As a warm-up, there was the last glass from the Pavelot, then the following, their two corks in fine shape:

2018 Jacques Saumaize, St.Véran Poncetys
That’s a deep nose, faint smoke surrounding a vibrant depth of ripe pineapples and minerals. Ouch – that’s so good! The pineapple fruit to the fore again but more importantly a zinging width of energy and then a long mouth-watering line of finishing flavour – more mineral and citrus here. That’s a beauty!
Rebuy – Yes

2006 Comtes Lafon, Monthélie 1er Les Duresses
There’s the start of a little tertiary dried leaf aroma, but above is still a pure and attractive dark fruit and flowers – almost blackcurrants. Very silky with a nicely direct line of flavour. Plenty on insistent concentration with wide waves of persistent finishing flavour too – here the blackcurrant returns, maybe a little blackcurrant leaf too. Fine acidity and a tannin that’s more suggestion than reality. This is still young, but it’s also delicious.
Rebuy – Yes

I opened the 1997 of this about 2 weeks ago and it was in brilliant form. Here the 1999 – unsurprisingly a little younger and less mature, but both drinkable (very!) and showing the extra class of the 1999 vintage:

1999 Jean-Marc Pavelot, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er La Dominode
A cork that came out in one – obviously bleached – but not, seemingly, to the detriment of the wine.
Clearly a lot of maturity in this colour but, all the same, deeply coloured. Impressive depth to this nose – a core of powerful, perhaps not fully open, fruit. I have the impression of both class and sulky – clearly less mature aromas than the ’97. Mouth-filling, plenty of tannin if you go searching it out, otherwise here’s a very sophisticated, balanced and concentrated wine. A suggestion of Savigny herb in the middle flavours. Mouth-watering freshness and still an accent of drying tannin – though you’ll no-longer find any grain. I would say just about starting to drink properly but with at least 10 years ahead of it – I’m very happy to have 6 or 7 more in the cellar. Bravo!
Rebuy – Yes

This weekend’s…

A strong couple of wines for this weekend’s successful re-run of the Hospices de Beaune 2020 wine-auction – only 1 month late – the auction that is, not these two wines! Some thoughts on the auction tomorrow when I’ve had the chance to peruse the full detail.

2017 Sébastien Giroud, Pouilly-Loché
DIAM10 for this wine…
A warm depth of faintly spiced aroma – but with a support that seems structural and fresh. Mouth-filling, lovely texture, flavours framed with a little salinity. Last time tasted I’m sure this was more open, today it’s direct and a little more mineral. Wide fishing, modestly mineral here too. Excellent, but already for keeping a little – give it a couple more years.
Rebuy – Yes

2002 Varoilles, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos des Varoilles
A cork where the worm of the corkscrew is clearly going to pull through the centre of the cork – the sides welded into place. So I go for the ah-so – still, a far from perfect choice as the cork, anyway, chooses the break in half. At least the last part comes out in one piece!
Some browning at the rim – it looks like there’s some measure of maturity here. The nose is lovely – deep, mature, turned-over earth and dried leaves yet still a little floral perfume too, lovely! Mouth-filling, open, layered, with a nice bite of acidity and a long width of finishing flavour – there’s fine density of flavour here, which, like the nose, has a nice floral lift to it. Really super – I remember a magnum of 02 Gevrey 1er Romanée that disappointed from this producer – doubly so, as I’ve two more in the cellar! Hopefully, given how good this is, that was only a cork issue. Day two the nose is less attractive – a little brett creeping into the aromas – fortunately, it still tastes super.
Rebuy – Yes

It’s cold now and the roads are turning a little white – actually they will be very white when I reach my 1,000 metre peak in the Swiss Jura when heading to Beaune tonight!

This will be the starting point of my final week of tastings in ‘the Côtes‘ for this year. I will have managed to taste with roughly 145 domains – which is much more than anticipated when President Macron announced the imposition of a second French lockdown. I’ve had to be quite flexible with a few domaines cancelling at late notice due to ‘positives‘ within their teams, but I’ve still managed to revisit some of those towards the end of my tour. So it’s worth outlining how I’m hoping the subscriber reports will appear:

September Report:
Online later this week – 28 domaines from the Mâconnais, mainly 2019s. A look at 2018 Corton – 30 wines tasted blind. Lastly a look back at the 2020 growing season.
October Report:
Hopefully online before may Christmas lunch – the white vintage in 2019 & the mainly white domaines of the Côte d’Or and Chalonnais, vintage 2019 – about 43 domaines is my current count
November Report:
Between Christmas and the New Year – the red vintage in 2019 and the mainly red domaines of the Côte de Beaune and a little further south – 39 domaines, vintage 2019
December Report:
Hopefully before Monday 4th January – the Côte de Nuits domaines, about 32 of them at current count, vintage 2019. I say hopefully before 4th January, because I’m (still!) planning to start my January 2019 Chablis campaign of 55-60 domaines on that day with same in Beaujolais to follow in February!

Wish me luck 🙂 Note, the grey and wet of last week meant not so many ‘underwy’ photos, the forecast isn’t great for this coming week either – perhaps Monday will see a little blue sky – let’s see.

And to finish, here’s what kept the throat lubricated this weekend:

2016 Château Thivin, Côte de Brouilly Cuvée Godefroy
Plenty of colour – as you might expect. A deep nose, obviously fruited but with fine energy too – with air the fruit becoming more focused on cherry stones. Sumptuous in the mouth, with layers of dark-fruited flavour and the merest undertow of ripe tannin. The finish is rather smart, a more graphite-style minerality slowly coming to the centre-stage. Very fine, young Beaujolais – not a hint of maturity. Yum!
Rebuy – Yes

1997 Jean-Marc Pavelot, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er La Dominode
Having found a stash of the 99 of this wine, I though that I’d take my time and work up to it with a 1997 chaser! What an impressive nose! Absolutely ready – wide, full, beautifully clean and sweet with a wealth of underbrush and dried-leaf maturity – yes! Plenty of sweetness here on the palate too, even for someone currently tasting 2019s! Mouth-filling, though never too much. Actually, there’s still plenty of tannin at the base of this wine, but all is ripe and it’s not particularly grainy – call it an interesting bookmark. Wide in the finish and I really like the energy here, the flavour is supple and long. A wine that’s in a great place now – possibly the best since release and certainly there’s no rush to drink it up. Very yum indeed – proper older Burgundy with no faults!
Rebuy – Yes

2009 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Les Murgers des Dents du Chien
We are want to give extra praise to white wines just for having properly survived for 10 years, and that was the case for me here – at least to start with! The was nose full, round, with almost a little oaky reduction mixed with a sweetness of intermediately-aged flavours – ‘yes!’ I thought. Time in the glass and I started to focus a bit more on the forward sweetness, though the texture is good and the acidity does a good job of balancing the round, slightly fat flavour. There’s a certain minerality as you head towards the finish too – all good for the future. It has all that you could wish for in this vintage – except that it needs at least a couple more years of patience – it’s a far cry, for the moment, from the brilliance of the 2006 – but both 2006 and 2009 being sweeter, rounder, white-wine vintages, I retain plenty of hope!
Rebuy – Maybe

Heading home on Friday…

Weekend wines…