a few weekend wines – week 22 2018

By billn on June 06, 2018 #degustation

2014 Françoise André, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Vergelesses
There’s a little curl of vanilla to what is otherwise a nice line of aromatic freshness with faint lime citrus. A sheen of fresh minerality over the palate – again accented with vanilla – but it’s a much fainter accent than the nose. Lovely incisive minerality. Fresh and clean as a whistle – yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2008 Albert Bichot, Latricières-Chambertin
Hmm, this is rather good – deep, pure dark fruit that slowly shows a purity of wild strawberry, just starting to show a little age-related complexity too. Ooh – this is sleek and very-much acid-driven – there’s a little mouth-puckering here when the wine is cool – a little less-so as it warms in the glass – a little! I’m an acid-lover and so this is okay for me – it avoids crossing my own line – but many of you may disagree!
Rebuy – Maybe

2014 des Chézeaux / Berthaut-Gerbet, Gevrey-Chambertin
Medium, medium-plus colour. Good aromatic depth with a little dark stone fruit, faint Kirsch and a hint of pyrazine. Ooh – this has a super width of flavour good line and though with plenty of herb, almost pyrazine again – but balanced with creamy depth of flavour. The line ingrains into your palate making this exceptionally long for a villages! Complex, kirsch-fruited and herby, but engrossing. I wish all wines would have such character!
Rebuy – Maybe

2000 Thomas-Moillard, Romanée St.Vivant
Ooh – what a great nose – classically spicy, with extra age-related complexity – yes! In the mouth this is a little more rustic, perhaps a little mineral too – it’s relatively young – unlike the nose which could hardly be better. You should never drink a TM less than 20 years old, but this was half great!
Rebuy – Maybe

2015 Louis Max, Rully Les Plantenays
A round and almost textured nose – a little oak too. In the mouth it’s like the nose – a depth fine texture, richness and a little oak too. I like my wine with a little more direction and a little less padding, but this is very tasty all the same.
Rebuy – Maybe

2013 Yvon & Laurent Vocoret, Chablis 1er Fourchaume – Exquise
Hmm, lots of aromatic freshness and minerality here – but attractively so, and none of the vintage’s apricot aromas. Hmm, a lovely line, a wine that vibrates with energy. We drank this quite quickly, enjoying every drop. A super wine, particularly so for the vintage.
Rebuy – Yes
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chardonnay – as you’ve never seen it before!

By billn on June 05, 2018 #a bit of science

Way back in 2010 I had a contact in Basel who did, and still does, some extra-ordinary work with his electron microscope. Dr Martin Oeggerli has been published worldwide by the BBC, National Geographic, Nature and so many others. See here: www.micronaut.ch

Having seen so a lot of his work with plants I asked if he would like to do the same with some pinot and chardonnay from Burgundy – we also collected some aligoté and gamay. I thought if the images were as great as I expected, then I could do a nice sideline, selling special fine-art prints of the images – they would have been expensive, but hey!

I recruited a certain David Clark, formerly of Morey St.Denis, to collect samples at flowering – and then passed on the phials to Martin in Basel.

As it turned out, for quite some time afterwards Martin was simply snowed-under with publishing work, then my own position became complicated after the company where I worked was acquired. I saw some interesting black and white images from Martin but colouration – and all such images that you see require many, many hours of colouration – was put on the back-burner and eventually forgotten – by me – but seemingly not Martin!

Today he sent me this great image – “Bill. Today, I finished a picture from a sample you originally provided back in 2010 (Chardonnay; enclosed)… hope you like it.” Now how cool is that?

We had a short conversation which I will include so that you may understand what you’re seeing:

Me: “Is that the tip from the flower, post fertilisation?”

Martin: “Exactly. To me, the stigma looks pretty fresh. I guess, it is showing the tip of the pistil (with the stigma in red) during, or just very shortly after fertilization. One pollen grain has hydrated and grows a pollen tube across the stigma. Since I am working on a project on plant tissue I was digging in the archive…”

Enjoy…

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predatory wine retailing?

By billn on June 04, 2018 #the market

It’s a question of ethics, I suppose. And I don’t know all the details – so maybe some of the ethics are fine – but it’s still a tale that leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

A retailer in the UK is offering, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, cheap Domaine Leflaive under another label – and of-course they can’t actually say Leflaive, but, wink-wink, it’s Leflaive. That’s how their sales-pitch goes. But why would anyone offer relabelled Leflaive for cheap? Well, for a start there are endless reports on the internet of oxidised wine coming from that domaine since the start of the 2000s, and the tacit acceptance of that by the domaine, by recently changing to DIAM seals in order to combat that.

Of-course, if the retailer is standing behind every bottle, and replacing them if faulty – for instance oxidised – then, to my mind, there is at least the basis for a transaction. But even if that is the case, what about bottles found to be oxidised in another 2 years, or 5, or…

Then of-course we have reason to question the ethics of the producer – assuming that the domaine actually knows what the merchant is doing – and, of-course, why they are doing it! The why is important, because historically, wine with a provenance of being sourced direct from a domaine usually has a premium – not comes (wink-wink) at half price – for that reason I think it may not be the domaine at work. I have seen some suggestion that wine may be from a family member, not actually the domaine itself – then we would have to assume the corks still show the original producer’s name – unlike the labels – if not, why the need to change the corks?

It’s a can of worms, no mistake. I’ll leave you to make up your own minds:

Dear XXX
I am very pleased to let you know I have access to parcels of one of the most exciting opportunities we’ve ever seen come out of Burgundy. Grand & 1er Cru whites, made by one of the region’s great domaines, kept in their cellars for years and re-labelled as Joseph Paget earlier this year. We’re not allowed to say who they’re from, but only one producer makes all of these and in terms of White Burgundy, it doesn’t get any better.
The demand among Burgundy collectors across the globe who recognised what this parcel represents was rapid and meant that 75% of the stocks have sold. I am therefore delighted to present what is left; a handful of cases from the Grand Crus of Chevalier, Batard and Bienvenues Batard Montrachet and 1er Crus from Pucelles and (here’s a big potential clue to the origin) Puligny Montrachet Les Clavoillons.
As this parcel is, to our knowledge, a complete one-off once these remaining cases are sold there will never be more. This is all there is and all there ever will be so if you’d like some, now is the time. I am delighted to offer:
[No need to give you the (low) prices – Bill]
Offered subject to final confirmation.
Many thanks,
Kind regards,
XXX | Private Client Account Manager

[Edit: The wines had been recorked and are now ‘generic.’ The domaine were pretty unhappy when they heard about this. They want to underline that it has absolutely nothing to do with them and that they are pretty unhappy with this type of ‘publicity!’]

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the april-2018 burgundy report

By billn on June 01, 2018 #reports

A modest Burgundy Report for subscribers:

A profile of Gevrey-Chambertin’s grand cru – Latricières-Chambertin:

  • 11 of it’s 12 proprietors profiled (I tried for 12!)
  • 47 different Latricières tasted by me on your behalf!

Oh, and how to avoid oxidised white burgundy completely!
For those of you who find the annual subscription of 85 swiss francs too steep to learn about this, that’s a shame, but you buy this single article – oh-so cheap, here. After which you will be able to read it here.

I think it’s an issue that’s worth your time!

PS Yes I know that there’s a problem with not all the articles showing in the right-hand navigation of each separate report – it’s why I’m late publishing – I still haven’t found the reason/solution. But I’m still working on it!

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icymi from last week (plus…)

By billn on May 28, 2018 #other sites

A little too much that’s related to auctions – but such is writing today – I hesitate to include it, as it makes me just an unpaid marketing extension of the wine-pricing bubble… Still, there’s quite an interesting range of things:
 

  • Honestly, despite doing quite a piece last year (the year before?) on the relative merits of pinot or gamay rosés, and actually enjoying the wines very much, it seems they are also quite forgettable, hence, I forget them! Some reading here though.
  • (Auction-related) An interview with Emmanuel Rouget. He doesn’t give many interviews as he’s a private individual, so it’s a shame that this is largely just sales puff, material for marketing the upcoming Henri Jayer auction – but I do plan to visit the auction to get an idea of the event…
  • A long but interesting piece in, of all places, the Guardian newspaper, asking ‘Has wine gone bad?‘
  • White Burgundies worth waiting for? From Jancis. Much more on that from me in the April Burgundy Report – online in the next couple of days…
  • (Auction-related) Ponsot and Méo now in the big-time?
  • Chardonnay Rosé – anybody?
  • (Auction-related) Dream burgundy? More interesting for me is that Hong Kong seems to be the location du jour for expensive sales and that so much of the top wines end up there today – 15 years ago it was such a tiny market. Probably, and unfortunately for the wine in question, a large percentage of that wine has travelled the world, chasing the most speculative prices…
  • “89 is a tombstone score“
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around (not just) moulin à vent yesterday & beaune today…

By billn on May 27, 2018 #travels in burgundy 2018

I had a look for flowers in one vineyard in Morgon yesterday and couldn’t find any – I assumed I was too early – it seems the opposite! After lunch in St.Amour and a tour through (Mont) Brouilly, Morgon and Fleurie we came to the Château Moulin à Vent for a tasting of a dozen producers’ wines and a little jazz-party:
 

Josephine’s garden
Mont Brouilly
View from Mont Brouilly, Ch de la Chaize to the left
Pizay
Pizay
Pizay
Ch Moulin à Vent
Moulin à Vent
Ch Moulin à Vent
Ch Moulin à Vent
Ch Moulin à Vent

In Beaune today we took a walk from the centre up to the ‘mountain’ and back. Lots of flowers to be found – hopefully they will survive the weather forecast – 4 days of consecutive thunder storms. We got home to light rain – but all was then calm. Let’s see…
 
Parc Bouzaise
(Bas du) Teurons
Left Grèves, right Teurons
(Sur les) Grèves
Over Grèves towards Beaune…
(Sur les) Grèves
Flower Power – (Sur les) Grèves
(Sur les) Grèves

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land of the comte plus a little côte de nuits & albert bichot…

By billn on May 25, 2018 #travels in burgundy 2018

Poligny is described as the capital of the Jura – the Comte cheese part anyway! Usually I pass through on my way to or from Home/Beaune – today the sun was shining, so what about some mid-morning coffee-drinking and cheese-buying?

Then a small tour from north to south in the Côte de Nuits before finishing with a cold drink in Beaune! The vines are starting to reach for the sky now – so fast is their growth – making the vineyards look much less tidy than only a week ago. Still, it’s a little too early for their first haircut!
 

Leroy’s Latricières
Team Jayer-Gilles in Echézeaux
Team Jayer-Gilles in Echézeaux
Team Jayer-Gilles in Echézeaux
Echézeaux – almost ready to flower
Romanée-Conti
Leroy’s Vosne Genevrières

And finally some sad news. I only met the dapper Albert Bichot once, taking a lunch with him and Albéric Bichot – maybe 10 years ago. I’d brought with me a Clos Frantin Richebourg from 1980-something [edit – it was the 1972!] – my contribution to the lunch. I have to say that my wine was the pick of all those that were at our table that day, more depth of flavour, a little more fat – it had everything – and more. The ‘more’ included a horrible dose of TCA!

Albert, who didn’t openly speak any English, looked at me, straight faced and said – ‘Don’t worry, we’ll give you your money back!‘ before bursting into a big laugh with perfect comic timing. It was my only meeting with him, but I retain fond memories of that day and him – even if I didn’t really get my money back 😉

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my #ChardonnayDay – 1993 voillot, meursault les cras

By billn on May 24, 2018 #degustation

1993 Joseph Voillot, Meursault 1er Les Cras
A too often forgotten premier of Meursault – it can only be because of the small quantity of bottles – the wine today is brilliant, it’s lost all the strictness and rigour that it had back in 2010.
The colour is deeply golden, but not quite orange! The nose starts with a reductive struck-match – fireworks already! Air reducing the effect of the fireworks and adding a depth of ripe, almost waxy citrus – it reminds me of the perfume of some iris in the garden at the moment – there is lanolin, but still on a very low order. In the mouth this is as sleek as it has ever been, but just so juicy, stony and melting with a citrus-infused acidity. There is such an electric energy to this wine that the red I’d planned for tonight can wait until tomorrow. I’m sticking with this one!
Rebuy – No Chance – but I would if I could!

I’m hoping that one or two still lie in the cellar, somewhere…

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the measly montrachet 2016 update – for #ChardonnayDay

By billn on May 24, 2018 #vintage 2016


Pierre Vincent of Domaine Leflaive, pictured posing with the amalgamated 2016 production of 6 owners in Le Montrachet – image from October 2017

I’m sure you all remember the story of the frost at the end of April 2016, it was particularly cruel on the Chassagne-side of Montrachet – or Le Montrachet. For (even more) precision it was the domaines of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Domaine Leflaive, Domaine Guy Amiot, Domaine Lamy-Pillot (including their métayage of 0.054 hectares of the vines owned by Claudine Petijean) and Domaine Fleurot who assembled their production of grapes. This resulted in a measly 530 litres of wine from 1.25 hectares of Le Montrachet – 5 hectolitres per hectare. All the elevage was done at Domaine Leflaive.

I asked Dominique Lafon today if the wine was bottled yet, and what their plans were for its commercialisation – if any:

The wine will be bottled soon. There should be ~700 bottles but as we will all keep some for our own cellars, only 500 will be released. (Those 500 will all wear the same label – Bill)

We will not auction it, we plan something for charity but are still working on the distribution system. The wine will released in 2019.

So there you go…

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