1996 thomas-moillard corton clos du roi

By billn on August 31, 2017 #degustation

1996 Domaine Thomas-Moillard, Corton Clos du Roi
This was a virile, impressive, painfully young wine when first purchased – but it was always a thrilling ride. Today it’s as virile and acid-pointed as it ever was, it also seems to have a thicker, more viscous texture and concentration too. The problem with this wine, though, is that what was once painful but fun, is today mainly just painful. There’s more than a little flavour development, but there’s no engagement today. I don’t hold out a lot of hope for the remaining three, or-so, bottles, but it’s not a bad conversation piece! It is what it is…
Rebuy – No

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2017 harvest – 31 august

By billn on August 31, 2017 #vintage 2017

Really the most important thing to note is that yesterday was a hail-free day. I believe that some of the hail canons were lit in preparation but were not, in the end, required. Still, there was 25mm of rain in some places – it’s certainly a more overcast and cooler day for harvesting today, with rain forecast for the weekend too – then dry and sunny. The rain is very much welcome for those not planning to harvest for another 10+ days – that’s the Côte de Nuits mainly…

And to compare with a photo taken by me 6 years ago today, to-date, not a bit of this in 2017:

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2017 harvest – 30 august

By billn on August 30, 2017 #vintage 2017

Erwan Faiveley has been advertising his up-comng harvest on LinkedIn of all places – and as you can see (right) having a little fun on the way too!

Yesterday, the 29th, saw Coche-Dury picking a trio of Meursaults: Perrières, Genevrières and Chevalières (Armand Heitz is bringing in his Perrières today) – but it was a tough day with the afternoon peaking at just over 35°C! The team of Olivier Lamy were also in the vines – already into their 5th day of harvesting – cutting the grapes in St.Aubin Les Friones and En Remilly.

That was yesterday, but will today be something of a denouement for the vintage? Despite some rain at the weekend, the vineyards remain dry but strong storms are forecast today – thunder and lightening – let’s hope that the precipitation remains (unlike Champagne last weekend) in a liquid form. What seems more certain, is that following todays weatherfront will be much cooler weather – plummeting to 15°C tomorrow and only slowly recovering next week – maybe into the mid-20s°C.

Today, is see that (amongst others!) Olivier Leflaive and de Montille are starting their harvests, the teams of Chandon de Briailles are picking Corton Blanc, Domaine Leflaive are picking Chevalier-Montrachet, Thibault Morey is picking his St.Aubin Dents du Chien – so far, it seems a rather traditional vintage, with the whites being mature before the reds in the Côte d’Or. I also see that Le Grappin are starting their first harvests in Beaujolais – so good luck to them. But spare a thought for Nicolas Rossignol – his Volnay Taillepieds is already partially harvested – but not by him – it was either the dear or wild boar from the woods above the vines! See below:

And tomorrow, I’ll be in Beaune, my home team starting their harvest campaign on Tuesday…

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a 2005 chambolle wow

By billn on August 30, 2017 #degustation

The last wine I opened was a great wine for the vintage – 2007. But there are decent vintages and great vintages. This ‘mere’ villages wine from the very epicentre of greatness in the great 2005 vintage is easily the better of that 2007 today – despite the rarity of that wine…

I feel slightly ashamed that I haven’t revisited Antonin Guyon in Savigny since collecting this case of 12 – I thought it was a standout in the their range of 2005s – though I had the feeling that I was overpaying – that case cost something like €220 – how times have changed!

2005 Antonin Guyon, Chambolle-Musigny Clos du Village
The strong depth of colour is beginning to take on a little maturity – but only a little. What a big, encompassing, nose – one that starts with spice, tobacco and leather – quickly shedding most of those references, leaving a powerful and earthy, almost fecund red fruit – yes! Mouth-filling – so much volume of flavour from the get-go (unlike the Clos St.Denis that slowly widened and widened) – there is still a lick of fine tannin here, lots of intensity, and a mouth-watering finish of modest bitters and fruit that just clings and clings. That 2007 had a little more class in the finish, but this wine brings more joy in every single remaining dimension. A delicious, still young, bundle of joy. One-third of the bottle made it through to day 2 – it was tighter, the fruit a little more monolithic, but still with a fine finishing intensity – so drink up on day one!
Rebuy – Yes In a shot!

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adieu arak…

By billn on August 29, 2017 #sad losses...

I’ve had the fine fortune to have visited the estate of Louis-Michel Liger-Belair and family since 2004, that year to taste 2003s and then every vintage since. An ever-present in this time, has been the family dog – Arak – a large-boned and very noble, almost aloof Weimaraner – pic (right) from the family.

This week, the family lost Arak – I thought I’d share this little anecdote with you.

I drove into the courtyard of the Château de Vosne-Romanée about 5:30pm in the late summer of 2006 – in those days Louis-Michel was less swamped with visitors, so I was tasting alone with him and his 2005s. As I parked, Arak came bounding up to the car, barking. Now if you don’t ‘know’ dogs, or were simply unsure, you would not have got out of your car – Arak was an imposing beast. Right behind him came Louis-Michel, saying ‘Don’t worry about him.‘ I replied ‘Not a problem, it’s just that my dog is also in the car and even in the shade I’ll need to leave all the windows open.‘ “Oh, that’s not a problem” volunteered Louis-Michel “I can close the gates, and the two can play together while we taste!”

A nice offer, but I had some trepidation: My 3 year-old boxer, Belle, absolutely loved people – and most dogs too – but there was this 1 in 6 chance that she might take a dislike to Arak – as my neighbour’s dog, only 2 days earlier, might have attested as she flew through the air – though it was never a question of teeth, as Belle’s thick rubber lips would always get in the way! As I opened the tailgate of the car, and noses met, I thought to myself ‘Don’t you dare attack the Viscount’s dog!’ But all was well – a match made in heaven for the pair!

Louis-Michel and I left them to it and we moved to the cellar.

We’d been tasting for at least 20 minutes when one of Louis-Michel’s vineyard workers came down into the cellar with a message for him. Louis-Michel excused himself for 5 minutes as he had something he needed to attend to. A couple of minutes later I heard the piercing wail of a young child – in a very short space of time I put 2 and 2 together and raced out of the cellar – there, in the middle of the courtyard, sat Louis-Michel’s daughter – roughly 2 years old – with a boxer dog licking, licking, licking her face – my instant reaction was ‘Shit, she didn’t attack the Viscount’s dog – she chose his daughter instead!‘ Before I had the chance to say a word, Louis-Michel’s wife, Constance, came out of the front door, saw the scene and (oh so fortunately!) simply laughed, shouting to her daughter “Don’t worry, she’s just saying hello” – the relief! Just a few steps behind Constance, came Henry, their son – perhaps more like 4 years old – Belle had a new target.

It was clear that Henry came from a military family, because rather than sit and cry as he was licked, he stood straight-backed, trying to lift his chin from a jumping boxer’s tongue, and with a small toy gun in his hand, he tried to bang it on her head as she jumped, saying ‘Non! Non! Non!‘

Arak looked on, bemused…

Red-faced, I decided not to visit again with Belle…

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Weekend wines – week 34 2017

By billn on August 29, 2017 #degustation

2010 Nicolas Rossignol, Savigny les Beaune 1er Aux Fourneaux
The last Bourgogne was deep and structured with a little oak – yet drank very quickly. This wine simply ticks all the boxes, and the bottle is empty quicker than you expect. Quite a deep colour. The nose is wide, with a faint accent of spice to fine red fruit – lots of attractive precision here. Red fruited again in the mouth, with very smooth texture, energetic yet with an inner sucrosity and absolute deliciousness that belies a Savigny label. A wide panorama of flavour in the finish. Simply first-class stuff – bravo!
Rebuy – Yes

2007 des Chezeaux/Ponsot, Clos St.Denis Vieilles-Vignes
The cork – and yes it is cork, this was the last vintage before changing to the ‘plastic’ Ardea seals – is branded Clos St.Denis Tres Vieilles Vignes like the labels of Laurent Ponsot. The bottle is simply labelled as Vieilles-Vignes (as always for Chezeaux), the bulk (presumably) of this parcel remains on the vines planted in 1905.
The nose sometimes offers glimpses of excitement, but generally offers a wide and easy complexity of fruit and herb over quite limited depth. In the mouth this is simply wow – but you have wait for it! The wine starts narrow, quickly growing in intensity and massively growing in width – the long wave of fine-balanced flavour in the finish is simply of the highest class – what comes before is fine if less remarkable – that’s the vintage talking. Half a very great wine – so really a great 2007.
Rebuy – Yes

It was a hot weekend – 27-30°C – so you might expect a couple of ice-cold bottles of Dr Loosen’s 2015 Riesling were (somehow) consumed too 🙂

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it’s (practically) here – burgundy’s 2017 harvest time – 3, 2, 1, go!

By billn on August 28, 2017 #vintage 2017

The weekend was stormy in many parts of France, some wine-growing areas had hail – Champagne for instance – fortunately none was reported in Burgundy, in fact many producers were happy to see a little rain.

A few early pickers were already in the vines last week – Olivier Lamy for instance attacking his young-vine chardonnay – although that is still the early wave. More will be at it this week – mainly whites – for instance Jean-Marc Roulot started today as did Pierre Vincent, starting his first harvest at Domaine Leflaive with the domaine’s Mâcon – Dominique Lafon doing likewise – and then Pierre will start in Puligny tomorrow – Dominique is also planning to bring his Côte de Beaune whites this week. Emmanuel Guillot-Broux is waiting waiting in the Mâconnais until the 2nd September to attack. Armand Heitz of Heitz-Lochardet is bringing-in his Chevalier-Montrachet this week.

Faiveley actually harvested a small parcel of Volnay last week because ‘it was ready‘ (of-course!) but that was just a warm-up for them and they haven’t done more yet. It appears that not a lot will be happening in the Côte de Nuits before the 7th, though in Chablis, as an early indication, Domaine Christian Moreau seem pretty sure that they will start on the 4th of September.

Although ‘discontinued’ in the Côte d’Or, there is still a Ban des Vendanges in the Beaujolais and it’s actually today – the 28th. Without getting too excited for the moment (but seemingly still trying), the locals confirm that it’s been a dry vintage but ‘The balance between sugar content and acidity is beautiful, and we can already say that 2017 will be a solar vintage and concentrated like in 2015, but with a fruit and freshness more like 2011.‘ So no big promises then!

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2010 nicolas rossignol, l’héritière expression

By billn on August 24, 2017 #degustation

You have to to search for the appellation here, but in small letters there’s Appellation Bourgogne Controlée.

2010 Nicolas Rossignol, l’Héritière Expression
The nose starts with a little spice and plenty of reduction – together you would be forgiven for thinking that it’s oaky – though there’s some of that too! I gave this wine a number of ‘Fourrier shakes’ and there was plenty of dissolved carbon dioxide here. Time keeps the spice with a subdued red fruit at the base – the last drops start to show a more attractive side with a suggestion of florals. To start, the palate has so much more going for it vs the first nose; a width of flavour with good freshness and an ingraining, mouth-watering sweetness of fruit. Plenty of structure, some oak but fine tannin and a flavour that really adheres to the palate. This needs a few more years – but it will be worth it – this is a wine that is easily of good villages quality. Super wine, but to wait for and ideally give this a vigorous decant – the accent of reduction the flavours was there, right to the end…
Rebuy – Yes

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do you smell corks?

By billn on August 24, 2017 #degustation#warning - opinion!

My advice, is that advice, like exercise, is not absolute – it’s about what works for you.

I’ve more than once read articles from (let’s call them) opinion-formers, who state quite categorically that cork sniffing has absolutely no use, and is, charitably(!) nothing more than an affectation – I beg to differ.

It’s not 100% certain, but my reckoning it’s 95% certain that when I open a bottle and sniff the wet-end of the cork, if it smells of TCA, then my wine will be corked. Simple!

Yesterday’s Lafon probably increased these odds to 95.01%. The cork came out whole and in good shape – but it didn’t smell ‘correct’ – I was sure there was TCA. The wine in my glass, straight from the fridge – as it’s still summer – had some beautiful red fruit on the nose, but also an accent of something – something unwanted – in the background. As the wine in the glass slowly came to room temperature, the fruit became ever-better, but that background note, comparatively, grew more. The wine was corked – moderately – but corked. I could drink half a glass, cold, but still whilst wrinkling my nose – unsure. But there was a threshold where the cork-taint became clear – then it was over. Sometimes what’s in glass is unclear, but usually the cork doesn’t lie.

So, don’t do what others would have you do, do what works for you…

As an aside; rightfully I should be even more annoyed with a corked wine that I’ve had in my cellar for 20 years than a recent purchase – right? But it doesn’t seem to work that way – each one is a similar loss. Okay, I’ve never (yet!) opened a corked Romanée-Conti…

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