Another quiet weekend, but this time two bottles on song…

2013 Domaine des Chézeaux / Ponsot, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Charmes
Always a pain to remove these ‘plastic corks!’ Medium-plus colour in the glass. It smells great – plenty of aromatic volume, depth of fresh, ripe fruit too – still a little one-dimensional, but then it’s still a baby. Great texture, perhaps just a little sizzle to the leading edge of the acidity, but this has really luxurious fruit and is a wine that’s all too easy to enjoy. As such, it was drank pretty quickly. Young, accessible, concentrated and delicious!
Rebuy – Yes

2012 Dublère, Beaune 1er Blanchefleur
The last of my case – already – I think! There are certain parallels between this wine and the last in terms of the accessibility of the fruit, the depth of fruit and the great texture. The later bottles of this have shown a little vanilla-style oak, which I never saw in barrel – or at least that particular barrel! The oak aside, this is simply, like the last, delicious wine, offering layered, finely textured red-fruited flavour. Simply yum!
Rebuy – Yes

What a wine – already the candidate for white wine of the year!

1995 Pinson, Chablis 1er Montmains
Here’s a modest golden colour but it’s still relatively light hued. A deep, vibrant, mineral, beautiful older wine aroma – not even the barest trace of oxidation. Wide, a little hint of fat, really fine acidity and with slowly evolving flavours that start to add a little lanolin and a creamy base to the texture of this wine. Energy, super complex, simply great – what a wine!
Rebuy – No Chance

There is plenty of blah-blah about the pricing of 2015 reds, but looking farther afield than Vosne and Chambolle, and there is much to enjoy. So, a modest selection this weekend, but not normally modest wines – unfortunately one was a stinker – literally!

2002 Nicolas Potel, Aloxe-Corton Les Boutières
I’ve probably never bought more of a single wine – 18 bottles – which I started drinking right away, early in 2004. They have all been lovely – and it has been brilliant to follow the evolution of a wine, one bottle per year – I think that I still have 2 or 3 more. This particular bottle had been sat in my fridge in Beaune for the best part of 2 years – it seems only wasting space.
Ugh – what is that smell – like the strongest brett – totally DNPIM. I left it un-stoppered for 24 hours – it was no better when I returned. Yuk!

2012 Camille Giroud, Santenay 1er Clos Rousseau
Always a very good cuvée chez CG and at a great price for the last years. I remember that one barrel of this tasted fabulous – approaching grand cru. Of course the blended cuvée was on a lower order, but still damn good!
Dark colour – a big, slightly wild nose that implies freshness, a little minerality and plenty of dark-red fruit. In the mouth there’s structure, though the tannin is not drying – there’s also fine volume of clean, interesting and mouth-filling flavour. Really drinking very well and quite powerful wine too. It tastes great today, and will only get better – Bravo!
Rebuy – Yes