Just when you thought it safe to return! Okay, only a small one then!
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did anyone say mountains?
pierre labet 2005 beaune coucherias
2005 Pierre Labet, Beaune 1er Choucherias
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose is detailed, clean, and shows a perfectly polished red fruit – initially more redcurrant than red cherry, but given time, maybe the cherry comes to the fore. Lithe, and rather intense too, to such an extent that everything from the mid-palate on is necessarily just a diminuendo, but the wine is carried along on excellent acidity, causing the dried fruit flavours to become ever-more mouth-watering. Perhaps there is a little too much of everything today – you can be the judge of that – but I’m appreciative, and these bottles will only mellow with time, and what a great catch these bottles were.
Rebuy – Yes
ilan’s 2010 morey 1er les chaffots
2010 Maison Ilan, Morey St.Denis 1er Les Chaffots
Medium, medium-plus colour. There’s obvious CO2 and just a little reduction on the nose, so I give the bottle a quick shake – actually quite a lot of CO2 is released! The shake does its trick as the nose is more composed and quickly loses that reductive thread – 5-10 minutes is all that’s needed. I don’t know if this wine was made with stems, or how many stems, but the nose says so with a musky, smoky sweet aroma – it is not very Morey, it’s its own thing, but it is very compelling. Wide, lithe, understated yet concentrated with an undertow of furry tannin. The fruit complexion is fresh and very dark red, maybe not quite black fruit – but it’s close – that’s fairly Morey-ish! Just a very excellently made, tasty wine.
Rebuy – Yes
some hail, some veraison and an eye on the 2013 harvest…
Claude asked yesterday ‘What are current harvest date estimates?’, and given the amount of permutations it seemed worth making an additional post…
As a sidenote, earlier today there was a report that the vintage for the whole of France would be bad due to hail, so Philippe Bouzereau of Meursault, posted a picture (right) taken today to show just how terrible his hailed vines really are 😉 I also read that of France’s 900,000 hectares of vines, ‘only’ 37,000 hectares have been hailed – Alsace was also hit by hail this week – but that was clearly quite enough for Olivier Thiénot (director of l’école du vin à Paris) to declare the vintage a ‘fail’!
Focusing on the Côte d’Or; I showed the picture of veraison in Richebourg yesterday, but my contact in Beaune tells me that Beaune Cent-Vignes had a few coloured berries already 2 days ago – they are competitive these growers! Whilst some of the vineyards were dealt a very heavy hand by the hail, there is no real consistency; generally, losses range from 10-70% – sections of Savigny’s Liards and Lavières may be at 90% – higher parts of the Pommard/Beaune border were, likewise, decimated. A quick view of one grower’s holdings suggests the following losses: Corton 5-10%, Corton-Charlemagne 30%, Savigny 20%, higher-slope Beaunes ~60%, lower-slope Beaunes 20-30%. For their total portfolio the losses are estimated at 30% – but let’s not forget the Côte de Nuits wasn’t affected, not so far, at least – they still have a very special vintage to conjure with – likewise mid-Meursault (where most of the 1ers are) and south into Puligny and beyond.
But why all this talk of hail when we want to know about harvesting? Well the hail will play its part in when to harvest. Except for the hail of the 23rd, the Burgundians simply couldn’t have had better weather in July. August has started a little cooler and with rain, but it’s becoming warmer again. Already there was a feeling that some of the Côte de Beaune vineyards might be picked concurrently with, or even later than those of the Côte de Nuits – though those vines that have been hailed will almost certainly be picked after much of the Côte de Nuits – estimates are that the hailed vineyards have lost about 10 days of ripening – so would need 110 days from flowering. Growers of Côte de Nuits Grand Crus are currently estimating (August/September could of-course make changes) 27th or 28th September for harvesting, the Côte de Beaune reds were looking at the 25th, or were before the hail. The first whites are currently anticipated 20-25th September – let’s see – but it certainly looks like the 2013 harvest will compressed in to a few less days than usual.
And for those of you still unsure about what hail can do, take a peek at this short video from quite close to the Côte d’Or, you don’t need to speak French, the feeling of shock and awe is universal!
ardhuy 2011 côte de beaune villages
2011 Ardhuy, Côte de Beaune Villages Les Combottes
Nice deep colour, with a young purple-tinge. The nose has a bit of cola-spritz (CO2) and a trace of reduction too – I chose to shake the bottle to release the gas. If anything the reduction gets a little worse in the original glass, but after about 20 minutes it is fading. The nose slowly transforms from a, deep-register, macerating black-skinned cherry to a brighter, redder berry – this black to red seems a common transition when reduction is in play – but the reduction is history after about 40 minutes when there’s even a violet floral element too. The acidity is borderline bright but it’s rather exacerbated by the crunchy red fruit and a faint ‘is it? isn’t it?’ ripeness of astringent tannin – certainly the mid-palate has verve and dimension though. The red-currant infused finish is a fine one for the label. Don’t forget to shake or decant and enjoy this over the next 12-18 months as the acidity might stick out more if you wait longer.
Rebuy – Yes
time for colour…
robert-denogent 2007 bertillonnes
Not really a proper note, as I can’t remember the detail of this wine, drunk on Sunday, so I won’t cheat and make one up, but it was certainly a wine worthy of highlighting…
2007 Robert-Denogent, Macon-Solutré Clos des Bertillonnes
I enlisted my helpful neighbours with this one, simply because I’d be ashamed to drink a whole magnum on my own! This wine was from an auction purchase last year – 6 well-priced magnums – the first of which was a little disappointing, the second was brilliant and this was closer to the latter than the former, if not quite so fabulous. Certainly a little bottle variation then! I’d be the first to say that wines from the Macon very often seem fuller and riper to me, without necessarily becoming flabby; this wine doesn’t fall easily into that category (the vintage?) and I’d drink it any time for it’s nice line, lovely balance a concentrated young (still!) flavours.
Rebuy – Yes
chezeaux / ponsot 2011 chambolle charmes
The ardea plastic seals are still in attendance, but with a variation this year – the little black ring of yester-year is now a red ring! Oh, and I still find them a nightmare to remove: lever corkscrews can even chip the glass, such is the pressure required to get the ‘cork’ moving – reverting to a screwpull, the seal comes out halfway then just goes round and round! Then I really struggle to get it off the damn screwpull worm too – so, it seems that we (not the producers!) must we work harder to avoid cork issues…
2011 des Chézeaux, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Charmes
The first whiff has me smiling – yes! – very, very pretty red fruits and not a hint delicate – it really wants to show you everything. In the mouth this has a crystalline clarity – glacier-like? (that’s enough about mountains!) Compelling, beautifully flavoured, just downright great. Approaching the hour-mark (…yes, unbelievably, there is still some left!) and the nose is less fun; a low-level P note comes centre-stage and there’s a growing aniseed note too – a bit bizarre if you ask me. Next time I’ll drink it in an hour – it’s that good!
Rebuy – Yes
two mischievous mountain bottles…
2006 Mischief & Mayhem, Puligny-Montrachet
Medium yellow. Here is a wine that is out of sorts, or compromised by the cork – it has a slightly odd nose, redolent of the cork itself, but not TCA, more a savoury note. The wine is drinkable but seems tired, the acidity is not its usual self either – just a bit of harshness creeping in there. Drinkable, but as noted, compromised.
Rebuy – No
2007 Mischief & Mayhem, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Les Caillerets
Medium lemon yellow. The nose is tight, faintly chalky and with a tight core of ripe yellow fruit. That could be a concise description of the flavour too; a rather tight, mineral wine but with very fine mid-palate intensity – I liked it! Certainly it was more open after a couple of hours, but this wine begs a much longer timescale in the cellar – I hope it can cope with journey…
Rebuy – Yes