The indian summer continues. A few more pics here from Beaune (mainly) with a couple thrown in from Chassagne-Montrachet. Two different Montrachets today 😉
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a few more pics – beaune and chassagne
a day in meursault plus a two-faced volnay…
It’s clearly an indian summer in the côtes – and we really have something of the golden hillside as a backdrop.
Three lovely visits yesterday, three more today and four appointments each on Thursday and Friday. I thnk I have just the one appointment on Saturday – that should be enough as ‘part recovery’ – when I visit Thomas Bouley. I’ll be able to ask him about the following…
2007 Jean-Marc Bouley, Volnay Clos de la Cave
This is a wine that changed so much over 30 minutes that it almost requires two tasting notes. Drunk over a dinner in the Ermtage de Corton. It started medium colour and with quite a stemmy and not particularly attractive nose. The palate was a little lightweight and I didn’t percieve that much balance. Moving on. From about 30 minutes onwards, I had the impression that the colour had deepened (probably a little more wine in the glass!) and the nose was padding out with more red fruit aromas around the core of stems – not ‘gorgeous’ but now quite engaging. The palate had also transformed, delivering more padding and flavour so at the same time easing the acidity. The last drops were quite balanced and those of a very nice wine. I expect Thomas will be recommending that I get a bit more air into his cuvées!
Rebuy – Yes
A Meursault Gallery – Pictures from 12. Oct. 2010
1982 rené engel vosne-romanée 1er les brulées
Drunk on the 10th of the 10th 2010 – as luck would have it, certainly it was a 10 out of 10 too!
An interesting bottle this. The label has the minimalism of the last Engel bottles, in fact slightly more-so, but the bottle is clearly not standard.
The large Château-Neuf-du-Pape-style embossing on the neck, is for Cave BB – a business still running as a wine merchant in Switzerland – and around the base of the bottle is embossed: Selection Baggli – Zolikon – Zurich. Engel did sell a lot of wine in barrel in those days, I’m just not positive if that’s what happened here, or whether Cave Baggli supplied the bottles. I’ve sent a mail to Baggli – perhaps somebody will remember…
I wish I could say that I got some info from the cork, but having decided to use an ‘ah-so’ cork remover, I really should have secured the cork with the worm of a screwpull too – too late I thought as the cork plopped into the bottle – bugger! Quickly everything went into the decanter – and very clean was the wine too – not just visually.
1982 René Engel, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Brulées
Medium, medium pale colour. Right from the start, there’s not a hint of leaf, soil or mustiness on the nose, just a frankly gorgeous blend of precise red berries, brown sugar and the finest ginger cake – wow! One hour on and the snose has lost some of those precise berries to a marzipan-type layer. To me this is a negative as I’m no fan of marzipan – to others, quite the reverse. The flavours deliver width, a plush texture, very fine acidity and an impressive density of sweet, slightly raisin-fruited flavour in the mid-palate. Approaching 30 years-old one might expect this to be described as an old grandmother of a wine – how very wrong that would be. It remains fresh, sensuous and complex. It is blisteringly good – thank-you Caves Baggli…
Rebuy – No Chance -but I would and without hesitation…
My next oldest bottles of this are some 1995 and a magnum of 1998 – it seems I have a long wait to harvest them!
1998 dominique laurent gevrey-chambertin 1er clos st.jacques
1998 Dominique Laurent, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos St.Jacques
Medium colour – a hint of salmon pink at the rim. There is a little tilled earth and a wealth of warm and eventually sharp red berries. Initially I though a suggestion of cigarette ash too, but it was transient and replaced with violets, more time brings a little dried leaf. The palate is silky-smooth, softly balanced and still betrays a suggestion of the vintage tannin – but only a suggestion. The flavours build in the mid-palate rather in the manner of a decent Lambrays vintage -subtle yet still impressive – behind remains a depth of dark, oak derived flavour but at this stage of maturity I can deal with it, even if I find it slightly distracting. Overall this is a really great Clos St.Jacques – really great! The next bottle in 3-5 years.
Rebuy – Yes
1993 joseph voillot meursault 1er les cras
One quote from Jasper’s new book:
There is little as satisfying as a really fine bottle of Meursault in its second decade.
So I though – ‘why not?’
1993 Joseph Voillot, Meursault 1er Les Cras
Medium, medium-plus golden. There are few black bits floating in the bottle, but they sink without problem. The nose is a blast of matchstick – I guess a bit more sulfur in those days! – underpinned with a soft spice-bread note. The palate is very 1993, taught, wiry, intense and with very good acidity – add that to the usual minerality of Cras and you have quite a combination. The flavours also seem to have plenty of the matchstick aromas and there is a super extra creamy dimension as you head into a decent, more savoury finish. Not a Meursault to wallow in, this one ‘instructs’.
Rebuy – Yes
mark de morey – burgundy harvest diary #1
Got home finally about midday Tuesday UK time having left my Dover Premier Travel Inn around 5 a.m. Arrived there early last evening tres fatigue from the Calais time 4.10 p.m. ferry which I made by dint of getting my foot down more than I’d have liked and no stop for lunch having left Nuits at around 9 a.m. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed, or felt I needed, a bath so much in my life !!!
Pre my Cote departure and in a dark, rainly, back street Nuits butcher’s I did a double take & saw Etienne Grivot at the counter buying his meat !! Popped into the shop & introduced myself having only met him briefly at London January en primeur tastings before from which I’m sure he wont have remembered me – he must have thought ‘who the hell is this crazy Englishman’ ? He cautiously advised his vendange had been good.
Am cream crackered like never before after this vendange – it was sooo tough.
I’ve unpacked and am about to download my photos. Will try and write up a limited diary as I’ve hardly any notes and a dodgy memory but hope to add some amusements. Think this was my best drinking vendange of my 4 – we drank some nifty stuff – mine, Dubreuil-Fontaine’s and Arlauds. I attended the full Arlaud paulee this year, camera kept intact, cracking ‘do’, much fun had by all with dancing to circa 3 a.m from an 8.30 evening start but boy, oh boy, oh boy did I have a mal de (du ?) tete the following day and when Alex Gambal made me a thick dark black coffee it was all I could do to keep it down !!!
We finished Saturday lunchtime in a plot of Bourgogne Rouge below the ’74 between Morey and Chambolle – more like below Chambolle. Finishing Saturday meant my free day being a Sunday was less than ideal but I got in a visit to the aforementioned AG [ thought I’d better get some of that 2008 Bourgogne Blanc Bill raves about], from where I called into see Ray Walker (nice guy, lovely rented cellar, and wines being made in garagiste style !), and then spent the afternoon wandering Morey to Gevrey and familiarising myself with the Gevrey vineyards (or some of them) which I’ve never done along with photos.
You were right about Ponsot – I talked to what seemed their vineyard organiser (balding guy) on the Sunday afternoon when they were in what I think was Latricieres, no, must have been Chapelle from looking at Coates, and visualising were they were along from Clos St Denis / Clos de la Roche on the opposite down side of the road. They were out there again, or similar, on the increasingly wet Monday first thing as I drove away, with below them someone else – possibly Faiveley – as the only two outfits to have left things so late.
Only had a quick squint at Bill’s diary entries so far but reckon I’m happy to agree, meaning from my own free thoughts before / without being influenced by that (!) – reds wise CdN think this could be pretty good. Certainly Cyprien and Romain Arlaud are pretty happy to say the least.
More to follow including a reference to Raquel Welch (Welsh ?) – tres bizarre !
Mark de Morey
harvest – 5th october
An update from the home team
Chambertin was harvested late on Friday 1st and Charmes-Chambertin on the 2nd October. Those grapes continued along the theme of healthy millerandes, and even a ‘positive selection’ of 10% whole clusters was used for the Charmes.
The fermentations have, so far, been really slow. One Volnay cuvée and the Ladoix cuvée have almost finished their fermentations, the others are being roused by some gentle warming of the tanks.
The only concern right now is that some of the tannins seem to have an aggressive edge to them – but they are expected to improve as the maceration continues but care will need to be taken with the extractions.
Still waiting for pics – no pics, no toilet seat 😉
What is in tank looks good, potentially even great. The only cloud is the quantity. Yields are tiny. 25hl/ha in the Morey red. Ouch.
Jeremy Seysses
david clark 2007 morey st.denis
2007 David Clark, Morey St.Denis Les Porroux
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose is a lovely mix of dark berries and cherries, a suggestion of reduction but nothing like his bourgognes. Width, softly textured and super balance. There is a lovely sweetness to the dark fruit and it lingers very well in the finish. There’s even a suggestion of tannin in the mid-palate too – a surprise considering the ‘light-but-nice’ poise of the domaine’s 2006. This is a very, very above average 2007. Super – really!
Rebuy – Yes
offer of the day – Domaine Faiveley 2009…
DOMAINE FAIVELEY 2009 – Nuits-Saint-Georges
Premiers Crus 2009
GEVREY-CHAMBERTIN Les Cazetiers 75cl 58.00 (58.00 – 2008) Swiss Francs
POMMARD Les Rugiens 75cl 59.50
NUITS-ST-GEORGES Les Saint-Georges 75cl 75.00 (75.00)
CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY La Combe d’Orveau 75cl 89.00 (89.00)
CHAMBOLLE-MUSIGNY Les Fuées 75cl 99.00 (89.00)
Grands Crus 2009
CORTON Clos des Cortons 75cl 99.00 (89.00)
CLOS DE VOUGEOT 75cl 105.00 (99.00)
ECHEZEAUX 75cl 105.00
MAZIS-CHAMBERTIN 75cl 129.00 (118.00)
CHAMBERTIN Clos de Bèze 75cl 179.00 (165.00)
Domaine Faiveley are going for ~10% increase over 2008 for grand crus, but not for most 1er crus – interesting.