chartron & coche-dury in chassagne

By billn on January 21, 2007 #degustation

Three of us decidied it would be a white wine night at the at the restaurant Le Chassagne. The service was both excellent and friendly, the wines were very well priced and the food was very well presented – but like our choice of wines, the food was good rather than great. The company was, however, ‘very fine’.
;-)
2004 Jean Chartron, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Clos de la Pucelletry to find this wine...
Medium lemon-yellow. The wide, high-toned nose shows a little citrus interest and some faint oak artifacts – it’s quite interesting, but could do with a little more density. The palate is delicate rather than dense – I feel there is something missing – perhaps the yields were a little high(?) The good acidity brings you quickly into the mid-palate, and initially a rather coarse showing due to the oak treatment. An hour from opening and the wine is much more comfortable in it’s own skin and quite Puligny; clean but missing 1er cru intensity. Good but not great.
Rebuy – No
2004 Coche-Dury, Meursault 1er Cailleretstry to find this wine...
Medium lemon-yellow. The nose is quite high-toned with faint, but not excessive, estery notes over a base of mainly pear fruit. The palate is a little fatter than the Chartron, quite silky and also shows good acidity. There is some intensity of fruit, but despite some minerality it is delivered in a rather dense and unyielding fashion. Excellent length. This is a very good and very well proportioned wine, but I miss some engagement.
Rebuy – Maybe

benchmark for a generation pt.2

By billn on January 19, 2007 #the market

I thought I would just let that initial comment hang there a while 🙂

Of-course that comment is aimed at the red wines of the vintage; whites are opulent and rich (2003 with acidity) – with the potential exception of Chablis they may not be everyone’s cup of tea – but don’t worry 2006 looks like being an even better 2004; perhaps these will define the whites for a generation, assuming they don’t oxidise…

The problem today is that it’s almost impossible to separate the annual hype from comments that may have some merit. From some producers there is much to validate such a suggestion; let’s take at a look at the competition for 2005:

  • 1999 was a fantastic vintage but could have been even better if yields had been better managed
  • 2002 was (in my opinion) not quite as good as 1999 – this time yields were no issue – but one problem was a less than ideal growing season that was only saved by September weather
  • 2005 had a good growing season, was virtually problem free, has no more than an average yield and typically required little more than a cursary triage.

The only real negative I can see for the 2005’s is that today’s hype is based on the wines in cask – this has yet to be translated into bottles – many, many domaines will not make their final (and in some cases first) racking for another couple of weeks, afterwards making their assemblage and finally bottling (maybe) at the end of February. Typically they are looking to get the final polishing of their oak tannins, but you only have to look at the 2004’s to see that things don’t always develop as planned.

Just in case you wondered, that ‘generation’ comment can be attributed to the venerable house of Joseph Drouhin, who didn’t need any extra help selling their wines as they are close to sold-out even before the trucks start leaving Beaune…

“2005 will benchmark vintages for a generation”

By billn on January 18, 2007 #the market

There is always hype of some kind associated with the launch of each new vintage – but comments like the one above are not the norm. That the comment came today from someone who has already largely pre-sold all their 2005’s is telling – even internally at the domaine they are carving up their remaining bottles; “If I give you three bottles of this, I want 3 bottles of that in return…” – there will be almost no showings of their 2005’s – instead they will move direct to 2006’s for customer days!

I will add more info as I visit the domaines this week…

04 ancienne cuvée carnot

By billn on January 17, 2007 #degustation

volnay caillerets cuvee carnotI bought a six-pack of this wine ‘en-primeur’ – without tasting – you can do that with a relative degree of confidence with some producers. From the first sniff I’m thinking: ‘maybe I didn’t buy enough…’

2004 Bouchard Père et Fils, Volnay 1er Caillerets Ancienne Cuvée Carnottry to find this wine...
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. From cellar temp (15°C) the nose shows several layers; high-toned jellied black fruit at the top, earthier, leathery notes in the middle and lower-down. Leave the glass for a while and it fills with cream and a faint smoke edge – mmm. The palate is quite a departure from the norm in 2004 – lots of faintly grained tannin – but there’s quite enough intensity of black-shaded fruit to match. The acidity takes a little-bit of backseat to the fruit and tannin, just slowly making your mouth water. I might wish for a little more expansion in the mid-palate, but the finish is long with hints of mocha and a bitter young-oak edge. Not the easiest of wines to drink, but no green notes here. This very young wine needs at least three 3 years before revisiting – but it will be worth it – it has the potential to be excellent.
Rebuy – Yes

turning off the light

By billn on January 16, 2007 #other sites

closing the doorwine-journal was a bright shining light in the firmament of online wine-writing; frankly the copy was far better than the regurgitated prose that passes for advertorials in most magazines. Neal Martin’s wit and personality – not to mention independence of thought – shone out for all to see. Serious, comedic, even tragi-comedy.

It is right that he is recognised and indeed rewarded for his effort and it is telling that it was Robert Parker himself that hired Neal – kudos, as he says. It’s just a shame that his back-catalogue of works is now withdrawn from the site, our only remaining tool the wayback machine, unless you want to pay uncle Bob of course! Funny thing is, we will probably see more of him now than we did before
– some you win, some you lose 😉

bachelet 04 cote de nuits villages

By billn on January 15, 2007 #degustation

bachelet 2004 cote de nuits
2004 Denis Bachelet, Côte de Nuits Villagestry to find this wine...
Deeper coloured and a little more purple than the Ecard Savigny that preceded it. The floral nose is wide and fresh with traces of cedar and a warm and sweet, slightly creamy and smoky depth. The palate is well concentrated for the appellation, flavour-packed and just a little sweet. Fresh acidity and grainy tannin combine to make this just a little more rustic than the Savigny, but the acidity pins you down for a reasonably long finish. That 2004 cedar note is also there on the palate, but in a modest fashion. It’s not the best example of this wine from the last years, but it’s a good example and as always, it shows lots of value.
Rebuy – Yes

rodet acquire a maison and a monopole

By billn on January 14, 2007 #the market

News on the Antonin Rodet website announces their acquisition of Maison Dufouleur Père & Fils including the addition of the large Nuits Monopole, the 1er Cru Clos de Thorey to the “Domaines Rodet family”:

The Mercurey-based Burgundy Wine group Antonin Rodet, founded in 1875, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sequana Capital, has announced the acquisition of Maison Dufouleur Père et Fils located in Nuits-Saint-Georges. The acquisition covers both the wine brokerage business and the 10.5-hectare Domaine Barbier estate. With a tradition of wine production and trading passed down from father to son over more than 400 years, Dufouleur Père et Fils, through its name, its experience and its constant quest for quality, is a very well-established name in the Burgundy wine industry.
Philippe Vidal, Chairman of Antonin Rodet, noted: “This strategic acquisition is a major development in the history of Antonin Rodet and marks our return to the leading group of Burgundy wine houses. The strong values shared by both houses will help drive their growth whilst respecting their individual strategies, and will also produce operational synergies.”

Xavier Dufouleur, who will continue to be involved in the commercial activities of Maison Dufouleur Père et Fils, added: “I am delighted to be joining the Rodet Group. This will open the way to expansion for our house that would not have been available to us on our own, particularly in export markets.”The Domaine Guy Dufouleur estate, which was not included in the scope of the acquisition, has signed a contract to supply the new Rodet-Dufouleur Group.

Le Clos de Thorey becomes a Domaine Rodet.

Le Clos de Thorey Monopole, a 3-hectare Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru estate, has joined the Domaines Antonin Rodet family. Other notable member estates include the 30-hectare Domaine du Château de Rully and the 48-hectare Domaine du Château de Mercey.In 2008, Antonin Rodet will start selling the 2006 vintage. Nadine Gublin, the House’s Cellar Master, was enthusiastic about Le Clos de Thorey: “This magnificent hillside land faces due east and is located in a perfectly ventilated area at the northern end of the Nuits-Saint-Georges region. This allowed us to produce a thoroughbred, refined wine with very pure fruit for the 2006 vintage.”

ecard 04 savigny 1er jarrons

By billn on January 14, 2007 #degustation

ecard 2004 jarrons
I haven’t yet looked into the minutiae of the distinction, but one man’s Jarrons seems to be another man’s Dominode – as best as I can work out (without checking) Dominode seems to be an area within Jarrons – or could it be the other way around despite Dominode being so-much the larger…

This wine started quite oaky and a little flat – it wasn’t looking good, but patience paid dividends.
2004 Maurice Ecard, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Jarronstry to find this wine...
Medium cherry-red colour. The nose starts soft, sweet and quite oaky – though not very toasty – over one hour from opening and you have high-toned estery notes over what is frankly a super, griotte-like red fruit nose. As with the nose, some time is required before real interest is found – it starts rather flat – so-much so that I wondered if there might be a little taint. One hour of patience reveals a light-medium-weight wine of elegance and real complexity; the acidity is quite fresh and the wine is lithe rather than fat, but there is an array of red fruits and a little raisin edge to the subtle but long finish. Tannin slips by virtually un-noticed. This is a world away from dense, blockbuster wines and I suspect it will disappoint some drinkers, but for me, despite the wait, it delivered.
Rebuy – Yes

02 bouchard père beaune du chateau

By billn on January 13, 2007 #degustation

2002 Bouchard Père, Beaune 1er Beaune du Châteautry to find this wine...
Medium-plus cherry-red colour, no evolution of the colour yet. The nose started powdery and a little mildewy, it took over an hour in the glass to clean up and show high toned red fruits at the top and just a little blacker material below. Sweet, quite well textured and with lovely mid-palate intensity. The tannins are less grainy than many 2002’s and still reasonably well-covered. There’s plenty of good acidity to ride you through into an equally good finish – though there’s just a little finishing bitterness – this will resolve over the next 2 years. Still a relative bargain for the quality, I expect this wine will have a good long life.
Rebuy – Yes

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