Lake Zürich

Where’s Sepp?

Les vins…

Gathered together in Zürich for a nice group tasting – blind of Chablis. I’ll write the notes soon, but there was more than an occasional whiff of oxidation – unfortunately…

1998 Louis Jadot, Beaune 1er Les Grèves
A ‘maison’ wine – as there’s no hint of ‘domaine’ on the labels. And this time not corked! The nose is a little herby but there’s a deep, dark-red fruit on the nose too – good focus, though it’s just a little raucous/rustic. In the mouth it’s similar to the nose – plenty of energy and a core of dark-red, sweet at the core fruit. The structure is present but painless – yet like the nose there’s a rusticity about it despite good depth and complexity. Satisfying enough but not a wine to search out.
Rebuy – Maybe

2009 Sylvain Pataille, Bourgogne Le Chapitre
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts a bit spritzy and almost with a cola note – it needs to lose CO₂. Waiting, plus a bit of swirling, reveals a similarly shaded fruit colour to the Jadot Grèves, but with an extra clarity and smoothness. There’s much of this wine that reminds of the Jadot, if with only 90% the concentration, but this really delivers more elegance and fineness of texture. This is fresh and finely balanced – not from an obviously sunny year. This is very, very good – and importantly, quite delicious.
Rebuy – Yes

No, not a lecture on ‘off-wine’ – well not in an ‘orange direction’ anyway.

I expected maybe one glass from the Puligny, but fortunately it was on fire, because the 98 Beaune Grèves that I had planned to follow was corked. I open all 1990s wines with a certain (cork) trepidation as it was a terrible time for taint – easily 10%, but I reckon higher. I’ll try another of these Jadots in the next days…

Returning to the Puligny. From an auction ‘lot’ I bought a year or two ago, this is the second I’ve opened. All these have a dark colours and the first had quite a high level of oxidation on the both the cork and the wine. This one’s cork smelled fine, despite the wine almost tending to brown…

1982 Etienne Sauzet, Puligny-Montrachet
Dark orange wine – almost tending to brown, but – hmm… Bingo! A certain freshness, white chocolate, wet wool, lanolin… In the mouth a plush silkiness with gorgeous sucrosity of fruit leaching, together with the acidity, through the gaps in your teeth and over the tongue. The finish is super-wide and slowly mouth-watering and with a faint nougat in the length. Great wine!
Rebuy – No Chance

I’ve 3 more of these, and if none are as good as this – so be it – but this was brilliant. Not bad for a villages! The only other villages I’ve had at the same level were the 64 and 59 Meursaults from Nicolas Potel’s Collection Bellenum – this one sits somewhere in-between.

Two 2010s but unfortunately the first – the Talmettes – was heavily corked…

2010 Hervé Murat, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Le Clos Duc
Medium, medium-plus fruit. A dark and herby nose – but with brilliant flashes of fine, dark-red fruit – the herb isn’t so great, but the fruit is. This is supple and shows good concentration and excellent balance. Nice dark-fruit flavour with a mouth-watering sweetness that runs through the structure – but no dryness. Good finish too. Tasty wine…
Rebuy – Yes