weekenders…

By billn on November 30, 2020 #degustation

this weekend(ers)

Three great wines – we were lucky this weekend!

2016 Jules Desjourneys, Pouilly-Fuissé Vignes de la Côte
An extra-long, extra expensive looking cork.
A fresh and precise aroma that’s both inviting and intense too – an accent of fine herb frames this nose. So broad and mouth-filling. This is incredibly intense, direct wine – it attacks the palate yet is never sharp or hard. Finishing broad, like the nose, and lasting so long… A great wine that should last a good many years! Bravo.
Rebuy – Yes

2018 Roty, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Fontenys
Here’s an open and very deep nose. Wide and so fresh – such cool fruit, such minerality too – Ooh – the blacker fruit is completely secondary to the structure and style of this and I couldn’t care less, for this is great wine; academic, intellectual wine, such complex wine too. Persistent wine – the oak relegated to merely a spice component it seems. Great wine – again!
Rebuy – Yes

2009 Camille Giroud, Bourgogne Cuvée L
In 08 and 09 the winemaker of the time, David Croix, assembled the lees from all his cuvées at bottling time. This murky assembly was given an extra number of months to settle and produce a few cases more – a blöend from Bourgogne to Grand cru – so Chambertin and Cortons included. This 2009 was initially a bit surly and a long way behind the young brilliance of the same wine in 2008 – but today?
Ooh – that’s not a massive nose, but again a really great one of understated dried leaves, a sweetness of fruit then swooping in from above a beautiful violet-flower perfume – wow! In the mouth you taste the violets and the fat sweet fruit of the vintage. Right now this is brilliant – transformed from its sullen early days. Could the acid be finer – maybe – but I’m splitting hairs. I’m so happy that 4 more of these wait in the cellar!
Rebuy – Yes

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Hoist with my own petard…

By billn on November 26, 2020 #travels in burgundy 2020

Clos des Lambrays
Exactly what it says!

Maybe you remember my recent image of a car that had been left too long under a Place Carnot tree full of roosting birds(?) Didn’t we laugh!

Well, given that said trees no-longer have any leaves, and are also full of Christmas lights, and that I’d successfully parked there a couple of times last week – you guessed it! This morning, Scooby was covered in shit! Oh well. To save considerable Subaru embarrassment, no pictures and a visit to the jet-wash!

Today another day of sun for visits in the Côte de Nuits. Given a covid-related cancellation for the first tasting after lunch, my extra long lunch-break (sandwiches in the car, as is the current necessity) allowed a decent lunchtime run. Starting in Chambolle, heading up a vertical track to a view above the vines, then onwards, on high, to Morey and then Gevrey before doing an about-turn and taking a vineyard route back – just over 10km – so I deserved my ham & cheese butties!

Mostly, these images were taken during the run:

Today’s 10.4 km…
Over Amoureuses to the Clos de Vougeot
Over Amoureuses toward the Clos des Perrières
Amoureuses…
Pruning…
High on the hill, the view back to Chambolle
In Chambolle looking down to the plain…
High up in Morey, looking down to the Clos de Tart
In Clos de Bèze
To finish my afternoon…
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the week so far, mainly in the côte de nuits…

By billn on November 25, 2020 #travels in burgundy 2020

Leroy's Romanée Saint Vivant...
Madame Leroy’s Romanée Saint Vivant…

The Scooby is limping this week – and that’s despite a service only two weeks ago. I spotted a small noise that’s now a big one – I think the servo on the power-steering – as turning a corner resembles a many-sided coin, rather than something round! Then there’s the suspension rattle that’s developed yesterday on the cobblestones of Beaune – at least it’s fine on the normal roads, for now…

Such is life with a 15+-year-old set of wheels – but it will be great again when those are fixed – hopefully for some days anyway 🙂

The light was super on Monday but yesterday delivered freezing fog for the whole day – so I chose not to freeze while getting changed to run at lunchtime. I think yesterday was fine for the whole day in the Hautes Côtes though. Today was sunny so I braved the jogging kit – but it’s been leggings since last week!

Then, of course, the lunchtime sandwiches in the car – like every day!

Some Côte de Nuits views from today:

The rich, part-ploughed, soil of Romanée-Conti
Over Romanée-Conti towards Vougoet
Romanée Saint Vivant towards Vosne
Leroy’s RSV
Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin
Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin
Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin
Chateau de Gevrey-Chambertin
Denizen of Gevrey cellar…
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a voracious appetite…

By billn on November 18, 2020 #the market

Fourrier barrel...The hype of the sale-room? The pent-up demand due to the lack of a Hospices de Beaune auction?

Yes, I know this sale was the day before the cancelled event in Beaune! But you decide…

At the weekend, Zachys held their first-ever wine auction in London. The selection of Burgundy was a good one, but this sale was notable for the possibility to ‘buy‘ a whole barrel (image, right, from Zachy’s catalogue) – of-course, this barrel never leaving the cellar of the producer – and that producer happened to be one Jean-Marie Fourrier.

Nearly 50 lots of Jean-Marie Fourrier’s wines were on offer, all coming direct from the domaine. The barrel in question was Fourrier’s Chambolle 1er Les Sentiers which until 2007, Fourrier had blended into his Chambolle-Musigny Villages. Since 2007, it has been separately vinified – vinified but never sold commercially. Fourrier only ever bottled his Les Sentiers in magnums, which he used as giveaways for friends as gifts, or brought to dinners.

The elevage for this wine was/is in a one-year-old barrel, vinified with 20% stems, to be bottled in the buyers wish for formats, ready for shipment in April of 2021. And the price?

Final price including the buyers premium: £136,400 compared to the pre-sale estimate of GBP £90,000-140,000, I’ll let that sink in…

So assuming no other costs and all bottled in 75cl bottles (let’s assume 300 of them) that works out to just under £455 per bottle for a 1er cru Chambolle – honestly, I’d rather have de Vogüé’s Bonnes-Mares for this price, plus any number from a long list of other wines, though I’d take a couple of these, just for the interest 🙂

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some weekend wines…

By billn on November 16, 2020 #asides

Just a few quick recollections of 4 complete winners:

2017 Antoine Olivier, Santenay Le Bievaux l’Air de Rien
DIAM sealed
What a punchy and energetic wine. A touch of apple and pineapple and who knows what else in this delicious and effusive wine. Real concentration but never over-generous. I sometimes think this cuvée tastes like Meursault – but not this vintage today. Delicious all the same.
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Berthaut, Fixin Les Clos
A sturdy, if bleached, cork.
Ooh – what a lovely nose – fading leaves, undergrowth – but violets too! Broad over the palate, another mouthful of generously flavoured wine. Robust too – it seemed just as good on the second evening. The tannin still present but becoming ever-more something of an anecdote. A lovely drop!
Rebuy – Yes

1999 Heritiers Louis Jadot, Beaune 1er Clos des Ursules
The cork comes out in one – but was starting to crack…
First sniff – I sit up and pay attention; gloriously wide, complex, dried leaves but flowers and fruit too – such an invitation. A wine of undoubted, but much softened, structure – just enough to let the flavour melt and then play over the palate. Just a great finish too – less robust than the Fixin as the wine’s definitely fading on day 2 – but day 1 it was simply great – bravo!
Rebuy – Yes

2015 Richard Rottiers, Moulin à Vent
DIAM sealed.
Definitely a funky, low-sulfur, start to this nose. Aeration clearly works some magic – though needs about 15 minutes – bringing the fruit and a measure of clarity to the fore. The palate starts a little grainy – though delicious – like the nose, softening with air. There’s never any question about how tasty the wine is – evidenced by 3 people emptying the bottle in under 30 minutes!
Rebuy – Yes

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