AduV in claret-drinking shocker! A couple of weeks ago G and I had this "Society's Exhibition Pauillac" 2010 from the Wine Society. Initially I managed to confuse it with that other Pauillac which they do, the Ulysse, which I have enjoyed in the past, and indeed, I generally find that Pauillac ticks my boxes. So, what did we have here? First impressions were that it looked young but was in fact fully mature, smooth, savoury and well-integrated.
However, as time went on, we both began to feel that it didn't quite deliver what we'd been expecting. I said it lacked complexity, and G thought it had probably been made from parcels of grapes that weren't good enough to go in the real wine. Then he had a look at the back label, and discovered that this wine was merlot-dominated, so there was our answer. Not what I expected from a Pauillac. Overall, we thought it might have been better five years ago when the fruit might have been more exuberant. "Fourth level Lafite" was G's verdict, which is quite damning even by his standards!
On to better things. G also provided this Morgon Cote du Py Reserve 2010 from Jean-Marc Burgaud. I think we had something from this producer a while back but I don't seem to have blogged about it. He's one of these low sulphur guys and often their wines tend to be light and pretty, but this was very serious. It was a deep purple colour but looked mature, and there was a good hint of farmyard on the nose. G thought that if we'd had it blind we might have thought it was a Rhone due to its resinous quality. Hefty, rich and gastronomic, it reminded me of old school burgundy. Satisfying stuff.
We also recently had this Rully 1er Cru "Chapitre" 2012 from Domaine Vincent Dureuil-Janthial. I see I've written about two of their whites previously, but not any reds. It had a vibrant nose, some nice stone fruits on the mid-palate and cocoa on the finish, which was very long. It was relatively light and juicy, very enjoyable served slightly chilled on a hot summer evening. Exemplary stuff and it confirmed that villages like Rully are the place to go for value these days.
Having said which, there's nothing like a red from the Cote de Nuits... We had this Gevrey-Chambertin La Justice 2011 from La Maison Romane a few weeks ago. It had a glorious nose, with a slightly wild, even feral, character. G said it was reminding me of the unsulphured wines of Romain Chapuis which I love so much. It also reminded me of the Pommard 1er cru Largilliere 2008 from La Maison Romane which remains one of the most lovely wines I've ever drunk (the bottle is sitting in the hall of fame above my kitchen cabinets), and in the same way that the Pommard wasn't very Pommard, this wasn't very Gevrey. No liquorice was detected but it was full of fruit - G said it cycled through different fruits - loganberry, boysenberry and lingonberry were all mentioned, along with poached black cherries. It was mouthwatering, scintillating and truly wonderful wine, drinking perfectly now. Thanks G for sharing all of these with me!
