At Dukes, I was given directions to proceed round the corner and down two flights of stairs where a happy sight greeted my eyes - a room full of wine and people tasting it. There was no Oz Clarke this year but I think I must have arrived just after Tim Atkin as I spent the entire tasting either one step in front of him or one step behind. The tables were as follows:
- a mixed bag of whites from growers not present
- ACC's new discovery Pascal Clement who is based in Savigny-les-Beaune and used to work with Coche-Dury
- Vincent Perrin from Volnay
- Fabrice Bouard-Bonnefoy from Chassagne-Montrachet who I hadn't met before
- Henri Audiffred from Vosne-Romanee
- Domaine de la Choupette from Santenay
- a table of mixed reds from growers not present
- Florent Garaudet from Monthelie
- Sebastian Odoul-Coquard from Morey-St-Denis
The full offer is on the Burgundy Portfolio's website here. Look out for fabulous Lord of the Rings style maps! It contains wines from a total of 16 growers, and G and I worked out that we've bought wines from 14 of them this year, and have bought wines in previous years from the two we've skipped on this occasion. I'm not going to mention everything I've gone for this year, but will pick out a few of my personal highlights.
Whites
Chablis 1er cru Mont de Milieu from Nathalie Fevre. This showed exceptionally well and is seriously good value for what it is. We'll never forget our exciting day with Nathalie in September and I still have the fossil of a mussel which she gave me!
Bourgogne Blanc from Sylvie Joly. I filled my boots with the 2010, and the 2012 seemed as good if not better. It's a Puligny in all but name.
Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru En Remilly from Domaine Bouard-Bonnefoy stood out for me, while G went for the 1er cru Les Chenevottes instead, so we'll be able to have a pretentious horizontal tasting in a few years' time!
Reds
Henri Audiffred's Beaune had an extraordinary nose reminiscent of tinned fruit and/or mango, and the Vosne-Romanee "Aux Champs Perdrix" was magnificent - it's hard to believe it's not a premier cru. I adore pretty much everything he makes so it's very difficult to choose. Fortunately G has picked up some of the other appellations too.
I liked the Bourgogne Rouge from Jean-Claude Rateau very much, it seemed like a mini Beaune to me, while Aloxe-Corton from Maison en Belles Lies also impressed me again.
Finally, the wines from Odoul-Coquard were sensational. Admittedly I may be slightly biased as ACC kindly invited us for dinner with Sebastian at Chabrot on Sunday night and he produced some Bourgogne Blanc 2012, a Gevrey-Chambertin villages and a Charmes-Chambertin grand cru both from the 2010 vintage, which are still very young but helped us see what these wines are going to be like.
On this occasion, although dribbling occurred when I tasted the village Gevrey, I went for the Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Aux Combottes (influenced by the Dujac 2007 we had at Otto's last Friday) and finally I pushed the boat out with the Clos de Vougeot which will have to be put away for many years. "It has to be had" read my notes. I know I won't regret it!
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| Charmes-Chambertin, 2010 from Odoul-Coquard |
G and I agreed that this was the best en primeur tasting we've been to and possibly the best tasting in general, ever. The quality of the vintage shines through. Congrats to ACC for finding so many delicious things at very reasonable prices considering the circumstances and the competition, and thanks to the growers for making the effort to come over to London and let us taste them.
Afterwards, G and I grabbed a taxi to Byron on Store Street where we pored over the list and did some amicable horse-trading while consuming posh burger and fries. A fitting end to an amazing evening!
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