The number of bottles of this cuvée is reducing as the younger vines are now regularly going into a separate ‘1er cru’ cuvée. This left-bank wine is a mix of parcels focusing mainly on Epinottes and Séchet. The nose is understated and focused, the palate is sweet, with rather well concentrated flavours and a nice flavourful fruit-driven length. It’s a very nice wine – and always a very well priced bottling – but in this vintage, doesn’t really shout ‘Chablis!’ to me.
2005
2005 Potel Nicolas Pommard Les Rugiens
A nose of real depth with forward black fruit and just a touch of reduction. The palate shows real concentration and plenty of tannin, but the tannin is amply covered by black shaded fruit. The fruit widens and widens into the finish. Large-scaled and concentrated without being over-blown. Impressive juice.
2005 Long-Depaquit Chablis Vaucoupin
This right-bank cuvée has a lovely, more mineral nose with accents of citrus fruit. The palate seems similarly concentrated to the Vaillons but everything is delivered in a much more mineral fashion. Philippe quotes “as Vaillons starts to die Vaucoupins starts to wake”. This is my style of Chablis, it is mineral, it is understatedly intense and has lovely acidity breaking across the palate into the finish. Excellent!
2005 Boisset Jean-Claude Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Dominode
From old south-east facing vines planted in 1901 – only about 3% have been replaced. The nose is wide but with good focus to the ripe red fruits – very impressive. This wine had 15 months in barrel, but none were new as thee were only 3 barrels. The first impression is the good texture of the tannins, then the linear long, rather than wide presentation of the fruit. Frankly a bit of a stunner.
2005 Potel Nicolas Gevrey-Chambertin Lavaux St.Jacques
Medium-plus colour. The nose is similar to the village gevrey – if anything tighter, more understated and consistent. Very intense; this is hard to keep in your mouth. Super acidity dovetails with plenty of tannin. Despite the concentration the personality is rather cool, clean, mineral and understated.
2005 Mischief and Mayhem Meursault Les Genevrières
A fresh nose that initially is a little less focused than the villages wine but gets better and better in the glass as it warms. The palate is rich and powerful but is nicely cut by the citrussy acidity, expands quite well in the mid-palate. Today – and it hasn’t been bottled long – it has all the pieces to be a very fine wine but the cohesion, despite some balance seemed a little unconvincing. I’m sure this will be super and probably already more ‘together’ by the time you read this.
2005 Boisset Jean-Claude Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Serpentières
From younger – only 70 years – south facing vines. Grégory walked by these vines and saw realy fine millerandaged berries, looked for the owner and asked to buy – et voila – four and a half barrels, one of new oak. Linear ripe fruit on the nose, even a little blue skinned fruit – it’s a beauty. Like the Dominode this has super texture, this time a little wider and richer although perhaps not quite as long. Hard to criticise, it’s lovely.
2005 Potel Nicolas Nuits St.Georges Les Pruliers
2005 Mischief and Mayhem Puligny-Montrachet Caillerets
The nose starts wide but subdued and a little unfocused, it takes a good 15 minutes in the glass before we have cohesion and a primary dense stance. There’s a lovely texture to the palate and a real extra dimension helped by just a little petillance and super acidity. It takes the same 15 minutes a as required for the nose to improve for the faint spritz to die – perhaps it was also affecting the aromatics. Now we have poise and from the mid-palate onwards, waves and waves of attack – wow – this will be (is) superb. For thos that are concerned about oxidation, note that about a glass and a half were left in the simply stoppered bottle for about 3 days – the wine was almost as good then and not a hint of oxidation. I rarely go for more than a six-pack of any wine, but I ordered 12 of these!