Maranges: ‘Village’ Profile
Maranges is a series of complexities or even contradictions: The appellation of Maranges was created in 1989 – before, this was regional wine and the largest part was sold in bulk. Maranges is a semi-circle of vines at the south of the Côte d’Or where the generally east-facing… Read More
a beautiful day (montrachet, lameloise and three crosses…)
The sky was blue this morning – it was going to be a good day: breakfast at Le Montrachet with ‘la friend’ then a long walk in the hills above the vines of Santenay. We rolled up at Le Montrachet about 9:30am and – oops! – closed until 11th… Read More
Profile: Domaine Dufouleur Frères (Nuits)
This is a producer on the road to improvement – there are already good wines in the cellar, ones I’d happily drink – but for many reasons (mainly family ones) their improvements have, until now, remained incremental, but they are going in the right direction and that is to… Read More
Nuits Saint Georges: Village Profile
Despite having no Grand Crus to call its own, Nuits appended the name of its most important vineyard, Les St.Georges, on the 10th May 1892 to become Nuits-Saint-Georges – before that it was described as Nuits-sous-Beaune. When the railway came in 1849 the station here was… Read More
Round-up of wines tasted ‘en-place’
150 wines for you. d’Ardhuy (Corgoloin) Albert Bichot (Beaune) JC Boisset (Nuits) Simon Bize (Savigny) Camille-Giroud (Beaune) Champy (Beaune) Louis Chenu (Savigny) Dublère (Savigny) Rebourgeon-Mure (Pom.) Seguin-Manuel (Beaune) The format of the majority of 2011 notes that follow,… Read More
harvest: september 26th
To a soundtrack of Johnny Cash and Massive Attack we make our own attack on the grapes of Lavaux St.Jacques and Maranges Croix de Moines – happy under our cover from incessant rain. [Edit: The rain lasted for 30 hours, delivering 50mm!] The Gevrey is lovely – we use… Read More
harvest: september 25th
Too true. This morning we have managed to keep completely dry, despite a little rain in some parts of the Côtes. Lots of grapes to pick today as the forecast is rather bad for tommorrow. People are racing against the elements… Our grapes today have been against (my) expectations… Read More
2010s from Domaines Bellene, Bouchard Père and Jadot
In one page, a range of brilliant wines from the masters of their art in Beaune. As brilliant as the wines of Bellene and Jadot were, I’m even more thrilled to see the disappearance of the toasty oak from the BP&F reds – they are not better than the other… Read More
Profile: Domaine Pierre Naigeon (Gevrey)
Pierre Naigeon is the fifth generation of his family to be based in Gevrey-Chambertin, making wine, but Naigeons had been there since at least the 1700s, working as farmers and barrel-makers. In 1890 the depressed wine market was in the grip of phylloxera so cooper, Fernand Naigeon, finding it… Read More