A ‘northern Burgundy night! A few ‘house’ Chablis to start the night – because we were 4!

2010 Benoît Cantin, Irancy
‘Only the standard Irancy, but a magnum! Of-course, a cork that broke in two!
Medium colour – just! The nose has a small vibration of fruit and a herby note – rosemary – interesting and quite inviting. Nice and freshly mouth-filling, I like the energy here. Not über-concentrated, more of an airy style to this, but this is tasty, easy to appreciate wine: a magnum of not so great wine tends to hang around, but this was a bottle that emptied quite quickly for its size. A similar level to a very good Bourgogne here.
Rebuy – Yes

I’d hate to think of myself as an ‘evangelist’ for anything because I’m a fan of balance; as such, when it comes to sealing a bottle I’ll buy wine that has been stoppered with anything if I’m intending to drink it within 2-3 years – both colours – but if I’m cellaring whites I want DIAM. The ‘traditional’ alternative has cost me too much over the years. I’d take screwcap too, but I so rarely see them. For reds I don’t have any problem staying with cork, but here’s an interesting example of one of the earliest DIAM bottlings, but still in perfect condition after 15 years.

2005 Roger Belland, Santenay 1er La Comme
DIAM seals were commercially available since 2004, here’s an example for an early adopter, but in red. This seal was in perfect condition – wine ingress amounting to no more than 2mm – at that rate the wine will age 100 years before the seal is breached!
Plenty of colour. Fresh, intense, the last vestiges of creamy oak – this nose is now far more interesting than when the wine was young. There’s a little grain of tannin at the base of this wine but the texture is good and the concentration for the label is very impressive – that’s the vintage of course. The creamy oak on the nose overlays the fruit on the palate too – but gives this wine an extra something to its baseline and little extra gloss. The flavour widening impressively in the finish. It’s a shame that this is my last of these; what was once concentrated, oaky and lacking a little clarity is now very good – another 5 years and it could be a dry fine Santenay indeed!
Rebuy – Yes

Well, you have ease yourself out of such things – no(?)

2018 Françoise André, Pernand-Vergelesses Les Pins
Plenty of colour. A nose that has depth but is floral and forward too. Plenty of saline edge to the concentration, practically a little mint in the middle structure too. Young but already accessible – still, the least ready of these three wines – so I’d wait 2-3 years …
Rebuy – Yes

2013 Bouchard Père, Chassagne-Montrachet En Remilly
54mm diam 10 – top!
A wide nose, of textured floral depth and faint tarte au citron – I would say not just an inviting nose but distinguished too. Silky, lithe, direct – more Chevalier than Chassagne without doubt – widening with citrus intensity. Gorgeous wine…
Rebuy Yes

2018 Françoise André, Corton-Renardes
A little test of some whole-clusters in this vintage – and here’s a lovely, fresh, floral complexity with a finely focused and pretty berry fruit. Silken texture, melting structure – far too easy to drink but that’s the new Corton vernacular. Too delicious…
Rebuy – Yes