so elegant, more elegant…

By billn on July 18, 2008 #asides

How to balance your pig-in-a-blanket with your Dom Perignon…
I expect the marketing department at Moet will love these 😉

Riedel’s Black Bottomed Glasses…

Bruce provides us with something just that little more elegant, but they are no pig-in-a-blanket solution!

mischief and mayhem 2006 villages puligny

By billn on July 18, 2008 #degustation

mischief and mayhem 2006 villages puligny

Getting ahead of my self a little as this is one of the wines that I’ll report on in the summer issue, however, it was good enough that I bought some and already popped a cork at home. So here you see the second of my two notes, but first…
2006 Mischief and Mayhem, Pulgny-Montrachettry to find this wine...
Medium-pale yellow. Good depth to the subtly creamy nose. Fresh and a lively on the palate, with decent intensity a good length. An understatedly fine villages that’s highly recommended.
Rebuy – Yes (and I did)

doudet-naudin 2005 bourgogne pinot noir

By billn on July 17, 2008 #degustation

doudet-naudin bourgogne pinot noir

2005 Doudet-Naudin, Bourgogne Pinot Noirtry to find this wine...
A large heavy bottle with a punt you could lose your fingers in, shame the attention to detail misses the cheapest of cheap plastic capsules. Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts with a little oak, but it’s quickly lost, becoming wider with plenty of high tones and a faintly cedar depth – eventually a nice red berry note too. Some fat and reasonable depth – in fact it’s very tasty. On the negative side the acidity is slightly lifted and the flavours are a little muddled together. Not exactly cheap for a bourgogne either at 20 Sfr, but far from a bad value bottle – and as I said it’s quite tasty.
Rebuy – Maybe

olivier guyot 2005 bourgogne pinot noir

By billn on July 15, 2008 #degustation

olivier guyon bourgogne pinot noir 2005

It’s the first time I’ve seen wines from this domaine and Olivier seems a bit of a character. Manually harvested Bourgogne (an idealist obviously) and a picture of himself and his horse (Indigo) on the label. His website is as individualistic as his labels and has lots of info. I also found this lovely quote:

This wine is from Olivier Guyot. He is considered somewhat eccentric by some of his neighbors, as he has sold his tractor and gone back to organically horse farming his vineyards. He feels it is better for the land, and that he gets better fruit from doing so. The grapes are hand-harvested, of course, and the wine is bottled without filtration. The domaine has passed from father to son since the 16th century…

The Marsannay based domaine is about 15 hectares so that’s a lot of standing behind his horse! I also have one of his Gevrey 1er Champeaux in the cellar – looks like fun!
2005 Olivier Guyot, Bourgogne Pinot Noirtry to find this wine...
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. The nose has a dense and slightly rustic core, but above soars beautiful and very fine fruit. There is some fat and a dense core that reflects the nose. The acidity is slightly bright but that’s par for the course for many tightening 2005 wines. Finer fruit than the appellation might suggest but with good fat and an engaging hint of rusticity. On day two, even that rusticity is gone – super! – I bought a couple more.
Rebuy – Yes

2007’s

By billn on July 15, 2008 #vintage appraisal

I was planning to write a few notes on the 2007’s for the next burgundy report – another 2 weeks? – but there are too many requests on the subject to ignore.  Briefly you only need to look here to see what the winemakers were up against in the vintage, but moving onto what’s in barrel:

Whites
Life is relatively easy here, not too many problems with the grapes but there was some botrytis in a number of plots.  The whites have the necessary freshness and it seems quite some depth too – the good run for white burgundy continues (ignoring post-bottling issues).  On average it seems that the whites will exceed the quality of the reds.

Reds
I will naturally restrict my commentary to those that made a good selection of grapes.  Since the turn of the year, and in both Côtes, the wines have been about fruit, fruit and fruit – soft and red and very comely.  They have been very attractive but without great weight or structure.  Post malo and resting on their lees they have slowly put on weight – many have become quite serious, particularly in the grand appellations of the Côte de Nuits.  Using that terrible phrase ‘on average’ they will be for drinking before their counterparts from 2006 and certainly 2005 but should exceed the quality of the 2004’s.

latest from the côtes…

By billn on July 14, 2008 #vintage 2008

Back from the Côtes.

The weather was more than a little changeable; blue sky and 30°C Thursday, 22° and intermittent rain on Friday, indeed thunder in Savigny, but none in Beaune. This lack of consistency has been the only constant factor this year. The teams go out and spray against whatever they want to spray against – then 3 days later they have to do it again because the rain washes it away – of-course, then it rains again!

Still the vines are in rude health. It seems too early for mildew, but there is plenty of ‘millerandange’ of the grapes i.e. very small and sometimes uneven grape development – this year caused by a uneven (due to weather) flowering – this is potentially a good thing for quality, as such small berries have a higher solids to juice (mainly water) ratio.

UPDATE, From a local winemaking correspondent:

For the moment the mildew is pretty much confined to organic, or less-than-perfectly-conventionally-sprayed, vines in the plain. A picture of the mildew situation in the plain below Chambolle – shame my photographic skills aren’t up to much! It doesn’t show, but the young leaf top-left is also 100% infected. It’s a well-tended and often-sprayed vineyard too, farmed by a well-known organic domaine. I think the grapes are safe now, but they won’t get very ripe without leaves!

100 days from flowering to harvest is the usual rule of thumb, so those who want to plan a trip to the Côtes for harvesting, should pencil into their diaries September 20th and onwards.

I also tasted lots more 2007’s – but that’s another story…

i wonder how many trees…

By billn on July 14, 2008 #the market

New Seguin Moreau barrel-making facility opened at Chagny in Burgundy

On July 10, 2008 – The Oeneo group inaugurated its new Seguin Moreau barrel-making plant at Chagny in Burgundy. The new, state-of-the-art facility covering a E2,5 million investment has a capacity to produce at least 20,000 barrels per year. Production will be increase progressively in the next 18 months.

With this new barrel-making plant, Seguin Moreau is reinforcing its range of “barrels made in Burgundy”, which are particularly suited to wines made from pinot noir and chardonnay grapes and which are seeing strong growth, especially in the United States and in Australia. The investment is backed up by a new partnership agreement with the Institut Universitaire de la Vigne et du Vin in Dijon for a R&D programme on wood-wine interactions.

The Oeneo Group, the world’s leading barrel manufacturer through its Seguin Moreau, Radoux and Victoria brands, is thus equipping with new development capacity and confirms its growth ambitions in a market that remains upbeat.

Having strongly improved its economic performances over the last three years, Oeneo shows its capability to make further investments to stimulate growth and create value for the Group.

The Oeneo Group will publish its first half 2008 sales figures on 29 July after close of trading.

thibault liger-belair, 2005 hcdn la corvée de villy

By billn on July 10, 2008 #asides

thibault liger belair 2005 hautes cotes de nuits la corvee de villy

People I’ve asked have been polarised about the style of this domaine, so time to check! Very nice presentation, even a half length capsule that shows the end of the cork – in this case it’s more than cosmetic as the cork shows the wine and vintage in small text at it’s base. I guess it’s unlikely that Thibault’s Hautes Côtes will be the focus of counterfeiters, but maybe his Richebourg…
2005 Thibault Liger-Belair, Hautes Côtes de Nuits La Corvée de Villytry to find this wine...
Medium, medium-plus cherry red colour. The nose starts with quite a dose of high toast oak, but over an hour this moves more into the background to show a little bacon and slight reduction – even after a couple of hours I didn’t get to the fruit. In the mouth it’s ripe and sweet and the oak is very much in the background. Medium-bodied with largely hidden tannins and very nice acidity. The length is excellent and far from woody. Despite the oak style being my least favourite and the nose missing a little dimension, this is a delicious wine that’s nicely pinot.
Rebuy – Yes

Burgundy Report

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