Four recent reds

Time for another lockdown drinking report! I've been trying to organise my notes in an attempt at writing posts with some sort of theme. This week it's recent reds.

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!

Recent drinking round-up

On a recent Sunday evening, D came round for dinner at my place and G also joined us.

I'd just got some wines out of storage (Wine Out Friday) so we began with a bottle of this Chablis 1er cru Montmains 2010 from La Maison Romane.

It was a lovely pale gold colour, and very typique. We felt it was at the beginning of its drinking window, but it went down so easily that I'm not sure how long it's going to last. G and I had another bottle later in the week (the perils of leaving a spare in the fridge!) which was surprisingly different and reminded me more of a premier cru Chassagne. Good with fish fingers.

Back to Sunday. The main event was this bottle of 1969 Beaulieu Vineyard brought by D.

This was a lovely dark glossy colour and had a classic cedary cabernet sauvignon nose. G detected mint leaf. It was absolutely delicious - intense, rich, and sweet, with a lovely soft texture and an amazing finish. It was very drinkable too, and it was a real treat to drink such a wonderful wine.

With our cheese, we had this bottle of 1er cru Morey St-Denis 1996 Clos des Ormes from Maison Champy, provided by G. This was again very classic and typique with the black forest gateau thing going on, but for me it was overshadowed by the Beaulieu Vineyards - tough competition.

We finished off with some of G's old kirsch which made a refreshing digestif. Thanks to both of you for another memorable evening!

On Saturday, G and I went over to ACC's for lunch. We were presented with a mystery white and invited to guess what it was. Let's just say we were completely wrong!

ACC had a new cookery book by Stephane Reynaud and presented us with this amazing sausage and lentil dish.

To go with it, we had a magnum of Morgon 2011 from Lapierre. This was glorious Beaujolais, fruity and gluggable.

As we reached the bottom of the bottle, it became increasingly more murky...

G contributed an excellent cheeseboard, and I brought along a 2009 Pommard from Domaine Parent which was another of the wines I got out recently and the first time I'd tried it. My feeling was that it needs more time, so I'm going to tuck it away for a bit. For drinking now, the 2011 vintage seems to be the way forward!

We finished off with an amazing selection of digestifs and plotted our next trip to Burgundy...

Thanks ACC for a fabulous lunch!

Tasting of 2009 Burgundies, 31st March

How on earth did that glass of water manage to crash the party?!

On Thursday I attended a tasting of 2009 burgundies at the offices of Edward Parker Wines hosted by ACC. They were mainly village-level but there was one premier cru and also a couple of Morgons. All these wines are very young and in many cases won't be ready for several years.

We tasted the following:

1. Chablis, Domaine Gilles & Nathalie Fevre. This was quite pale in colour, had a lovely elegant nose and richness on the palate but also the minerality typical of the Chablis region. ACC described it as "gastronomic chablis" - some smoked salmon with this one would really hit the spot. Very reasonable value at £105 for a case of twelve in bond.

2. Cote-de-Beaune "La Grande Chatelaine", Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot. I'm a big fan of this domaine as written about here so was looking forward to this. But there was something slightly weird going on on the nose and G thought it was not correct. I got hay and some earthiness - possibly a "hint of the farmyard". I found it very interesting and it had an amazing finish, but I've already bought a different 2009 white from Giboulot so I won't be getting this one.

3. Chassagne-Montrachet, Domaine Bachey-Legros. I hadn't come across this domaine before but this was an accomplished village level Chassagne with a streak of lemon down the middle and some honey.

4. Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru Perrieres, Domaine Sylvain Bzikot. I'm also a big fan of this domaine as written about here but I hadn't tasted this wine before. ACC said that Sylvain makes one tenth as much of it as he makes of his Folatieres which has always been superb. It was difficult tasting a premier cru that's only a year old - it had a sensational nose but the structure had not yet come together. We thought this will be a future 10 and I couldn't resist going for a six pack at £215 (£425 per case) in bond. Not cheap but it's excellent value for what it is, especially compared to the competition.

5. 2009 Morgon, Domaine Boulon. I'd heard rave reviews about the 2009 beaujolais vintage and was not disappointed. This had a delightful nose with vibrant fruit. A lovely, light red good for weekday drinking. I went for a case at £90 in bond which I think will work out at around £10 a bottle by the time it comes in.

6. Morgon "Cuvee Pauline", Domaine Boulon. This is a special cuvee of Morgon, and plus serieux. It had a slightly darker colour and an intense nose of blackcurrants. This is the kind of Morgon that one should tuck away for 5 years - it's not an easy drinker like the previous wine. Apparently Pauline is the name of the grower's wife - aah. As you can see from the photo, this hasn't yet got a proper label and just had something delightfully hand-written. I went for a case of this too, at £125 for twelve in bond.

7. Hautes-Cotes-de-Nuits "Sous le Mont", Domaine Emmanuel Giboulot. This was quite a pale colour and had a wonderful fragrance of wild strawberries. It was delicate, elegant and pure - G said "pretty". ACC said it would go well with poached salmon and certainly it's not the kind of wine that would work with heavy red meat or game. At the moment it has relatively high acidity so it will need to be tucked away for 2-3 years. I loved it when we tasted it at the domaine back in January, so had already snapped some up during the en primeur offer (£95 for six or £180 for twelve in bond).

8. Gevrey-Chambertin "La Justice", Domaine Felettig. I've never been to this domaine but I do get through industrial quantities of their Vieux Marc so expectations were high. ACC told us that the textbook tasting note for Gevrey is liquorice on the nose and this was indeed the case. It was quite savoury and had rich, dark fruits. Really it is a wine for the winter and would be best drunk with a hearty game dish, and again, it needs at least a couple of years.

As a bonus bottle at the end ACC produced Felettig's 2007 Chambolle Clos le Village which was charming and elegant, as one would expect from the 2007 vintage and the village of Chambolle. This was more approachable than the Gevrey.

All in all, a really interesting tasting with something for everyone.