Premier cru recent drinking roundup

Over the past couple of weeks we've been cracking through the premier crus at a fine pace!

1. Chambolle-Musigny 1er cru 2007, Domaine Odoul-Coquard

We visited this domaine back in May 2008 and loved their Chambolles. G picked up a case of this one which is coming on nicely - surprisingly early for a premier cru, but the 2007 reds are early-drinking and very charming in my opinion. This wine is made from a mixture of grapes from three different premier cru vineyards so we don't get to mark it off on the giant spreadsheet. Lovely stuff though and not crazy money. Gets a 9.

2. Nuits-St-Georges 1er cru Clos des Corvees Monopole 2008, Domaine Prieure Roch

This was procured from my favourite wine merchant in a bin end sale. There was some discussion about it as although it says 1er cru on the label, it doesn't specify a vineyard. Fortunately the Bible came to the rescue - Coates says they only have one holding and it's a monopole to boot! Slightly weird that they don't shout about it.

I found the nose heady, and we detected a hint of the sugar bag. G got baked plums and chocolate. On the palate, it was very soft and mature, but almost rustic. Old school. We agreed that it was not polished, but I actually found this rather endearing. It improved with food - duck with redcurrant jelly. In the end we upgraded it from an initial 7 to an 8.

3. Beaune 1er cru "en Genets" 1995, Bourgeois-Changarnier

ACC brought this back from Mon Millesime a few weeks ago. It had an excellent level for such an old wine, which was a promising start.

It was a beautiful colour and had that classic Beaune perfume. G said (and I checked I could quote this) that it was "almost good enough to rub in your armpits". All in all, tres Beaune. On the palate, it was characteristically delicate and elegant. It was fully mature and had no further to go but was as good as it would ever be.

I thought it was absolutely lovely but G said, and I have to agree, that it lacked the transcendental element of the Darviot Beaune Greves, so in the end it got a 9. Lovely stuff though. Thanks to ACC and Philippe.

4. Volnay 1er cru La Gigotte 1999, Domaine Darviot-Perrin

I got this in the same bin-end sale as the NSG. I did attempt to take a photo but it didn't turn out very well so sorry about that. It was a beautiful deep purple colour and had blackcurrant and redcurrant on the nose. On the palate, I have written "gosh" - it was big and rich but not very sophisticated, in fact rather rustic. G maintains that he prefers village-level Volnay to premier cru Volnay, and this did nothing to make him change his mind. We gave it an 8.

Where does this leave the premier cru project? Discussing it with friends last night the consensus was that we should ditch Montagny and Chablis - Montagny because its premier crus aren't proper premier crus (all wine from Montagny above a certain alcoholic percentage can call itself a premier cru) and Chablis because although technically Burgundy, it's much further north than the Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune which are what we're focussing on. This would leave us with 542 premier crus of which we have had 132.

We'll soon be approaching the stage where I can do some proper quantitative analysis and bore the pants off everybody! Stay tuned....