Obviously made in quite a reduced style – so open an hour before drinking or dunk the contents of your bottle into the decanter.
2005 Remoissenet, Morey St.Denis 1er Clos des Ormes
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose is rather deep, showing macerating dark-skinned cherry and just the faintest of dark oak is perfectly melded to it. After 10 minutes it smelled quite reduced, but another 10 minutes on it was clear. In the mouth there’s deep fruit and of understated intensity too – again the last accent is dark oak, but it’s not much and it’s a young wine. The acidity is good, and frankly the only negative is the slight spritz for the first 30 minutes it was open – after that it got better and better. The tannin is buried and the length is very good. I remember it not being not so cheap, but the quality is self evident. Leave a year+ to reduce that oak flavour…
Rebuy – Yes

2006 David Duband, Morey St.Denis 1er Clos Sorbé
Medium, medium-plus colour. Wide and high-toned aromatics, meaty and spicy but with more limited depth. Plenty of tannin, but it’s ripe and has a only a little astringency. The rest is well balanced and shows quite classy fruit with good complexity that’s judiciously edged with dark oak. From a density perspective, there’s less material here than many village wines from 2005, but it remains a good wine. Leave a year or two to let the tannins fade…
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Yvon Metras, Fleurie Printemps
Medium, medium-plus cherry red colour. What to make of the nose? Wide, fruit driven, definitely not pinot noir, but a rather fecund, almost dirty edge to the creamy summer-fruit nose – there is freshness and personality in spades – it’s sort of reduced but not… In the mouth it delivers less than the nose, but is smooth, balanced and just maybe there’s a bit of that ‘dirty’ thing going on in the mid-palate too. It’s Fleurie, and your grandmother may not like it, but I think it’s great. I think it’s even greater when I see the price!

I’ve no info on the domaine, but please fell free to inundate me with stuff! Anyway, this is the first of a couple of bottles I picked up…
1989 Andrée Taupenot, Pommard 1er Les Epenots
Medium, medium-minus colour – some amber at the rim. The nose starts with fungus and undergrowth to be replaced in short-order by dense, chocolate coated red fruits. The acidity starts a little pronounced, but also that slightly discordant note quickly fades. It’s fresh with a lovely burst of flavour in the mid-palate and still a rasp of tannin too. Good length. It has a hint of the rustic, but was devoured – a super bottle.
Rebuy – Yes

My experience of this domaine rests only on a few mid-age bottles from the 97-98 era, and all were woodier than I liked. This wine shows a very different face…
2005 des Perdrix, Vosne-Romanée
Deep colour. Initially diffuse aromatics hinted at a spicy depth but also showed a little mustiness, over about 1 hour there is more focus and clarity offering-up clean black fruit and some minerality. Mouth filling, concentrated, then bursts across the mid-palate with typical Vosne flavours if far from subtle, but to good effect. The tannins are quite well mannered and the finish lingers with an element of oak flavour – but it’s the only woody note. Fresh and tasty, and without overt oak character, but more obviously in need of cellar time than many.
Rebuy – Yes

Another bottle from the man and his horse. A good wine, but it suffers in comparison to the wines of the last evenings…
2005 Olivier Guyot, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Champeaux
Deep colour, some purple at the rim. After the two wines of Marchand-Grillot in the last nights, the nose is a little more diffuse with oak influenced coffee notes over an espresso depth. In the mouth this is intense and shows lovely acid balance and quite some extension into the finish. The flavours reflect the nose in that they are a little diffuse and oak dominated – no oak texture, but plenty of toasty coffee. Today this is more than a nose behind the M-G wines but I suspect will be much more together in a year or two. I’m undecided on this, hence the rating.
Rebuy – Maybe

2005 Marchand-Grillot, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Petit-Chapelle
Deep colour. The nose starts quite savoury, only slowly offering a deeper black-fruit core that has a faint white pepper coating. In the mouth this is much more mineral, the acidity is more obvious but retains good balance. The tannins are a little more visible and help the flavour stain your tongue. Good, mineral length with a twist of coffee. Overall a little more (obvious) structure and much less comely than the Perrières today, but qualitatively its equal. Another wine I shall buy.
Rebuy – Yes

Apart from an itinerant Chambolle and Morey Villages, Marchand-Grillot are a source for site specific Gevrey villages, a couple of 1ers and a Ruchottes. Not a producer I know well, but if this wine is anything to go by, they are worthy of more attention.
2005 Marchand-Grillot, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Les Perrières
From 50 year old vines. Deep cherry-red, perhaps a little purple at the rim. An open and forward nose of minty, earthy, brambly blackcurrant fruit that falls into a creamy and eventually a redder depth. Ripe, a little lush, lightly grained tannin and excellently balancing acidity. The fruit flavour is very tasty in the mid-palate, almost a crystaline ‘black jelly’. Decent length. No tightening here I think – absolutely delicious right now.
Rebuy – Yes

Suffers in comparison to the de Croix Charlemagne, but with the Mischief and Mayhem still in mind…
2005 Jean-Marc Boillot, Puligny-Montrachet
Medium yellow. At first the nose shows some high-toast oak, but this slowly mellows to give a slightly diffuse but fresh and high-toned effect. The palate is fresh and balanced, but just a little dilute in the mid-palate. Medium length. Tasty but far from a benchmark.
Rebuy – Maybe