Category: Burgundy

Simple dinner for three..

Two halves and one full bottle made for a tasty and almost moderate dinner, sort of…

NV Louis Roederer Champagne Brut Premier.

Delicious from the gentle phttt of the cork. Rich but fresh. Older honeyed pastry and hazelnuts mixed perfectly with crystalline candied citrus and pale red fruit. Mouthwatering and appetite whetting likes no other drink. If NV’s job is to be full of delicious impact from the perfumed start, then this is the bee’s knees.

12.50% alcohol. Cork I think, maybe Diam, failing memory. Another generous share.

94 points.

2013 Comm. G B Burlotto Barolo.

Clean, expressive and so savoury from the start. Perfect cherry red fruit, almond paste and stones. Just got fresher and deeper. Not the deep dark of Serralunga or Monforte but all the drive, brightness and perfume of the more north westerly bits of Barolo land. Somehow seemed much smaller than 375 mls. Alarmingly quick disappearance.

14% alcohol. Cork. Thanks for sharing.

95 points.

1999 Domaine Tollot Beaut Corton Bressandes.

Dark, extractive and still a bit oaky. Got a bit fresher and deeper fruited as it came up for air. Rich red fruit conserve and darker clay and chalky earth. The rear end filled out well with dark cane fruit depth. Still some life in the tannin texture of both skin and cocoa oak buoyed by a gentle acid rasp. Shame the remains tired so quickly the next day.

14% alcohol. Cork. About $100 on release.

93 points.

1999 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits St Georges Les Pruliers

Seasonal treat from the dungeon. Wonderful clean freshness for an oldie. Good red colour, gloriously red fruited with an almost austere tug of great tannin and acidity. Remington Norman’s Burgundy book mentions the extremely low yields the Gouges favour and this bears that out. Dense, round and deep. Untrammelled by any new oak. Paradoxically succulent and firmly spartan, ballerina poise. All my golden russet autumns in a bottle and there’s a few of them now.

13% alcohol. Cork. Was about 35 euros, contributing to a very heavy carry on before the 100ml limit. Them were the days.

96 points.

Well, it seems there’s more than one bottle of this in the cellar, so now there’s two less. The second from an the Australian importer looks considerably more developed with an autumnal and caramel fog lying across the cool flow of dense fruit and stern rocks. It had been on the shelf for a while, so maybe some early damage done? Much is made of the fanciful detail in Burgundy’s individual vineyards but slow sniffing and sipping is like a weird geological exploration, yes really. If you’ve ever driven out of the city’s fug, opened the car door somewhere refreshingly rural and taken a deep breath, well, it’s sort of like that. Silly old wino you say, definitely. Nonetheless, it’s a beautiful drink of that Burgundian paradox of poised fruit and rugged stone.

Still as above in numbers apart from the price in Australia. Just been in a warmer place for a while.

2017 Domaine Heimbourger Chablis Cuvée Pierre

One of the joys of holidays in Paris is finding a new caviste with a small selection of consistently good choices. Even better if you realise you know not a lot about the producers on offer and the adventure keeps ending deliciously. So, hats off to the Marché St Martin again. Right from first sniff this is Chablis. Very slick wine making. Clean, almost sanitised, with a judicious seasoning of oak barrel. There’s some solid yellow and green fruit and that long, gentle but insistent acidity that makes Chablis so irresistible. So much wine, so little time and relative amounts of money. Next stop uncle Dan’s member specials.

13.00% alcohol. Cork. 18 euros.

92 points.

2017 Domaine Olivier Morin Constance Bourgogne Chitry

Chablis is looking more expensive by the day even in France due to two really low crops, more demand and, well, it is Burgundy. The village of Chitry isn’t far away but doesn’t yet have the momentum and thank goodness with producers like this. Still one for the workers. From the cheese and wine oracle of Julhès in Paris’ tenth, this pure clean Chardonnay has a whiff of shells and sea but is really more like a good, cool grown new world version. Concentration and ripeness of honeyed citrus and stone fruit carry well to a firm but even acid cut. Not quite the mellow lactic mouth caress that makes Chablis difficult to stop drinking but the fruit quality makes up for it. Bargain.

13% alcohol. Cork. 12 euros.

92 points.

2017 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis

The back label proudly says Jean-Marc Brocard is a big name in Chablis. He certainly makes delicious Chablis, specious boast notwithstanding. Half a bottle from a Paris  supermarket disappeared leaving drools for more. Relatively rich at first and maybe developing quickly from being shelf bound in a scorcher of a summer, it’s still citrus and yellowy green fruits and that mouthwatering acidity. There’s some seaside Chablis scent just to make sure. Seemed to freshen up in the glass. Shame it was only a half.

12.50% alcohol. Diam. 9 euros a half.

91 points but a bonus mark for being the best sort of Chardy.

2013 Domaine Huber-Verdereau Meursault 1er Cru La Pièce sous le Bois

First and very probably the only 1er Cru white burgundy of the year thanks to a very generous friend. From a producer in Volnay. Opened a bit natural winey yeasty and spiced but sucked up air beautifully to become a self assured, rich yet still fresh Chardy. Full range of honey, toasted nuts, cut apple and autumnal stone fruits, melting butter and golden sunny days. All contained by a deliciously soft mouthwatering acidity that sits right inside the wine and balances the abundance so well. As with Burgundy sometimes the last glass the best. Shame you can’t squeeze a glass bottle.

13% alcohol. Cork. $? dread to think.

95 points

2002 Denis Mortet Gevrey Chambertin Lavaux St Jacques 1er Cru

These 2002 red Burgundies seem to have a delicious balance of ripeness and freshness judging from a sadly small sampling. The colour’s holding up well with a still clear red. Smells of perfumed wild strawberry and cherry mix with sweet earthiness battling the sort of very expensive oak only the Burgundians seem to be able to choose. A good mouthful reveals the same ethereal fruit and earth with fine ripe acidity. Only towards the end does that luxury barrique impose its tannins. Perhaps a bit too much so? Prefer the natural transparency of the Chevillon.

13% alcohol. Cork. $130 from Como Wine some time ago. Aghast to see what it would fetch in a Hong Kong auction.

95 points.

2002 Robert Chevillon Nuits Saint Georges Les Chaignots 1er Cru

An indulgent week for stuff from the offsite dungeon. This just got better and better after a decant. Really clean spice, perfect dark chocolate and wild strawberry. Beautiful fruit with the most sophisticated graphite fine tannin and mouthwatering blood orange acidity. Them Chevillons seem to grow such good grapes. Amazing freshness of pure fruit to finish and what an end too! The oak’s not really noticeable unlike some more venerated and ludicrously expensive Burgundians. Chaignots is near Vosne Romanée and notwithstanding the power of auto suggestion it just could be apparent here.

13% alcohol. Cork. About $120 on release.

96 points.