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Helping you to practice your French :)
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the weekend’s duo… (week 21 2023)
It’s been a while since I introduced some real bottles to you – there have been many others of-course (below) – and, unfortunately, it will be short while before there will be more!
I now face two weeks of antibiotics due to tick-borne borreliosis – or Lyme disease. Fortunately, I don’t feel like I have any disease!
Amusingly, given that I spend so much time in the woods and hills on trails (jogging!) here was, it seems, a cat-borne tick to which I was introduced whilst sitting in the garden!
2016 Chablisienne / Château Grenouilles, Chablis-Grenouilles
A nose of waxy citrus – edged towards lemon – with an obvious mineral component too. In the mouth, we have a large-scale wine – generous to the point of rich – but silkily textured and sustaining a very long finish. I’d prefer less richness but it’s a very tasty wine all the same – as we could see by the lack of longevity for this (overly heavy!) bottle.
Rebuy – Maybe
2002 Nicolas Potel, Chambertin
Ah – remember the days? I tasted here pre-bottling and immediately placed an order: 6 Chambertin, 6 Malconsorts, 6 Petits Ponts, 6 Gaudichots and 12 Aloxe Boutières. Quite expensive I thought – at ~€1,500 – of course, that’s probably the price of just 3 Chambertin today! This, I think, the last of those 6. There may be a Gaudichots and a Malconsorts who survive – but probably not more…
Hmm – a nose to sink into – this Chambertin is ready! A round impression on the palate – depth and richness – quite a match with the Grenouilles! Tons of sweetness to this fruit and still framed with a tiny tannin – though most of the latter has clearly been transformed to sediment – or earth – as it’s quite granular. Such a delicious, wonderful smelling thing. A glass escaped outright (day 1) consumption to make it into day 2, where the aromas were less involving and more beefy – but the flavour retained its vigour and length. A super wine.
Rebuy – Yes
Some bottles of the last weeks where words escaped me 🙂
Cité des Climats & Vin Bourgogne – Chablis
In the presence of three presidents (no-less!) two from Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne – the BIVB’s François Labet and Laurent Delaunay – plus the president of the Association Cité des Climats et Vins de Bourgogne, Benoît de Charette – last week, I had a tour of the soon to open facility in Chablis – one of three such places opening to the public in the next month.
Whilst I’ll reserve judgement on the soon-to-open equivalent building in Mâcon – I’ve yet to see it with my own eyes – this place in the heart of old Chablis seems to be on a very personal scale, fitting well in its surroundings. I’m not the biggest fan of the architecture and scale of what has been built in Beaune but I will reserve my full judgement on that until I’ve seen what’s on the inside – like a bottle of wine – the truth will be on the inside!
This venue in Chablis is (by comparison) compact but full of an almost open-ended opportunity to tour the history – geological and social – of this centre of winemaking – burgundy winemaking. With a small wearable you can choose your language and subject matter as you head down the rabbit-holes of information from the next earpiece – though if your a covid (or germ) -phobic, you may want to take some sanitiser for the earphones that may have cupped a hundred other ears! Released yesterday, there will be ‘programme of cultural events‘ (in all locations) too – so enjoy!
The work on the building’s façade was not quite complete when I visited Chablis but it will be finished before the mid-June official opening!
A few images:
Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne – Chablis
Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne – Chablis
Cité des Climats et vins de Bourgogne – Chablis
Update on Gevrey’s prime Vin de France…
It’s a few months ago that the work establishing some new vines became evident – it’s not a big plot, not 500 vines – but the placement is very interesting!
What was once nothing more than parking has now been planted to vine – but it was previously grand cru parking!
From all the vineyard maps that I’ve checked, the plot seems to be within the AOC for Mazoyères-Chambertin and sits just across the road from Latricières-Chambertin. When I last checked and despite a nice new wall, the identity of the proprietor was not obvious but in the last couple of weeks a stone sign has been placed and proclaims the ownership of Domaine JM Guillon.
The problem for this domaine seems to be achieving the necessary authorisation to make burgundy wine – we (they) can forget grand cru for a while – the locals tell me that it’s currently classed as Vin de France – but there won’t be any grapes to harvest until 2026 – so there’s time for it to, maybe, become a Bourgogne – maybe even Bourgogne Côte d’Or!
I assume it’s not just the issue that the land – even if part of the AOC – was never planted, it’s possibly the issue that the land was used, not just, as parking but also as a bit of a(n agricultural) tip…
Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year 2023
Nothing here from our usual friend, Jon Wyand, but congratulations to Thierry Gaudillère for his ‘girl in a vat’ and Oscar Oliveras for his ‘pruning in Pommard’
a small venting of my corked wine annoyance…
Of course, weekend wines – but this selection left me needing to vent:
Yes, it’s only an aligoté but yes, it was horribly corked – you could smell it at a distance as it was being poured down the sink!
But this is also a brilliant cuvée – made by somebody that we have lost – so this is not the way I want to remember him.
And from the 2016 vintage, Gambal sealed their bottles with DIAM. So how corked?
Boisset bought the Gambal operation before the bottling of the 2018s – and for some reason they have never ‘liked’ DIAM. This is the reason that they have failed this particular consumer. The could use Ndtec cork – not perfect but at least 10x better than normal cork – though expensive. Or they could have used one of many, many ‘technical seals’ – it doesn’t have to be DIAM – but in the end, they chose something that meant their product had to be thrown away…
Monday’s pics…
Most have the vines in the Côte de Nuits now have some leaves and all of those in the Côte de Beaune do.
Looking at the weather forecast, it’s warmer in the coming nights – it looks like we can forget about frost (thumbs up!)
The home pinot – always 10 days behind Beaune – 560m up!
weekend stuff
Meursault – top!
Meursault
Beaune
Bèze – Clos de Iris
weekend stuff
weekend stuff
March 2023 Report – now online
The March 2023 Report is now online – 33 domaines including 5 new ones to me.
The domaines are spread over Chablis and Beaujolais plus March marked the return to the Côte d’Or with a trio of domaines that shouldn’t be missed. The coming months will be a mélange of regions, domaines, appellations and climate – but with a little more focus on the Côte d’Or
These reports are still covering the wines of 2021 but a couple of Beaujolais domaines were sold out – so we looked at their 2022s – that’s already 308 published domaine visits since the end of the 2023 harvest – and nobody covers Chablis and Beaujolais in such depth as you will find here…
Enjoy here…
