bouchard père 2000 beaune 1er clos du roi

By billn on May 04, 2007 #degustation

2000 Bouchard Père et Fils, Beaune 1er Clos du Roitry to find this wine...
This was lovely for about a year after release, was far less pleasant for about 2 years thereafter, but now it seems to be coming back into favour. This is made with purchased grapes from a long-term contract and is usually great value wine – if relatively simple vs their Beaune 1er du Château. The colour is medium ruby-red. The red-fruited nose just about avoids a baked/cooked effect and is high-toned and sweet with a hint of garden mint. The palate has just about enough acidity, a little fat and an interesting length. The finish has more than a hint of oak about it, but all the positives from oak and none of the negatives. Soft sweet and friendly – a nice wine.
Rebuy – Maybe

jean-claude belland 96 chambertin

By billn on May 02, 2007 #degustation

belland 1996 chambertin
1996 Jean-Claude Belland, Chambertintry to find this wine...
The colour is a rather deep mahogany with just a hint of ruby-red in the reflections. The nose shouts of toasty oak when first poured but rapidly starts to show a super depth and even height of red shaded fruits then finally some floral violet notes – super complexity and quite impressive. After the 2000 Thomas-Moillard St.Vivant this is excredibly lithe, tight and acid-driven – it takes a few sips to adjust before calm is restored. There’s real intensity here and though the finish is quite understated, it is very long. You sense rather than feel the tannins due to a faint astringency, but they are very well behaved. Slowly the density builds in the mid-palate rounding the wine out more and more – I’d say this conservatively needs another 5 years to make the next step from impressive to excellent. This was really super value costing ‘only’ ~€50, I seem to remember the price jumping significantly for the 1999 vintage, today I’ve lost touch on the pricing.
Rebuy – Yes

thomas-moillard 2000 romanée saint-vivant

By billn on May 01, 2007 #degustation

thomas moillard vivantAnother en-primeur purchase – this time for around €50. Just like the Bonnes-Mares, these vines are now owned by Dujac – I expect the 2005 vintage will also be rather aspirationally priced! I opened a 99 last year and found it incredibly young so decided to pop my lone 91 for comparison – blind you would have difficulty spotting which was which! Time to see how approachable the 2000 is…
2000 Thomas-Moillard, Romanée Saint-Vivanttry to find this wine...
A lovely medium-plus ruby red colour – still just a hint of cherry red at the rim. The nose starts just a little meaty and beetrooty – not so great – but soon there is creamy black cherry but with a hint of reduction, finally it becomes redder, softer, more floral and much more interesting. This wine equals the concentration of the Bonnes-Mares but with a totally different and much more elegant personality. The tannins are in there somewhere, but the super-smooth, high quality fruit is the main attribute. The finish is borne on nicely judged acidity and again hints towards cream-edged black cherry – oh and it’s excellent – really long. Very young, but this is a wine I should perhaps have gone for the ‘full 12′ rather than the 6, it’s also more ‘honest’ about the vintage than the Bonnes-Mares was; obviously ripe with understated acidity and just a little plump. Versus the 1999 at the same time last year this is all the more interesting, elegant and drinkable – the 99 probably needs 10+ years to excite.
Rebuy – Yes

thomas-moillard 2000 bonnes-mares

By billn on April 29, 2007 #degustation

thomas moillard bonnes maresThis wine ‘only’ cost about €45 as an en-primeur – at that price it’s fantastic value. These vines are now owned by Dujac – I expect the 2005 vintage will cost at least €150!
2000 Thomas-Moillard, Bonnes-Marestry to find this wine...
Medium-plus garnet-red colour. The nose starts wide with a deep red core. Time adds a faint cedar with a mint edge that’s subtle enough to add a nice additional complexity rather than an obvious unripe element. The palate offers quite some surprises; the slightly astringent tannins are just a little rustic, but there is depth, plus a shape and acid balance that you would never assume to come from the ripe 2000 vintage. The concentration is ample, and delivered in a fresh and lithe, rather than fat way. The finish shows good, if not amazing length, but there’s a lot of complexity and depth here. It’s a young, rather ‘old school’ wine, but one that brims with value. I’ll revisit ~2012.
Rebuy – Yes

william fevre 2001 chablis le clos

By billn on April 27, 2007 #degustation

fevre le closFor the 1999-2001 vintages these wines were an absolute steal, but from 2002 and presumably boosted by the stellar burghound reviews the prices crept ever-higher. I would estimate that 2005 is about 70% more expensive than 2001 – it’s still a good value package – but…

What a blow – to add to the higher cost, I decided to christen my cellar with the first bottle from this case; carefully opening the wooden case, I placed one bottle on the floor while re-sealing the case – then knocked over the bottle! concrete floors are not so forgiving, so despite no ‘fall height’ I am left with a wet floor and no Le Clos!

Now only 10 are left – this note from bottle 2:
2001 William Fevre, Chablis Le Clostry to find this wine...
A young lemon-yellow colour. The nose is a little reticent but wide and with some citrus bite – slowly increasing in depth with time. The palate is well textured – even waxy – also, like the nose, it’s understated and tight though the perfect acidity and length go unquestioned. This is showing about 50% of what was on display about 18 months ago so I won’t touch another for 4 or 5 years. Should still be top-class in the future
Rebuy – Maybe

mugnier 99 villages chambolle

By billn on April 24, 2007 #degustation

mugnier 99 chambolle
Drunk as a counterpoint to yesterdays Lignier – it’s not a great start (by comparison) leave it with me a while – I’ll come back in a couple of hours…

1999 J-F Mugnier, Chambolle-Musignytry to find this wine...
The first bottle from a pack of 12 halves. Medium ruby-red, still edged with cherry-red. The nose starts just a little lactic, but the raspberry fruit soon dovetails to give a better creamy raspberry effect – the last sniffs are quite brown sugar… The palate is lithe, though seems rather less concentrated than the preceding Lignier, but it’s light on its feet with a medium finish – the acidity slowly lingers. These 1999’s were lovely on release but just now they are ‘only’ showing as ‘pretty good’. Much less compelling than the 2000 Lignier today. I’ll let them rest for 3-5.
Rebuy – Maybe

hubert lignier 2000 chambolle

By billn on April 23, 2007 #degustation

hubert lignier chambolle
2000 Hubert Lignier, Chambolle-Musignytry to find this wine...
Medium garnet but it still retains more than an edge of cherry-red. The nose impresses with lovely high-toned fruit over a deeper base – it starts with a twist of black, but gets redder and finer all the while – eventually I even find wild strawberry, a common descriptor for pinot, but one that I rarely find. This wine shows an impressive level of concentration to go with its smooth texture. There’s plenty of oak artifacts on the finish – vanilla cream – but it’s very long for a village wine and continues to impress as the glass empties. What differentiates this from other ‘beautifully oaked’ wines is the fresh, complex and compelling ‘Chambolle’ fruit on the nose – devoid of oak. I remember this being relatively expensive, but it’s a wine that I can say I wish I had more of. Smooth and ‘giving’ there’s definitely no rush to drink this.
Rebuy – Yes

alex gambal 02 st.aubin dents de chien

By billn on April 22, 2007 #degustation

alex gambal st.aubin
2002 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents de Chientry to find this wine...
From magnum. Medium lemon-yellow colour. The nose is soft and sweet with a faint citrus edge over a note of ripe pear. In the mouth this has a soft texture and in particular has a lovely and impressively lingering, mineral intensity. The acidity is almost good and certainly leaves my mouth watering. This is a super little wine which I try to buy every year, great value.
Rebuy – Yes

arnoux’s 2001 vosne suchots

By billn on April 21, 2007 #degustation

arnoux 2001 suchotsHow quickly prices can move. I bought the 1999 for under 60 euros – this 2001 is more like 90 euros from a Swiss merchant.

This 2001 is actually the result of my corked Jadot Clos de Bèze from the group of 1999’s last week; the seller of the Bèze was happy to exchange, but (of course) has no more Bèze – within 5 euro, this is now the same price! Anyway, I decided it would be good to experience this 2001 after the 1999…

2001 Robert Arnoux, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots
Medium, medium-plus ruby red colour. The nose starts with heavy, sweet oak that totally obscures any fruit. The palate is jam packed and quite well textured, but my first impression is the creamy coconut on a finish who’s duration is frankly amazing for a 1er cru, it’s even like toffee after (over) a minute. The overall stance of this wine is medium-weight and it really has first-class balance – though I couldn’t find anything to indicate the village, let alone the vineyard for the first hour if was in my glass. The most telling comment came from my wife – and she wasn’t tasting (yet) – “what’s wrong, why are you pulling a face – is it corked?” – I didn’t know I was being watched! Two hours(!) in there’s a finer red fruit note just starting to appear above the sweet, soft base. Unlike some very expensive names in 2001, this wine has very ripe, if understated tannin and is excuisitely made, but particular in style. Going forward from here is quite simple; if you want a very high quality wine to luxuriate in, drink this wine right away. If, however, you want to drink a very high quality wine that reflects its origin, then don’t even think of opening one of these before 2012 – or you will be disappointed – in fact, make that 2015!
Rebuy – Maybe

I suppose I should be happy that I would much rather drink (for instance) Potel’s Suchots than Arnoux’s – the Potel is that much more transparent, and ‘only’ about 60% of the cost – at least that would be my preference in the first 10 years of the wine’s life – after 10 years in the cellar, who knows…(?)

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