Musigny Grand Cru VV 1999 de Vogüé

I love Musigny. I prefer Mugnier's to de Vogüé's these days, but that's totally academic as I cannot afford either. 

Dark, deep and gorgeous.

Quite mute to start. Slowly showing strawberries, cherries and some glazed ham.

Incredibly tight knit at the moment, with fruit and secondaries pulled taut like rope in the palate. Finely texture, like beautiful wood. Echoes long after it goes down. Intense. Focused. Precise, but still with elegant poise. Lifting. Glorious.

*****

Tasted 7 December 2012 at The Sampler

 

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Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses 1955 Bouchard Aine & Fils

A friend and I decided to try a few icons at The Sampler before Christmas. 

Lovely colour, still with some weight.

Young on the nose, but not too young.

Still quite juicy and elegant on the palate, gripping and structured, with bright dark cherries, leather and dusty herbs. Lovely.

****

Tasted 7 December 2012 at The Sampler

 

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Grands Echezeaux 1969 Leroy

Pale and beautiful.

Strawberries and mulch on the nose. Burgundian barnyard that gets heady cocoay and perfumey.

Ripe, candied strawberries with beeswax, a touch of rosemary and the most silky delicate texture that hides this tight, zingy citrus. Juicy still. Lovely length.

****

Tasted 7 December 2012 at The Sampler

 

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Verget Le Montrachet 1992

This was my fourth Montrachet. Yes, I keep count. It's about counting how lucky I am to have tasted the things I have. There are those luckier and those unluckier, I know, but it's important to me that I remember that I'm very lucky, and that I shouldn't take it for granted. 

I'm firmly in the group that feels that this is the unparalleled greatest white wine vineyard in the world. I've tried three different growers' wines, and while all different, they stand towering above the neighbouring vineyards. It's remarkable. 

Green and gold.

Hilarious. That smells like Yquem. Sweetly resiny and spicy with outrageous tropical candied pineapple fruits and a whiff of lacquer. Jumps from the glass - I'm scared to swirl and coax more out of it. 

Incredibly rich, ripe and busting out all those indulgent notes from the nose. It starts off with that sweet tropical fruit and then from the back sides follows up with melted butter, cream and a nutty vanilla depth. All seems in its proper place, held there by gorgeous acidity. Not a note out of place. Gorgeous. Persistent - the finish goes on for minutes and the memory lingers even longer.

*****

Tasted 5 November 2012 at The Sampler.

 

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Coche-Dury Meursault 2001

This was a wonderful example of the better wine and the better wine now. I have little doubt in my head or heart that this is not as fine a wine as the '95. There's less to it. But its integration; its general harmony; the way its structure simply glides across the tongue and palate beguiled me, and makes me think that this is a wine truly at its peak. I feel it won't show a great deal more than what it's showing now. While the '95 has a couple of years before it gets that harmony, this all right here, right now, and it's brilliant. 

Drink now, in quantity, preferably with seared scallops.

Almost the same colour as the '95. 

Nutty, with marmalade and orange peel. Worryingly oxiditive at first, but it blows off, revealing fresh hazelnuts and chantilly cream and lemon posset.

Lovely, silky and rich on the palate, with beautiful integration. All that from the nose. Utterly decadent. Not as complex or serious as the '95, but all the bits and pieces just seem to be fitting together better at the moment. Really beautiful, charming, lovely and very, very long on the finish.

*****

Tasted 5 November 2012 at The Sampler.

 

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Coche-Dury Meursault 1995

It was a dinner in Beaune 8 years ago that I first tried a wine from this producer. Until then it had only been rumour, hearsay and the like. It was, I believe, a 2000 vintage Puligny. He only does one Puligny, 'Les Enseigneres'. It was amazing. My boss at the time thought it was amazing too, and he considered it crucial not to consider anything amazing because amazing things cost amazing money. 

It was a great dinner all around, with great food, company and other splendid wines. It was only my second buying trip ever, so I was fresh-faced and excited. Lots of things stand out still, but that Puligny stands out just a little more. 

Deep gold but still incredibly bright at the core. Light dances through it.

Nose of rich butter and fresh toast. Very soft, gradually bringing out marmalade and honey. As air hits it, more flint & slate.

Palate quite hard at first, with mature cheddar and hard tack biscuits and a bit of gripping salinity. It loosens up then, but without losing it. Rich and toasty with soothing buttered pineapple and bright, young bracing citrus acidity that guides the flavour throughout the palate. Then the finish lifts into the sensual and ephemeral, echoing for moments. Sensational. Decanting advised.

*****

Tasted 5 November 2012 at The Sampler.

 

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Chambertin Grand Cru 1999 Christophe Perrot-Minot

Another top bit of kit. I love The Sampler. 

Very young colour. Not showing its age.

Gentle nose of soft red fruit and a bit of forest floor. Pretty.

Palate is sensual. Plush red fruit guided by gorgeous tannins. Mouth-coating, long and elegant. Juicy and still young. Just that silkiness of the tannins that show the age, and perhaps a touch of stinginess to the fruit.

*****

Tasted 14 September 2012 at The Sampler

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Vosne-Romanée 2008 Sylvain Cathiard

Pale, pretty with lovely brilliance.

Cranberries and a touch of the farm on the nose. Quite heady.

Goodness that's sexy Burgundy. Ripe cranberries, cherries and raspberries, juicy and more-ish. Supple on the tongue as well. Perhaps a little all over the place, but immensely pleasurable.

****
Tasted 14 September 2012 at The Sampler

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Bourgogne 'Cuvèe Halinard', Bernard Dugat-Py 2009

I know these wines only by reputation, the reputation being exceptional. I picked this up as an introduction to the domaine as it was the most modestly priced of those available. And by 'modestly priced', I mean no such thing. It was hilariously pricey for AOC Bourgogne, at over the £30 mark. Still, with more senior village offerings well over twice that, I figured dipping my toes in at £30 would reward a Burgundy nut like myself, or prevent me from spending more on a disappointment. 

Dark Burgundian shade, laced with purple and a deep core. Broody looking.

Bushels of sweet red fruits with some darker plum and savoury tones on the nose. Very heady and quite floral - bit of violet to it. Intense.

The fruit has a piercing, juicy intensity to it, but it's surrounded by lush, soft gently textured tannins that don't show off their serious side until the beginning of the finish. The fruit gives way to the youthful hints of savoury notes, but they're still a bit under-developed at the moment. And just like they lingered on the edges of the nose, those violets linger and drift on the edges of the palate. This is luscious, sexy style Burgundy from the most luscious and sexy vintage in sometime. That focus of the fruit provides a great line to hold everything to it until it gives way to secondaries and tannin. Very long on the finish. Decadent, delicious stuff. 

Frightened to say it's worth the money. I know 1er Cru wines from lesser growers that cost more and deliver less. Horrifying, as it means I'm going to wind up buying more of these, and I can't really afford to.

*****

Tasted 21 August 2012 at Shorehead

Chambolle-Musigny 2004 Mugnier

I love these wines. This is wearing its age a bit, but I didn't mind. 

Quite mature for only 8. Hints on amber on the edges. Rust too.

Bit aged on the nose. Soft, stewed cherries and general earth tones. Gentle. Basket of fruit on a hot summer's day.

Pulpy, juicy palate with soft and gentle strawberries, cranberries and redcurrants. The tannins have softened considerably. This is mature, drinking now and probably should be drunk quite soon. It's charming, though, and a pleasure to drink.

***

Tasted at Luvians, 15 July 2012

Richebourg 1998, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

Quite early in my wine trade days, I was given the task of sourcing a selection of Richebourgs from different growers for a tasting. It was fun. I cracked several tomes and scoured the web in search of the best growers and vintages. Wine merchants from all over this small island had me pestering them on the phone, sorting shipping and payment details, clarifying provenance. The tasting was for someone's 60th birthday and time was of the essence. In the end there were six bottles - 3 x '95s and 3 x '97s from growers such as DRC, Leroy, Meo-Camuzet and Anne Gros. It was not easy to hand those wines over to the customer, not easy at all. And sadly, I was not invited to the tasting. 

Dark in the glass, with just a hint of ruby on the rim.

The nose is pungent - savoury and masculine Burgundy with perfumed edges and stewed cherries, layered with a hint of lacquer and beef jerky. It's never the same twice. 

Meaty on the palate, layered with ripe, sour, bright red fruit and just-softening tannins. There's so much there - it cascades across the mouth and then grips it in all the right places. Cherries and cocoa, beaten saddle leather and wood spice. Beautiful. Wine of the night. 

*****

Tasted on Crawford Gardens, Summer 2010

favourite wine

'What's your favourite wine?'

Not the best wine you've ever drunk, but your favourite. It's not as easy a question to answer. Or maybe I'm making it too complicated. Maybe you can answer it just fine and I'm over thinking it all. It wouldn't be the first time. For me, best wines are easy. I've got them categorised and everything, and can reel a list off counting by finger with very little effort. 

Favourite, to me, is different. A favourite wine is a bottle whose moment, or moments, pierce through the memory of palate, heart and mind. It may have been a revelation or a comfort, or both. It comes to be something that we consider defining as who to we are - not just wine, but food, music, art, movies, architecture. Often the story of how one particular thing becomes a favourite becomes one of the defining stories of our life. 

Again, maybe it's just me. It could be that I weigh down these moments with significance in hindsight, turning the odd moment into something far more than it has any right to be.

The first wine I tried from Freddie Mugnier was his 1997 Musigny. It was March 2003, and my flatmate at the time brought the bottle back from a trip to Beaujolais and Beaune. I cooked some lamb gigot chops from the farmer's market and decanted the bottle into my prized decanter (sadly broken a short time later). I didn't know anything about Mugnier and Musigny was almost as much a mystery. Andy paid €75 or something close to that for it, so we expected something good. What we got was something tremendous. The purity, elegance and precision of the wine blew me away. 

I spent the next seven months pestering the MD of our wine shop, demanding he find the importer and order vast quantities of every cuvée he could. It took awhile, but he did, and they stock those wines to this day. They're a bit pricier these days, sadly.

So that's my favourite wine. I love it. I wish I could afford to drink it more often.

Musigny 2000, JF Mugnier

Pale, translucent, rust with no orange. Bright to the core.

Bushels of cranberries, redcurrants, dried spice in bushes and some forest floor. Some cured, savoury notes come through with coaxing.

Bursting with crunchy, red, juicy fruit on the front side of the palate. It's no longer cranberries or redcurrants but cherries and cherry stones. There's a light dusting of cocoa that coats the cherries like leather. As it passes from the middle to the finish there's a soft heather note that slips into that perfumed, ephemeral dovetail.

*****

Tasted with good friends on Greyfriars, 7 November 2011

Chablis Clos des Hospices dans Les Clos Moreau 1991 (from magnum)

These magnums used to litter the wine merchant I worked for: they were everywhere. Not just from 1991, but spanning the whole of the decade, from 1990-99. Grand looking labels but shoddy cardboard boxes that disintegrated as though the inevitable entropy of the universe focussed the entirety of its attention on that sad packaging. A forage around the warehouse would result in the discovery of yet another '94, bin soiled and draped in corrugated cardboard that had been soaked and dried so many times that a light breeze would most likely reduce it to dust. Stock-counting was never easy.

Their ubiquity, for some reason, counted against them. I never tried one, in spite of some really lovely vintages laying around. Our director swore by them, and bought them every year without fail, and every year without fail we would attempt to stack the new boxes in the hope they would not collapse, releasing an ocean of Grand Cru Chablis. 

I never sold one. I don't think any of us did. But someone must have drunk them, because they all disappeared, but one. Bin-soiled, but great levels and no sign of premox. That's not a bad sign for a 21 year-old Chablis.

Nice, rich gold with still a touch of green edges.

Peach Wensleydale on the nose. Soft and gentle. Whiff of beeswax.

Bright, rich, lemony citrus with a hard, honeyed wax to it as well. Powerful stuff and still with loads of life. Opens incredibly with the food (smoked haddock fish cakes). Fleshy and gentle with a texture that gets silkier as it opens. What an eye opener. I was expecting it to be harder; more bracing. Instead it's savoury, soft and decadent. Brilliant.

*****

Tasted at Naughton, 29 April 2012

Clos Vougeot 2005, Domaine Louis Jadot

I don't know when I began to 'get it'. At what point I crossed over from thinking a wine didn't taste very appealing to recognising its youth and promise. Young wines (and old) pop up on this site quite frequently, and I hope I do them justice. I hope the casual reader has a look and trusts that I have some idea what I'm talking about. 

Some fine wines reward the odd dabble in infanticide, and the guilt that comes with it can be, for real wine geeks, a bit of a thrill. Big tannins and sweet fruit and, yeah, it's going to get better but it's so huge and awesome right NOW… you know the deal. Or maybe you don't. If you don't, don't worry. You're not missing much. Wine nerdery's navel-gazing is nothing to envy.

Some young 'uns just don't say anything. Backwards; mute. This is easier to assess if you know the producer, as you can assume it will eventually say SOMETHING (or know that if does say something, it will be gibberish). Youthful strangers may not get a second look.

And then there are the bottles that bring both guilt and excitement, for the moment and for the future. Wines that show so much promise but so little generosity. The tannins might be big but the fruit has not asserted itself yet and tasting it is like untying a bosun's knot with your tongue. Your brain kicks in, grasping and gripping textures, trying to sense the fruit and make heads or tails of it. Wines that aren't ready, but that you know and love better as they age because you knew them when they were young and rambunctious. 

This was one of those.

Light, bright and brilliant with lovely depth to the core.

Floral red fruits on the nose. Strawberries and cranberries with the odd crushed flower petal. Nice purity to it. Coaxing reveals some more savoury, meaty notes, but still with pervasive fruit.

Very young palate. Texture and integration all there but it overwhelms nuance. Bit like drinking rope soaked in strawberries. Lovely grip and would benefit hugely from food, but needs at least ten-fifteen years, probably more. There's an underlying juiciness that's not quite settled with the rest, that rises at the finish. Will be stupendous.

****(*)

Tasted 8 June 2012