An obvious homage to the 2017 vintage of this wine, tasted and very much enjoyed this weekend. This 1995 was one of a number of vintages of this cuvée that I bought at auction more than 10 years ago – it was a very grumpy, tannic, far from enjoyable wine back then – and today?

1995 Vaudoisey-Creusefond, Pommard 1er Les Epenots
The cork extracts almost in one piece, just a layer of about 2mm breaking off into the bottle – in this case easily rescued with a little cutlery.
Medium, bricked colour – it’s clearly a wine of colour maturity – practically browning at the rim. Hmm, that’s really quite an attractive nose; spiced, maybe a warm suggestion of cinnamon. In the mouth, this is deeply flavoured and shows a width of leather, musk and spice flavours. The acidity is not completely smooth – but 90% – it’s okay. Complex, tasty, absorbingly interesting wine. The first day still with plenty of cushioned red fruit, the second day shows much less – but still nothing oxidative/balsamic. Very good.
Rebuy – Maybe

My May 2020 look at 2018 Pouilly-Fuissés found a surprisingly balanced and delicious range of wines – even some of the larger négoce cuvées were outstanding – Louis Max’s wine practically being my white wine ‘buy’ of the year. As we can see, it doesn’t always work that way though:

2018 Baronne du Chatelard, Pouilly-Fuissé
Medium depth of young lemon-yellow colour. The nose has just a little herby/zesty interest and decent width of aroma too. Easy over the palate, easy in the flavours, modest bitters in the equally modestly citrussy finish. A wine that’s simply too easy, practically to the point of becoming a little bland. Tasty but, essentially, far too forgettable in the context of so many surprisingly good wines from this hot vintage.
Rebuy No

All robust corks. The first three wines were from dinner on Friday, the RSV I opened on Saturday – as usual, the PX in the image was very good, but not great:

2012 Dampt Frères, Chablis Les Preuses
Magnum.
A strong but young-looking yellow colour. The first sniff of the first pour and there’s something a little herbed in the flavour but not the aroma which is chalky, nicely defined and very attractively citrus. I would have guessed a well-concentrated classic Chablis even if it hadn’t been my wine! Delicious, layered, a little fat but with the classically cristal-clean, citrus-edged, flavours of my favourite vintage – 2012. We were lucky it was a magnum! In fine vintages, this is a very useful address!
Rebuy – Yes

2017 Vaudoisey-Creusefond, Pommard 1er Les Epenots
Served blind – a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing! Apparently a wine made with relatively young vines – about 13-14 at the time of this.
The nose starts with a lot of creamy oak, but it’s fortunately quite transient/volatile – slowly it’s a floral perfume that comes centre-stage – violets – very attractive. The palate largely mirrors the nose with lots of creamy oak, but also with a clarity of good fruit too – becoming ever-more perfumed. I like the structure here – all is decently concentrated but properly structured too. A young wine, I guess 2016 as it was quite a concentrated wine, the structure and perfume sending me to Chambolle-Musigny – oh well! At least I was close on the vintage 🙂
Rebuy – Yes

1996 Jean Grivot, Richebourg
In my cellar for exactly 20 years and cost the princely sum of 80 Swiss francs – the 1999 cost nearly 250! And wow – this was singing! Something of a baby for sure, but it was open and delicious, properly ‘grand’ wine. Not a drop was left in the bottle. I last tasted in 99 when it was all tannin and acid intensity, today it is wonderfully balanced. By far my ‘greatest’ 1996. There was a certain clarity of flavour to this wine that I’ve not experienced with other Grivot cuvées of the ‘era’ – it really makes me wonder if the winemaking was the same as for the other wines – I remember the 1995 also having great clarity of fruit which is so rarely my impression with the wines from this estate in the 1990s.
A nose of depth and complexity – the first pour showing a suggestion of balsamic – it must have been associated with the cork/headspace of the wine (it had been standing for a week) as all the subsequent pours were perfect. Deep, deep, flavoured, complex, powerful, far from a mature wine but absolutely ready. The finish shimmered with flavour long after swallowing. The balance is wonderful here, the forward acidity of its youth wrapped with quite enough depth of flavour. Bravo – clearly a great wine – drink now or wait another 20 years, I hardly think it matters!
Rebuy – Yes A case at the old price!

2002 Charles Thomas, Romanée Saint Vivant
A wide nose, complex and more classically ‘Vosne’ than the Grivot – day 2 (despite a night in the fridge) brought some balsamic-style oxidation. Wide and rather silky for this estate – though keep the wine in your mouth long enough and the tannin does start to make its presence felt. A good finish here. This is very good wine and would be a rebuy at the old price – I suspect that it’s somewhat more expensive chez Dujac today though 🙂 As noted above the wine is more diffuse and shows a modestly oxidative element in the mix on day 2 – so you know what to do – drink it all on the first night, as it’s very tasty.
Rebuy – Yes

I simply let the photos pile-up whilst going walking in the Swiss hills 🙂 My short reminisences:

1998 Gelin, Fixin 1er Clos Napoleon
Here was a wine with few friends when younger. The fact that I bought a case cheaply in 2001 and still have 7 or 8 bottles speaks volumes – yet today, this is engaging and no-longer ‘hard’ experience. Actually, I enjoyed it more than a little. Yum – time can be a great healer!
Rebuy – Maybe

2007 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers du Dents du Chien
Deeply coloured but not even a suggestion of oxidation to either aromas or flavours. Deep, complex, mineral and with a surprising ‘fatness’ to the texture for a 2007. Not as engagingly complete as the 2006 currently shows, but this was a complex and brilliant finishing wine that is only just starting to unlock some of that age-related complexity. Really excellent!
Rebuy – Yes

2005 G&P Ravaut, Ladoix Les Carrières
Here’s a wine packs both an aromatic and flavour punch. There’s something very 2005 about this density of aroma and flavour – but it’s a wine that’s also completely open and rather involving. Really a great villages – chapeau!
Rebuy – Yes

2010 Clotilde Davenne, Saint-Bris Vieilles-Vignes
Screw-capped. A deep lemon-yellow colour. The nose has a touch of mint and a really fresh invitation to drink. Deep, beautiful, almost a pineapple carpaccio flavour profile. Non-standard versus a chardonnay but completely delicious. Super wine again!
Rebuy – Yes

2009 Camille Giroud, Corton
A forward and open nose, yet a little too meaty and sweet for this palate – no delicacy here. The nose would not have been a problem if the palate had delivered something different – but again, it’s something of an uncouthly sweet experience in the mouth. Clearly a phase as this wine was very tasty a few years ago. I don’t have many more, but will anyway probably wait 5 years or so before trying again.
In this instance Rebuy – No

2011 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers du Dents du Chien
Like the 2007 quite some depth to the colour – and again nothing oxidative. Where this differs from the older wine, is a more exotic fruit profile and still some barrel-creaminess – there’s even the faintest suggestion of barrel reduction. Very drinkable but still some way from my idea of maturing white burgundy. Another 5 years should do it!
Rebuy – Yes