G has been making a good stab at keeping the Premier Cru Project going, so over the past few weeks we've notched up a few more.
This St Aubin 1er cru le Champlot 2014 from Sylvain Langoureau was a nice pale gold colour and had a classic St Aubin nose, lemony with a hint of toast. It had a nice weight and was refreshing with good acidity. The finish improved as time went on and developed a tingle of its own, reminiscent of gooseberry. We had it with a Thai chicken and mushroom stir fry which worked well. Described as entirely satisfactory, we gave it a solid 8.
On to two Puligny 1er crus, both 2014s, both from Drouhin. A few days ago I made my trademark Parmesan crisps (wonderfully easy recipe - put teaspoons of grated parmesan on a baking sheet, bake for 5 minutes at 200C) to go with the Clos de la Garenne, a very small vineyard near Folatieres. This was a beautiful colour, with that Puligny mushroom thing going on on the nose, and rich and full on the palate. Our favourable first impression gradually receded somewhat as we failed to detect any great complexity which was surprising for a wine at this level. Other commentators had given it very good reviews but we assume they must have drunk it young, so maybe it hadn't lived up to its early promise. It did go well with our fish soup and in the end it managed an 8 but I think we'd hoped for more.
We had this 1er cru Champ Gain from the same producer and the same year back in July. In the absence of a notebook I made brief notes on my phone, but it's interesting to compare with the other one. It had the mushroomy thing again and a certain waxiness on the nose. On the palate, it had a lovely weight and was crisp and typique, elegant and polished with a great finish. G detected lemon peel but felt that the oak was slightly intrusive and thus it was awarded a 9. This vineyard is a bigger one up towards Blagny, which may explain why we liked it.
And finally, to Chablis where I've been getting through supplies of this 1er cru Montmains 2011 from La Maison Romane. This has been a real pleasure to drink. It looked amazing in the glass, and on the nose G detected lemon verbena while I got a hint of lemon curd. On the palate, it was dry yet rich and fully mature, with a nutty note on the finish. It reminded us of a premier cru Chassagne rather than a Chablis, and became more honeyed over time. We gave this a high 9 and made a note to drink my one remaining bottle in the near future.
