As re-told by Alder Yarrow…
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dominique gallois 1996 charmes-chambertin…
This wine has the distinction of being the first case of wine I ever bought ‘en-primeur’, and is the first case (x12) of Grand Cru that I ever bought – I think I can still count on the fingers of one hand the number of GC 12-packs I’ve bought! I now have just 6 bottles of this left…
1996 Dominique Gallois, Charmes-Chambertin
Deep and vibrant – lovely colour. The nose has lots of maturity about it, and certainly plenty of complexity; depth, a little morel mushroom, also a little cigar-box that slowly morphs into cedar-ish hints, not unlike the of 2004 pyrazines but in no way over-powering. In the mouth there’s lots of intensity here; super acidity and very understated tannin – very long with a quite mineral flavour. Sweetness of fruit remains an undertow. You could get a great idea of of a mature Charmes by drinking this already – and that’s a very different personality to a young Charmes – but have no fear, there’s another 20 years of interest here for sure. Yum.
Rebuy – Yes
gambal’s bâtard…
You might remember my “alex gambal buys 5 hectares – or does he…”, note from December. Things were not exactly as reported by Clive, so Alex said he’d come back to me when everything was ‘sorted out’. Here’s his news-release:
Dear Bill,
It is official as of Wednesday AM and I wanted you to have accurate information on my acquisition of Batard, Puligny and Chassagne vineyards. Also, here are photos from the first day’s work.
Please let me know if you need any further information.
Regards,
Alex——————————————————————————-
Gambal acquires Grand Cru Vineyard Batard-Montrachet
First American in history to purchase vines in the Grand Cru Montrachets.
March 2, 2011Burgundy, Cote D’Or, France: Alex Gambal, a successful American winemaker in Burgundy, and owner of Domaine Gambal, announced today that he has acquired vines in the Grand-Cru Vineyard Batard-Montrachet. He becomes the first non Frenchman in history to purchase vines in this storied area.
Gambal put under contract Domaine Brenot of Santenay, consisting of 3.5 hectares of vines in Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet and Santenay in Fall, 2010. The seller, Philippe Brenot, was Gambal’s professor at the wine school in Beaune from 1996-1997. The parcels of Batard-Montrachet had been in the Brenot’s family for many generations. One parcel was given to Philip Brenot’s grandfather as a payment for medical services early in the 20th century.
The Batard-Montrachet parcels total .3744 of a hectare (~.92 of an acre) and can produce a maximum of ~ 7 1/2 barrels of wine (187 cases). The Batard consists of four parcels, three of which lie in the upper part of Batard that is considered the best or “Premiere Classe” according to the 1860 classifications, called “Les Batards Montrachet.” Gambal kept two of these parcels that equal to a bit less than one half of the surface area and will make 75-85 cases a year.
The parcel of Puligny-Montrachet Les Enseigineres is classified a village wine but because of its excellence it is often referred to as “Baby Batard.” The vineyard covers .3020 of a hectare (~.75 of an acre) and can produce ~ 7 barrels (175 cases).
The Chassagne-Montrachet vineyard “L’Ormeau” has a surface of .1299 of a hectare (~ 1/3 of an acre) and will produce 3 barrels (75 cases).
Also acquired was a house on the square in Santenay that will be turned into a guest and rental residence.
Gambal’s vineyards now total 3.4 hectares (8.4 acres) and include an old vine vineyard in Savigny-les-Beaune that was recently acquired under a long term lease. All of Gambal’s vines are farmed biodynamically and will be certified “AB” after the three-year certification process.
For more information, contact Alex Gambal at: alex@alexgambal.com
Alex Gambal
14 blvd Jules Ferry
21200 Beaune
Cote D’Or, Francealex@alexgambal.com
www.alexgambal.com(33) 03 80 22 75 81
(33) 03 80 22 21 66 FAX
a few more snowy ones…
white wine & white slopes…
A lovely long weekend on the Graubunden slopes. Decent piste conditions, despite them only having about 25% of the normal amount of snow this year – and they have more snow here than many other Swiss ski areas!
Took a couple of magnums for the team to work their way through too. The first was Alex Gambal’s 2002 St.Aubin 1er Dents du Chien. Toasted bread and an altogether perfect midlle-years palate that had plenty of complexity and savouriness, this was singing. Next was Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey’s 2008 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Les Caillerets. Also a little toasted bread on the nose, a line of acidity and linear fruit before opening into the finish with a very, very long cream dimension. For it’s youth a stunner.
Ah to be in Switzerland…
lignier-michelot 2007 chambolle-musigny vieilles-vignes
2007 Lignier-Michelot, Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles-Vignes
Quite deep in colour. The nose starts with some background reduction, but as this blows off, there is a deep and quite dark core of fruit, seemingly dusted with a little cream. Plenty of dark, creamy fruit on the palate too – hmm, also fine length! The acidity is just slightly forward, but not too bad. I’d like to see a little more sweetness, but this seems much better than when first tasted, maybe it’s time to take another look at some of my 07 purchases. Day two and this this better still. Is it a hint too extracted for the vintage? Time will tell…
Rebuy – Yes
nicolas potel 1999 volnay 1er chevret
1999 Nicolas Potel, Volnay 1er En Chevret
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose shows a hint of maturity, layers of aroma cover a tighter core of dark fruit – a little Pommard in style – then below are flashed of pure dark fruit. In the mouth, there’s super balance and plenty of intensity from the still-young flavours. I’d say the palate needs another 3 or 4 years to similar maturity to the nose. Lots of complexity here – drunk far too quickly to be honest!
Rebuy – Yes
thinking of benoit germain today…
jc boisset 2006 monts luisants blanc…
Another 2006 white – I’m on a campaign to slowly empty the cellar…
2006 JC Boisset, Morey St.Denis Monts Luisants
Pale yellow. The nose has hints of vanilla and botrytis – neither over-powering but it doesn’t give the impression that the wine will be a whirlwind of energy. As a complete contrast the acidity and, hence, the overall impression this wine delivers is quite ‘2008’; fresh, some minerality but also still a depth of rich, faintly vanilla-inflected flavour. This is a very, very successful wine for the vintage – it’s so good in-fact, I could even be tempted to buy more, even though there was only one barrel! Yum!
Rebuy – Yes