So many things (including Leroy!)…

By billn on September 11, 2006 #degustation#vintage 2006

Let me see; a wonderful dinner last night in the Hotel Adler. 12 different bottles of Domaine and Maison Leroy wines from 2004 to 1966. The 2004 ‘blends’ have been really hyped – vs the hype I was disappointed – but it will take me some while to write-up my pages of notes! The merchant responsible for this excellent event was Max Gerstl, well-done Max. Just for the record, the wines were:

  1. 1997 Leroy SA, Bourgogne Blanc
  2. 1996 Leroy SA, Meursault 1er Cru Perrières
  3. 1966 Leroy SA, Meursault Peruzot
  4. 2004 Domaine Leroy, Bourgogne Rouge
  5. 2004 Domaine Leroy, Vosne-Romanée
  6. 1966 Leroy SA, Corton Grand Cru
  7. 2003 Domaine Leroy, Savigny-lèes-Beaune 1er Cru Narbantons
  8. 2003 Domaine Leroy, Chambolle-Musigny Les Fermiers
  9. 2003 Domaine Leroy, Nuits St.Georges
  10. 2003 Domaine Leroy, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Les Combottes
  11. 2003 Domaine Leroy, Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru
  12. 1966 Leroy SA, Chapelle-Chambertin Grand Cru

Returning to the ‘hot’ topic; still no rain in the Côte d’Or – the weather was just a little cooler on Friday, but back up to 28/29°C for the weekend and with it was a little more breeze and a little less humidity – Just what we want. Can it last for another 10-20 days…(?)

Cheers

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wine bottle closures – the book

By billn on September 05, 2006 #books, maps, magazines, films even podcasts!#vintage 2006

jamie's most recent bookI just got to the end of Jamie Goode’s self-published book on wine bottle closures. The book is a distillation of current knowledge/data with respect to the various approaches to what I will call ‘taint management’.

To be honest, I found this a really interesting read and though there is a high dose of technical language, Jamie really made it easy for this (ex) research chemist – I think it’s also reasonably approachable for ‘lay’ readers.

Unlike Jamie’s book on wine science, this is a lower-budget presentation that is structured with very short sections that are perfect for 15 minutes reading here and 10 minutes there – my main reading operandi. Jamie repeats himself often; it’s like a presenter, telling you what he’s going to tell you, then telling you, then finally reminding you what he’s told you – but for me it worked very well – and I think I even retained some of the info! Chapter #3 is a super reference to sulfur and oxidation & reduction in wine that would sit well in any reference book and is almost worth the price of entry for that section alone. Highly Recommended!

sunnyPlenty of good weather today on the Côtes, lots of sunshine. The nights have warmed just a little, and the temperature at 2:00pm was 28˚C
Cheers

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Burgundian Weather + Lunch

By billn on September 04, 2006 #vintage 2006

weather_not_bad.jpgSo-far, so-good. The weather is not so hot (about 25˚C) but more importantly, there is plenty of sunshine. More of this, and a little breeze to counteract the humidity, and things will be just perfect – unfortunately we need about another 3 weeks of this.
Lunch with the future of British winewriting today; Neal Martin and Jamie Goode – the gossip will be flying – should be great fun!
Cheers

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September means harvest – maybe!

By billn on September 01, 2006 #vintage 2006

We move into the business-end of the year – the ripening season – after a strange growing season. There was tons and tons of rain early in the year.

June brought perfect, even flowering conditions. This, together with the earlier rain caused dense, lush foliage growth.

July made everyone think of 2003 – it was hotter than that year with record temperatures across the whole of Europe – already some were thinking that late August holidays could (again) be a mistake. It seems that the early season rain was very-much needed

August was cold and dark – double the normal amount of rain too. However advanced the vines had been in July, by the end of August we were back to the average – but only by mixing the highs and lows.

September is upon us and every year this makes the vintage – or not. It has started with clear skies and ‘okay’ temperatures (~25°C). Now is the time to watch closely!

Cheers

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Weekly Roundup

By billn on August 27, 2006 #site updates

Last week was an interesting week, one where the world of wine critics lost a great writer. I was never a fan of Pierre’s blanket positions on vintages – he of all people should have known that a vintage is a shade of gray, not a black or white thing – but where Pierre excelled was in the enthusiastic communication of the facets of the land and the people. He’s returning to the commerce side of the wine business and I wish him well.

Nothing visible on the website in terms of new pages, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no pedalling below the surface! A profile of Tollot-Beaut is 98% complete for the November issue and I’m deep into the research aspects (bottles!) of a profile of the village, Vosne-Romanee. This week I will add another 30 or-so notes to the NoteFinder – I plan to do this monthly, but will still keep the roundup in each issue.

September is fast approaching; with it a nice dinner with a dozen wines from Leroy – going back to some ‘new’ releases of wines from 1966 as well as the ‘declassified 2004’s. While I think about it, there will also be the small matter of a harvest…
Cheers

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Clos Goillotte…

By billn on August 24, 2006 #other sites

the clos goillotte

Hard to find this wine as it’s such a small (monopole) vineyard in Vosne-Romanee – it’s attached to the old hunting lodge of the Dukes of Burgundy and at 0.55 hectares, barely big enough to have been their kitchen garden, but Dave Brookes has managed to get hold of a bottle! – Looks (overly) pricy, but it is a ’99 I suppose, and it did sound rather nice…
Cheers

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jamie goode’s new-found friend

By billn on August 23, 2006 #other sites

Our German cousins call it schadenfreude, basically it means taking a little enjoyment out of someone-else’s misfortune. The word sprang to mind when I read the post on Jamie’s blog. I’m frankly amazed that: a)this Master of Wine has no idea of the CV of his target, and b)that he would choose such uninformed rudeness (I can’t think of an alternative word – though perhaps arrogance could be substituted) for a public forum. Clearly Jamie was scathing about the scientific basis of this ‘gadget’ – but let’s be honest, there is none – but he was not rude. Perhaps Jamie should invite a few ‘more senior’ MW’s to roadtest the gadget vs other ‘aeration’ devices, as this seems to be the mode of action – assuming there is one.
My smile widened when the errant MW mentioned that he had tested the device ‘several’ times – ah, at last, some scientific rigour!
Cheers

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away-days

By billn on August 15, 2006 #travel

matterhornJust back from 5 days without electronic communication – and no withdrawal symptoms either!

I think I managed to find just about the only part of Europe that had (a little) sunshine.

Thursday and Friday 1,000 metres up and 1,000 metres down, Saturday 800 metres up, Sunday 600 metres up and down.

Zermatt is very picturesque too, shame the main street is like a busy shopping arcade, but turn any corner and your in another world. Plus if there is blue sky, there’s always the Matterhorn to look at!

Because of the steady growth of the Burgundy-Report site, I’m working hard trying to get wordpress up and running as I feel that I need to better ‘manage’ the content – and hard work I’m finding it too! It’s great if you just want to use the default template, but (of-course) I don’t.

I’m quite happy with HTML, but this is another ballgame…

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NoteFinder Update

By billn on August 09, 2006 #site updates

I was reasonably happy with the first implementation, but three things were apparent:
1. The lists of producers and wines were cumbersome to navigate – at least with the solution provided.
2. The text entry for a text search was not so elegant.
3. The database has spelling in (typically) the correct French – e.g. Chézeaux, not Chezeaux. Anyone typing in the latter will not get the 30+ notes from the former!

Well 1 & 2 are fixed, but I still don’t have a solution for 3. Any ideas will be gratefully accepted.
Cheers

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