The trails and tribulations front of house…
The top restaurants; pole dancing, vomiting “happens all the time”, sex in the washroom – no it’s busy, let’s try under the table…
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By billn on August 26, 2007 #other sites
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le montrachet, j-f bazin (1990)
“At first it seems ridiculous to devote a whole book to a few acres of stony hillside, owned through the ages by an ever-changing, ever-squabbling gang of greedy rustics, producing a mere 30,000 bottles of wine per year.”
So starts the foreward by Nicolas Faith who edited this English translation of Jean-François Bazin’s 1988 publication in French, Le Montrachet, and it’s about the only tongue-in-cheek moment in the whole book. Don’t let that put you off. Despite the profiles of the domaines that own parts of Montrachet (or it’s hyphenated neighbours) being 20 years out of date, this 190 page book is worth any second-hand purchase you might find.
Bazin meticulously works his way through the history of the area and the families that owned parts of the vineyard, what was Montrachet and what tried to be Montrachet. This translation of his French text original is very well done and reads easily. I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes:
Showing that counterfeiting is as old as the sun:
“In 1822 André Jullien wrote: “Meursault… produces many highly appreciated white wines which, as they leave the area, often take on the name of the wines of Mont-Rachet which they resemble to some degree, though they do not have all their fine quality.” A century earlier, 1728 the priest Arnoux warned his readers against “the vines which are neighbours to that vineyard, for they somewhat resemble it in quality and sometimes pass for Montrachet”. “That is why you should be sure of having a trustworthy agent if you wish to procure some”, he advises.”
Finally, did someone mention squabbling rustics?
“It is probable that the strange greenish-yellow colour of Montrachet deepened along with progress in vinification and preservation of wines. In the eighteenth century it doubtless had the transparent palour of a young priest at court. Greenish-gold? Chablis and Pouilly-Fuissé also claim this mysterious blend of colour and its reflections. Yellow? “No” they say in Chassagne “Puligny is yellow.” Yellow? “No” they say in Puligny “Meursault is yellow.” “
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- Adding fuel to the bottle replication fire, this is an excellent piece.
- Snails, hired women, Paris Hilton, Tina Turner, Pommard and Ketchup – in that order!
- And this I like very much – Chateau Pétrogasm
- Finally, does (should) wine have a gender?
dujac 95 clos de la roche
1995 Dujac, Clos de la Roche
The colour is starting to take on a shade of mahogany, not perfectly bright – but see through. Aromatically it’s about heavy stems over pretty red fruit – cherry, strawberry and raspberry – and a little ‘raised’ balsamic impression. The palate is well textured and apart from a little extra width and intensity in the mid-palate, the wine is about understated, balanced delivery. The finish is almost good – no more. I think my last bottle was 3-4 years ago, the colour is a little older and the tannin is softer. Certainly very good, but my expectation is for outstanding.
Rebuy – Maybe
website hosting debacle – advice
First thanks for all your patience, I recieved 407 emails from ‘readers’ to tell me I had a site problem – it lasted just a few hours short of seven days – sorry I couldn’t reply to you all, I was trying to focus my corresondence on fixing the problem:
So how about a little advice to web-hosts?
- When the connection to databases fails on a server, it would be best let all the people housed on that server know by (mass) email, do not do nothing. Afterwards try to avoid the following:
- Do not wait 2 days to reply to user’s increasingly frustrated requests for info
- Do not tell users that their lack of website has been assigned ‘medium priority’
- After user has emailed the managing director to find out what is happening, do not reply saying ‘what do you expect, we don’t work weekends’
- Do not say that there will be a solution ‘today, or tomorrow – if it works’ and when it doesn’t work say nothing (again)…
They fixed it this morning, it took ~7 days. If anyone wants to offer me a great deal on a QUALITY windows hosted environment together with a MySQL database, drop me a line.
Cheers and thanks again
Bill
no bans, outlook and weather
This year is a ‘revolution’ in Burgundy – there are no ‘bans des vendanges’ – rather it is expected that everyone can be (act) ‘responsible’! The only decree was that the harvesting shouldn’t start before the 13th August, August 1st was initially suggested before reverting to the 13th – revolutions come hard!
Despite the weather maps showing clear for the next days, and in spite of daily weather reports looking almost good, the storms keep coming through. Wednesday (lastnight) had another heavy downpour for much of the Côte d’Or. It seems many still plan to start their harvest during the last days of August, others are scheduling September. Here’s one quote
“As we have a very bad summer (lots of rain), we are going to pick around 3-4 of September, I prefer that to be honest! Rot begins to be important now, it looks like a difficult vintage, but I like that !! 05 was too easy …”
more mischief
I must have been having a bad day, or perhaps it was the phase of the moon but I liked all of these when I paid a visit in May. M&M certainly seem to be on a roll. It was only the other day that I thought about it from a new perspective; if you can find a retailer of the wines and (important!) you like the style, it’s like having your own ‘personal shopper’ tasting dozens and dozens of things that you don’t have the time/possibility to do. The team at M&M taste lots and lots of wine and try to buy the ones they like – if you like what they like – bingo! I seem to be nicely correlated to their whites, the downside of which is that it can get expensive – the prices are not bad – so you buy more…doh!
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Morgeot
Bottled at the end of February. The nose is high-toned and shows nice depth. This is quite big in the mouth, there’s plenty of fruit extract and just the right amount of acidity to whisk you into a good finish.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Meursault 1er Charmes
It’s a nicely characteristic nose, some high tones over roast nuts. The palate has a nice, lean minerality and very good acidity to match. Fast on its feet, this is lovely – nice finish too.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Puligny-Montrachet 1er, Champs-Gains
A waxy, dense and impressive nose. Lovely minerality and super acidity that pushes long into a creamy finish. There’s a great extra dimesion in the mid-palate too. Just so communicative today – very lovely.
Rebuy – Yes like a shot…
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Puligny-Montrachet 1er, Caillerets
The nose is not so deep as the Champs-Gains, a little tighter but with a clear extra width. The action here is on the palate; mouthfilling then rather hauntingly and understatedly long. This has tightened since last tasted, the waves of attack are on a lower level. Still very, very classy.
Rebuy – Yes and did
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Gevrey-Chambertin
The nose is floral, bright and ripe – given time it shows redder and redder. Clean and linear with tannin that shows itself quite late. This is a nice fresh villages and recommended.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Volnay 1er, Clos des Chênes
A mineral nose with an undercurrent of red cherry. Lovely, with slightly plush concentration. The tannins are a little grainy but ripe and well-managed. Intense with a lingering finish. Worthy of the label.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Pommard 1er, Clos Blanc
An impressively complex nose, interesting and high-toned. Ripe, intense and again ripe tannin. Plenty of red-fruited, dense concentration. Very good.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Corton-Bressandes
A lovely, understated though ripe and slightly musky nose. Densly concentrated, super acidity with a real extra dimension on the palate. Good length too. A real grand cru at a bargain price.
Rebuy – Yes
2005 Mischief & Mayhem, Clos de Vougeot
The nose is very understated – not giving much away. The palate has a narrow entry that suddenly and impressively widens – bathed in ripe, decently grained tannin. There are many worse Clos Vougeots, though this is clearly giving little away today.
Rebuy – Maybe
01 bouchard père beaune 1er du château
2001 Bouchard P&F, Beaune 1er du Château
Last tried almost 3 years ago and it was very ‘awkward’. Medium ruby-red colour. Softly sweet red nose – primary but pretty. Medium weight, nicely transparent and with good acidity. This is altogether quite a charmer today – shame I held of more purchases as it’s all gone now!
Rebuy – Yes
remoriquet 98 les saint-georges
1998 H&G Remoriquet, Nuits St.Georges 1er Les St.Georges
Medium-plus ruby/mahogany colour. The nose is heavily scented; deep, dense and dank, with wet wood and aged vanilla-cream cherry. Concentrated and rather well textured for a top Nuits from a vintage that enjoys more than a hint of tannin – there’s very little astringency. The acidity remains fresh and mouthwatering though with just a little bitterness at the end. The length is very-good rather than great. Overall, this is impressively open for what is a relative youngster though it’s certainly brawny rather than elegant – but isn’t that the epitomy of a good Nuits? Oh and at ~£20 in the sale – a bargain! For drinking now and over the next 10+ years.
Rebuy – Yes
By the way, did I mention that it rained when we got back from the UK? Here’s the ‘middle bridge’ in Basel, lunchtime yesterday…