Much of red Blagny has been replanted with chardonnay and in so doing becomes either Puligny or Meursault 1er cru – in the case of this wine a Puligny 1er – a wine that can sell at nearly twice the price of the red, not to mention be cropped at higher yield – so that’s a double win for the white! Blagny still has some fans, such as Benjamin Leroux, who is doing his bit to hold onto the label – there are not many – here’s another from Gilles Bouton:
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2006 Gilles Bouton, Blagny 1er Sous le Puits
Medium, medium-plus colour, starting to show a little age. The nose, likewise, has the first hints of a sweet caramel maturity and that comes through on the palate too. It’s a nice and fresh width of flavour over the palate too – slowly melting red-fruited flavour over the tongue. The first hints of maturity but still a young wine – a tasty though not particularly distinguished wine.
Rebuy – Maybe

A wide selection this weekend.

NV Louis Bouillot, Crémant Rosé
I don’t like oxidised styles of fizz – whatever their (sometimes) high cost. THis wasn’t like that – clear fruited and delicious – it was drunk quite quickly!
Rebuy – Yes

2007 Camille Giroud Corton Le Rognet
Deep colour. Ooh what an inviting nose, accents of mature notes and still a little oak. Really mouth-filling volume but composed and very silky wine with plenty of sweet fruit. Powerful but with a caress – still modestly oaked in the finish. Such a super wine – this young Corton is already open and delicious.
Rebuy – Yes

The other Le Charlemagne – just what you’d expect really from 80% Grenache and 20% Carignan! – One reasonable sized glass per night is quite enough!

After sub-optimal performances from last weekend’s wines, it was nice to get into a good groove this weekend:

1995 Domaine Parent, Pommard 1er Les Pezerolles
Rather lighter colour than, for whatever reason, I was expecting. Ooh – what a nose! A little sous-bois, and brooding, bloody fruit – what a charmer across the palate too. Just the tiniest hints of tannin, but this is really a resolved, mature, totally ready wine – delicious to boot – bravo! I have some memory of this being oaky – 15 years ago – there’s nothing here today that would back that up. Just one pour was left in the bottle overnight (in the fridge) and next day it really wasn’t as good – so the moral of the story is, it seems, to drink up! Two swallows don’t make a Spring, but that’s two 1995s that have been singing in last 3-4 weeks…
Rebuy – Yes

2007 Mugneret-Gibourg, Bourgogne
Back in 2012 this was relatively disappointing. By 2014 it was becoming more interesting. This bottle was absolutely singing!
The nose is purer, sweeter and darker fruited than any 2007 has a right to be – there’s a freshness to the aroma that is so inviting. Likewise in the mouth – more of the same. Fresh, a suggestion of cushioning to the dark fruit and a sweet purity that was never there before. What a result. And, having learned a lesson from the Pezerolles – 2 hours later it was all gone. Really a bravado performance for the combination of vintage and label!
Rebuy – Yes

2004 Louis Jadot, Beaune 1er Clos des Ursules
I bought a six-pack on release – this was awful young – how about now?
Deep colour. The nose is a little wild – but deep – a little peanut (old pyrazine) and a darker fruit. Honestly hard to like. Plenty of volume in the mouth, dark fruited but quite a rustic acid/tannin thing going on – dark flavour though nothing particularly endearing. I might be some time looking for the positives – perhaps another 5 years!
Rebuy – No

2014 Goisot, Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre Corps de Garde
Having just visited the domaine, I see this in Beaune’s Athenaeum for a ‘mere’ €19. Why not indeed!
The nose starts with a little biscuity reduction, slowly, slowly fading and offering up dark red fruit. A direct wine to start, very silky textured, the flavour slowly radiating out in slightly creamy finishing waves. This is getting better and better with air but only very slowly. I decide to decant. The nose opens up very well, and shortly behind the palate begins to open too. This is off-ripe – i.e., you shouldn’t expect to enjoy it next to an 09, 15 or 16 – but it looked quite good next to the Jadot 🙂
Rebuy – Maybe

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How to both end 2017 and start 2018? I think I’ll ‘uncork’ some 2002s…

2002 Domaine des Varoilles, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Clos des Varoilles
Deep, some impression of dark oak, herb and eventually a silky dark fruit. Ooh, this has a lovely impact in the mouth – super volume combined with freshness – almost a vibration of acidity – but never sharp. The mid-palate has quite high-toned, almost floral, fruit. An energetic, bold and tasty wine. Not silken, but that’s its character. Lovely wine that is probably entering an early period of semi-maturity. Yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2002 Hudelot-Noellat, Vosne-Romanée 1er Les Suchots
This starts with a weight of sous-bois aroma – just a little sweeter and more complex than the Varoilles. Very similar in the mouth to the Varoilles in terms of both volume and freshness, possibly less fine textured but with more mid and finishing complexity. Less finishing weight but a little extra complexity. The cloth is cut the same for these two wines, but the pattern is modestly different. Also yum, and just a little nicer today – but both are fine.
Rebuy – Yes

2002 Bouchard Père et Fils, Beaune 1er du Chateau
The nose starts a little lactic, but already with just 2 minutes of air this is singing with pure red fruits, and almost a spruce/blood-red fruit. Nice round shape in the mouth, no hard edges and a slowly melting flavour of sucrosity and friendliness. Oh – this is easily the most delicious of these three wines, so far. Yum, yum, yum!
Rebuy – Yes

2002 Louis Jadot, Vosne-Romanée 1er Petits Monts
Deep coloured. The nose is the same – deep – nicely spiced almost mulled dark but fresh fruit. Nicely textured – more silk than velvet – fresh and intense. Pretty wine of good depth of flavour. Less seriously structured than either the Suchots or Varoilles but more delicious than either of those two, but with a distinguished mid and finishing flavour. Very nice!
Rebuy – Yes

The Beaune remains the wine to drink with the most pleasure today – admittedly something of a surprise! – but there’s nothing here that can’t be revisited with pleasure – it seems that there’s nothing scary about approaching 2002s right now – at least at 1er Cru level. These four provided a great start to 2018…

1997 Bouchard Père et Fils, Le Corton
After a run of corked wines from the same case, here one that’s just right.
Medium, medium-plus colour. A nose of pinched florals and spice above, and below a wider macerating-plum depth. A big wine in the mouth – with a leading wave of freshness followed by a more considered and persistent depth of (again) plummy fruit, here accented with a little creamy barrel – still! Just a modest rasp of saline tannin if you look for it. A wine of volume and concentration that is currently quite tasty, if not particularly memorable.
Rebuy – Maybe (if not corked!)

1997 Bouchard Père et Fils Le Corton
My last bottle of this – during The September Report’s look at 1997s, 20 years on – was completely corked. This cork, looks fine but was as hard as concrete – still, had it protected not corrupted the wine this time? My first sniff I thought yes, but this was one of those borderline cases – swirl and it seems okay, let glass rest and the aroma of cork builds in the glass – curses – two in a row from this case – I’ve 5 more to be annoyed by…

1999 Denis Bachelet, Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles-Vignes
Denis to save the day? The nose shows a hint of brett at first, but quickly fades to (almost) nothing – growing in the glass with a very fine and pure fresh red fruit. Lots of volume in the mouth – energy, sweetened Kirsch, a vibration of flavour. This is so delicious that I can forgive the slight transgression on the nose – mega-delicious wine.
Rebuy – Yes

1992 Francois er Antoine Jobard, Meursault Genevrieres
Magnum. Deep golden, practically orange. No oxidation, rather a subtle reductive note – fireworks. Very ripe pineapple aroma to start, slowly more like a blend of ripe lemon and quince but always broad, always deep. In the mouth, like the nose, it’s big, concentrated but silky – with a penetrating slightly reductive intensity, finishing mature and creamy – almost Creme brûlée. So stable – drunk over three days – the last glass at least as good as the first. Such a shame that it’s my last. It was a great wine!
Rebuy – Yes

1997 Lamarche, La Grande Rue
Quite deep colour. What a simply magical nose of floral freshness and exquisite line – simply captivating – you would never guess it’s from 1997. great mouth-fulling volume of more bloody red fruit, but layers and depth of flavour. This could be my best wine of the year – and what timing! So broad in the finish. Also finished on day three, where the nose and finish were good but less good – the mid-palate retaining its fresh delicious and layered personality. I’m unlikely to be able to top this Christmas brace next year, at least in magnum format anyway!
Bought for a relative song in an auction over 10 years ago – Lamarche not yet fully accepted as good winemakers. This wine reminded me of a discussion I had a couple of years ago with Pascal Marchand where he explained something about his small parcel of Musigny ‘It’s from the bottom; Porcheret bought the land from Christian Confuron and it was planted in 1990 with something like pinot droit but it’s great to see how terroir can be so strong as the wine is real Musigny‘ And like that Musigny, the force is strong with this wine!
Rebuy – Yes

I opened another 1997 BP&F Corton – it’s just like the last – I’m confused – I’ll have to discuss it with them…

1993 Frederic Esmonin, Mazy-Chambertin
Medium, mature colour. There’s a nice open, airy quality to the nose – complex, sous bois and a hint of clean white mushroom. A little more direct after the Lamarche, less concentration but still with depth to the slightly cushioned texture and a fine grand cru depth of mid and finishing flavour – my first instinct is a little mint, then coffee, there’s a lot here. There is no rush for the Lamarche, but this is à point! Super wine…
Rebuy – Yes
 

1995 Gros Frère et Soeur, Grands-Echézeaux
Now that’s an informative cork! From a small parcel of vines just behind the wall of the Clos de Vougeot, next to the vines of DRC. Much of the domaines vines were replanted between 1980-1995, this could be quite young vines, or…
A spicy nose, open above, still with old toasty oak at the base – it takes an hour from opening, but the dirty oak fades (perhaps it was more reductive) and there’s some fine, elegant floral notes – this level of improvement implies to me that there is plenty of improvement still in this wine. A good volume in the mouth. Freshness and openness over the palate, nothing blocky or weighty. This is quite mature, relatively surprisingly, and it’s delicious too. Quite some elegant finishing complexity too but certainly not a wine of power – perhaps young vines then (…?)
Rebuy – Yes