Premier cru project update

Last weekend we took the opportunity to drink some premier crus, three on successive evenings! Rather self-indulgent but we have to move the Project on somehow...

First up, a red Mercurey les Sazenay 2003 from Chateau Genot-Boulanger. I picked this up in the shop in Meursault in January for the princely sum of 14 euros, and looking at the domaine's website I see they are based in Meursault. It had a dark colour with a slight what I described as murkiness but G thought that was a little disparaging - let's just say it wasn't exactly transparent. On the nose there were powerful baked fruits as one would expect from the super-hot 2003 vintage, and on the palate these continued and I detected some liquorice as well. All in all it was quite rustic but more serious than we had expected. It didn't make me long to buy more Mercureys and we gave it a medium 7, nothing to write home about.

Second, a white Chassagne-Montrachet Les Blanchots Dessus 2001 from Darviot-Perrin. This was the second bottle of this we've had recently - the other was back in February which I wrote about in more detail here. It had a wonderful golden colour and on the nose it had toasted nuts and lemon. It was lovely, well-balanced, rich with good acidity and the finish was excellent. It worked well with crab on toast. Once again, a solid 9.

And finally, a special treat after a hard Monday counting beans - G kindly provided a bottle of Vosne-Romanee Clos des Reas Monopole 1999 from Michel Gros. We decanted this for an hour and a half beforehand. It's the most beautiful-looking wine, with amazing legs. On the nose it was rich and enticing with dried fruit, and on the palate it was big, silky and full of different flavours - G said it was taking him on a "flavour journey" which may be the most pretentious thing I've ever heard but I know what he meant - things appeared and disappeared. I got coffee, earth (not that I know what earth tastes like), dark cherries, plums and cocoa.

We've had several bottles of this wine over the past two or three years and only one has been disappointing - inevitably, the one I shared with other people. Otherwise it's been the perfect Cote de Nuits wine, majestic and wonderful. A clear 10 and a great start to the week.