it's Meursault. I hate writing that but it's true. Not a bad day then and a quick turnaround this evening before heading out for supper and meeting reinforcements. Many thanks to Philippa for the last two day's arrangements, driving and kind hospitality. it's Meursault. I hate writing that but it's true. Not a bad day then and a quick turnaround this evening before heading out for supper and meeting reinforcements. Many thanks to Philippa for the last two day's arrangements, driving and kind hospitality.Friday 28 October 2011
The last day dawns with only four appointments to go and there is a slight end of term feeling in the air: that mixture of elation at completing a project and sadness at the end of a magical, if knackering week. I can tell you now, that within five minutes of the TGV pulling out of Dijon station, I'm asleep for half an hour. But, off to Henri Gouges first thing to be shown the 2010s by Gregory Gouges. Greg has a rule for his wines. For him the terroir is god so he makes all his wines in the same way. All the work in vineyard and cellar is exactly the same, down to the twenty percent new oak, so that the wines exhibit terroir and not gouges. Having said that, his work is so intelligent that the results are delicious. Tannins are fine and texture draws you in. Each wine is differently fruity mineral and fruity, but all will be delicious.
From Nuits' famous traffic lights, augmented this year by roadworks, we go north to Morey-St-Denis to Domaine Arlaud, whose wines are becoming more and more transparent each year. Romain, our host this year, thinks this is very much to do with the increasing influence of their biodynamic viticulture, but a lightness of touch in the cellar must also contribute. First wine is a Bourgogne rouge and somewhat heretically, I can't help thinking that this has replaced Barthod's as my favourite. Roncevie has a fascinating history we'll put in later. The transparency and delicacy of these wines takes me back to Monday morning and that Fourrier tasting, which set the bar so high. These wines too have finesse and elegance in spades.
Across the road to Domaine Lucie and Auguste Lignier whose story we have rehearsed more than once. It's half term and Kellen is with the eponymous kids for the morning, though later she does pop in to the hotel where we're having lunch to say hi. Her vineyard manager Baptiste kindly takes us through the wines. To put this tasting in context, I should say that I've always had a soft spot for the wines here, though up to now every vintage has had hits and misses. Not this year. Kellen has absolutely nailed 2010. Without exception every wine has fine tannins, superb texture, elegant fruit, minerality and length. This tasting was a revelation. She started the harvest on 20th September and on this showing it was a brilliant decision.
After lunch we have one of the most anticipated visits of the week. Domaine des Lambrays sees Thierry in a good mood, though he has had a wearying week. The wines are superb, though a catastrophe in terms of volume and there are now only four casks of premier cru as almost all the vines are now old enough to be considered for Grand Cru status. Additionally the Caillerets is stupendous with saline, oystershell minerality. We don't get any, I hope you do!
It's done, the week is over and it only takes an hour from Morey to Dijon Gare winding through the roadworks installing the new tram system. It should take thirty minutes normally. I hope they think the two years disruption so far is worth it when it's all finished. Postives? There are some truly wonderful wines, but it's complicated. But then, c'est Bourgogne! Regrets? Never got round to buying any Fallot mustard in Beaune. Must get into town when the shops are open.
Thursday 27 October 2011
There was a slight confusion with a lack of Yves Confuron first thing... We met his parents. His father's very quiet and reticent. Then we met his mother and realised it's because the old man can't get a word in edgeways, though she's very funny. Eventually we head up the road to rendezvous with Charles at Hudelot-Noellat. I tell you. It's getting depressing walking into cellars and seeing so much empty space where there are normally casks. The wine that is here is very good indeed, though. There's lots of differentiation between the villages and crus and they've captured some fine textures in the wines. Extraction and tannin management here are exemplary.
Back to Confuron-Cotetidot to find Yves waiting for us. He gets his sense of humour from his mum, he's dry and sardonic. He doesn't rack until bottling, so inevitably there is an amount of reduction in the wines, which is quite distracting in the junior ones. But this only affects fruit perceptions, the textures and tannins are fine, elegant and mineral and the wines have long finishes. We tried an 06 Craipillot, which has floral characters, developed fruit and mineral character, very nice despite being a tad closed.
Onward to Paul Pillot for what was perhaps the white wine tasting of the week. Thierry Pillot is the face and brain of the domaine and I don't think it too fanciful to say that his frank intelligence, open attitude and thoughtful demeanour have some reflection in his wines. But most people think I'm bonkers. The wines kept us very quiet, they're mesmerising. They're big and mouthfilling but cool and mineral, elegant, and for Chassagnes, quite racy. Thierry has fun making them and it shows in these joyful expressions of Chardonnay.
Only Caroline Morey could follow that, or at least her wines. She was busy doing childcare things, so Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, her husband, himself just out of hospital for football induced cruciate reconstructive surgery (ouch), very kindly hobbled up the steps and showed us her classy, complex and individual wines. Hardly revelatory - everyone knows what this couple is capable of by now - but that doesn't take away from the quality. Pierre-Yves reiterated something that Thierry Pillot had emphasised earlier, that you had to harvest on time and early. Quite a lot of people harvested late with orange skins and high phs, not the case here; Chenevottes in particular outstanding.
Domaine Bernard Moreau next on the diary and expectations were high. Alex - relaxed and content - watched us sniff and slurp through our samples. Chenevottes a star here too. All amazingly fresh and even racy with mid September picking dates. Gorgeous wines, lots of terroir difference from this consistent, high quality estate.
Last visit of the day was to Meursault and a tiny Domaine Tessier, whose annual production is around fourteen casks. The wines here had been fined a mere three days previously and were turbid to a degree, but were typical for the village and worth further investigation. Genevrieres was the hit of the day for me.
Wednesday 26 October 2011
I packed one dress shirt for this trip - a pale yellow effort - and as I pulled it on this morning I suddenly thought, is this wise? Then I remembered that it was a white wine day, mostly. So it was that I turned up for lunch at Chassagne with only a few red speckles: a badge of honour, I think. It was just about light as we left La Closerie, with just a little mist among the vines but a clear sky and arrived at Lafarge early, alors, the Aligote was slushing round the mouth by 08:30. You see, I thought 2009 was the perfect Lafarge vintage: a fleshy and plump year to offset their natural delicacy, but some kind of alchemy of a similar, but different, sort has happened in 2010 too. While the wines are not 'pulpeuse' exactly, as suggested by a colleague, they have flesh on their bones, still delicate, even sometimes fey, but grounded and dense as well as pure and deft. Volnay Caillerets stood out for me here today.
On to Francois Buffet, a former City boy dealing with securities on a Far East desk and who is the 12th generation of the family owning these vineyards. He has invested his money wisely in the vineyards and cellar. Previously working almost exclusively with French private clients, his well priced wines are now available for export and should appear from under the radar soon. Volnays and Pommards various showed good terroir definition and certainly good Pinosity. He has old vines across most of his holdings and in some uses whole bunch fermentation to great effect. We like most of the wines. Now begins the work...
To an old favourite and another new dog belonging to Lydie at Jean-Marc Boillot. The four month old English Setter will soon be bringing in the pheasant, while the estate is still bringing home the bacon in the form of a mixed set of reds and whites. Meix Cadot stood out for me.
After a spot of lunch, we arrive only slightly late - due to yet another French credit card machine not working - at Philippe Colin. We saw it for the first time last year and I was very impressed with how immaculate and organised it is. In a new building everything is spotless - no spiders in your hair or black mould dangling from what was once a ceiling. Mostly white here and of the eighty-odd wines tasted today, this set stood out for their energy, concentration, terroir delineation and sheer presence. I for one will be campaigning for an allocation of these.
So a high bar was set and we returned to an old favourite to see if Damien, of Marc Colin, could match it. We tasted reds first and here was an easy victory for Damien on the day. His reds are more supple than Philippe's, with cool blueberry fruit, they're deft and mineral with fine structure. The whites were racked and sulphured about a month ago, so are showing slightly disturbed. Across the portfolio they have lots of fruit, mandarin and stonefruit, with very primary notes to the fore, so that the minerals and grip are a little obscured. But throughout the set of wines presented today there was fine balance, some fat, yet racy acidity, nervosite and long finishes. The wines are different in character and what we asked ourselves at the end was: why are St-Aubin's wines so little known? They can be the equal of anything from Chassagne and Puligny. A great tasting including a Le Montrachet so tightly wound it was impossible to write sensibly about it.
Finally to Antoine Jobard and Meursault. We'll be in the village again tomorrow, but for this evening Antoine showed us his wines. A bit like the Lafarge/2009 phenomenon, Jobard/2010 is a winning combination as the wines are more elegant, with a deft touch and energy. Of the Meursault en la Barre I wrote - more citrussy, weighty with lifting acidity, vinous, fresh, mineral, it's not Chardonnay, it's Meursault. I hate writing that but it's true. Not a bad day then and a quick turnaround this evening before heading out for supper and meeting reinforcements. Many thanks to Philippa for the last two day's arrangements, driving and kind hospitality.
Tuesday 25 October 2011
After an entertaining dinner we have the luxury of a late start and so don't have a glass of wine in our hands until just before 9 o'clock this morning. We are chez Grivot to start with. Etienne is a thoughtful and meticulously well prepared tasting host as he is vigneron. At 7:30 this morning he prepared most of our tasting samples, making representative blends. It can't have taken long actually as the large cellars are pathetically empty. So the first thing you should be doing on reading this is checking our stocks of previous vintages! I've already told you about the millerandage (small berries) but did you know about the frost in the winter before the season began? In parts of the Cote d'Or the temperatures in parts of Vosne reached -21C, killing most of the first generation of buds that the vines were preparing for the 2010 crop. Second generation buds are never as productive and so yields were already reduced. The flowering problems merely exacerbated the situation. If further evidence of the short crop is required, you find it at the entrance to the cellar, which is full of empty barrels awaiting their turn with another vintage.
Most wines here finished their malo in the summer of 2010. As you'll often find with barrel tastings, some of the wines here were reduced and even the decanting hadn't fully cleared this. The wines are pure and very Pinot, with clear terroir difference and also a mark of Etienne. They are elegant and mineral with fantastic tannins and texture in general. We also pretty much went through all the 2009s from bottle, which despite being a little awkward at this stage showed the density and fat of the vintage. Some of these will be approachable pretty young, but all will age well.
From here we moved to Meo-Camuzet, where the charming and fluent in English Jean-Nicholas met us. We start here with Philibert, which is interesting as we end the Grivot visit with his Bourgogne Blanc. Grivot's white is full, mandarine, serious, big and has a beautiful and long finish. Meo's is more of a crowd pleaser with slightly tropical fruit, it's a shame it's half the normal quantity.
The reds in general differ from 2008 thus: they have a little more sugar to ferment, a little less acidity and the fruit was a little more mature when picked. The wines show this with overall freshness, minerality, beautifully managed tannins and some seriously ripe fruit, but nothing overdone.
I'm aware that this report has been unremittingly positive so I'm pleased that we get to taste from domaines from which we don't buy. One such was after lunch, when we visited a producer whose wines were unremittingly hard, rawly acidic and stoney. I ain't naming him and I do think that some of them will turn out OK in ten or more years, I just wanted to point out that 2010 Burgundy isn't a story of a vintage any more than it is a story of consistently excellent and carefully chosen producers.
Subsequently we are entertained by the princess of Chambolle. Ghislaine Barthod's wines are absolutely charming, with energy, life, fabulous, silky tannins, well knit into the wines and on occasion almost invisible. Here as ever is a producer with lots of space in her cellar where there should be full barrels and a few smaller casks to accomodate the reduced yield. Words like complete and delicious keep cropping up in my tasting notes here. A short paragraph about a modest woman. We aren't sure she knows what a fine vigneronne she is, but she is a perfect illustration of the importance of consistency and quality.
And now to Nuits-St-Georges for the first time in the trip. Currently the regional capital of roadworks, we eventually get to Jean Chauvenet, where Christophe Drag has made big changes in both vineyard and cellar to make the wines more elegant. And I'm pleased to report that he is succeeding. Wines here have more energy and are much less monolithic than in the past. They have eliminated pumping wine and are more gentle in the cellar, where they vinify on taste now as against on recipe, monitoring each cuve frequently to decide when to stop pigeage. Tannins are good here, with well knit textures in the wines and there is real delicacy that I haven't seen in the past. One to keep watching and with whom to keep the faith.
Monday 24 October 2011
08:45 Jean-Marie Fourrier Our arrival coincides with a visit from Sarah Marsh, so for most of the time we are with Jean-Marie's sister. However, Jean-Marie takes the time to brief us about the vintage. The main story is the rough June when flowering, which led to incomplete set known as millerandage. This is bad because it leads to smaller berries, so although there are the same number of bunches on the vines, the yields are much reduced. In Fourrier's case it's especially bad as the quality of the wines is so remarkable. We love Jean-Marie's wines but this is the best set we have tasted. They are as transparent and pure as it is possible to imagine, with increasing levels of density as we moved through the range.
You would expect increased fruit concentration with lower yields - and they're down 40% on normal at this address. What you might not expect is this delicacy, this feminine character allied with real energy and vivid fruit character. There's interesting news from the 2011 vintage too, but that is for the future. We left this tasting so stunned by what we had been shown that we didn't even have the gumption to try and express our admiration for his expression of this vintage.
From Gevrey to Givry - yes, we'll drive miles for a decent punchline - and to Francois Lumpp. As ever the shy and elusive Francois was merely glimpsed flitting from cellar to cellar, but the new dog, and Madame Lumpp who is less aggressive, showed us their 2010s. Bear in mind that we are well down in the Cote Chalonnaise here and that the wines are never going to show the class of top Cote d'Or efforts. What we saw from the reds was perfumed, medium bodied and pure Pinots with plenty of matter and character. They showed density from the low yields, but were bursting with life and freshness as well as terroir difference - something that was very marked in Fourrier's wines, by the way. The whites were full of fruit with density and freshness. The Petit Marole red will be a great early drinker, while the A Vigne Rouge - only purchased in 2008 - is starting to strut its stuff as a serious vin de garde. This will want laying down for a few years. Another very good tasting and these wines will prove a great way to build up a 2010 Burgundy cellar of quality without spending a fortune.
It's the same at Jacqueson in Rully. Here Marie showed us her wines starting with the Bouzeron Aligote, made from vines planted in 1937 and it's a good, dry, crisply honeyed wine. Both reds and whites here continued the emerging themes of purity and terroir, showing firm differences.
So, here we are at the end of day 1 with much to look forward to, it seems. Keep with us, it looks like being a fun few days, and you can't say that about every tasting tour.
CW
