That’s most-likely the last visit to the Côtes over for this year – so I expect a slowing down of posts. My last domaine visit was at Prieure Roch in Premeaux – the horse to the left was ploughing just down the road in Les Argillières before my visit.
Talking of Tools; I got over the first hurdle no problem; the worm of the ‘screwpull’ snaked easily into the cork without pushing it into the neck. I knew I was in trouble as soon as I got to the second hurdle; it was easy to withdraw the corkscrew – unfortunately all but the centre of the cork stayed put. I knew I didn’t have one of those two-pronged implements (note to self – personal Christmas present list), so I was going to have to make do with two angled worms: bum! – that didn’t work either. Helpfully, as I was clearing the cork debris from the top of the bottle, the rest (~65%) of the cork fell into the wine. C’est la vie – but fortunately, there were no cat-calling witnesses!
1976 Tollot-Beaut, Aloxe-Corton
Clean and bright, medium, medium-plus colour – a mahogany rim but clearly still a ruby-red core. From opening, this was just a little monolithic on the nose; faint baked fruit and a savoury undercurrent. If you wait – over 1 hour – the nose tightens to a very nice and tight powdery red fruit impression The palate is surprisingly plush and intense – it’s hard to keep hold of the wine, as your mouth starts watering in response to the acidity. I’m very impressed by the balance here. Slowly some sweetness builds to counterbalance an edge of tartness in the finish. The tannins are still there and quite chewy. This is a surprisingly robust and healthy wine – just like the label says, this is a village wine so no real fireworks or mind-bending length, but it’s always interesting to drink a wine that was harvested around your 14th birthday!
2004 Dugat-Py, Pommard Le Levrière
Everything was coated in a layer of frost this morning, and despite the perfect blue sky there’s more than a hint of chill to the breeze. In the Côtes, most of the vines have lost their leaves, but here and there, there are parcels that still reflect yellow and red in the sun – I’ll add a picture later…
Only a tenuous link in the post title – despite what it might look like! Tomorrow I head for a few days in the Côte d’Or, possibly for the last time this year, but with some good visits (I hope!) arranged. The weather has finally turned colder and we could have freezing overnight in the next days, but hopefully my camera is to be greeted with plenty of blue sky.
Versus tasting from barrel I’ve had occasional reds from Gambal that seemed rather subdued – I’ve come to believe that they need a good deal more aeration than I was allowing, but this was excellent right from the bottle and way more interesting than the recent bottle from 