1998 Robert Arnoux, Vosne-Romanée
The last bottle of this was very good, and only drunk around two years ago, this bottle is not to the same standard. This one has a little volatility – slight cola – and some meaty aromas. The acidity is slightly lifted and there’s still just a hint of astringency showing from the tannins if you look hard enough. Decent length, but not so much love today. It was anyway my last bottle.
Rebuy – No

Here’s a relatively unusual occurrence; somebody actually sent me some wine to review! I’m in an awkward place to send wine to – as I found out from my ‘friendly’ customs and excise bill – €40 for 2 ‘free’ bottles – ie more than the cost of buying the bottles! Anyway, I thought you should be aware of this departure from the norm so that you can more easily factor-in any bias that might have occurred due to the unexpected ‘bottle cost’ 😉

I really don’t get that far south in Burgundy very often, so first, a short introduction, verbatim from the domaine themselves:

Domain Description:
Domaine du Chalet Pouilly founded in 1850 is a family business for over 100 years, and produces two 100%-Chardonnay: Pouilly Fuissé and Saint Véran. The 8 hectare property is shared by Pouilly Fuissé and Saint Véran.
Domaine du Chalet Pouilly practices traditional wine-growing methods, respecting the “terroir” in order to bring out the superior quality of its wine flavors. Domaine du Chalet Pouilly’s philosophy is to allow nature to express itself through the vinification process in order to create high-quality, rich-flavored wines with a rustic touch.
Pouilly Fuissé: A dry 100%-Chardonnay white wine with a golden color and green glints that brings a mineral bouquet of nice floral touches.
Saint Véran: Made with 100%-Chardonnay grapes with a light yellow (thanks to the old vineyards) color and an elegant, fruity scent.
In 1983, Henri Plumet passed his estate to his daughter, Marie-Agnès Plumet, and her husband, Bernard Léger who presently run Domaine du Chalet Pouilly.
Dr Bernard Léger-Plumet graduated with a Medical Degree and started his career in Solutre-Pouilly as a “village doctor”. His wife Marie-Agnes Léger-Plumet earned her pharmaceutical degree in 1971. In order to further expand the family business, both Marie-Agnès and Dr Léger-Plumet gave up their medical careers and devoted all their time to the estate. Their passion and interest for wine grew stronger over the years, eventually leading them to change their career paths. In 1984, Dr. Léger-Plumet completed a degree in Oenology inDijon, France. Marie-Agnes received her agricultural certificate in 2004. Since 2008 Dr. Léger-Plumet is a member of “La Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin”.

2008 Domaine du Chalet Pouilly, St.Veran
Medium-pale yellow. A forward and wide nose of ripe fruit covered by a twist of yellow-lemon – it’s very pretty. Starts with a little petillance, then there’s a nice burst of energy in the mid-palate – no doubt invigorated a little by the gas. The texture smooths as the gas departs, a good core of tight fruit is the reward. Clean, correct, balanced and pretty – not forgetting, also very tasty.
Rebuy – Yes

2007 Domaine du Chalet Pouilly, Pouilly-Fuissé
The aromas clearly evoke the best villages of Côte de Beaune; creamy, vanilla patisserie aromas that perfectly dovetail with a lemony essence. This fills the mouth very nicely with high-toned fruit flavours, and lovely acidity that promotes very good length. The mid-palate is a little narrower than the aromas and flavours suggest, i.e that suggestion of Puligny, but the rest of this wine does a very good impression indeed. A wannabee wine, rather than a correct Pouilly? Who-cares, it was delicious…
Rebuy – Yes

Not even the faintest trace of ‘vintage character’. I still don’t drink that many bottles from this producer, but I’ve been very happy with those that do get to meet my corkscrew…

2004 Antonin Guyon, Meursault 1er Charmes Dessus
Already a medium golden colour – but that seems to come from the oak. Plenty of sweet toast on opening, slowly becomes more brioche, width and depth aplenty – very accomplished indeed. Tongue-coating, smooth, concentrated and perfectly balanced (invisible) acidity. No real fireworks, but new flavours seep out from your teeth and cheeks; creamy accents and excellent length. This was a relatively expensive bottle, but it is a classic, high-class Meursault in that comfortable, plush, unhurried style that only this village truly delivers. My indecision on whether to make this purchase was clearly unnecessary…
Rebuy – Yes

Visitors at home on Sunday, and given that I already had some bottles ready for opening and two were from an ‘easier’ vintage to taste – 1997 – I went that route.

First, Pavolet’s Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Dominodes . Warm, inviting, now starting to develop some chocolate flavours and aromas, no awkward edges. This wine has really entered its early plateau of maturity – it will clearly hold for another 10+ years. Super.

To follow, Cathiard’s Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Malconsorts . This was altogether a different kettle of fish. I’ve had some lovely open and friendly bottles from this case, but this wasn’t one of them. It wasn’t unfriendly, rather it was uncommunicative. Clearly cut from the same vintage cloth as the Pavelot, but tighter in all aspects – no plateau of maturity here. A little more intense in the mid-palate, but as a pure object of pleasure, bettered by the Pavelot today.

Both eminently drinkable, but it makes me laugh when so many people by-pass Savigny – more for me I suppose…

2007 Long-Depaquit, Chablis 1er Les Vaillons
Pale greeny-yellow. The nose is a faint biscuit with a wider white blossom impression above, and is edged with a just enough citrus bite – just over the hour mark, the traditional salty impression of the sea-shore begins to poke through. Smooth, mineral acidity, slightly savoury impressions and this is really very long for a 1er cru. Genuine (not fruit-driven), great value Chablis, of the wiry and intense variety.
Rebuy – Yes

This wine was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous on release. I would go as far as to say, that until the 2005 vintage it was easily one of the tastiest villages wines I’ve ever had the good fortune to buy. It wasn’t, however, all plain-sailing for my selection of 2001 Fourriers; my first Petits Vougeots was reductive and sullen – not great – though my recent bottle was a more-than pleasant surprise. Three years ago there was a disappointing Gruenchers that was volatile and not so pleasant – an aberration I thought.

Earlier this year an American winemaker and burgundy enthusiast started to publish notes suggesting that his 2001 Fourriers were all turning volatile and needed to be drunk-up. I did of-course have the Gruenchers episode, but despite being sceptical, opened a second Petits Vougeot – and it was okay, much better than may opening bottle. Further poor notes prompted me to open this wine:

2001 Fourrier, Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles-Vignes
Medium colour. High-toned, slight pickle aroma over a meatier base. The acidity is to the fore and like the nose, it’s not the finest type, it has a balsamic aspect. Whilst the acidity dominates, there are hints of what this wine was, and what it could have been – a long, long old-vine creaminess. It retains some drinkability, but that drinking window is almost closed. Day two it’s certainly better. the volatile element mainly gone – but that’s the nature of volatility 😉
Rebuy – No

Claude Kolm reports the following:

Domaine Fourrier 2001s.Some people have reported random bad results with Jean-Marie Fourrier’s 2001s. I asked him about it and he requested that I post the following: He is aware that people have reported problems and believes that because of the random nature, it must be due to one of his cork suppliers. That cork supplier is Spanish and the name FS appear on the corks. Assuming that is reason, Jean-Marie thinks some bottles will still be good and some others in the same case not. Jean-Marie lost his business in the south of France because one cork supplier he’d been buying from since 1999. 2001 in the south of France was his first vintage and very quickly it appeared that there was some variation among bottles, resulting in an unsalable vintage. He thought he was okay in Burgundy until now. He based his confidence on the fact that the corks in Burgundy were barely treated with peroxide, but he now thinks some bottles may have received more treatment than others, resulting in VA in those bottles. Since the 2002 vintage he has changed his supplier and hasn’t stopped since in his search the best cork possible. He currently is using untreated corks from an artisanal producer in Corsica. For the reasons above, he recommends that people drink the wines soon and to accept his deepest apology.

The Chambolle above did indeed bear the FS mark. Checking my NoteFinder, I see 11 notes for 2001s from Fourrier, 2 negative ones, but only one of those was volatile. There are two more notes to add, the good Petits Vougeots and this flawed Chambolle. 10 good bottles from 13 is one way to look at it. I only need to decide whether I should open my two remaining bottles – both Griotte.

Yesterday evening I opened the first from a 12-pack of this wine, it had two specific attributes that contributed to my purchase of a full case; first it was a decently priced bourgogne from the 05 vintage which I could use as a bellwether to judge maturation of the vintage, but second, and a much sexier reason, it was in pretty 50cl bottles!

For years I’ve kept a half-bottle limit to daily wine exploits – of-course gatherings are allowed to surmount that total – but if drinking alone, 50cl seems a still tolerable stretch, and, when drinking in tandem there’s still enough for a decent glass each! I suppose though, I should carefully consider the ramifications of this increased uptake; am I now inevitably on the road to purgatory, to be found rolling, groaning in the gutter, to be cast out by neighbours and friends as I become abusive and violent to all? – clearly there is quite enough Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Charmes in the world to facilitate that course…

Apart from the occasional navel-gazing, in reality I leave discussion of the relative merits of alcohol consumption to the knee-jerk self-publicists (politicians) and those ‘in the business’ who cannot help but to instinctively react with their own knees. Decanter currently have two stories on this; first the plan to introduce a minimum price for alcohol in Scotland – despite this politicians’ photo opportunity, this is probably, on reflection, a good thing. Very cheap ‘alcopops’ that taste only like cola i.e. attempting to hide their ethanol-based roots, should have some reasonable barrier to entry, simply because they are targeted to a customer segment that doesn’t like the taste of alcohol, i.e. kids. Whereas, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association would have you believe that the Scottish government is ‘penalising Scottish businesses and consumers with its new Alcohol Bill – while doing little to challenge the main causes of alcohol abuse’. Hmm, probably complete nonsense!

Life is no easier across the water in the cradle of European fine wine where ‘a new pro-wine lobby with a budget of some €2m has been created to counter the effects of the French government’s ‘vilifying’ of wine”, as a ‘move against the ‘prohibitionist agenda ravaging France’. Really? Well what does that actually mean? Pierre-Henry Gagey tells us that ‘We are sick and tired of government vilifying wine’ in this respect he has a point. The current French administration appears to grab at every new medical report that shows a negative result when referenced to wine intake, without a balanced acceptance of those studies that run counter to the negatives. BIVB director André Segala told decanter.com ‘Our global objective is to stop a strong reduction in consumption [of wine] which follows in part by the “prohibitionist” agenda which has been ravaging France in the last few years and give wine its proper place in French society, of course with a message to drink in moderation.’ Ah moderation, of-course 😉 But is that global or France?

Anyway, my guilt in finishing the whole of this (50cl!) is only compounded by that fact that I enjoyed it… 😉

2005 Domaine Lejeune, Bourgogne
Medium-plus colour. Open, dark-red fruit aromas, faint iron. A palate that seems somehow a little attenuated (filtered?) and lacking a little gloss/brightness, yet there is good density, balance and flavour and there are no hard edges or angles – it is far from a chore to take the next sip. Reasonably open and still primary. A wine that is close to villages Pommard quality from many other vintages.
Rebuy – Yes