05 lignier-michelot chambolle-musigny VV

By billn on September 25, 2007 #degustation#other sites

lignier-michelot chambolle2005 Lignier-Michelot, Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles Vignestry to find this wine...
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. The nose starts with a forward mix of red and black cherry plus a rather mineral note. The longer it stays in the glass, it becomes redder and finer but with much less volume. The palate is mainly about balance – reasonable concentration and a sneaky extra cherry dimension that goes into the palate too.
It’s quite lithe, not too muscular and again a little mineral. Today it’s a classy if slightly anonymous bottle – a very good bottle for sure, but one that I hope will become even better. Given it’s lowly en-primeur purchase price of 29 Swiss francs it remains an easy and bargain rebuy, if you can find some for that…
Rebuy – Yes

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Worth reading:

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bouchard père 05 mercurey

By billn on September 22, 2007 #degustation

2005 Bouchard Père et Fils, Mercureytry to find this wine...
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. The nose is high toned and very, very pinot with a faint oaky undertone. The palate is fresh with a faint astringency coupled to some grain from the tannins. Not so dense, but flavour-packed, though perhaps the acidity is just a little to the fore. A nice red-fruited complexion with a reasonable finish. Almost good, though factor in the price of 22 Swiss francs and it also stays only at ‘almost good’ value stakes – there are many bargains to be found in 2005, this doesn’t qualify.
Rebuy – Maybe

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  • SF Gate yet another interesting article – this time by Alice
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a.-f. gros 2005 vosne clos de la fontaine

By billn on September 21, 2007 #degustation

af gros vosne
2005 A.-F. Gros, Vosne-Romanée Clos de la Fontainetry to find this wine...
The cork seems surprisingly ‘spongy’ and pliable. Medium-plus colour. The nose is dark, spicy and shows a black oak toast and tar – eventually faint red fruits diluted by cream and faint ginger. In your mouth there’s a little fat and some silky texture – the tannin is quite fine. The mid-palate runs into quite a long finish – plenty of bitter-chocolate effect from the oak but some extra creamy fruit dimension too. This wine has plenty of dark oak character today but there’s more than enough density and material to balance – and it will fade with time, even in the glass, slowly there are redder fruits appearing. I’m not the biggest oak fan, but this is nicely presented and has plenty of ‘Vosne’ personality. I look forward following it’s evolution over the next 10+ years. My en-primeur price was a reasonable 35 Swiss francs.
Rebuy – Yes

Warning – turns your tongue purple! 😉

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g et p ravaut, 05 ladoix 1er le bois roussot

By billn on September 20, 2007 #degustation#other sites

ladoix 1er

More sophisticated than this wine but less ‘upfront’. Today I have a slight preference for the initial joie de vivre of the previously tasted wine – it will be interesting to compare them over time.
2005 Gaston et Pierre Ravaut, Ladoix 1er Le Bois Roussottry to find this wine...
A deep cherry-red core. The nose is understated but deep – it remains so even after the last hints of dark oak have receded. This 2005 is one of the rarer wines from the vintage with an edge of black fruit in the mix – the last drops in the glass are, however, pure red. Smooth and soft – almost sweetly cordial like – it will keep this aspect for about another 2 years before becoming more ‘classically’ fresh. But balanced freshness is already evident, and the tannin is very much hidden in the background. There’s plenty of material here, and most impressive is the value – this was about 19 Swiss francs, i.e regional bourgogne territory. Even in 2005 you will be hard pressed to find such a sophisticated bourgogne.
Rebuy – Yes

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New tidbits worth a visit:

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f et d clair, 05 st.aubin 1er dents de chien

By billn on September 19, 2007 #degustation#other sites

The second test from my delivery of en-primeur purchased 2005’s. Given the Indian Summer it had to be another white – it was too cold to drink much white this summer. Relative to other ‘Dents de Chiens’ this bottling is usually ‘only’ almost good to good, but wins for its bargain price, even in an appellation which is anyway good value – at 23 Swiss francs it’s cheaper than some bourgognes.
2005 François et Denis Clair, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents de Chientry to find this wine...
Medium-pale lemon yellow. The nose needs a little while to widen, perhaps a little white blossom. The palate is intense and soft, sweetly ripe. The acidity seems quite understated – but there’s much more density to this wine than in most vintages, it even has some focus. For the price, very impressive.
Rebuy – Yes

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Other tidbits worth a quick visit:

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the burgundy market ‘spin’

By billn on September 18, 2007 #other sites#the market

“Even as we move out of a comparatively difficult period in terms of sales, Burgundy still has major assets as regards its reputation and power of attraction. Wine lovers place great confidence in the Burgundy “brand”, which conveys strong values of authenticity, a centuries-old historical legacy, quality and typical features. Moreover, Burgundy wine professionals have succeeded in emphasising the value of wines produced using historic know-how – an asset which was formerly neglected. This is the case for Crémant de Bourgogne, which has been remarkably successful over the past few years. Finally, Burgundy has also reorganised its Bureau. Various key departments have been set up that are fully operational and swift to act, thus providing Burgundy with an effective communications relay to make its voice heard, undertake collective projects and anticipate future changes, in an atmosphere of mutual confidence.”

So runs the commentary of the BIVB to the record 925,000 hectolitres (123 million bottles, +1%) of sales during the 2006/07 period i.e. largely coinciding with the sales of the 2005 vintage. The emphasis of the points above is not badly made, but it makes too much of a leap of faith by additionally saying ‘the hard times of the past are over’ (my paraphrasing), by ignoring a potential ‘bubble’ for buyers of the 05’s. Recent hype brought many new buyers to the region simply because of its success and their wish to own (I’m not sure about drinking) those 99pt bottles – where will they be for the 2006 or harder still the 2007 vintages? – grape costs for both those vintages will be higher than for 2005. Let us see this time next year, and harder still in 2009…

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I also note with interest a new addition to wine-related online journals. Berry Bros & Rudd are pretty-much pioneers of web-based wine commerce and usually do everything to high standard, more importantly with commitment – let’s see how they develop…

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2005 bouchard père chablis bougros

By billn on September 16, 2007 #degustation

bouchard bougros chablisMy first ‘bulk’ delivery of en-primeur 2005’s, all ordered from the Swiss co-op back in April 2006. I’ve only had a bottle of Bouchard’s 2002 Bougros before and it was a beauty, but sadly sold out before I could make a second order. This time I wasn’t going to miss out – so a full 12 were ordered at a mere 33 Swiss francs per. This was allowed only 24 hours rest before popping the cork, I wonder how long I can wait to open the reds… 🙂
2005 Bouchard Père et Fils, Chablis Bougros try to find this wine...
Medium-pale lemon yellow. The nose is forward and deep, a little vanilla-custard and maybe some background sulfur that seems to slightly dull a citrus edge. The palate is… well… wow! Super-intense. It’s hardly at its best given my lack of patience as the impressive parts are not yet a ‘whole’ but there is reasonable minerality, impressive mid-palate intensity and and a great ‘zing’ to the acidity. The length is very good rather than outstanding, but clearly a bargain at the price.
Rebuy – Yes

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2001 drouhin vosne 1er petits monts

By billn on September 15, 2007 #degustation

petits monts drouhin
From the same source as the last two Drouhins. Whilst not so cheap at 62 Swiss francs, it’s a relative bargain as it’s about 65% of the initial price of the 2005 – which is anyway now sold-out.
2001 Joseph Drouhin, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Petits Montstry to find this wine...
Medium-plus ruby-red colour. The nose starts wide, wild and fecund – very impressive – but within 25 minutes it’s a shadow of its former self; higher-toned, fresh and herbal – spicy but without the earlier power. The palate is lithe, linear and undemonstrative – somehow metallic tasting. On the plus-side there is excellent texture and an implied rather than overt power. The length is impressive if rather understated. If I’m honest, there’s nothing here today except potential and more left the bottle for day 2 than normal. Day 2: much of the nose is returned, high-class Vosne, almost textural aromatics. The palate has improved some – mainly the width and length of the finish, but whilst there is enough to tempt me to buy more – this wine has become very difficult to find – you really should avoid opening bottles today.
Rebuy – Yes (eventually!)

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14th september – fin – almost…

By billn on September 14, 2007 #other sites#vintage 2007

cross of corton charlemagneThis will be the last ‘active’ note related to the 2007 Burgundy grape harvest, as by Monday the vendanges will be overwhelmingly over. A few additional summaries from growers will appear as they become available.

The weather has held up brilliantly over the last two weeks – though the temperature has remained below average, the accompaniment has been clear blue skies and sunshine. Just one or two ‘diehards’ are holding on to bring in a parcel of reds here or there, these and a little in the Hautes Côtes apart, and the pinot noir harvest is complete. Chardonnay needed more time and sun. Dominique Lafon picked his Montrachet a couple of days ago, and today there is mainly Charlemagne and Hautes Côtes to pick. Bonneau du Martray started picking their Corton-Charlemagne yesterday, and my ‘home team’ will start tomorrow.

The vintage will be as heterogeneous as the approaches and the quality of grapes and sorting; Jean-Marc Boillot started to harvest 20th August, Alain Burguet in Gevrey-Chambertin, who is always a late boy, started only last Saturday, the 8th September. Like most years the average quality of the pinot noir in the Côte de Nuits is higher than that of the Côte de Beaune, the whites look like they will be very nice, provided the grapes were harvested ripe. The later harvested pinots all showed an elevation of strawberry aromatics and were starting to hint of more roasted flavours.

So what of the home team? Monday saw the arrival of grapes from Chambertin, and they looked pretty good. Tuesday saw grapes from Latricières-Chambertin – they needed quite some work (just like in 2004) – and the last reds to be picked on Wednesday were from Maranges. Actually the Maranges looked great. Since Saturday, the team have seen a real leap in the visual quality of the grapes moving across the triage table. As mentioned, it is Corton-Charlemagne and Hautes Côtes blancs that will be the last to arrive – all tomorrow.

punchdown

In the cuverie we see the first cuvée to be pressed – it’s the Beaune 1er Cru Les Cras that we triaged on the 30th August. It seems nice and round – if hard to taste because of the malic acid – it’s reminiscent of a 2000 with just a little more depth. The fruit is very nice and it seems we had good phenolic ripeness as there was plenty of punching down to get the extraction, but to no ‘bitter’ effect. If we look back to our expectations as the harvest started, this is a great result.

Comments from our Morey St.Denis correspondent:

“I was obliged to finish on Sunday the cutting, but the working with the wine is rather tiring, we are still doing 12 hour days, but have long pauses in between. I am doing lots of push-downs, and sugaring the wines to get them to a degree decent. I am happy to do this as I am drawing out the fermentations much longer this way. I do have some pretty colors, I’ll see how it turns out, I have a hard time controlling the temperatures, I want to go up to 30° then bring it back down to 25° to keep my fruit. we try to keep it active during the day light hours, this keeps me by my thermometer. the first tank has been at 990 for 2 days now, I am doing this on purpose, its a tricky method, but if the year is not too fat, I’ll get a warm elegance out of this.

The Fixin (blanc) was cut on tuesday, pretty yellow grapes, not more than 10 rotten grapes in the whole vineyard. I could have waited for some other vines, but was pushed to cut fast for other reasons. I think that I am the happiest with the Passtoutgrains, Fixin, Bourgogne (one of my favorites anyway), The Morey Village is very nice, and the Combottes is extre, too bad I don’t have more. The Clos de la Roche is showing her typical violetes and bing cherries, a paradox that I can never forget, and the Riottes is more and more spicy. I did put some whole clusters in it this year.”

To finish off these notes – more very enjoyable reports from Domaine de la Vougeraie:

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