The indian summer continues. A few more pics here from Beaune (mainly) with a couple thrown in from Chassagne-Montrachet. Two different Montrachets today 😉
Comments for this entry
a few more pics – beaune and chassagne
Travel
a day in meursault plus a two-faced volnay…
It’s clearly an indian summer in the côtes – and we really have something of the golden hillside as a backdrop.
Three lovely visits yesterday, three more today and four appointments each on Thursday and Friday. I thnk I have just the one appointment on Saturday – that should be enough as ‘part recovery’ – when I visit Thomas Bouley. I’ll be able to ask him about the following…
2007 Jean-Marc Bouley, Volnay Clos de la Cave
This is a wine that changed so much over 30 minutes that it almost requires two tasting notes. Drunk over a dinner in the Ermtage de Corton. It started medium colour and with quite a stemmy and not particularly attractive nose. The palate was a little lightweight and I didn’t percieve that much balance. Moving on. From about 30 minutes onwards, I had the impression that the colour had deepened (probably a little more wine in the glass!) and the nose was padding out with more red fruit aromas around the core of stems – not ‘gorgeous’ but now quite engaging. The palate had also transformed, delivering more padding and flavour so at the same time easing the acidity. The last drops were quite balanced and those of a very nice wine. I expect Thomas will be recommending that I get a bit more air into his cuvées!
Rebuy – Yes
A Meursault Gallery – Pictures from 12. Oct. 2010
beaune day 3 et 4…
Bad connection yesterday, so a double dose today!
After the day 2 lunch at B Loiseau’s, there was balance on day 3 – a tuna baguette – though dinner in Beaune brought 3 nice wines; a Raveneau but I don’t remember which, a M.Lapierre 09 Morgon and finally a Roumier 05 1er Les Cras – unfortunately the overdone Bresse chicken was more forgettable.
3 new domaines on Thursday; Voillot, Chapuis and Meuneveaux – one old and one new today; Buisson-Charles and Anne Parent. Informal meal with friends tonight with some older stuff 😉
On Saturday we’ll rejoin with Blair Pethel on our way home. It’s been a tough week, but it’ll be tougher still when it comes to transcribing all the notes!
Cheers…
beaune day 2…
beaune
back on the mazis…
But only a half as there’s plenty of talking and thirst assuaging in the Côtes to be done over the next days 😉
By the way, this is third bottle from this case of halves, and the second two have been better than the 1st…
the last days; in the côtes, herzog & de meuron, vitra – the usual stuff….
Monday was a beautiful day in the Côtes – around 30°c.
I visited 2 new producers and caught up with another 2, getting home just in time to watch Brazil wrap up their passage to the quarter-final.
Yesterday I visited the high-end furniture producer Vitra – they are based just over the border from me in Germany – a cool Herzog & de Meuron designed place, it’s like Ikea for millionaires I suppose 😉
I thought I’d share a few photos…
jollies…
good day, sunshine….
Day two in the Côtes, grey again – or is that my eyes – a group of us ‘professionals’ didn’t leave the bistro until 1am, it’s purely rumour that we left a lot of bottles behind (some rumours say 8+ and mainly drained). 8am for an alarm-call seemed somehow unfair…
My favourite wine of the night was a Domaine de Bellene 2008 Bienvenue, though interestingly you could interchange it (without detriment) with a brilliant 08 Buisson-Charles Meursault 1er (a long lieu-dit I haven’t had before and would have to took up again to remember!), the Meursault was that good, though I noted the unusual nose; slightly saline, toasty / oxidised (a poor word to use) that reminds me a little of Coche-Dury – chapeau!
Showered, I arrive at my 9am appointment – as is so often the case the producer is elsewhere, but in this case he’s back in only 5 minutes. We taste through a range of 2009s; unlike some places where the malo were finished already in November, here it’s a mix of recently finished and not quite finished. You can contrast the colours and the depths of flavour, but little else when some are recently sulfured, some still have malo aromas and others some petillance.
Then I have the first casualty from the late night – the battery in my iPod dies – in my ‘tired’ state the night before I forgot to recharge it!
I emerge from the cellar to unaccustomed brightness, there is even some hint of blue sky – I haven’t seen that for 1 week – but typical, here’s me with a car full of wine as the temperature goes up – makes it hard to find a parking space out of the sun! Two more hours with a new producer to me before firing up the road from Beaune to Morey for lunch – the Clos de Vougeot looked magnificent as I passed because only the the château was in the sun.
Back to Beaune (such is life…) to meet the maker of the previous night’s Bienvenue – the first time in 3 years – and he’s on great form, just like his wines. Having tasted enough, I hit the road home – 2 super days.
