The mid-afternoon heat was quite oppressive this weekend – about 37°C’s worth – but the views were good!
An impromptu visit chez Chartron at the weekend in Puligny. Much is already sold out from 2014, what remains is thoroughly drinkable too! One bottle of 2014 Montrachet remains, but for €650 we didn’t open that one 🙂
2014 Rully Montmorans
Open, fresh, an attractive nose. Here is a lovely citrus intensity and a suggestion of salinity. Fine personality. A faint, but still attractive metallic taste in the finish – and it’s also very long – delicious.
2014 Saint Aubin 1er Les Murgers des Dents de Chien
Fresh, but with a more intense, riper lemon. More intense still, more energy, still a fine lift of energy. Really a much longer finish – this is really super wine – bravo!
I’m thinking, given their cheese content, that these bottles may have been open a day or two longer than the first ones:
2014 Chassagne-Montrachet Les Benoîtes
Certainly a fresh nose but seems cheesy to start – then it’s gone. Hmm, this is certainly a richer, but fine and fresh-flavoured – coconut perhaps in the finish. This is very tasty wine but with a more obvious oak than the chien – though only in the finish… this not only tastes great, despite its oaky impression, I can drink this very easily too…!
2014 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Folatières
The nose starts with a hint of cheese, like the Chassagne – but becomes more perfumed as you swirl – definitely gets nicer with glass-motion. More concentrated, penetrating flavour, agrumes, mouth-watering flavour. An intensity on the good side of painful – fine indeed!
Beaune, 21h00 tonight
This morning really reminded me of 2015 – getting the gardening done before 10am – before the temperatures got too high.
Late afternoon Beaune sweltered in 37°C – long live aircon I say, having travelled 4 hours from Bern!
Despite this week’s similarity to 2015, this time last year the Côte d’Or whites had already been largely harvested, fewer growers were in the reds, but the equivalent of next week was (red) D-Day for most producers. This year, I don’t expect much to happen before the 20th September, maybe closer to the 26th…
But what are they going to pick? The Côte de Nuits is not THAT bad, but I spoke to David Croix today, who this week was back from two weeks of holiday. “Well, we did quite the most thorough evaluation of the grapes in the Domaine des Croix vineyards that I’ve ever done, it it doesn’t look good. The average was less than one cluster per vine – about 2-3 hectolitres per hectare. I might be a little out and could be surprised and get 5 – but I won’t be getting 15. And we thought that 2012-2015 was bad! Okay this year we pruned late and had a lot of weeds in the vines – that seemed to exacerbate the effect of the frost. I might make 10 barrels this year” How many do you usually make? – was the obvious question – “oh, about 100…”
On that note, maybe it’s better to concentrate on the pretty sky this evening!
Two lovely mid-week wines, both eminently ‘recommendable’ but the Gueguen comes first on a scale of absolute deliciousness!
2014 Gueguen, Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre Chardonnay
A pale lemon-yellow colour. It’s a fresh nose, and honestly, if I told you it was a nice crisp Chablis with a hint of salinity and some citrus fruit – you would believe me. Bright, pretty citrus, mouth-watering with that sweetness and (in this case a modest) minerality that I associate with Chablis. Modest in length but so über-tasty. Deliciously perfect Summer wine – really!
Rebuy – Yes
2006 Albert Bichot, Beaune 1er Champimonts
Cold from the fridge, there’s more than a suggestion of vanilla to these aromatics, but as it warms, those barrel notes disappear completely – what remains is a lovely, dark, sour-cherry impression, padded with faint violet notes – nice! This rolls over the tongue in fine fashion – like the nose, the fruit offers an attractive sour-cherry character, freshness and a nicely delivered acidity that welds flavour to your gums in the finish. Really tasty and really attractive wine as it comes to its 10th birthday – no rush either, this is still a baby! Excellent.
Rebuy – Yes
Don’t ask me what happened to the 2013s – I’ve seen nothing from this merchant since the 2012s – but suddenly, they are back in action! But it’s a good look at the pricing history in Switzerland, even if the 13s are missing!
In brackets, you will see the equivalent prices from the 2012 offer, the 2011 offer and then the 2010 offer, in the format; 2014 chf (2012 2011 2010):
VILLAGES BLANCS 2014
BOURGOGNE Chardonnay 75cl 22.00 (22.00 20.00 20.00) Swiss francs
MEURSAULT 75cl 44.00 (44.00 39.00 39.00)
Saint Aubin 75 cl 32.00
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET 75cl 48.00 (48.00 42.00 42.00)
PREMIERS CRUS BLANCS 2014
MEURSAULT Les Genevrières 75cl 79.50 (89.50 79.00 68.00)
MEURSAULT Les Perrières 75cl 89.50 (98.00 79.00 69.00)
Puligny Les Perrières 75 cl 79.50
Puligny Les Combettes 75 cl 89.50
Puligny Les Folatières 75 cl 89.50
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET Clos de La Mouchère 75cl not offered (89.50 72.00 68.00)
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET Les Pucelles 75cl not offered (98.00 78.00 72.00)
GRANDS CRUS BLANCS 2014
CORTON CHARLEMAGNE 75cl 139.00 (138.00 99.50 98.00)
CRIOTS BÂTARD MONTRACHET 75cl 249.00 (249.00 168.00 159.00)
BIENVENUES BÂTARD MONTRACHET 75cl 319.00 (319.00 189.00 178.00)
BÂTARD MONTRACHET 75cl 389.00 (399.00 249.00 235.00)
MONTRACHET 75cl not offered (599.00 448.00 399.00)
VILLAGE & PREMIERS CRUS ROUGES 2014
VOLNAY 37.5cl 24.00
VOLNAY 75cl not offered (44.00 39.00 39.00)
Volnay Les Chevrets 75 cl 73.00
VOLNAY Les Caillerets 75cl 79.50 (85.00 69.00 66.00)
POMMARD Les Rugiens 75cl 85.00 (89.00 69.00 69.00)
GRANDS CRUS ROUGES 2014
CLOS DE VOUGEOT 75cl 129.00 (139.00 105.00 98.00)
Bonnes-Mares 75cl 229.00
Largely the same or a little less than in 2012 – I guess that’s the strength of the Swiss Franc talking…
2010 François Mikulski, Meursault 1er Caillerets
I was quite surprised when I opened this, there was a toasty oak note on the nose – it was on the palate too. I went back to check my note from the domaine, there was no oaky reference – though the wine was tight. On the positive side it had lovely energy and indeed vivacity coupled to fine fruit. Day 2 after spending the night in the fridge – almost zero oak – and what a gorgeous nose! Fresh, mouth-watering flavour and a fine weight of mid-palate concentration. The wine lingers, indeed almost dances, on a fine, mouth-watering note. A very fine pinot indeed – I have no reference points for it, but it brought far more enjoyment on day two. I would say decant a couple of hours before drinking if you want to open today. Yum!
Rebuy – Yes
2012 Camille Giroud, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Peuillets
This is a cuvée that I love – I think I have a few bottles from every vintage since 2005, but judging by this performance it is a cuvée that shines with a little bottle age – or more age than I gave this, anyway. This is a fresh wine with good intensity – a young wine – but a wine with remarkably little to discuss – it’s tasty but just a little anonymous today. I need to pull an older one out of the cellar. There are no faults, but today, this is simply ‘okay.’
Rebuy – Maybe
1985 Pontbriand, Gevrey-Chambertin
Hmm – this smells rather good – a melange of maturity and sweet fruits. In the mouth too, perhaps with a hint of spice, this is caressing and very tasty. A contemplative wine – but that’s how the ’85 vintage usually is. Tasty with good complexity – very good!
Rebuy – Yes
1991 Savour Club, Chapelle-Chambertin
I somehow ended up with 7 or 8 of these. The first two were off-the-scale fabulous, the third was corked. This wine is very fine, and in pretty much every dimension it’s fine, but it rarely touches the concept of ‘fabulous.’ Easily the tastiest of these three wines, mind. Bottle variation or just going downhill since last tasted over 5 years ago? Maybe I should open another to see!
Rebuy – Yes
Truly awful hail hit southern France on Wednesday afternoon – there were similar storms in Switzerland too where the ground turned green-white – a mix of shredded foliage and hailstones. Over 1,000 hectares were ‘touched’ in the Languedoc-Roussillon, including most of Pic Saint-Loup. Judging by some of the images, there may not be anything to properly prune for 2017 – i.e. there may also be no grapes next year!
This time, at-least, greater Burgundy was spared, though anything can still happen between now and harvest time. Talking of harvest time, and based on the current state of veraison, it looks like the reds may be ready for picking from the 26 September – of-course some producers habitually wait longer. Usually the whites are picked 7-10 days before the reds, but there are some indications that this year it may only be 1-3 days before the reds. Let’s see!
Yesterday I did a little tour in Beaujolais. The big hail event for them was largely in the crus, little in the south of Beaujolais was touched; Mainly it was the area between Morgon and Fleurie, plus Chiroubles and some Juliennas. These vines were largely stripped of all growth in late May, but the rain that came with the hail was so hard, that afterwards, there was no shredded vegetation to be seen on the slopes – it had all been washed down the drains. Today they have recovered well and look quite healthy, despite being only half the size of usual for the time of year – but, unsurprisingly, I spotted only one bunch of grapes per 8 or 9 vines. It was also easy to see the impact of large hail projectiles on all the hard-wood parts of the vines!!
A great story – everything that Maison Ilan should have been…https://t.co/KjyybQOmgO
— 🅱️ill nanson (@billnanson) August 17, 2016
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