2005 Bouchard Père, Monthélie 1er Clos des Champs Fulliot
A bright medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. High tones over red berry notes. Mouth-filling with plenty of fine tannin and very good acidity. As the wine lingers in the glass the red berry note of the nose comes through on the palate too. Good intensity and length, it’s a good wine. The price is rather ambitious for the appellation – about 40 Swiss Francs – but the wine clearly has quality.
Rebuy – Yes
I’m going and will be sorry not to see Peter, but here’s your chance to go…
My first sip left me underwhelmed, but this really grew both in the glass and on me.
2006 Domaine Lejeune, Pommard 1er Les Argillières
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts with chalky, powdery fruit, slowly opening a deeper dimension thats edged with caramel. The tannin builds to a little grain but is ripe and mainly fine textured, it also attaches caramel flavours to your gums before they very slowly fade – good length. It’s certainly a little behind the concentration of the 2005, but its sweet fruit clearly shows premier cru complexity. Very well balanced, and whilst it gives the impression of being a little dilute to start, most of the flavour comes from the mid-palate onwards and it’s great flavour if a little barrel derived.
Rebuy – Yes
2006 Lamblin et Fils, Chablis Vieilles Vignes
Pale yellow. The nose is bright and forward with plenty of candied fruit; pineapple and grapefruit. Mouth-filling and quite fat, the texture is very silky/oily. Certainly very rich for a villages and a massive bargain at 86 francs for 6 bottles – provided you don’t want for a little more acidity – and I do! I’ll certainly look out for the 2007 though!
Rebuy – Maybe
I read the other day a comment from David Schildknecht where he said that (paraphrasing) those 2004’s that hadn’t already been drunk up, should be. I never saw him make such generalised statements before – maybe he’s been with the Wine Advocate team too long already! I still have a problem with 30%+ of reds because of their cedar-green ladybird (ladybug) taint, but the rest are delicious and I have a feeling will remain so for a number of years – like 1992 only much better.
2004 Bouchard Père, Volnay 1er Caillerets Cuvée Carnot
Medium ruby-red. Depth and dimension on the nose – really grandstanding at the moment, and the oak is barely perceptible. Mouth-filling and concentrated, there’s good depth and plenty of tannin. There is a little oak flavour, but nothing compared to what its 05 and 06 cousins currently show. The finish is a little warm, but long. Very well balanced and has the sweet fruit which is the hallmark of the vintage. In a lovely place right now, but no need to rush.
Rebuy – Yes Well almost – I wanted three but had to buy six – so didn’t bother!
2006 des Varoilles, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos des Varoilles
A slight update to the label for this vintage. Only just a little more than medium colour. Wide, quite high-toned floral, violet aromatics, underneath a more cherry-type fruit. The palate is soft, slightly fat and shows good fruit that’s edged with a little bitter chocolate / coffee. A reasonable amount of decently grained tannin – perhaps not 100% ripe given a trace of bitterness, but tannin fades. Good acidity and a very nice burst of interest in the mid-palate. Drunk over 3 days it was just a little better each day and the only thing lost was that bitter edge to the tannin. A very nice 2006.
Rebuy – Yes
Posts on this are getting fewer and farther apart as the harvest is all-but completed. My home domaine reports that the Gevrey grand crus that were harvested at the beginning of this week exceeded expectation. The Latricières from this grower is frankly always ‘poor looking’ and this year a full 20% was discarded during triage (that’s a lot!) but what remained looked better even than in 2005! Considering the winemaker thought he might turn down the fruit 3 weeks ago, he was completely amazed. Actually there is still some fruit to harvest, and that’s in the Hautes Côtes – this will be done at the end of this week in sunshine and the warmest temperatures for a month – 23°C is forecast.
What of what went before? Well the whites are just starting to ferment, though most of the reds are still ‘cold soaking’ – the Pommard however, has almost completed its alcoholic fermentation. When fermented to ‘dry’, maybe they will be drawing lots for who has to taste, given the high pre-malo acidity – still it will be cheaper than visiting the dentist for tooth whitening 😉
A short report from David Clark in Morey:
“We picked everything in good conditions on Wed and Thursday last week. Very little rot and sugars ranging from 11.5 for the Passetoutgrains to 12.9 for the Vosne. Acidities are a little high, but it seems that will be the hallmark of the vintage. Fermentations are just starting now.
The Vosne looked very nice indeed – had a bit more rot than some of the plots, but the average berry size was tiny. Just a shame there isn’t more of it!!”
I’ll also add the last three updates from Domaine de la Vougeraie:
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