2019 Raphaël Chopin, Beaujolais-Lantignié Blanc Theia
Lemon yellow. An easy nose, attractive depth and some interest – that’s a nice start. A supple width of sweet flavour then a wave with saline accents before a more mineral finish – slowly mouth-watering. I’d guess blind that it was a Beaujolais from the rigour of this finishing minerality but it’s not too strong and this is a very good BJVB!
Rebuy – No

1999 Jean-Marc Pavelot, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Dominode
Not only this bottle, I seem to have an unopened 6-pack too – so no excuse for not opening one! Only 20 years older than the white!
This still has deep colour – and not too much browning either. The first impression from this nose is of soil and blood – with plenty of air it takes on a more attractive and fruity (red) impression but remains a slightly young (but clean!) aromatic. In the mouth I like the shape – there’s the cool, still austere, impression given by most Savigny of this era – but this is structurally very fine and, like the nose, it’s very clean – there’s no bret. Even on day two – no degradation – a clean and very impressive wine – I just wish that it was more delicious – but it seems very youthful!
Rebuy – Maybe

2020 Château de la Terrière, Brouilly Tradition
Open, airy – lovely dark-red fruit – slowly becoming floral too. Extra juicy – ooh that’s a super wine – the energy visible in all directions, visibly making the finish longer and more dynamic. What a wine!
Rebuy – Yes

2015 des Chézeaux/Berthaut-Gerbet, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cazetiers
For a warm vintage, this colour is not so deep – medium-plus. A broad and aromatic nose – a hint of the spice of the vintage but not too much – seemingly silky and slowly adding depth with more air. Large-scale in the mouth – easy over the palate but there’s some structure here too – the flavour becoming more and more intense. 2015 is a long way from my favourite vintage but here’s a wine with energy and a really nice, sinewy, shape. Longer in the glass and it seems ever-more delicious. Modest finishing bitters and just a faint wash of tannin showing through those bitters. Super-long. I have at least one more but based on this – for drinking in another 10 years. It’s more than excellent for the vintage – it’s also very tasty!
Rebuy – Yes

I was never the biggest fan of the 2007 vintage – the reds anyway! A bit too ripe and missing the clarity of 2005, 2006 or even the 2008 wines – sometimes with a soupy style to the flavours. 2009 was a little better for my palate – but not a lot! I bought much less 2007 than in either 2006 or 2008 and massively less than in 2005. The rare bottles I open at home seem to have plateaued for a number of years now, they have been ripe and easy but far from special – or indeed, hardly worth the amount I paid for them 13-14 years ago – so let’s not talk about their current pricing! I hoped for a bit more from this one – it turned out not too bad:

2007 Lucie & Auguste Lignier, Clos de la Roche
A famous parcel of vines, now exploited by Kellen Lignier’s brother-in-law, Laurent. A thick, brittle, coating of brown wax in place of a capsule for this wine. The cork had done its job but came precariously close to splitting in half on extraction.
Good colour, without significant ageing. The nose started with a coating, almost a smothering of creamy oak – quite a lot for a 15-year-old wine – but with air and a little time, the oak became much less visible and it even developed a little, interesting, floral perfume. Otherwise, the nose was mainly of more simple ripe fruit and not too much in the way of age-related complexity – it seemed it was still a baby. Mouth-filling, some dark-cherry fruit and a mix of fine concentration and silky texture – the texture turning a little more towards velour as a small grain of tannin came to the surface. In the finish – at last! – there was some impressive complexity and a slight mineral aspect that became more and more appealing. I think I also have a magnum of this – and the more this wine develops, the more pleased I am about that – but given how young the wine shows and how overt the oak still is – I don’t think the magnum should be opened for 10 years.
Rebuy – Yes

2017 Clotilde Davenne, Saint-Bris Vieilles-Vignes
There’s a certain mineral rigour to this nose that reminds me of most Beaujolais Blancs – it’s not very inviting. Just about balancing that, was the faint menthol of the sauvignon blanc – so I correctly guessed blind that it was Saint-Bris – less impressively I said ‘clearly from 2017’ – because I knew that was the only Saint-Bris in the door of the cellar fridge 😉 I had a small amount of time in the sun! In the mouth, this is altogether more impressive than the nose suggests – starting direct and beautifully silky but then almost exploding across the palate in mineral fashion with a ripeness of citrus fruit and lots of energy too. The finish broad and recapturing the mintiness of the nose. A good finish. The nose is ‘so-so’ today but the rest of this wine is on a very excellent, high, level.
Rebuy – Yes

2021 Quatre Chemins, Petit Chablis
The second 2021 at home. DIAM-style seal (Trescases)
Plenty of colour. DIAM-style (Trescases!) reduction – so give a little air – or give it a strong shake or two. Fleshy, citrus soon takes over with an aromatic, airy top note. Mouth-filling, with a little more structure than the 21 Brocard PC of a few days ago – more burly – but still of energy and no lack of mineral steel supporting the citrus flavours. Slowly fading in mouth-watering style. That’s very tasty indeed.
Rebuy – Yes

1999 Ghislaine Barthod, Chambolle-Musigny
A sturdy cork that comes out in one – pale as if of the bleached variety – but there’s not much ingress of wine along the length.
Still lots of colour. The nose starts a little tight and suggestive of some brett but grows and grows with air – I have the impression that the brett stays on one level whilst all around engulfs it, making it practically redundant – sweet red fruit and flowers, becoming a proper, cliché, Chambolle. Direct, cool fruit, the texture now of silk, though the very last, chocolatey, flavours with the faintest chalky tannin texture. The bitters at the very end of the finish are merely accents. A wine of width and acid-led freshness like you will have hardly met in the last 10 years – even not in 2021 – but with such impeccable balance. This is the best that this cuvée has tasted since it was a delicious young pup about 18-19 years ago – the 1999s are coming! I’m sure that on day two the brett will be more obvious – so I’ll try not to leave any 😉
Rebuy – Yes

Perhaps it’s because Ghislaine, herself, is so welcoming, or perhaps it’s because the wines that you taste from barrel there are so fruity, floral and delicious, that I think that people often underestimate the wines – or put another way, overestimate their early drinkability! Ghislaine makes wine with steely backbones – I’ve waited a long time for her 1999s to start to show some accessible maturity – I think that they are only now starting to turn the corner!