2005 Philippe et Vincent Léchenaut, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits
A nice, bright medium-plus colour. The nose shows plenty of spicy, deep-toned oak and eventually higher toned, slightly diffuse red fruit. The palate is less dense than the best 05 bourgognes and certainly less sweet/ripe than the majority, but still with a decent intensity, if lots of oak flavour. Actually pretty good with food, less interesting without. Cheaper, but short of the quality of last week’s Jayer-Gilles.
Rebuy – Maybe

Two nice wines to contrast. Both are ripe and forward and both went through different phases but each retained a distinct personality – I suspect less from the winemaking as the underlying terroir. I would very happily rebuy both – if any were available at initial pricing!
2005 de Montille, Beaune 1er Les Perrières
Medium colour with hints of purple. The nose starts wide, high-toned and with a rather candied fruit – quite interesting – and particularly so as it starts to develop a distinct creamy edge that’s not totally obviously from the barrel. In the mouth it is lithe and beautifully detailed – again with a creamy tinge that expands in the long finish – actually one phase during the evening shows this aspect just a little too much, but it slowly subsides to a more considered level. There is a lovely core of acidity with the ripe fruit, precise on the nose and in your mouth. A beauty whose star shines, wanes then shines again over about 3 hours that it lasted.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Des Croix, Beaune 1er Les Bressandes
Medium-plus colour, also with plenty of purple. Deeper aromatics and initially a little reductive – yet only 10 minutes in the glass unlocks round yet full, ripe, dark cherry and higher tones – the aromas cling to the glass. Versus the Montille this is much rounder and fuller in the mouth – it also seems longer, but a fair amount of that flavour is barrel derived. Only about 30 minutes are required for this to fully unwind, yet despite its dimensions, this is a little less complex than the Montille today. Still a super wine.
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Lejeune, Pommard 1er Les Argillières
Tested from a half bottle. Medium-plus colour. The nose is wide with dark fruit, and a little spice with a chocolate edge, unfortunately a resting glass shows just an edge of cork taint. You don’t really taste it on the palate which is wide and concentrated, with plenty of reasonably grained, ripe tannin and again a hint of chocolate. Swirl the glass and you can just about ignore the taint. The length seems a little compromised, but this wine was good enough despite that contamination for me to still finish the half bottle – I can’t think of a much better recommendation!
Rebuy – Yes

Continuing my tour through a few recently delivered 2005 bourgognes:
2005 Jayer-Gilles, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits
Medium, medium-plus colour. A nose that has plenty of oak – dark, slightly toasty and sweet with fainter higher tones. Equally flavour-packed as the previous day’s Lejeune but less fat despite the oak quotient. Good acidity that leaks sweet flavour across the tongue. Plenty of oak but it certainly diddn’t turn me off. This is a very tasty, darkly fruited drink right now.
Rebuy – Yes
But note that the price of this varies widely from good to bad value – for Hautes Côtes anyway.