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.

If I’m relatively happy with the reduction of the green component in the 2004 Georges Mugneret then this wine begs a question or two. If it has improved to the same level (I don’t have a 1 year ago reference point) then it must have been quite a challenge. It is rather green today and will have to have quite a turnaround to achieve a rebuy rating.
2004 Ghislaine Barthod, Chambolle-Musigny
Medium colour. The nose is dominated by that cedar-green note, it does slowly recede over 2 hours, revealing more of the ripe red strawberry fruit below. In the mouth it’s ripe and sweet, full of red fruits, a nice texture and a good burst of concentration on the mid-palate – but it’s also here that you can taste the green element. It’s soft, sweet and nicely concentrated, but with this level of green I can’t recommend it…
Rebuy – No

Another recent wine that confounded my expectations. My recent Cornus (2003’s) were deep and darkly oaked, couple that to the persona of many 2005 Savignys and I epected a big wine:
2005 Domaine Cornu, Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Saucours
Medium, medium-pale cherry-red, hints of purple. The nose has a wide red-fruited conserve impression. Entry in the mouth is narrow, swiftly widening into the mid-palate where the acidity comes through late coupled to a extra creamy vanilla dimension. This a beautifully detailed, light-bodied with all-but absent tannin, and it’s a very fine villages wine. It’s delicious right now but with the balance to gracefully age.
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Ponsot, Bourgogne Cuvée du Pinson
Deeply coloured with a twist of purple. Wide, with a high toned and slightly estery nose. The palate is well concentrated and certainly well textured. High-toned, ripe fruit in the mouth with good acidity and good length. There is plenty of wine here, but today I find the high-toned flavour and aroma profile just a little odd (I remember a Dominique Laurent like this), in fact I didn’t want a second glass. Day two was much better – less high-toned and ‘chemical’. I very much enjoyed the last two glasses. A couple of bottles can sleep in the cellar…
Rebuy – Maybe

Drank directly following the Ardhuy 1er Cru Pommard (below), the Pommard doesn’t show a great deal more concentration but is a significantly more interesting wine for not dissimilar outlay.