Just a modest single bottle this weekend, as the last glass from last week’s Chablis, kept in the fridge, was still very drinkable !!

2011 François Gaunoux, Pommard 1er Rugiens
A robust cork but a stinky one – I steel myself for a corked wine – but no – hurrah! Also, a wine with no suggestion of the pyrazines that plague many reds from this vintage…
The first aromas are deep, with some obvious leafy development; there’s the implication of some structure here which also follows through into the wine, but with air, both the nose and flavours soften admirably. There remains a small smoky accent to the nose, but the flavours expand with quite some perfumed fruit, and there’s extra width as the structure fades into the background. The slowly mouth-watering finish is beautiful – such a delicate and lasting perfume to this flavour – whilst not powerful, that’s a great finish. That’s a super 2011 – and with a short decant, or an hour of patience after opening. This really was special !!
Rebuy – Yes

My first thoughts, if asked to isolate just four major owners of grand crus that (for those with very deep pockets) would be hyper-attractive ownership propositions, would be to choose Leroy, Camus, Thénard and Damoy – roughly in that order. It seems that my list has already shrunk to three…

More details will doubtless come to corroborate, or otherwise, the suggestion of up to a 500 million Euro price-tag – it doesn’t sound all that expensive for significantly the largest owner of Clos de Bèze – but given the more challenging marketplace for red grand crus right now, who’s to say…

*Also the first Genesis album that I purchased !!

Montrachet

Puligny

Romanée-Conti

Fleurie…

It’s started to get warm, but it’s only 10 days since the candles, windmills and burners were doing their thing in many parts of Burgundy.

The worst of the frost seemed to be, as usual, in Chablis. Temperatures as low as -6°C were seen near Chichée – and that’s not a place that’s afforded much protection; Their premiers are quite distant from sources of water (for aspersion) and the village wines can’t really support the cost of using candles. I know that the assessors from the insurance companies have been on site this week – with early estimated of 25-40% losses – in places. In other places, mainly the higher value vineyards, where candles and water sprays were used, the damage seems to be much, much smaller – but we will see – it’s how the flowering and grape development goes that counts…

In the Côte d’Or it has, so far, been another year of prophylactic vine protection measures. Yes, temperatures hovered around -3°C one night, but the weather was also dry and windy. The next day was also supposed to be minus 3°C, but turned out cloudy and closer to zero. Again, we will have to see how the flowering goes, but damage seems rarer than in Chablis – which was already ahead of the rest of Burgundy in growth.

The Hautes Côtes de Beaune had a few losses – particularly near Paris l’Hôpital in the south of the Côte d’Or, but the Côtes Chalonnais, Mâconnais and down into Beaujolais seemed to have avoided damage.

The next days are forecast to be cooler again after some days hovering around 25°C – but nothing close to frosty, indeed many domaines have already cleared away their candles…

Of course, it’s very early, but the current stage of growth is already indicative of a late August harvest !!

1998 Denis Mortet Gevrey-Chambertin
I don’t know what they used for glue in those days, but overnight in the fridge, buth the neck and main label fell off !
Still plenty of colour – it’s not old looking. What a large-scale nose of bloody fruit and higher tones that are modestly redolent of the barrel – but now a long way from the cigarette ash oak of this wine’s youth – that’s a fine invitation. Energy and fine, cool complexity in the mouth – it’s long too. Certainly the best from this case of 12, but maybe only one more remains. Patience is a virtue, but for this 12-case, I was mostly lacking. Today, it’s an excellent wine…
Rebuy – Yes

2021 Alain Geoffroy, Chablis 1er Beauroy Signature
A modest volume of aroma with a little ripeness. Boom! Fresh energy – citrus energy – yum! This is one of those ‘dangerous’ 20221 – you lose concentration for a second, and the bottle has been emptied !! So good !!
Rebuy – Yes

It’s been a while since this – eh ?

bang! 1945 romanée-conti – half a million a bottle…

And now we have:

As shocking as that price may be, I am more shocked that whisky sells for more at auction: ‘The most expensive whisky sold at auction is The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-Year-Old, which fetched £2,187,500 ($2.7 million) at Sotheby’s London in November 2023.‘ But maybe that’s just because I don’t drink whisky 🙂

This is seemingly the same, Drouhin-sourced, 1945, resold. So, it would appear that for the first (Sotheby’s) auction, we had an ‘investor’ rather than an ‘enthusiast’ …

Roughly signing off from what turned out to be quite a heavy cold, there was also a 1996 Penfolds Bin 707 with a rubbish, crumbly cork. But the cork had been a good seal and the wine was in perfect condition…

2020 Jules Desjourneys Beaujolais Villages Blanc
Modest colour. A deep nose, with a subtly toasty reduction. Hmm, still some gas – but what a mouth-watering, mineral flavour this shows. Nothing of the richness or the excess rigour of 99.9% of white Beaujolais. Still a hint of rigour, but this is also a Beaujolais with tension – delicious tension – rejoice !!
Rebuy – Yes