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
de la Tour – 2020
Tasted in Lignorelles with Vincent Fabrici, 04 January 2022. Domaine de la Tour 3 Route de Montfort 89800 Lignorelles Tel: +33 3 86 47 55 68 www.ledomainedelatour.eu There’s no ‘tower’ here at the top of the village of Lignorelles but this was a… Read More
Auxey-Duresses: Village Profile
When it comes to white wine recommendations and the common old question of ‘what’s a better value alternative to Puligny or Meursault?‘ my toes curl and my teeth grind when people, with an assured air of superior knowledge, authoritatively boom – ‘Oh you should look at St.Aubin!‘ Save for a… Read More
Clos de Vigne au Saint – 118% Corton!
Jasper Morris’s book ‘Inside Burgundy’ describes Corton Clos de la Vigne au Saint as covering 2.46 hectares, yet, if you add up the surface areas of today’s three owners; des Croix, Louis Latour and Méo-Camuzet, you will come up with a larger number – 18% larger! The first reference… Read More
Burgundy’s merchant class – facing up to a changing market
Versus a generation ago – let us say 30 years – the market dynamics of traders who buy and sell wine have been far from static. The traditional Beaune-based merchants, or the ‘Maisons’ remain the focus of commentators but they have much more competition today, and at all levels… Read More
Olivier Leflaive – 2013
Tasted in Puligny-Montrachet with Frank Grux, 17th March 2015. Back in October/November 2014 Frank Grux didn’t want to show his unfinished 2013s, so I instead visited their 12s. Now the 2013s are all in bottle Frank’s happy to show them. I sometimes think it’s a shame that all producers… Read More
Corton-Charlemagne 2012 – blind…
Before delving into the detail, it’s worth saying ‘what a great set of wines’ this was. I used my normal nomenclature (Rebuy: no – maybe – yes) converted to 0-2 points, plus my favourite wine getting 3 points, but there was nothing here that I wouldn’t enjoy sharing… Read More
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
The big round-up
Here’s a compendium of wines, mainly tasted with producers at the end of March 2012 – almost 200 wines – the bulk are culled from tastings put on for the Grands Jours de Bourgogne which happens every two years. I’ll start with a selection of wines from Beaune, followed by… Read More