Guest Text: Red burgundy, Filtering, and Brettanomyces
Writing from San Francisco, Thomas Layton is a winemaker and lover of Burgundy. There are certain things he doesn’t like to smell in his glass… For years I was skeptical about red burgundies that had been filtered because I thought this meant they could be stripped of flavor. And I… Read More
Round-up of wines tasted
No slurping and spitting; these wines were drunk at home with food and friends between July and November 2003. Corkwatch: 4 from 84 = 4.8% REGIONAL WINES 2000 Joseph Faiveley, Bourgogne Rouge Medium cherry red. The nose is of earthy cooked red cherries against a faintly smokey… Read More
Random ruminations…
October 2003 The last report for this year and I’ve just a little time available for reflection. I started the year with the intention of doing a quarterly report, but halfway between issue 1 & 2 a sense of realism set in and I went for 3… Read More
Oaky Wine & En Primeur
Just in case you didn’t know, there’s a big problem with en-primeur tastings; Back in January 2002 the 2000 Grand Cru of Clos des Lambrays really stood out for me at a tasting organised by the UK merchant Howard Ripley. The problem is that the wines are sometimes… Read More
this week’s wines, including ‘Who is the new Domaine René Engel?’


Dinner with friends in Pommard and some lovely, eclectic, wines. The first bottle was a lovely 2011 Comtes Champagne – with some lovely menthol aromatic complexity. Then came the: 2012 Fontaine-Gagnard, Le Montrachet Deeper colour and the first nose was more monolithic – some sulfur-reduction hardening things… Read More
2000 Burgundy – en primeur tasting
Yes, you read that right – 2000 – only my second diary ‘post’ on this website – 20 years ago today (near-enough) with cameos from Jancis and Joanna Simon. I was happy with the wines that I decided to buy that year – if only three from… Read More
The 1998 Burgundy Vintage – 20 years on…
I have been so looking forward to tasting these 1998s. I cut my teeth of the wines of 1993-1995 and the 1996s were the first en-primeur wines that I bought. I tasted some 1996 and 1997s in Burgundy but only started to regularly taste from cask from the 2000 vintage… Read More
chästeilet, weekend wines (week 40 2018) and some happy producers…
#2017burgundyreport week 1 After my first full week of 2017 visits – see the happy, smiling, faces of the producers above – I returned home for a little relaxation: First there was my 10km Saturday morning jog from Lauterbrunnen up to Mürren with 960… Read More
marko’s burgundy vendange day three
Morey-in-the-background-Herve-looking-into-the-sun-from-Chambolle-Sentiers David-Duband-orange-jacket-team-members-adjacent-to-Arlaud-Chambolle-Sentiers Morey-Ruchots-grapes Into-Morey-from-Millandes Maxime-avec-his-dejeuner-takes-his-lunch-very-seriously Part-Arlaud-team-resting-after-lunch Arlaud Vendange Day Three – 5th Sept 2018. Day three dawned… Read More