Recent drinking round-up - reds!

I see it's been a while since I posted, but yes, the blog is still going! I have a few weekends in London coming up so there may be a flurry of activity in the near future.

Time to catch up on what G and I have been drinking and in order to make this a less daunting prospect I've divided the report into reds and whites.

Back in March we had this Santenay 1er cru Clos Rousseau Les Fourneaux 2010 from Domaine Bachey-Legros. It appears that this came from the wine shop in Santenay, and a price of 35 euros has appeared in my notes, but whether this was speculation or G's remarkable memory is unclear to me right now. Anyway, this had dark fruits on the nose and was a little lighter on the palate. It was a "vrai pinot", smooth and middleweight. Perhaps slightly rustic, certainly typique, it was drinking well now. We initially scored it as a middle 8 but it ended up being a high 8. The fact that I seemed to guzzle it without paying too much attention was a tribute to its drinkability.

This bottle was an altogether more serious proposition, and quite why I took a photo of it sitting next to an empty class is a mystery - giving a sense of our anticipation perhaps! This was a Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Estournelles Saint-Jacques 1999 from Frederic Esmonin. It brought back happy memories of a bottle of something made by Sylvie Esmonin which we drank at lunch in Chablis with Nathalie Fevre on a memorable occasion back in 2013. So much happened that day that I didn't even allude to it in my write-up!

Back to this wine, which I believe G got at auction. It had a lovely Gevrey nose, which we described as a melange of autumn fruits with bramble and G even finding a hint of rosehip. I'm not sure what rosehip smells like so am unable to confirm or deny. On the palate, my notes say "oh yes". It was silky, poised and congruent, and drinking perfectly now, with a lovely balance of fruit and tannin. The fruit was ripe but not blowsy and reminded us of poached plums with cinnamon, and the tannins were chocolatey. I detected a hint of pontefract cake. This was very serious wine, hugely accomplished and a wholly pleasurable experience. We were sad to get to the end of the bottle and gave it a top 9.

Another Gevrey provided by G, this time the 1er cru Aux Combottes 2007 from Domaine Odoul-Coquard. I believe this was his last bottle, and we chilled it for an hour or so in the decanter. It was lovely Cotes de Nuits pinot, smooth and glossy in that Odoul-Coquard style. It had notes of black cherry and liquorice and was really delicious, albeit at the back end of its drinking window. I've enjoyed the 2007s so much but I guess it's time to say goodbye now.

Earlier this week, I got some more wine out of storage, which is always an occasion for excitement. The fanciest of the bunch was this Nuits-St-Georges 1er cru Les Pruliers 2011 from Domaine Bony so we drank some the next day.

"This will be first rate when it's ready" I predicted back in 2013 and indeed this proved to be the case! It was at that tasting that I ended up buying a six pack, and je ne regrette rien. It was a lovely dark colour, and turned out to be ripe and succulent. It had the prettiness of the 2011 vintage but still had some power to it. I've sometimes found that Nuits from other producers can be a rather unapproachable tannic monster, but that's not how Fabienne makes them. It had perhaps gained weight in the intervening years as cherry had been replaced by blackcurrant and dark chocolate. The fruit, acidity and tannins combined to make a wine that was harmonious and drinking perfectly now. G and I gave it a 10 and immediately began plotting when we're going to drink the next bottle... very soon, I think!