First up was this Vosne-Romanee 2010 from Domaine Audiffred. Having seen Henri the previous Monday evening, I'd asked his advice about decanting this and the verdict was not to decant in advance, so we opened it, decanted and began drinking right away! This wine was medium weight, deft and poised with a lovely burst of fruit acids on the finish along with a touch of cocoa. It made my mouth tingle. There was some debate about what the fruit reminded us of and in the end we settled on "hedgerow fruits". It felt like it gained a little weight over time, and was beautifully rounded, easy to drink and just very enjoyable.
A couple of nights later we had this Hautes Cotes de Beaune 2012 from Maison en Belles Lies. This was quite a pale colour and a little cloudy. It was lovely, lightweight, pretty pinot noir, just 12% alcohol, with vibrant cherry fruit, juicy and succulent. One of my favourite styles of wine and, as G said, it wasn't pretending to be something it wasn't. I was surprised it was still so fresh at almost 8 years old, and it positively evaporated from our glasses!
Finally, to round off the week, we had this Pernand-Vergelesses Les Combottes 2013 from Pascal Clement. This was an amazing golden colour with hints of green, a surprisingly vibrant colour for a village white. It had hints of stone fruits and white flowers on the nose, then bracing acidity on the palate. It was big and juicy, with a lot of lemon along with a savoury edge. Really remarkable stuff and we agreed it would be a 9 if it we were scoring it as a premier cru, so it was certainly playing at a higher level than its appellation would suggest. It was relatively expensive for a village Pernand but definitely worth it.
I'm looking forward to drinking more of these three very soon...
