Matt Kramer’s The Great Divide, encapsulates day to day interactions on wine ‘bulletin-boards’ the world over, I’m not sure it brings any more. Still, I found it a good 5 minute diversion!
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how I laughed…
Gluck is unchastened by the experience, firing off a broadside at a large swathe of the wine industry, suggesting most modern wine writing is ‘clichéd’ and ‘uninteresting’, the notion of terroirs and soil types ‘utter bollocks’ and wine merchants ‘largely liars’.
wild animals and mountains…
Saturday a.m. What an interesting weekend – it started with the fauna; rummaging around in the loft for a rucksack I spotted a old, small wasp’s nest – perhaps the size of a tennis ball. The former occupants had long-since left the nest but I was a little surprised because the nest was hanging from the central beam of the roof, normally they are in eaves of the… Ooops. Now that nest is a lot bigger – and fully occupied – the size of a football, but shaped like a rugby-ball. Time to quickly leave whilst still in-tact. Next steps for that can wait for another day!
Okay, bags are packed and I’m heading for the main train station, last stop the mountains. I look out of the window of my bus and trotting across the fields without a care in the world was a decently proportioned wild boar – there are plenty around where I live, but in the eleven years I’ve lived there, I’ve never seen one in the (7:30am) daylight. It’ll be a golden eagle or an elephant next!
Klosters is shrouded in mist and occasional light rain too – the forecast was much better than this. Outside the train station are dozens of ‘athletes’ (well some of them look pretty athletic) it seems there’s a half-marathon about to start. What a shame, if only I’d known I could have joined them, ah well… 😉
Evening with friends and we get through a couple of nice wines – I’ve brought a magnum of Gambal’s 2004 Dents du Chien – the 2002 was drinking beautifully earlier this year – this one is on-form too. They contributed a tasty bottle of Champagne and an M&M 2006 Corton Bressandes which drank in a pleasant understated way. We finished the night with a 1970s Sweeney DVD – actually ‘Reagan’ – I think we are fully prepared for Sunday’s walk.
Sunday a.m. Actually, I’m not sure I am fully prepared for the walk; I have the feeling that there was less water in the previous night’s wine than usual – orange juice and coffee to the rescue. We’ve a bit of sun today – hooray – though not the wall-to-wall blue sky of the forecast. Ahead lies (it was alleged) a five hour walk From Montbiel to Wägerhus, up to 2,725 metres and back. I’m on good form for he first two hours through wooded valleys, the trees slowly thinning out until as you go higher and higher there are no more. At three hours I’m still strong, but slowing. Finally at four hours we reach the Jürisee – unbelievably turquoise-blue lakes on a plateau just below the high-point of the walk – superb. I must have used too much energy taking a photo of the lakes, because ‘just below the high-point of the walk’ actually entails about one more hour of ‘up’ for this now shuffling Yorkshire-man – oh how the legs complain! Finally at the top – not before a steep few switchbacks with a chain secured to the rock for you to hold onto – and boy, did I. Did I mention I don’t like heights? Cliff-edges anyway!
I’m now a new man because it’s all downhill! Finally we’re down and our (not-walking ‘I’m injured‘) route-planner shakes her head; ‘you should have needed only five hours – did you stop for a beer?‘ I could cope with six hours – just!
david clark 2009 côte de nuits villages…
2009 David Clark, Côte de Nuits Villages
Only a hint more than medium colour. I’ve come to expect a bit of stubborn background reduction in David Clark’s wines but there’s not even a hint of it here; a little toasted bread (more like a white). In the mouth this is forward, fresh and quite intense. The flavours have a bit of the floral about them, the red fruit being far from the 09 vernacular of overtly ripe and sweet. Just a hint of oak flavour in the finish too. This is a wine that drinks quite well now but I suspect it will be on another level in 6-12 months. Very accomplished.
Rebuy – Yes
gevrey 2007 clos des variolles…
I was a little torn by my lack of a recommendation – the bottle was warm on the shelf and could have been there for 12 months or more. Or was it just the winemaking…(?)
2007 des Varoilles, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos des Varoilles
Deep colour. The nose is forward, indeed assertive, it’s quite deep too but has a roast character to go with the darker fruit. On the positive side, the last drops in the glass are beguiling. In the mouth this is concentrated, reasonably intense too but doesn’t really come across as a ‘whole wine’. The acidity is a little spiky, in-fact a long way from seemless. Is it the storage or has there been a little mucking-about in the winemaking(?) I certainly have the impression that it may have been less than successfully acidified. Shame in either, or both cases.
Rebuy – No
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l&a lignier plus jc boisset – 08 Morey vs 07 Nuits….
2008 L et A Lignier, Morey St.Denis Vieilles Vignes
Medium-plus colour. The nose is a lovely deep and slightly musky affair – above is a clean red-fruit note. Beautifully fresh and intense but with just enough cushioned padding to the palate to bring balance – you will have to do plenty of chewing to find the buried tannin. This is just so ebulient today that I wonder if it can ever show better(?) As the mid-palate narrows with age I expect this might become a little mouth-puckering, but today, yum!
Rebuy – Yes
2007 JC Boisset, Nuits St.Georges Aux Lavières
Medium medium-plus colour. The nose has a floral aspect that vies with a deep core of perfumed red fruit. Fresh enough and shows a little more fat than the Morey at it’s side. Just a little fine tannin and a long line of fruit and mineral flavour that runs through the core into the finish. The flavour expands nicely in the finish – a baby peacock. Very lovely and very tasty in a ripe but fresh-enough fruit style – quite rare this in 2007!
Rebuy – Yes
Very different these two – but only different – I have no preference, except for more!
the curse of cork…
Whilst I’d be the first to point to the massive improvement – at least in terms of TCA – of decent cork suppliers, the relatively fewer number of spoilt bottles still doesn’t make you feel better when you have a bad one.
2008 Paul Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er La Grande Montagne – cork and contents – evil smelling. For students of such things the mark on the cork was FS…