2007 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, St.Aubin Le Blanc
Opened a little too cold, there is only a little well judged toast aroma. As it warms in the glass it expends with an undertow of cream and hints of citrus. Fresh, waxy-smooth and, aided by a kick of smooth acidity it is intense and flavourful in the mid-palate. I like this a lot – it wasn’t particularly cheap for a villages St.Aubin at 33 Swiss francs, but it is a far from cheap performance. I’d drink these young to enjoy the mix of suppleness and and structure. Lovely.
Rebuy – Yes

(Bonus marks for correctly guessing the DVD on which the cork ‘sits’…)

Happy New Year!

The dog (Elsa) was very, very pleased to be rescued today, after 14 days of kennels (prison), and seems to fit her new ‘cow’ bed quite okay! She had to stay behind because she failed her rabies test – actually I think the lab made a mess of the first test, but there is no redress. A second ‘shot’ and her result was 10x the level needed to pass the test, but the UK passport for pets rules say they can’t travel until 6 months after the positive test – because of the early failure, she couldn’t quite make the trip – poor thing is now shadowing everyone just in case we leave her again!

Yesterday was an 11 hour road-trip back from the UK; no snow, mainly clear skies, -1.5°C to -7°C, and cruise control set to 135 kph the whole way as I’m sure my speedo underestimates… 😉

I learned something from this trip – FM transmitters for iPods are completely rubbish and a waste of money for car travel as interference from anywhere will regularly overwhelm the signal. On the outward journey I don’t think we had more than 10 consecutive minutes of clear playback from my relatively expensive Belkin model with built-in charger. For the return I took the cheaper (but not recharging) option of the cassette-wire-link which was perfect for the whole trip…

Wine of the holiday break was the 2000 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne
Medium, medium-pale colour. Both nose and palate are charged with energy and power, it’s no shrinking violet, but complexity and class, still with plenty of wood flavours and aromas. Perfect condition and a long way from peak performance.

Of-course the hard slog of a Christmas visit plan and its associated (and apparently mandatory) consumption opportunities, often brings on the need for the ‘January Trousers’ – something I avoided completely last year by jogging almost every day, though the year before still had the trouser requirement well into April! This year, and despite a bad back and cold conspiring to leave my jogging shoes in the case for the duration, I think I may have survived with a slight pinch, and no January trousers – hooray! I celebrated with 60 minutes of jogging today, and will likely continue that celebration into the night with a Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey St.Aubin!

I continue my search for the best wine combination for the Christmas-day feast.

I’ve tried (over and over) older, medium, young red burgundies, but never found a really good match – it’s that combination of salt, sweet, stuffing, sprouts etc., etc.. This year I tried a magnum of Foillard’s 2006 Morgon Côte du Py, and good as it was, in this setting it was a little too jammy. Do I see the spectre of something from the south-west of france next year…(?)

Anyway a relatively successful set of bottles this year, but will have to try harder for next! ;

An Austrailian fizz – a bit heavy and sweet
2007 Alain Geoffroy, Chablis 1er Beauroy – seems pretty but a little too light after the fizz. Wait, eat and return, and it’s very lovely indeed. At about 25 Swiss francs I will buy some more.
2003 St.Urbans Hof, Piesporter Goldtröpfchen – still a beautiful pale green. This vintage misses the acidic ‘zing’, but is reasonably well balanced.
2006 Foillard, Morgon Côte du Py – pretty, plenty of depth though a little over-sweet with the food. Plenty of sediment in the last glasses.
1995 Josmeyer, Riesling Cuvée l’Exception – my last bottle and now this seems less sweet than before, but depth and minerality with and off-dry personality provide plenty to contemplate if not a wine to drink with the Christmas pud!

CHEERS!

2006 Faiveley, Nuits St.Georges 1er cru Pôrets St.Georges
I’d love to be able to recommend this wine (after all I bought some!) but today is not the day to tell you if it is, or will be, any good. Today it is a complete waste of money – aromatically dumb, narrow on the palate and showing a very limited flavour profile. It is a wine that is a perfect exemplar of the the oft-used descriptor – closed. This is so closed that it’s even rolled down the shutters. For those that are still reading, the texture is silky and the balance is fine, there is even a hint of intensity, but today MIA…
Day two and there’s hint of dark cherry and damson on the nose – wow – careful, I’m almost starting to enjoy it!
Rebuy – Maybe

2006 Gérard Mugneret, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots
Medium-plus colour. Straight away the nose is about depth, dark fruit and a little coffee/mineral mix and an impressive Vosne-style dimension – a great start. In the mouth for the first 20 minutes I can’t drink it, it tastes like salt – no, really like salt! A long pause and a coffee later, I come to it and it’s on a lower level – more an inflection (of salt) in the mid-palate – like a Denis Mortet wine! There is just a lack of smoothness – or better, elegance – to the wine. There is plenty of flavour, some here some there, complexity too, and without overt oak, yet there is cola and and a total lack of integration – this is such a shame, as it smells fantastic. Half is left for day 2: hurrah, not really ‘salty’, a hint of gras and the texture is okay. I’m rather bemused, I’ve never really come across a wine that was too salty before – perhaps something to do with the oak – anyway, this was eventually very nice – but I’d recommend decanting!
Rebuy – Yes