Wide, red fruited and floral – you could think a 1990s wine! Supple, almost liquoreux, long a touch of tannin, almost but not quite touched by astringence. Very long. Just delicious and blind you would say needs a couple more years! The way the tannin still shows, I wonder at what age it first became drinkable! An honour to have tasted twice!
Brilliant, medium-red. The nose starts with a suggestion of reduction, a hint of something spiced too. Wide, multi-dimensional, excellently vibrant wine – Ooh! – I wasn’t expecting the juiciness and excellence of that after such a modest nose! There’s a touch of oak at the start but it’s soon gone. Not an exciting nose, but the rest is very much exciting – yum!
Medium-plus colour. The nose just bursts with sweet raspberry concentrate – hard to see much more. In the mouth the ripe fruit is tamed a little by good acidity and an understated velvet undertow of ripe tannin – lovely fruit conserve flavour in the mid-palate with a darker, almost licorice, twist as it runs into the textured finish – I would say that this is a rather concentrated wine. Day two and there’s a little of the stems on the nose, aromatically it’s a little less interesting but the palate seems rather stable and easily holds my interest – perhaps with a slight elevation of the tannins too.
A blend of Angles and Champans which is already bottled.
I love the high-toned fruit aromas, but there are also some quite obvious barrel notes padding out the ‘whole’ – they need to fade a bit. There is more tannin than any of the previous wines, but the flavour is also much longer. Currently it’s a shade less elegant than the previous wines, but it has more of everything and has only just been assembled in tank so that might be playing a role.
Cuvée Albert Grivault (Maison Drouhin)
Pale golden. A nose of depth, plenty of patisserie too. Slides across the tongue in a silky fashion with very understated acidity, but far from MIA. There is some extract in the mid-palate but it is a ‘slow grower’ rather than a wine of fireworks – seemingly the apogee of flavour is in the finish as the wine continues to widen. As noted, no fireworks, rather a wine for contemplation – and I did contemplate all of it!
Hospices de Nuits Cuvée Saint Laurent
The wine is clear and bright – a good start. The nose is also rather good, there’s a little (not too much) mature leaf and a fainter undertow of ripe fruit – the last drops in the glass are that lovely acid red-cherry. Fine balancing acidity and still some tannin – the flavour is a little subdued before a nice and rather tasty lift in the mid-palate. Decent finishing. I wonder if that rather anonymous opening flavour is down to filtration? Whatever, it is clean and very, very drinkable – a good result
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose is as good as it has ever been; close to ripe fruit has a coating of musky/creamy-ness – it’s actually quite interesting. The acidity and associated tannin is tart and a little astringent, but if you swallow quickly, it seems quite okay. I probably needn’t add more…
Beautiful medium-red colour, no obvious browning or bricking. The nose is highly engaging (this time!); a macerating, baked redcurrant note with just the merest hint of a creamy coating – interestingly there’s a little 2004-style pyrazine here too – of ~2/10 green meanie intensity – a level that adds interest, rather than turn the stomach. It starts with a narrow flavour profile, but it’s balanced, indeed fresh – a little time in the glass allows the shape of wine to fill out some. The fruit has just enough ripeness and a very faint astringency (still). I might be tempted to say that I’m drinking this a little young, but I’m finding much of interest here. At a good price I certainly might buy again.
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