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2007 Alex Gambal, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Charmes
The nose starts with a little reduction – the flavour too – but it doesn’t need much time to dislodge that. There’s not the same concentration as the 2006 Marechale from mid-week, but there is a more open, airy, and complex bright flavour/aroma package here. Today this is a much more attractive proposition in the glass – lovely stuff. Day two, the last half is just purring, showing a hint more oak but also a fuller and rounder shape with pure delicious flavour – excellent!
Rebuy – Yes

2015 Nicolas Burguet, Bourgogne Aligoté
Info on this domaine in the next (March) Burgundy Report.
Medium lemon-yellow colour. An attractive width of aroma, not so much depth. Round but still with lots of freshness, directly delicious and with an added creamy complexity in the citrus finish. Just delicious wine – the type that suddenly you find that the bottle is empty – how did that happen?
Rebuy – Yes

1997 Chezeaux/Ponsot, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Les Charmes
Unlike the 97 Griotte from here (opened a couple of weeks ago) this long cork has no notes of oxidation – likewise the wine, Showing beautifully mature notes, if not the initial dried leaves impact of the Griotte. You could call the wine a little troubled – as it’s cloudy – but it was plucked straight from the case without any time standing, so who knows if it’s the wine or my clumsy handling. Air brings a very attractive sweet and pure red cherry core to the aroma, and an almost smoky minerality. Plenty of mouth-filling volume – sweet and with good drive from the acidity, ending with slow waves of flavour moving into the finish. This is a super drop! Like the cork, nothing oxidative about this particular bottle even 1 hour after opening. Fabulous, ready, Chambolle.
Rebuy – Yes

2006 JF Mugnier, Nuits St.Georges 1er Clos de la Maréchale
​What a rubbish cork – so spongy that the worm of the corkscrew pulls right up through the middle – at least I could put a straw down the middle!
Deep dark fruit on the nose though modest in intensity – aeration adds width and a little more redness to the fruit, eventually a suggestion of creaminess too. Wide, a little tannin, more layered and structured flavour than the 06 Monthelie, with licorice in a direct and slightly saline finish. A good but recalcitrant wine – it showed better when young, and I’ve no reason to think that it won’t show better in the future too. Like the last 06, probably better to look at other vintages right now…
Rebuy – Yes

2006 Comtes Lafon, Monthelie 1er Les Duresses
The nose and also the rest of the wine began rather unauspiciously – aromas of meat and a burly, unfriendly flavour profile. Three hours brought some modest reprise – if I opened another, I’d put it in a decanter. ​The transformation on day two (overnight in the fridge) is impressive. The nose is now of attractive, deep fruit. The palate also less compact and more open and enjoyable. Not very interesting on day one, quite good on day two. I will wait a few more years before approaching again.
Rebuy – Maybe

You may have noted some pictures of snow in this dairy, and for that reason I missed this 101^st Tastevinage tasting. But for those of you who follow them, here are the wines that ‘won’ Tastevinage labels last Friday.

557 wines were presented to 220 tasters, and 181 wines were deemed good enough. You can find the 181 here.

A wine made from the produce of young vines in Ruchottes-Chambertin. The domaine replanted half of their 0.64 hectare Ruchottes-Chambertin parcel in 2000, the original vines had been planted in 1950 but were not very productive. So this ‘Gevrey-Chambertin’ was the first cuvée of the new vines – from the ‘traditional’ third flowering.

In the first few vintages the wine was declassified to a ‘villages’ label. It’s the best part of 5 years since I last opened one of these and only a couple remain in the cellar – and that’s clearly such a shame! The 2002 and 2005 of this were such great buys despite the high price of entry for what seems ‘just’ a villages wine – unlike the wines in 2003 and 2004, both of which disappointed for the price – it seems that those young vines were more easily compromised by the difficult growing seasons. This bottle once-more emphasises that the half-dozen that I bought from the 2002 vintage simply weren’t enough!

The label for the product of these young vines transitioned from a villages to premier cru in the 2007 vintage, but there was still a Ruchottes-Chambertin produced during these years, only the fruit of the section replanted in 2000 was made into a separate cuvée. From the very low yielding 2012 vintage the young vines were blended with the old – and they have stayed that way ever since.

2002 Dr. Georges Mugneret, Gevrey-Chambertin
Medium, medium-plus colour. As pinot goes, here is a wine of barely middleweight aroma and flavour – but what aroma and flavour! The nose has a depth of floral perfume that easily out-points the fruit. In the mouth it’s silken and again so floral, just a hint of finishing oak flavour but it’s such a sweetly delicious wine that there’s hardly a sin that I would not be willing to forgive. Simply outstanding. A performance like this suggests that this wine has entered an early phase of absolute drinkability! Fragrant, beautiful wine…
Rebuy – Yes

Given how fabulously this showed, I was almost tempted to pull out the domaine’s 2001 Clos de Vougeot – but for (just) long enough, I thought better of it!

A weekend away, not control over the glassware. The whites showed great, less-so the reds…

​2009 Alex Gambal, St.Aubin 1er Murgers des Dents de Chien
Half golden. The nose starts with a toast, ends with a riper fruit. In the mouth this has youth and freshness – much more-so than I would have expected – I wouldn’t guess directly 09. The fine texture is almost oily and aniseed inflected in the finish. Such a baby – I’m more delighted than surprised as I’ve at least half a dozen more. Super wine, and long too!
​Rebuy – Yes

2013 Olivier Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet 1er Champ Canet
Lots of reductive toast to start, then there’s a little noisette, finally a depth of ripe grapefruit with a little crême-brûlée complexity. In the mouth this is directly fresh and complex – no surprise that it’s fresher than the 09 – beautiful acidity and a mid and finishing width of beautiful agrumes. Just super wine – showing absolutely great today!
Rebuy – Yes

2005 Denis Bachelet, Côte de Nuits Villages
The nose starts quite big before settling into a fresh red berry/redcurrant depth – very inviting – more time and there’s a woody, oxidative, aroma that makes me think of Italian wines raised in botti (foudres). Red fruited and direct, long too, like the nose an Italian style of oxidative red fruit through the spine of the wine – particular and very modest for an 05 – but drinkable!
Rebuy – No (this bottle anyway)

2007 Daniel Rion, Vosne-Romanée 1er Beaux-Monts
Modest colour. A deep nose if a little woolly to start, slowly adding some red fruit complexity and background vanilla. The palate is also quite modest with a width of modest red fruit. There’s a pleasant enough finish and a little more interest than the Bachelet, but not much…
Rebuy – No

1998 Guy Castagnier, Clos de la Roche
Modest width and intensity, a little mineral depth. Wide, complex, a subtle astringency but a fine width of flavour from the mid into the finish. Very tasty wine here.
Rebuy – Maybe

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2005 Cornu, Savigny Les Saucours
I haven’t popped one of these for about 10 years – maybe a little more – but I’ve a distant memory of it being very good!
Not the deepest colour for a 2005 but still plenty. The aroma is of a fine and frank red berry fruit. Lots of width over the palate, ingraining a certain freshness and intensity. The flavour is excellent, if with a slowly developing, slightly metallic impression. Still relatively young but absolutely accessible – a faint Savigny herb in the finish. Despite the herb and the intensity of this young wine, not a hint of austerity. Very good.
Rebuy – Yes

1997 Guy Castagnier, Clos de la Roche
I’ve had such good experiences in the last 6 months with 1997s, so why not!
The nose starts open, clearly quite mature but sweet and attractive – in 30 minutes you may note an extra balsamic impression – so I drink faster! A little fat and lots of silk – the mid and finishing flavours are both wide and persistent. This is simply very tasty wine, and gives enough of an impression that it’s a grand cru too. Devoured rather quickly.
Rebuy – Yes

2013 Olivier Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet
A faint, slightly reductive, toast on this nose – the depth hinting at a little grapefruit – which becomes more and more overt with aeration and as the toast fades. Fresh but with a melting width over the palate rather than direction. The flavour is of slightly sweetened grapefruit and has a nice focus and good tension. Versus its early days of youth this is a little more discreet today, but it’s still very Puligny and with a sneaky length too. Very enjoyable…
Rebuy – Yes

1999 Nicolas Potel Volnay Vieilles-Vignes
I pulled out a 1997 of this, but realised that I’d left that bottle in Beaune, so why not this one?
Deep colour. The nose starts with some strange, unappetising notes, but after 15 minutes of air it’s an altogether different proposition – modest of width, with a little more depth of mulled fruit and a fine, velvet width of faintly spiced complexity – yum! Fresh, a super line of acidity but with a strawberry-edged padding to balance the acidity. Still a tiny grain of tannin which, coupled with the shimmering fresh fruit, shows plenty of youth. Not the most powerful finish but still a brilliant length for a villages label. The only negative I can see is that it becomes overly soft and indistinct as it reaches room temperature in the glass. Great villages that you could start drinking – if you wished – but there’s clearly no rush…
Rebuy – Yes