2019 Jean-Claude Lapalu, Beaujolais Villages Le Rang du Merle
A Bordeaux bottle! Late-picked grapes, ‘not much extraction’
A nose that takes some coaxing from the glass, but it is cool, complex and inviting. This is concentrated wine – very red-fruited – it’s silky wine too with only a faint accent of tannin. Very delicious. On day two, despite overnight in the fridge – there are some more developed, meaty notes – drink up and enjoy on day one!
Rebuy – Yes

2010 François Gaunoux, Meursault 1er Goutte d’Or
Freshly yellow coloured. This nose starts a little reductive, needing about 20 minutes in the glass to bring clarity and no shortage of flinty, mineral, aroma. Ooh, that’s a bit of a brute – concentrated, structural, mineral and just so young – the slightly reductive feeling never leaving the flavours. Structurally similar but the flavours seem quite different compared to when last opened – about two years ago.
Rebuy – Maybe

2010 Joseph Roty, Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire
After last week’s ‘ultra-easy’ 2010 Gevrey Brunelle I thought that I’d check in on this one.
This nose is deep, red-fruited, a little narrow and showing some obvious aromatic development – not the ultra inviting purity of fruit of the first 8-9 years. In the mouth this retains a nice shape and energy, the fruit is tasty too. But like the nose this has now lost that ravishingly beautiful combination of fruit purity and energy that commanded ‘drink me.’ I only have a couple of remaining bottles from this 12-pack and they will still be enjoyed, I just won’t wait too long!
Rebuy – Yes – but now from later vintages…

2019 Cyril Gautheron, Chablis 1er Montmains Vieilles-Vignes
One of this year’s house wines…
This has a nice stony/rocky impression to the nose with just a twist of citrus – that’s a fine invitation. In the mouth this is broad over the palate, missing some of extra ‘chiselled’ impression that it gave me at the domaine pre-bottling. This slightly fatter style than I expected doesn’t detract from the delicious flavours but it does make for a wine that doesn’t challenge me as much as I’d been looking forward to. Yum – and, of course, with a lot of time on its side…
Rebuy – Maybe

2010 Joseph Roty, Gevrey-Chambertin La Brunelle
My first from this 6-pack. Talking of not be challenged…
Medium colour – but still a young-looking colour. Round, easy red fruit on the nose – very primary. Hmm, it’s Roty and it’s Gevrey but where’s the challenge? This is round, simple and red-fruited – almost a kids’ cordial fruit style – hardly any structure, certainly silky and with a little undertow of creamy oak. Far too easy to drink! Actually, I think their 2010 BGO (and I haven’t finished my 12-pack of that yet) to be a more interesting drink at the moment. Easy but also primary, delicious but with hardly any visible structure – for this combination of producer and place I’m amazed. I hope it gains a bit of ‘oomph’ with time, as such I probably won’t return for at least 3-4 years…
Rebuy – Maybe

The village Chambolle. Another case rescued from solitary confinement in the UK. Way back when – this was an en-primeur purchase – I don’t think I paid more than £23-24 a bottle; peanuts in a modern context but not inexpensive when you consider that Engel’s Grands Echézeaux cost £40.50 and some of Fred Esmonin’s grand crus were under £30 in the same EP campaign!

1999 Ghislaine Barthod, Chambolle-Musigny
Another nicely robust cork that needs energy to remove but comes out in one piece – hardly any ingress of wine colour along its length.
A shade more depth of colour versus the 1999 Bourgogne today – but only marginally. This nose starts both deeper and fuller – almost a velour texture to it – but any purity of fruit is lacking for the first 20 minutes after opening – slowly but surely it comes into focus though and is more floral in character than that of the 99 Bourgogne – there’s the merest, and only occasional, accent of brett too but it’s significantly below any threshold of displeasure on my part. An hour in and the nose has a bit of beef-broth going on. Ooh, that a big wine in the mouth – not seamless but powerful – full of detail and complexity. This is still a bit of a baby but with so many positive aspects. I forgive the youth because I’m too busy with the next little note of complexity that comes along. There is a bit of brett which begins to add some frustration – though all the bottles will be different. The now modest tannin still has a drying accent too but parts of this wine are beguiling. Better than a Curate’s Egg but still far from perfect.
Rebuy – Maybe

Including another Barthod from my (previous) UK storage – there are more…

2018 Auvigue, Pouilly-Fuissé La Frérie
Cork sealed – the climat name used here.
A forward, slightly round nose – there’s fresh intent but framed with a lemon-custard impression. A wine that, like the nose, starts round but then comes to a more intense point of flavour – here at the end, along with a suggestion of salinity, before that the lemon-custard style of the nose. Delicious it is, and that’s despite a lot of flavour having an origin in the barrels.
Rebuy – Maybe

1999 Ghislaine Barthod, Bourgogne
Nearly a full case of this ‘rescued’ from the UK. Cork-sealed, still robust too.
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts a little tight but then bursts into action with a very high-quality, purity of, red fruit – thats very lovely and it has some depth too. Aromatically this seems rather younger than its 22 years – just adding a slightly mineral and graphitic quality with time. In the mouth, this is lithe, direct too. There’s a small fur of tannin but it’s largely bereft of dryness. I love the line and fine acidity here. The finishing flavours recollect the mineral style that became evident on the nose. Overall good sweetness yet this remains a wine of indeterminate age, drinking well despite no overt age-related sous-bois / dried leaves. Not the extra – complete – ripeness of recent vintage Bourgognes but with a clarity of fruit that is different. Lovely wine…
On day two the mineral aspects are more to the fore and there’s a little extra bitters creeping into the finish – it was finer on day 1.
Rebuy – Yes

Whilst in the UK last week, I took the opportunity to take delivery of ‘stocks’ of wines that I’d kept in different locations. I’d anyway not visited the UK for three years so it seemed silly to keep paying storage charges for wines that I wasn’t drinking. Delivery duly received, I just had the matter of navigating the post-Brexit customs when I returned home via France. Fortunately being one of the first off the boat meant that they were not ready to ask questions as I sped home on Saturday 🙂

Here are just some thoughts on two that I opened midweek without taking any notes – spot the generic similarity of the labels:

2004 Ghislaine Barthod, Chambolle-Musigny: There’s a long and boring story behind the reason for having a case from this vintage but given that 9 bottles remained I thought I’d make a quick raincheck on how bad they could be! Though the pyrazine taint remains obvious to me, the wine is round and has good flavour too. I even took a second glass which means I liked the wine more than I expected to – clearly I wouldn’t rebuy though!

1998 Denis Mortet, Gevrey-Chambertin:
Previously, this was always a good wine aromatically spoiled by a very ashy oak treatment. There remains more than a hint of cigarette ash on the nose even at close to 25 years of age but the fruit has become rounder and the wine generally more accommodating. The ash is hardly visible in the flavours and I must say, this is rather atypically round and sweetly fruited for the vintage – the acidity is fine though – there were no obvious tannic references to the vintage either. A smooth, supple and delicious wine – only 3 or 4 remain from this case but I will be enjoying them over the next few years.
Rebuy – Yes today. Due to the aromatic oak, I know I was less positive in the wine’s first 15 years!