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

2017 Clotilde Davenne, Irancy Paradis
This time, it’s a nicely robust cork.
Medium, clean red colour – it’s only the wines with some césar that show any depth of colour in 2017. The nose offers a little warmth of red berry and just a suggestion of flowers – easy – but an invitation all the same. The palate is a broad wave of red fruit with a stonier leading edge to the flavour – like cherry stones. There’s a burst of flavour as you head into this finish and then a little, modest, finishing bitters to keep me in order. Tasty wine, and an easy wine to drink – a very pretty pinot…
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Lejeune, Bourgogne
It’s at least a couple of years ago but the last bottle of this was super – a rare 500ml bottling of which, way back when, I availed myself of a whole case. On this particular occasion (bottle), it was obvious that I was faced with a very spongy cork who would most-likely have some ‘dimensional integrity‘ issues – and so it was. A few minutes later, I managed to get all the pieces out of the neck without losing any. How did the cork smell? Well, no TCA – good! – but within the sweetness of fruit the aromas of brett mingled too. I tried to drink a glass – the rest of the wine putting up a good show – but the performance was overly dominated by the brett. I’m far from the most sensitive to this issue – but this was comfortably beyond my personal limits – the wine went down the sink. Over a certain age, it is often said that there are no good wines, just good bottles – well, this was neither of those.
Rebuy – No – hopefully some of the remaining bottles fair better…

Just a simple evening of four winners shared with Marko de Morey et de Vosne… 🙂

1993 Joseph Voillot, Meursault 1er Les Cras
Plenty of colour but not a hint of oxidation. A width of really appealing wet wool, sweet citrus with white chocolate too. Silky texture. The flavour starts direct but broadens with a ripe citrus and slightly chalky impression. Holding with creamy, ripe yellow, citrus – that’s delicious – what a wine – unfortunately my last of these!
Rebuy – Yes

2009 Dujac, Morey St.Denis 1er Monts Luisants Blanc
For my taste the 2007 and 2021 of this were great whites – period – not just great whites for the Côte de Nuits!
Good light colour. Vibrant, wide but there’s also plenty of richness to this aromatic – exotic fruit with a little caramel too but tons of overt complexity. In the mouth the acidity is fine but the fruit is also rich. A wine of power – not to mention 14.5% alcohol too. Time in the glass makes this ever better – the oak still evident from the salted caramel flavour-profile – the salinity ever-more prominent with air. For my taste, slightly behind the ’93 for balance but so complex and still so young too.
Rebuy – Yes

1996 Arolt, Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos des Forets
Lots of colour. The nose is full and shows plenty of bloody iron, graphite and the perfume of the clusters too – this is lovely. Silky, wide, with super acidity but always balanced. A wine that seems to shrink in the finish but then hold very long… Some iron flavour again and lots of complexity. A wine to contemplate and far from an acidic 96 – indeed it’s a beautifully balanced wine – yes!
Rebuy – Yes

2006 L & A Lignier, Morey St.Denis 1er Cuvée Romain Lignier
A width of finer, cleaner, deeper aroma – less exciting today than the more mature Arlot but all the same, inviting. Directly more tannic and acidic than the 96 – there’s a surprise – but this is still fine textured wine and it’s long finishing too with more finishing width than the Arlot. Wiry and tannic, yet deliciously impressive – structurally it’s still something of a baby – I’d happily wait until it’s 20th birthday to try another.
Rebuy – Yes

A mixed bag from okay to great – the ‘okay‘ was probably self-inflicted 🙂

2000 Sylvie Spielmann, Riesling Bergheim
Darker yellow colour but with a classic maturing riesling nose – no petrol but lots of complexity. In the mouth, it is almost a youngster but with lots of width to the flavours on the palate. My only critique on this day was that the flavour was a little too dry – I was missing some succulence, which could have been my palate that day but it didn’t stop me taking a third glass 😉 And – hey! – it’s a more than 20-year-old ‘villages’ riesling in great shape!
Rebuy – Maybe

2020 Alain Geoffroy, Chablis 1er Fourchaume
I’d already put this in the freezer for a quick chill when my wife said – ‘no, let’s have the riesling.’ So I forgot about the Chablis! 2 days later – oops – what’s this(?) Of course, I didn’t need a cork-screw but I did need an hour in a warm room before I could pour anything out of the bottle 🙂
I’d clearly done a good job of ‘cold stabilisation‘ as this wine had thrown out a fine white sand of tartrate crystals. But what of the wine itself? Well, unlike my last 2020 1er from here, which was not showing any of the vintage pyrazines – this clearly was. Both on the nose and the palate. The flavours were a bit jumbled – I guess a couple of days in a freezer and having ejected your cork will do that to you!
Not a wine to make any kind of decision on!

2008 David Clark, Bourgogne Pinot Noir Au Pelson
My last bottle of this was opened in Chablis with friends at the start of this year – and it was disappointingly oxidative and ‘old.’ This was singing – broad, well textured, with a depth of flavour and none of acid-induced ‘sleekness’ of many 2008s. This was a great 2008 for the label. A good cork so back on form!
Rebuy – Yes

2021 Pierre Vincent Girardin, Bourgogne Chardonnay Éclat de Calcaire
Drunk in a restaurant. We actually ordered his villages Meursault which has the same cuvée name and only noticed the mistake as the cork came out of the neck – not a problem – we saved some €€€!
Ooh, If I had to nail my colours to the mast, blind, I’d have said a very fine 2021 Chablis 1er Cru! Complex, energetic, sherbet and yellow citrus. I was going to be the driver so only had the single, small, glass – but this wine made a simply great impression. I’m going to have to try (very hard) to visit and taste his 2022s at the end of this year!
Rebuy – Yes

And the rumour?
Well, it’s not really a rumour as far as I can tell. It seems that Jean-Pierre Cournut of the Château de la Maltroye has already made his last wines. This year, I’m told, all his crop is being bought and divided by PYCM and PVG – it was the above wine that reminded me 😉 It’s almost certain that Monsieur Cournut won’t be returning to his vats next year and nobody seems to think that another generation of the family have any interest in the vines – so – watch this space. For the moment I assume the acquisition of the grapes by PYCM and PVG to be opportunistic, rather than with long-term aspirations – but let’s see!

There are more ‘rumours’ too – maybe I’ll trickle them out. One that I previously introduced you to seems now to be a done deal – the sale of Domaine Monthelie Douhairet Porcheret to the (relatively new) team of Château de la Commaraine…

Having been quite impressed with my recent Petits Monts I thought I might test another of my 1999 problem children 😉

With such easy availability back in 2001/2002 – at least where I lived – I bought quite a bit from chez Mugnier in those years. Musigny was also no problem way back when – I may open a 1998 at Christmas-time… But I digress!

I bought half a dozen bottles and 12-pack of half bottles of this 1999. The bottles were delicious, if structural, when young. The longer they were kept, the less attractive they became. For whatever reason, all of my 75cls were drunk a long time ago but fewer of the 37.5s – so let’s look at one of those:

1999 JF Mugnier, Chambolle-Musigny
Half-bottle. The cork takes plenty of effort to budge – but surprises me by coming out in one piece – bravo! And this quercus-suber bark smells quite sweet.
The colour is modest for this vintage – only a medium red and with a faint haze too – perhaps I hadn’t been gentle enough with the bottle! The nose has some encouraging signs but it’s a note of brett that grows more quickly and takes over the centre stage: a beefy, bretty impression that I might say comes with the territory if the wine was another 15-20 years older – but not today. In the mouth, the stark austerity of this wine’s early teens is much less overt – it’s clearly better – but there’s still a slightly hard minerality to the middle and finishing flavours, though here the flavours are clean and I don’t note any meaty bretty influence. There’s also almost enough sweetness to carry the wine. Actually, the fluidity, intensity and texture are big positives with this wine but to be honest, at this age, I’m still pleased that it’s only a half-bottle – as there’s less for me to drink! This remains one of my least successful 1999 purchases – except for those first 3 bottles, 20 years ago…
Rebuy – No

Well, that’s settled – my harvest in Beaune starts on Thursday 8th September. Now back to the wines 😉

2014 Dubreuil-Fontaine, Corton-Charlemagne
A fine looking natural cork from Trescases
Oops – but that’s a deep colour – plenty of brown here. The nose is obviously oxidative, slightly caramel too – I have the impression of a ‘very natural’ cider in my glass. A sip tells me it’s obviously oxidised but has a great mineral spine – such a shame. I put my glass in the fridge for a couple of hours – as it’s 35°C in the garden – as I’m sure it will freshen up and probably still be modestly drinkable. I was wrong – no improvement. What a shame. I fully appreciate and applaud why Christine Dubreuil changed part of her range of whites to DIAM seals…
Rebuy – No

1999 Veronique Drouhin, Vosne-Romanée 1er Petits-Monts
This used to be a wine could easily source – I bought two 6-packs from Denis Perret in Beaune – pre-ordered. I do remember them being quite expensive though – the price of a same vintage René Engel grand cru – how things have changed. The first bottles (more than 15 years ago) were fine but with time this wine became thin and uninteresting – time for it to sleep. This the first bottle from my second 6-pack – a good length of unbranded (by the supplier) cork.
Plenty of colour. This nose is direct, linear – you get my drift – but has a silky complexity and intensity. Much better than I remember from more than 10 years ago! In the mouth it’s redolent of the nose – direct, forceful and intense – and with a very impressive middle to finishing flavour. Still with some baby-wine austerity! 1999s continue to surprise me with their quality, yet after nearly 25 years, their unreadiness! This is the first of this purchase (bottle 7!) where I genuinely see the proximity of these vines to Richebourg. Potentially a great 1er – even from Vosne – but I would still be waiting another 4-5 years!
Rebuy – Yes

2021 Gautheron, Chablis Emeraude
My Charlemagne replacement – already many notes for this – I must put something else in the fridge 🙂

2019 Raphael Chopin, Beaujolais-Lantignié La Savoye
Lots of colour. Fresh, crunchy dark fruit – even a little extra floral interest with more air. Chunky, crunchy dark fruit flavour – but never heavy. I love the combination of energy but still intensity – again – never too much. Simply delicious – I only have a couple more – a shame!
Rebuy – Yes

Time moves so fast – another 20 weeks and it’ll be 2024! But first a brief look back at some opened bottles:

Tripoz, Cremant ‘Nature‘
I’ve always been a fan of this cuvée, slightly deeper coloured than the average, a nose of some power but not overtly missing its sulfur. In the mouth a wine of large scale and tasty flavour energy. A bit more expensive than your average crement, but worth it!
Rebuy – Yes

2021 Gautheron, Chablis 1er Montmains VV
Already my third for this dozen – you don’t need yet another note – except to say that I should start drinking some other wines 🙂
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Camille Giroud, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Peuillets
What a wonderful, deep, nose – there was obviously some dark oak used here – in that respect it also reminds me of CG’s 2005 Gevrey En Champs. Fecund is a word that comes centre stage for this ‘perfume.’ In the mouth, this is remarkably lacking in austerity for an older Savigny – the wonderful vintage taking over with concentration, proper structure, depth of fine flavour. Simply a great Savigny – 2005 strikes again!
Rebuy – Yes

2009 Camille Giroud, Corton Clos du Roi
An infuriating cork! With not much effort from the corkscrew, this cork decides to break in half in the neck. The remaining half was impossible to extract in one piece, indeed eventually falling into the wine. A decanter was required. Maybe because of the decanter, the whole wine was drunk in one sitting – by two of us! The nose was good but a little subdued – the real grand cru element was the width, persistence and energy of the flavour. 2009 was never my favourite vintage and, for now, it still isn’t – too easy and ripe – but this wine has promise – the cork excepted!
Rebuy – Not yet