Tasted with the wine-maker – so of-course I didn’t buy this – not yet! O as in zero. Just 500 bottles, practically experimental – a natural wine chez Domaine Laroche from vines above Vaudesir – I’m the first to taste 🙂 – a no sulfur wine:

2018 Domaine Laroche, Chablis Cuvée O
Not perfectly bright – tasted just a few days before bottling. The nose has a width of aroma that implies low sulfur with none of the occasional negatives that that can bring. Bright, round, but with direction and that rare thing from a zero sulfur wine – clarity! Delicious! with acidity and a real salinity in the finish. For what it is, no question – bravo!
Rebuy – Yes

4 wines – 4 different seals!

2014 Dampt Frères, Bourgogne Tonnerre Le Clos du Chateau
The cork proudly proclaims (translated) ‘Natural cork, matured 18 months, washed without peroxides or solvents’ – okay we can quibble about what constitutes a solvent, because if something dissolves in water, then water is a solvent in this case – lets just call this marketing. But to the point, the last bottle of this had a strange aromatic component that took well over one hour to blow-off – this is perfect right from the start – so natural cork, no peroxides and no solvents or not, the last had some minor problem associated with the cork – just saying!
That’s a long intro, but enough to say that this wine is perfect in all dimensions – you wont spend a better €12-13 (less than 10 at the domaine!) on white burgundy. Yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2012 Chezeaux/Ponsot, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Charmes
There are many 2012s that are tight as a drum – here’s one that most definitely isn’t!
Plenty of colour. Ooh – what a nose – a perfect flower, porcelain-like in its fine clarity and beautiful perfume – ravishing wine! In the mouth, here’s a wave of fresh fruit flavour – a wave that you can surf into the mid and finishing mouth-watering flavours. So good, just so good. Enjoy – I did!
Rebuy – Yes

2017 Louis Jadot, Bourgogne Chardonnay
DIAM sealed.
A perfectly clean nose of ripe citrus and a modest but present creamy oak note. Wide over the palate with a lovely intensity of driving acidity – no hard edges – the acidity is cushioned and the flavour delicious. A judicious touch of oak, just enough that you should guess that it’s Burgundy without site of the label. Simply delicious – the best of this cuvée since the 2014. Bravo!
Rebuy – Yes
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And the riesling? – whilst I’m normally a big fan of Alsace riesling, this was too perfumed/aromatic for me – I would hardly be surprised if there was some gewurz in the mix!

Plus – some pics from the old (Swiss) town of Biel and the lake of Biel on Saturday:
 

But only because one of these was completely corked!

2014 Nicolas Maillet, Mâcon-Verzé
Another from this case – and just as good as the first!
A full, ripe, but fresh yellow citrus nose. Fuller of energy and flavour too – such a great balance to these 2014s – Love, and too quickly drunk!
Rebuy – Yes!

2009 David Clark, Bourgogne Au Pelson
A great looking cork, but…
What is this dirty nose, growing in dirty power – it is TCA – I won’t be drinking that then! I think a few more lay in the cellar, but it was easier to find this:

2012 des Varoilles, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos des Varoilles
Bang! What a great nose – I needn’t have worried about whether this wine was closed or not! Still some aromatic oak spice but beautiful fruit – even a little blue-skinned fruit in the mix – yes! In the mouth there’s decent acidity to balance layers of fine flavour – the oak still subtly present but it’s almost closed the door behind itself! Delicious wine, like that of Nicolas Maillet – too easy to drink. Excellent!
Rebuy – Yes

Last Friday was the 103rd Tastevinage tasting – the invitation came late, so I was in Beaujolais! However, here is the result of the jury’s deliberation.

689 wines were presented, from which 229 were deemed good enough to take the Tastevinage label. You can find these 229 here.