Two lovely mid-week wines, both eminently ‘recommendable’ but the Gueguen comes first on a scale of absolute deliciousness!

2014 Gueguen, Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre Chardonnay
A pale lemon-yellow colour. It’s a fresh nose, and honestly, if I told you it was a nice crisp Chablis with a hint of salinity and some citrus fruit – you would believe me. Bright, pretty citrus, mouth-watering with that sweetness and (in this case a modest) minerality that I associate with Chablis. Modest in length but so über-tasty. Deliciously perfect Summer wine – really!
Rebuy – Yes

2006 Albert Bichot, Beaune 1er Champimonts
Cold from the fridge, there’s more than a suggestion of vanilla to these aromatics, but as it warms, those barrel notes disappear completely – what remains is a lovely, dark, sour-cherry impression, padded with faint violet notes – nice! This rolls over the tongue in fine fashion – like the nose, the fruit offers an attractive sour-cherry character, freshness and a nicely delivered acidity that welds flavour to your gums in the finish. Really tasty and really attractive wine as it comes to its 10th birthday – no rush either, this is still a baby! Excellent.
Rebuy – Yes

2010 François Mikulski, Meursault 1er Caillerets
I was quite surprised when I opened this, there was a toasty oak note on the nose – it was on the palate too. I went back to check my note from the domaine, there was no oaky reference – though the wine was tight. On the positive side it had lovely energy and indeed vivacity coupled to fine fruit. Day 2 after spending the night in the fridge – almost zero oak – and what a gorgeous nose! Fresh, mouth-watering flavour and a fine weight of mid-palate concentration. The wine lingers, indeed almost dances, on a fine, mouth-watering note. A very fine pinot indeed – I have no reference points for it, but it brought far more enjoyment on day two. I would say decant a couple of hours before drinking if you want to open today. Yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2012 Camille Giroud, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Peuillets
This is a cuvée that I love – I think I have a few bottles from every vintage since 2005, but judging by this performance it is a cuvée that shines with a little bottle age – or more age than I gave this, anyway. This is a fresh wine with good intensity – a young wine – but a wine with remarkably little to discuss – it’s tasty but just a little anonymous today. I need to pull an older one out of the cellar. There are no faults, but today, this is simply ‘okay.’
Rebuy – Maybe

1985 Pontbriand, Gevrey-Chambertin
Hmm – this smells rather good – a melange of maturity and sweet fruits. In the mouth too, perhaps with a hint of spice, this is caressing and very tasty. A contemplative wine – but that’s how the ’85 vintage usually is. Tasty with good complexity – very good!
Rebuy – Yes

1991 Savour Club, Chapelle-Chambertin
I somehow ended up with 7 or 8 of these. The first two were off-the-scale fabulous, the third was corked. This wine is very fine, and in pretty much every dimension it’s fine, but it rarely touches the concept of ‘fabulous.’ Easily the tastiest of these three wines, mind. Bottle variation or just going downhill since last tasted over 5 years ago? Maybe I should open another to see!
Rebuy – Yes

Friends ‘came to tea’ and given that it was over 30°C outside, it seemed that cassoulet was the order of the day 🙂

One of the beautiful things about burgundy wine, is that when you line up 2 or 3 bottles, there’s virtually zero chance of anyone else in the world is drinking the same as you – I’m pretty confident that it was the case for these three…

Celine et Laurent Tripoz, Cremant de Bourgogne – Prestige
From magnum – and a heavy one at that! Golden colour. The nose has an impressively concentrated core of ripe fruit – it starts a little in the direction of apricot but slowly seems more like a salt-edged ripe lemon. With the bubbles – modestly fine beaded – this is of-course mouth-filling. Fresh and mouth-watering with an innate sweetness to the ripe fruit but a line of salinity from the mid-palate into the finish. Despite the ripeness this has an engaging fresh vivacity that keeps bringing your lips back to the bottle – Yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2014 Testut, Chablis 1er Les Forêts
High grade packaging here – creamy-white wax-topped – and a wine with elevage in 100% new acacia-wood barrels no-less!
Although I didn’t note it at the domaine, here I do have an oak (acacia!) impression on the nose, but a relatively modest one – overall a wine with a big core of aroma, though just a little tight, reluctantly allowing a little smoky ripe lemon to escape the confines of the glass. Very wide in the mouth with a growing volume of flavour and certainly a wine that gains in intensity. The flavour has the requisite salinity and, if anything, seems constructed like a grand cru – but I’ve been a bad boy and really opened this far too soon. Time in the glass does allow it to relax a little and the texture becomes more and more silky, the wine offering a very nice, glossy citrus flavour. Decant or wait 5 years, but good stuff!
Rebuy – Yes

2012 Comte Liger-Belair, Vosne-Romanée
This is a case of wine that I’m a little disappointed with, and I’m sure that I’m the one to blame – and that’s because I forgot about the case! When I first moved into the apartment in Beaune, I used one bedroom to store a couple of cases of wine – that was okay to start with, because it was winter! After 3 weeks of 35°C+ in 2015 I suddenly remembered the case – the bedroom was 28°C. The case was rescued and has averaged 13-16° since then, but I’ve retained a nagging doubt about every bottle – all have an aroma and flavour note that I’ve never found in another vintage from Louis-Michel. It’s a little like a firework-style reduction – I even had one bottle that was just not good.
This is quite good aromatically and absolutely lovely in the mouth – almost filigree. It’s a thing of beauty but with that modest reductive thing as an ever-present. Maybe it’s just me and they are all like this, but this was a very enjoyable bottle all the same…
Rebuy – Yes

Back in Beaune this weekend – and it was a warm one – 33°C on Sunday! The wines had a good showing – 3 from 3 were winners

2013 Chezeaux, Gevrey-Chambertin Clos des Chezeaux
Amélie Berthaut’s first vintage in the cellar, and this is a very nice wine indeed. The red fruit is just a little powdery, but it also has the impression of raspberry intensity and fresh crunchiness. Showcasing the best of 2013 with plenty of acidity but really an alive impression to the flavour. Only the faintest drag to the tannin. A bottle that drains very quickly – delicious wine!
Rebuy – Yes

2014 Nathalie & Gilles Fevre, Chablis 1er Vaulorent
Pale lemon yellow. A really inviting, fresh, salty seashore with a tang of lemon – hmm – already mouth-watering! Quite large in the mouth, but fabulously complex, with mouth-watering sweetly acid flavours – still with a good weight of flavour in the mid-palate. Just a gorgeous wine, it’s as tasty as the fabulous 14 Gueguen Vaucopins with a little extra richness of texture.
Rebuy – Yes

2012 Dublère, Beaune 1er Blanches Fleurs
My second of these in the last month, but what an inspired pairing to go with (Beaune market) prawns, cooked with tomatoes and a little white wine. It’s the oak that I previously commented on, that rounds out the palate, a palate that remains absolutely juicy and fresh. The nose retains a smooth red fruit, hardly extravagant, but not timid either. Plush, fresh and and waves of barrel-inflected flavours from the mid-palate into the finish. Absolutely yum!
Rebuy – Yes