2006 des Croix, Corton-Charlemagne
Medium yellow. The nose is wide and shows a complex mix of fruits; pineapple, melon, lemon and a white blossom note. Rich concentration with real intensity in the mid-palate and nicely-judged acidity. The flavours in the finish start slightly savoury and fade in a creamier way. Very young but has good potential.
Rebuy – Yes

Getting ahead of my self a little as this is one of the wines that I’ll report on in the summer issue, however, it was good enough that I bought some and already popped a cork at home. So here you see the second of my two notes, but first…
2006 Mischief and Mayhem, Pulgny-Montrachet
Medium-pale yellow. Good depth to the subtly creamy nose. Fresh and a lively on the palate, with decent intensity a good length. An understatedly fine villages that’s highly recommended.
Rebuy – Yes (and I did)

2005 Doudet-Naudin, Bourgogne Pinot Noir
A large heavy bottle with a punt you could lose your fingers in, shame the attention to detail misses the cheapest of cheap plastic capsules. Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts with a little oak, but it’s quickly lost, becoming wider with plenty of high tones and a faintly cedar depth – eventually a nice red berry note too. Some fat and reasonable depth – in fact it’s very tasty. On the negative side the acidity is slightly lifted and the flavours are a little muddled together. Not exactly cheap for a bourgogne either at 20 Sfr, but far from a bad value bottle – and as I said it’s quite tasty.
Rebuy – Maybe

It’s the first time I’ve seen wines from this domaine and Olivier seems a bit of a character. Manually harvested Bourgogne (an idealist obviously) and a picture of himself and his horse (Indigo) on the label. His website is as individualistic as his labels and has lots of info. I also found this lovely quote:

This wine is from Olivier Guyot. He is considered somewhat eccentric by some of his neighbors, as he has sold his tractor and gone back to organically horse farming his vineyards. He feels it is better for the land, and that he gets better fruit from doing so. The grapes are hand-harvested, of course, and the wine is bottled without filtration. The domaine has passed from father to son since the 16th century…

The Marsannay based domaine is about 15 hectares so that’s a lot of standing behind his horse! I also have one of his Gevrey 1er Champeaux in the cellar – looks like fun!
2005 Olivier Guyot, Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red colour. The nose has a dense and slightly rustic core, but above soars beautiful and very fine fruit. There is some fat and a dense core that reflects the nose. The acidity is slightly bright but that’s par for the course for many tightening 2005 wines. Finer fruit than the appellation might suggest but with good fat and an engaging hint of rusticity. On day two, even that rusticity is gone – super! – I bought a couple more.
Rebuy – Yes

The wines of Claude seem to have passed me by; they have a great reputation and they may be far from cheap but they tend to be harder to find than to afford!  So here’s a villages at a little under twice the price of the average bottle of villages Gevrey, it’s also my first from Claude!
2005 Claude Dugat, Gevrey-Chambertin
Medium-plus cherry-red colour. Wow, what a nose; a beautiful and rather haunting perfume of hedge-row flowers, elderflower and soft red fruits with a suggestion of oak. A soft entry with understated concentration, velvety tannin and a creamy oak coating to the finishing flavours – it’s also very long for a villages. It’s not perfect though, the flavours have just a little oaky bitterness, but the sour-cherry fruit coupled to wonderful aromatics make this a compelling glass.
Rebuy – Yes – even at the price of some Clos de Vougeot!

2006 Jean-Marc Boillot, Montagny 1er
Medium-pale yellow. Starts a little spritzy on the nose, but very slowly loses the sherbet note to deliver nice subtle oak and plenty of ripe pear fruit. Good balance with faintly lingering acidity. The flavours are lingering, if just a little saccharin. Always a reasonable value wine.
Rebuy – Maybe

I think that Drouhin-Laroze are the only label you are likely to find for this 1er cru…
2005 Drouhin-Laroze, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Au Closeau
Medium-plus cherry-red with plenty of purple at the rim. The nose doesn’t have too much depth, but the width is interesting with fresh, precise red cherry/berry notes and an edge of cream. Leave it a couple of hours and you end up with a more classic and forward earthy note edged with cream.  Fresh and perfectly balanced with understated but relatively fine tannin. The tannin comes a little more to the fore with time.  Not the concentration of many Gevrey 1ers from the vintage, indeed it just seems a little light until you get some 1er cru dimension in the mid-palate and length. Would be a real success in 2004, but in context it’s only almost good in 2005. At any rate it’s interesting, competent, clean and fresh with no overt oak character – it’s also very tasty. At the price I paid (almost 60 Sfr), it’s far from great value though.
Rebuy – Maybe

2006 Niellon, Chassagne-Montrachet
Medium-pale yellow. The nose is a full dose of medium-toast oak and additional quite savoury notes – if you give it a couple of hours there’s a little baked apple fruit. The taste is concentrated and likewise savoury and initially wood-dominated. Decent acidity pushes the length a little further – and it is long. I’d like my glass to show a little more fruit, but this has the potential to be a good Chassagne, just leave it a couple of years.
Rebuy – Maybe