Menthol and herbal notes mix with blue and red fruit. Again lots and lots of structure, but after the previous wines this is rather linear and unyielding – tight!
2006
2006 Ropiteau Frères Meursault Les Genevrières
2006 Tollot-Beaut Savigny-lès-Beaune Champs Chevrey
Medium colour. Heavy floral notes that are accented with toffee mainly obscure a pure red fruit note – but occasionally it shines through. In the mouth it’s currently a bit disjointed, that said, all the pieces are pretty good – good volume, background tannins and tasty fruit that’s edged with licorice as it slips into the finish. Not a bit tight, but not showing well either. The last glass is reserved for day 2 and it’s far less the roller-coaster of the previous day. Still the ‘value’ wine of the T-B range.
2006 Faiveley Joseph Nuits St.Georges Les Porrets St.Georges
I’d love to be able to recommend this wine (after all I bought some!) but today is not the day to tell you if it is, or will be, any good. Today it is a complete waste of money – aromatically dumb, narrow on the palate and showing a very limited flavour profile. It is a wine that is a perfect exemplar of the the oft-used descriptor – closed. This is so closed that it’s even rolled down the shutters. For those that are still reading, the texture is silky and the balance is fine, there is even a hint of intensity, but today MIA…
Day two and there’s hint of dark cherry and damson on the nose – wow – careful, I’m almost starting to enjoy it!
2006 Mugneret Gerard Vosne-Romanée Les Suchots
Medium-plus colour. Straight away the nose is about depth, dark fruit and a little coffee/mineral mix and an impressive Vosne-style dimension – a great start. In the mouth for the first 20 minutes I can’t drink it, it tastes like salt – no, really like salt! A long pause and a coffee later, I come to it and it’s on a lower level – more an inflection (of salt) in the mid-palate – like a Denis Mortet wine! There is just a lack of smoothness – or better, elegance – to the wine. There is plenty of flavour, some here some there, complexity too, and without overt oak, yet there is cola and and a total lack of integration – this is such a shame, as it smells fantastic. Half is left for day 2: hurrah, not really ’salty’, a hint of gras and the texture is okay. I’m rather bemused, I’ve never really come across a wine that was too salty before – perhaps something to do with the oak – anyway, this was eventually very nice – but I’d recommend decanting!
2006 Bouchard Père et Fils Monthelie Les Champs Fulliot
This is a ‘domaine’ wine. Medium-plus cherry-red colour. There’s width and interest on this perfumed, high-toned nose – very pretty indeed, almost in a Volnay style. The texture has a slightly gravelly tannin as its base, but the balance is very, very good. There’s some faint licorice flavours in the finish from what is otherwise a red-fruit dominated performance. Oh and it’s quite a good finish too.
2006 Bouley Jean-Marc Beaune Les Reversées
Medium, medium-plus colour. The nose starts with a waft of dark and slightly toasty oak – it’s there in the depth too – I suspect that this may not lift. I was wrong, already within 15 minutes virtually all traces of dark oak are consigned to history, what replaces it is beautiful, slightly creamy red fruit – from heights to depths it’s lovely. The palate is, relative to the nose, ‘merely’ good. There is slightly forward acidity coupled to red cherry-fruit that leaves me with the impression that it could have done with half a degree more ripeness – that said it makes for an interesting and ‘edgy’ personality. This reminds me a little of some 2001s in their youth – no bad thing that. I enjoyed it, but can’t decide whether it would be better to drink now or wait 7-10 years. On reflection I would wait – there are other wines that offer a rounder performance today.
2006 Chenu Louis Père et Filles Savigny-lès-Beaune Aux Clous
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red. Lovely, soft red fruit with a depth that keeps pulling your nose to the glass. Slightly plump texture, wide and clean, pretty red fruit with a even a little more dimension in the mid-palate. ‘Just right’ acidity, some velvet tannin, if you search, and a good finish. Class in a glass, a very lovely bottle.
2006 Legros François Nuits St.Georges Les Perrières
Medium-plus colour. Deep, velvety aromas over a hint of volatility that wasn’t there on day one. Smooth, yet with plenty of finely grained, underlying tannin. Long, concentrated and balanced, the fruit is dark before a higher-toned burst of fruit in the mid-palate, there is a nice depth of flavour before the wine slowly fades into the finish. Plenty of structure but it’s not a burly Nuits expression, rather (perhaps) a softer Perrières expression. Very nice wine.