2010 Michel Noëllat, Vosne-Romanée
Medium, medium-plus colour. The aromas are of barrel spice and (much fainter) vanilla – there’s just a suggestion of background reduction enhancing the depth of the nose too – whatever all that-lot sounds like, it’s quite appealing. Understated concentration – the acidity slowly wells bringing more fruit-flavour – again accented with vanilla. Very good texture with fine-grained tannin. The overall impression – regardless of all those barrel descriptors – is a wine of sweet succulence and deliciousness!
Rebuy – Yes

2010 Philippe Livera (Domaine Tilleuls), Gevrey Chambertin Clos Village
Quite deeply coloured. The nose instantly brings one word to mind – wow! Deep, cushioned a little spicy with an espresso top. Despite the significant contribution from the barrels, this is setting high expectations. In the mouth it’s clear that the wine can’t deliver those grand cru expectations, but here is good concentration, a little (okay, quite a lot) astringent tannin and nice, ripe fruit flavour. The acidity is understated and mouth-watering. This is rather barrel-influenced, as you will have gathered, it’s also reasonably structured but it’s also very good.
Rebuy – Yes

2010 Herve Murat, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits Les Herbues
Deep, perfumed nose, probably a few stems here – but very modestly so. In the mouth this is wide and filled with high-toned red fruit – probably a little CO₂ to lose given the edge to the texture. There is just a faint astringency to the tannin but it drags across your tongue rather than offering a grain. The fruit in the finish is an unusually direct morello-style cherry edged with a little herb. Very interesting and a wine that I’d definitely buy again. Day two and it has become withdrawn and a little sullen – most of its interest has diminished. Drink-up on day 1!
Rebuy – Yes

Of-course David sold his PTG so this is the last vintage – seems a good match for rösti and sausage I think!

2010 David Clark, Bourgogne Passetoutgrains
A little reduction hangs around for no more than 2-3 minutes – good! Round, with reasonable depth, the aromas give little of their mixed parentage away, though eventually I try to convince myself that the red fruit might have some gamay about it but you’d only spot it with 20:20 hindsight! The high-toned fruit in the mid-palate seems pure pinot to me – and lovely it is too. The tannin and acidity form good supporting roles; just a hint of bitter chocolate effect in the finish – most-likely barrel-derived – but the succulent flavours over-ride it. Lovely wine, brilliant PTG.
Rebuy – Yes

They say it’s not worth keeping PTG – and given how good this tastes today – why would you?

Earlier this year, I was so happy to see that BP&F’s 2010s had been shorn of their coats of toasty oak – instead I could taste and smell the wines. It seems from this wine, it may have been an abrupt change – this 2009 is everything that I found disappointing about those 2005-2008 wines…

2009 Bouchard Père, Beaune 1er Beaune du Château
DIAM 5. Wow – this has a real slug of overt toastiness on the nose – even after one hour it is the boss of the show – only the last drops in the glass begin to offer a cleaner red fruit note. In the mouth this has great acidity, well-controlled tannin and an extra (besides oak) width of flavour in the mid-palate – but oops, that’s oak creaminess too. This has an effervescent balance for a 2009 and plenty of sweetness to the flavour – but I think I need to turn to something else tonight if I want to see something from the Côte d’Or. This wine has a great record age 3 with me – maybe the other half of this will have magically transformed when I return tomorrow…
Rebuy – Maybe