1999 remoriquet vosne 1er aux dessus du malconsorts

By billn on January 10, 2010 #degustation

1999 Remoriquet, Vosne-Romanée 1er Aux dessus du Malconsorts
Medium, medium-plus ruby-red colour. The nose slowly opens over about 25 minutes, hints of spice, warm dark fruit and a slightly strange mineral/coal note. Over the tongue, it’s balanced and quite intense, some grain still from the tannin, but that strange aroma is also their as a flavour too. Previous bottles were fine so perhaps this strange flavour is a one-off – it was anyway more of a background note on day two.
Rebuy – Maybe

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a few links…

By billn on January 09, 2010 #other sites

There are few links that I’ve been meaning to pass on to you. First Clive Coates has had a Spring-Clean on his website, everything’s a little tidier now, and some of the menus that didn’t work in all browsers seem better. There are interesting entries marked ‘December’ in his news page.

Second, and a must, take a look at some of Vincent Dancer’s pictures that he’s going to exhibit at the end of January.

Finally, nice…

guardian-logoEveryone laughs at over-the-top wine writing, and they’re right. Fine+Rare merchants of London email me frequently, even though I have never bought a single bottle from them, nor could afford one. Here’s this week’s offer from Domaine Faiveley in Burgundy: “Chambertin Clos de Bèze. £560 per case of six. Needs work to coax from the glass …”

How do you coax a wine from the glass? “Come here little wine – don’t worry, I’m not going to drink you!”

It may be in contrast to the Mazis-Chambertin, a cheap little wine at just £380 for six bottles. “Jumps out of the glass … ” Clearly a trollop of a wine, possibly one that goes out clubbing with the Clos des Cortons, a trashy £285 for six: “a touch tart, perhaps”.

I do feel inspired, though. “This is a wine that puts it about, in a pathetic attempt to win cheap popularity. Not a wine to take home to your mother …”
Simon Hoggart, The Guardian, 9 January 2010

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the white wines of burgundy, jasper morris (1988)

By billn on January 08, 2010 #books, maps, magazines, films even podcasts!

The-White-Wines-of-BurgundyNot so long ago I made a basic search using the keyword ‘Burgundy’ and up popped this book. A quick email to Jasper elicited the response that this was “obviously the single finest book on burgundy ever written….” 😉 If nothing else, it is clearly the leader in value; the purchase price was a princely £1 before P&P.

This book is a thin hardback of relatively large format – just a little less than A4 size – delivering a mix of text, tables and photos in its 77 pages.

There is a foreword by Simon Loftus: I’m not normally a fan of ‘forewords’, but in the case of Simon I’m more than happy to make an exception as his writing is, sadly, too little seen; his monograph of Puligny-Montrachet being my most favourite of wine-related reading for its insight and crystal-clear delivery – I think I should revisit it – if only I could write in such an uncomplicated way…

Anyway enough of Simon and onto Jasper:

My copy of the book is a “rare unsigned copy” of the original 1988 publication with a sticker price of £4.95 (I’m not sure if it was ever reprinted), it splits its content under three main headers:

  1. Burgundy and its white wines
  2. A buyers guide
  3. Through the vineyards

Jasper certainly starts on the right foot by immediately including a recipe for turbot with green peppercorns and fresh herbs in his introduction. The emphasis is clear, white burgundy and food, they should not be separated – a shame then, that it was the book’s only recipe!

Every vintage is different in size, quality and style. The weather imprints a different mark each year.

The beauty of older books is that there is no ‘sell-by date’ for good advice; what worked then, works now – this is particularly evident in the section how to buy wine and the tips that he offers. Jasper makes a good differentiation between the growers, négoce and all shades of capitalism in-between, though it’s interesting to note that ‘only’ 20-or-so years ago, there were many, many fewer domaine bottlers.

The label is a mischievous piece of paper containing lots of information which may mean one thing to the producer, another to the authorities and something completely different again to the purchaser.

Beaune is the vinous heart of the Côte d’Or, complacent capital of the wines of Burgundy

This section provides some nice négociant thumbnails – still relevent today – before jumping into the meat; The Great Vineyards of the Côte de Beaune. Despite being halfway through the book I was still a little shocked that we moved directly from the hill of Corton to Meursault, forgetting the subject of the book!

Meursault is the heart of the Côte de Beaune, source of more white wine than any other village and finer than all but the Grand Crus.

It sounds like Jasper prefers his Meursault to his Puligny – at least of late 80s vintages 😉

Page 66 is heralded with a title that no aspiring writer would consider suitable today – everyone is looking for a scoop – but Jasper shortly discusses the wines of the Hautes Côtes de Beaune, Ladoix, Pernand, Savigny, Côte de Beaune, Monthelie, Auxey, St.Romain, St.Aubin and Santenay under the header; “Lesser Vineyards of the Côte de Beaune” – poor St.Aubin, it was sure it had made it!

Insight and sage advice for £1 – close to indispensable really!

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2007 denis bachelet côte de nuits villages

By billn on January 07, 2010 #degustation

bachelet_hcd_nuits

2007 Denis Bachelet, Côte de Nuits Villages
Medium colour. The nose starts a little ‘thin’, but quickly fills out with a mix of red and blue shaded fruit and there’s a width of higher tones, no bass-notes though. A balanced and slightly floral impression with an impressive width, though like the nose there’s a limited depth for the life of this bottle. The fruit impression does build a lovely red, cream inflected note. This becomes very tasty indeed. A pretty wine that was once a great value cuvée – currently it’s just pretty…
Rebuy – Maybe

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pierre-yves colin-morey 2007 st.aubin le blanc

By billn on January 06, 2010 #degustation

py-colin-morey-st.aubin
2007 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, St.Aubin Le Blanc
Opened a little too cold, there is only a little well judged toast aroma. As it warms in the glass it expends with an undertow of cream and hints of citrus. Fresh, waxy-smooth and, aided by a kick of smooth acidity it is intense and flavourful in the mid-palate. I like this a lot – it wasn’t particularly cheap for a villages St.Aubin at 33 Swiss francs, but it is a far from cheap performance. I’d drink these young to enjoy the mix of suppleness and and structure. Lovely.
Rebuy – Yes

(Bonus marks for correctly guessing the DVD on which the cork ‘sits’…)

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critical of a critic…

By billn on January 06, 2010 #other sites

Burgundy looks a year further back as the 2008 vintage comes on sale here this month. After an unpromising early diagnosis, the grapevine suggests that it could be a delicious short- to medium-term option.
Anthony Rose, The Independent 2nd January 2010

I usually enjoy the writings of Anthony Rose, but I have to stand-up on this one. The Independent is a broad-circulation newspaper, and people may make purchasing decisions on Anthony’s throwaway assessment of the vintage – actually I cannot find anything in the words that indicate that Anthony has tasted a single wine, or even which colour he is discussing!

Frankly, and let’s talk red, if you want “a delicious short- to medium-term option” you should be buying the 2007s. The only thing short-term about the 2008 vintage is that many wines will never taste better than in their first couple of years in bottle. Once the young ‘puppy-fat’ fruit shrinks to the acidity-driven structure of the wines, they will only be for laying down. Great bottles will come around by 2030, though perhaps 2040 could be nearer the mark…

Let’s give Anthony the benefit of the doubt and assume he is talking about whites (he’s not…!), and he is closer to the mark; slightly fuller and richer than 2007s, they are, and will be, super short, medium and long-term wines – assuming no oxidation issues down the road.

Sorry, but I just found it a very lazy, hence, miss-leading piece of journalism.

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2010, cow-beds, rabies, ipods, wines, january trousers – the usual stuff…

By billn on January 05, 2010 #degustation

Happy New Year!

The dog (Elsa) was very, very pleased to be rescued today, after 14 days of kennels (prison), and seems to fit her new ‘cow’ bed quite okay! She had to stay behind because she failed her rabies test – actually I think the lab made a mess of the first test, but there is no redress. A second ‘shot’ and her result was 10x the level needed to pass the test, but the UK passport for pets rules say they can’t travel until 6 months after the positive test – because of the early failure, she couldn’t quite make the trip – poor thing is now shadowing everyone just in case we leave her again!

Yesterday was an 11 hour road-trip back from the UK; no snow, mainly clear skies, -1.5°C to -7°C, and cruise control set to 135 kph the whole way as I’m sure my speedo underestimates… 😉

I learned something from this trip – FM transmitters for iPods are completely rubbish and a waste of money for car travel as interference from anywhere will regularly overwhelm the signal. On the outward journey I don’t think we had more than 10 consecutive minutes of clear playback from my relatively expensive Belkin model with built-in charger. For the return I took the cheaper (but not recharging) option of the cassette-wire-link which was perfect for the whole trip…

Wine of the holiday break was the 2000 Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne
Medium, medium-pale colour. Both nose and palate are charged with energy and power, it’s no shrinking violet, but complexity and class, still with plenty of wood flavours and aromas. Perfect condition and a long way from peak performance.

Of-course the hard slog of a Christmas visit plan and its associated (and apparently mandatory) consumption opportunities, often brings on the need for the ‘January Trousers’ – something I avoided completely last year by jogging almost every day, though the year before still had the trouser requirement well into April! This year, and despite a bad back and cold conspiring to leave my jogging shoes in the case for the duration, I think I may have survived with a slight pinch, and no January trousers – hooray! I celebrated with 60 minutes of jogging today, and will likely continue that celebration into the night with a Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey St.Aubin!

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what’s best for christmas lunch?

By billn on December 26, 2009 #degustation

image link: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34447324I continue my search for the best wine combination for the Christmas-day feast.

I’ve tried (over and over) older, medium, young red burgundies, but never found a really good match – it’s that combination of salt, sweet, stuffing, sprouts etc., etc.. This year I tried a magnum of Foillard’s 2006 Morgon Côte du Py, and good as it was, in this setting it was a little too jammy. Do I see the spectre of something from the south-west of france next year…(?)

Anyway a relatively successful set of bottles this year, but will have to try harder for next! ;

An Austrailian fizz – a bit heavy and sweet
2007 Alain Geoffroy, Chablis 1er Beauroy – seems pretty but a little too light after the fizz. Wait, eat and return, and it’s very lovely indeed. At about 25 Swiss francs I will buy some more.
2003 St.Urbans Hof, Piesporter Goldtröpfchen – still a beautiful pale green. This vintage misses the acidic ‘zing’, but is reasonably well balanced.
2006 Foillard, Morgon Côte du Py – pretty, plenty of depth though a little over-sweet with the food. Plenty of sediment in the last glasses.
1995 Josmeyer, Riesling Cuvée l’Exception – my last bottle and now this seems less sweet than before, but depth and minerality with and off-dry personality provide plenty to contemplate if not a wine to drink with the Christmas pud!

CHEERS!

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