now on a more even keel. I don’t know the current status of this parcel between the parties…

Thomas-Moillard (and sometimes later labelled Domaine Charles Thomas) used ‘rotary fermenters’ during this period – ultra extraction – so it was hardly a surprise when they made hard wines – more of a surprise was that the 1998 and 2000 of this wine were so delicious and at a young age too – maybe they felt that they had to extract more in what they thought was a good vintage!

And, right from the start, what a wine this was – hard as nails! It was still impenetrable at 20 years old so I’m mildly shocked by how it’s now showing!

1999 Thomas-Moillard, Romanée St.Vivant
Lots of colour. A little alcoholic and still with a slug of creamy, almost resinous, aromatic oak – but also a hint of floral perfume too – and that’s new. Mouth-filling, silky, with a certain richness to the texture and depth of flavour – where has this fine texture come from? And come to that, where has the hard personality and tannin gone? It’s still a baby due to the overt concentration and still lacking a little grace, but a wine of (now!) obvious potential. Probably still not ‘ready’ for at least 5 more years but I’ll take today’s ‘drinkable.’ In fact, I’m quite enjoying it, even the second glass (shock) – there’s more than a decent chance for the remaining 4 or 5 bottles…
Rebuy – Maybe

Wine, that in some cases, I drunk over three weeks ago – so maybe just a few words about each.

2020 Gautherin, Chablis 1er Homme Mort
Hmm, I don’t know what to say – really delicious wine – but since a short bout of covid in September, I’m unsure if I can still spot pyrazines. This certainly had them before!
Rebuy – Maybe

22 Mystery Corton
From a Côte de Nuits producer and it’s not yet bottled – but it’s a beauty – I suppose you’ll have to wait for the reports 😉
Rebuy – Yes

2020 François de Nicolay, Beaujolais Villages
Wow – mega purple! The nose suggests a little volatility – but this is a really delicious drink. Large scale and just soooo good!
Rebuy – Yes

2014 Sylvain Dussort, Meursault Le Limozin
DIAM – so perfect wine. Just a faint suggestion of development and showing a hint more generosity than many from 2014. Complex, spiced – great villages!
Rebuy – Yes

2020 Fleurot-Larose, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Clos de la Roquemore (Blanc)
If I remember correctly this is a monopole within Morgeot – and a very rare one at that!
A nose that needs a little aeration due to some muscaté impression but it becomes clean and powerful. Concentrated, just modestly generous but then a grand finish, complex, wide – really a great finish
Rebuy – Yes

Gilles & Romaine Collet, Cremant de Bourgogne
An old faithful – just delicious!
Rebuy – Yes

2020 Jean Jacquin, Chablis 1er Montée de Tonnerre
Hmm – very tasty – but last time I tasted this there were some pyrazines (see my first note!)
Rebuy – Maybe

2017 Clotilde Davenne, Saint Bris Vieilles-Vignes
Silky, delicious, super wine – as always from here !!
Rebuy – Yes

2019 René Dufaitre, Brouilly Boldness
A magnum. Mainly drunk over 1 evening with friends (after the Collet crémant) – perfumed but with sweetness and richness but retaining a deliciously airy character. The last third of this on day two was already over the hill – so the moral of the story is….
Rebuy – Yes

2018 Clotilde Davenne, Chablis
I’m a little surprised by this – such a high volume vintage but here is rich delicious flavour – a wine that is drunk far too fast. Yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Daniel Rion, Vosne-Romanée 1er Beaux-Monts
A wine that has only just been subsumed into the domaine of Michèle & Patrice Rion
A shy nose at the start but one that opens with clean, far from mature, aromas. This sits beautifully in the mouth – if anything, still a young pup. The finish impresses but on this performance it is a wine that I will wait for.
Rebuy – Maybe

2020 Alexandre Parigot, Meursault Le Limozin
Hmm – that’s got a nice, proper, faintly spiced aromatic. In the mouth this is rather powerful – almost a little burly – a bit 2020 you could say. But there is mouth-watering balance to this power and a very tasty finish.
Rebuy – Maybe

2005 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Corton-Perrières
This was an impenetrable brute on release – but now things are falling into place. An open, complex nose. Layers of flavour – complex flavour – and a super finish. 2005 Corton – that’s ready? Try this one !!
Rebuy – Yes

1973 Maison Thomas-Bassot, Beaune 1er ‘Theurons’
Friends in town. I had very low expectations – but bottles like these are such fun with friends – however they end up! Most of my early work involved extracting the cork in once piece – in the end it was 2 pieces – but all good! The first sniff seemed impressively positive! What a beauty! Complex, leafy, no bret, tons of red fruit interest and then there was the bpalate; silky, wide, generous. Oh we are being treated tonight. Bravo – a great old bottle!
Rebuy – No chance

2021 Bruno Lorenzon, Mercurey Clos Alfred
A wine of easy aromatics and tasty flavour – that’s about all that I can remember – sorry to say!
Rebuy – Maybe

2009 Ramonet, Chassagne-Montract 1er Clos de la Boudriotte (Red)
This gave a super impression on release though the oak was too overt. 5 years later, the remaining oak was really quite bitter – not nice. Today it has finally turned the corner – the nose is both complex and inviting and the flavours likewise – a suggestion of the oak remains but nothing to deter this drinker. Completely delicious though it’s taken the best part of 15 years. I’m still not a big fan of this vintage but things are beginning to stir in these bottles !!
Rebuy – Yes

2021 Pierre Vincent Girardin, Bourgogne Côte d’Or Eclat de Calcaire
On the winelist in a Meursault restaurant – so why not?
Ooh! Now that’s a great, clean-cut nose – chiselled and chalky – so far, it’s living up to its name! IN the mouth too – direct, minerla and so fine-boned. I don’t care that the label ‘only’ says Bourgogne – this is a great Bourgogne – bravo!
Rebuy – Yes

2021 de Villaine, Bourgogne Rosé de Pinot Noir
Barbie-pink wax sealed. A wine that’s exclusively sold in the French market – I believe.
The aromas are clean-cut and perfumed – that’s a lovely invitation to drink. Juicy and tasty – 4 of us finished this far too quickly – vin dangereuse – ie you may drink it too fast because it’s so delicious!

2009 Roty, Gevrey-Chambertin La Brunelle
I’m yet to meet a 2009 that I love – certainly the ones that I bought – but this wine is getting nearer and nearer – I’m hoping that it’s only a matter of time!
A silky but slightly dumb, round, nose. In the mouth, there’s also some ripe roundness to the shape but the flavours have more sense of purpose than the aromas. It could indeed be a wine from Gevrey and it has a fine texture too. Well concentrated though possibly still 3-4 more years away from offering something properly interesting.
Rebuy – Maybe

2021 Famille Chasselay, Éphémère
A pale colour – described by the domaine as Blouge! This is a fermented blend of layered gamay, chardonnay and pinot grapes with elevage in an amphora with no added sulfur. Served cold from the fridge.
When tasted at the domaine more than 6 months ago, I loved this. This was my first bottle that I opened and my guests loved it too! Pale colour – pink indeed. Fresh crunchy fruit aromas with the same across the palate – energy and deliciousness – and with only a faint hint of sweetness. Delicious, moreish, wine!
Rebuy – Yes

2019 Olivier Pezenneau, Brouilly Combiaty
Lots of colour. Decent enough freshness overlays a breadth of glossy dark fruit – but without the extra ripe character of many Brouilly of recent years – nice! Cool, direct, sinuous wine – the flavour expanding over the palate with dark cherry and a little licorice – always with a nice energy to both the flavours and shape of the wine. A lovely drink – and another winner from Beaujolais in 2019!
Rebuy – Yes