Recent Cote de Nuits reds

Moving on to recent reds, there have been quite a few!

We had this Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Clos Saint-Jacques 2013 from Domaine Louis Jadot a few weeks ago. It came in a whopping great Jancis-unfriendly bottle to show how expensive it was.   

The nose caused noises of pleasure to be emitted - it was like sweet cherry compote, while on the palate it was deft and not too heavy. I'd wondered if it was going to be a monster wine and difficult to share between two, but we had no problem getting it down us. It also had a notable peacock's tail. We gave it a high 9. 

Then, back at the Hawkmoor, it was battle of the Chambolles!

  

In the red corner, this 1er cru Aux Beaux Bruns 2013. This had a wonderful nose with sweet fruit and icing sugar, and a massive line of blackcurrant going down the middle. G also detected chocolate. It was very smooth but we thought it wasn't ready yet. 

It did look absolutely beautiful in the glass.

Meanwhile, in the blue corner, we had this 1er cru Les Grunchers 2013 from Thibault Liger-Belair. For me, this was more brooding, with dark fruits and liquorice. I found a lot of tannin. However, there was some debate as others found this one more approachable, causing me to wonder if we had somehow got them mixed up during pouring, but I don't think we did. In the end, we gave them both a 9. For me, the Faively was the winner, which was gratifying as it was also considerably less expensive although still not exactly cheap. 

Stay tuned for my report on recent Cote de Beaune reds which will be coming soon...

Recent reds report - Cote de Nuits

The first of two reports on recent reds. Today it's the Cote de Nuits working from north to south. 

A quick memo on a bottle of Gevrey-Chambertin 1er cru Bel Air 2011 from Domaine Taupenot-Maume. Sadly this bottle was not correct. G identified it as a bacteriological issue. 

Moving swiftly on, this bottle of G-C was much better.

This was a 1er cru les Goulots 2013 from Domaine Heresztyn-Mazzini. It looked absolutely wonderful and glossy. The nose was fabulous, with rich ripe fruit, reminding us of a fruit tart from a very high class patisserie. It was delicious with juicy blackcurrant on the palate, but wasn't particularly typique - it reminded us more of a Nuits St George from a producer in Vosne-Romanee. (Am aware that that may be the most pretentious sentence I've ever written on this blog.) It had great persistence and a lovely peacock's tail on the finish. We felt it was drinking very nicely now and would last another 5 years. While not exactly cheap, it wasn't super-pricey either, around £60. We gave it 9.5 points and thought it might get up to a 10 in three years. For some reason, my notes include the phrase "Because I'm worth it." Not sure if I said that or G did! Thanks to him anyway for supplying it. 

Two non premier crus next. First this Bourgogne rouge 2005 from Dugat-Py. This claimed to be only 12.5%. It had lovely legs, an intense colour and a somewhat brooding nose. It was powerful, structured and intense, with sour cherries and an umami quality - I wondered if it was leather or coffee. Absolutely not the light, pretty style of bourgogne rouge. We did wonder if it was actually ready, but then that's 2005 for you. It certainly felt like it was playing above its level and blind we would have thought it was a village wine or even a premier cru.

Staying with 2005, I'm delighted to report that my village Vosne-Romanee from Jacques Cacheux, bought back in the day, has finally come round! This was big, rich and blackcurranty, and not very typical Vosne, in fact it reminded us of Gevrey. It was muscular but had the fruit to support it now, and was decent mature Burgundy. I still have two or three bottles to look forward to, hurrah!

For some reason I failed to take a pic of the last one, a Nuits-St-Georges 1er cru les Boudots 2010 from Louis Jadot, Domaine Gagey. It was very Cote de Nuits on the nose, with chocolate, blackberries and black cherries, but less sweet on the palate with great structure and mouthwatering acidity. It had fine-grained tannins, with that slightly powdery quality that reminds me of cocoa, and an enjoyable slightly tart note. It was a great combination with venison fillet and went down surprisingly easily, but G  thought it might not be attractive in a minor vintage. It still seemed fairly young. We gave it a low 9 and wondered if it might make a 10 in ten years time. 

Beaune 1er cru Clos des Ursules 2004, Domaine des Heritiers Louis Jadot

Another premier cru, this time from Louis Jadot. Or is it? I've just been looking at their impressively fussy and annoying website trying to work out what the difference is between Louis Jadot and Heritiers Louis Jadot - they seem to be a different group of vineyards that LJ presumably bought up a while back, although please correct me if I'm wrong!

The label says that Clos des Ursules is a 1er Cru Vigne Franches. A "clos" is a walled vineyard, so apparently this one is part of the larger Vigne Franches vineyard. Have just anxiously checked the yellow book (the Wines of Burgundy by Pitiot and Servant), failed to find it, realised this was because I was looking at Pommard not Beaune, and can confirm it does appear on their list in its own right. Phew!

This bottle cost 37 euros and came from the Boutique des Domaines which is a shop on Place Carnot in Beaune that sells quite a lot of Jadot. As Clos des Ursules is a monopole ("seul proprietaire" says the bottle) we had to have this one.

It had a dark, plummy colour and looked glossy. The nose was sweet and jammy with a tinned strawberry element. On the palate, it was soft and congruent with the nose, richer than we'd expected and in a big style. Not tres Beaune at all. We liked it more at the start than at the end - it lacked complexity, and became a little boring. It certainly showed that the 2004 reds are drinking well now, and had no room for improvement. It just about maintained a score of 8 although I feel slightly resentful writing that. Certainly not value for money, especially when I think about Giboulot's lovely Beaunes...

Recent drinking round-up

I commented to G the other day that we'd been slacking on the Premier Cru Project, and when he next went to Rutland he brought back a couple of 2004 premier crus we'd stashed away a couple of years ago. Note the charming back label, to deter his marauding relatives.

Sadly, in this case, the warning turned out to be prescient. This was a 2004 Volnay Les Brouillards from Domaine Louis Boillot. It came from the Wine Society and cost about £27. I assume I bought it two years ago and it doesn't seem to be available as a separate bottle any more.

We decanted it for just over an hour and it had a dark plummy colour. On the nose it was big and sweet and when we came to taste it, there was more than a hint of the sugar bag, masking an underlying tartness in the fruit. It wasn't very well-integrated and the finish was actively unpleasant. I ended up not drinking all of mine, which doesn't happen often, so after some dithering about whether it could be a 7, that was the deciding factor and we gave it a mere 6. Disappointing. We've had wine from Louis Boillot before, a 1999 which we gave an 8, but on this showing I shan't be rushing back to buy any more.

We drank this with a remarkably large steak from the East London Steak Company who are my butcher of choice when I can't be bothered to walk to Marylebone - they deliver! At least the steak didn't let us down.

Fortunately the other bottle was a good deal better. This was a 2004 Pommard Clos des Epeneaux Monopole from Domaine Comte Armande. G decanted it 3 hours before we came to drink it and this turned out to be a good move. It was a beautiful dark pinot colour with great legs. On the nose G got hot car tyres (!) while on the palate it was big, powerful yet elegant, serious and accomplished. I thought there was a slight graininess which reminded me of cocoa. We had it with steak, which was a good combination - it would have been too big for less robust food.

All in all it tasted expensive and consulting my trusty spreadsheet I see that it cost 62 euros from Mon Millesime two years ago. The bottle was unusually big and heavy and this is a domaine that takes itself seriously. It gets two stars from Clive Coates (= "a fine domaine") and I see from their website that they recommend drinking this between 10 and 15 years of age so arguably we should have left it longer, but we felt it was drinking well now.

And now some non premier crus. This 1998 Marsannay from Domaine Louis Jadot came in a mixed bag I got at auction. Expectations weren't high, but it turned out to be decent, and not over the hill, which was what I'd feared.

On this one, by contast, expectations certainly were high - a 1999 Bourgogne Rouge from Domaine Roulot. I'm a big fan of this domaine, and even though this is only a humble Bourgogne Rouge, it's much better than plenty of premier crus I've tasted. This is the sort of burgundy I love, very Cote de Beaune, packed with fruit and flavour but with a smooth delicacy about it too. The kind of wine that slips down until suddenly the bottle's empty and you wonder where the hell it went and start accusing the person sitting across the table of helping themselves behind your back.

The other night we were in need of a half of red to go with the cheese, and G remembered he had these halves of 2005 Nuits-St-Georges Les Petits Plets from Domaine De L'Arlot. He bought these four years ago if memory serves, and I always found it hard-going. It's now developed and become much more enjoyable to drink.

Another old friend - 2005 Beaune Longbois from Yves Darviot. I didn't make notes but this supported the conclusion that in good years, the Longbois is lovely.

Claret shocker! G got a case of 1969 Chateau Brane-Cantenac at a recent auction and this was the first bottle we tried. We opened it just before drinking, and it was a tawny colour. On the palate it was soft, well-integrated and complex with a distinct hint of fig. It went down an absolute treat. We had it with my signature duck and prune terrine (just for a change from steak) and it worked well with that - it wasn't the sort of wine that needed heavy red meat. "Really very pleasant" said G while my response was "Mmmm". It seems that 1969 is yet another overshadowed year, with all the attention going to 1970. Tchah.

And finally, I'm delighted to see that the website of the Burgundy Portfolio is now up and running. I know where I'll be getting my 2010s from! The famous ACC supplies at least 75% of the wines I drink and his ability to track down small producers making wonderful wine is unparalleled. It's lovely to see pictures of them and read about ACC's vinous and sartorial adventures.