Very nice tart pineapple flavours, with a touch of reduction on the nose as well. Fruity and tart, but accessible all the same now.

This shows some almondy qualities on the nose and palate. Very tight now, and a little bit of reduction as well. Finishes with a bit of bitter almond.

Not the easiest drinking white Burgundy. This is quite green and there's also a touch of astringency as well. Heaps of acidity next to some 11s and 13s, which is a bit odd, and showing some tart green fruit as well.

Not sure which "edition" this was. But there was some richer advanced character to this wine. Waxy yellow stone fruit, with some riper acids. Rounded texture lacking any real cut.

Quite reduced, though perhaps not as bad as the Corbins I had a while back. Although there's a lot of acidity here, I thought the acids were those of riper fruit, so there's a nice fullness to this wine.

Super acidic, like a citric knife. Powerful, deep, and really dense. But at the same time, this isn't as expressive, overt, or big as a Corton-Charlemagne ought to be. I'm gonna just go ahead and hope that it's too young right now, since I ended up buying some.

Moderately reduced on the nose, with a real strong inflection of white peach. Quite pure and crystalline, with adequate concentration and acidity.

Super exotic, with a nice juicy white-fruited nose, while at the same time showing some tropical fruit character, as well as some green spice tones. One of the standouts today.

Shows a lot of stony character, and the fruit doesn't shine through as much right now. Restrained, yet ripe, this shows a surprisingly nice amount of acidity for the vintage.

Sadly, infected by the 2011 green taint. Stemmy, with lots of vegetal qualities. Unpleasant.

Shows a fair bit of stems on the nose and palate. Not the softest nor most easy-going of AOC Bourgogne, this has a bit of tough tannin and is surprisingly dense with not too much showing on the palate except for really chalky tannin. The nose is much better than the palate here.

Lots of brightness to the red fruit here, and there's some of that crunchy red fruited character of 2008 as well on show. Lots of acidity on display here, but the sweet fruit from 2008 that I remember clearly seems to have totally vanished. Hope that this will round out with time.

The nose here is very nicely perfumed, and there's a moderate touch of earth to both the nose and palate as well. This shows a bit of sweet fruit, and is really expressive at the moment. The tannins are a bit tight still.

Another victim of 2011 green taint. Tobacco and ash, and just plain stemmy. There's some lovely red fruit and acidic lift here, but the green is pretty prominent and unpleasant.

There's a slight amount of earth here, but the red fruit here shines so brilliantly. The palate's surprisingly light despite all that, and there are some really floral tones as well. Accessible now.

Really nice light red fruit, as I've found in so many Bruno Clair wines, but the green taint destroys what enjoyment I might have had from this wine.

Just... so... green...

Perhaps not the best expression of Bonnes Mares, this is a good example of a riper, more expressive pinot that is just totally open for business right now (as a side note, I liked this a little more than the 09 Bèze). Perhaps a bit simplistic, especially for the terroir, but just so damn delicious already.

Made in a somewhat blowsy, large-scaled style, with a touch of overripeness on the fruit here. The oak's a bit heavy-handed too, and this finishes with a bit of cough syrup bitterness.

While I liked this less than the Bonnes Mares, I still really quite enjoyed the open, expressive, yet not over-the-top style of this wine. And again, while it perhaps doesn't display the full-on complexity you ought to get in a Bèze, this is still pretty damn delicious. Accessible now, to great enjoyment.

Quite simplistic, with some light and simple red fruit flavours on the nose and palate. There's a tartness to the acid that is a bit disconcerting, and this could really use a bit more concentration. The red fruit here is quite nice though -- just wish there was more to this than that.

A good, serviceable bottle of syrah, if not the most exciting. This is headier than my preferred style, but there's a stern sullenness to this wine that keeps the super exuberant expression back. Lots of sweet fruit here, and there's just enough acidity to hold things together.

Tons of bright fruit here, but just not enough acidity, and while this isn't too jammy, there is a bit of sweetness that just isn't too pleasant without at least a touch more acid. I could go about half a glass in on this before getting tired of it.

I have liked the Louis Boillot wines from this terroir, and it is comforting to see that these lands are still being used to make great wines. A lovely example of Volnay, this shows a really nice blend of polish and rustic earth notes. Velvety tannins, a nice combination of red and black fruit, and brawny tannins. One to lay down, but reasonably enjoyable now as well.

After so many misses from Clair today, it is great to see a return to form on this bottle. This shows that ethereal red fruit that I always associate with Clair, and at the same time, lovely riper fruit, which plays well with this somewhat neglected commune's terroir. There's a lovely light florality to this that buffers the heavier rich fruit and tannins.

Somewhat reduced, but showing some red fruit just the same. Crisp acids, but somewhat understated on the palate. I imagine this could have used a little bit more air to flesh out.

Another wine where the nose is much, much better than the palate. At first, there's a lot of lovely red fruit, and an intriguing touch of earth as well, but the palate is so underwhelming compared to that lovely nose. In fact, there's a pretty big blank space where you'd expect the fruit to show up. What happened here?

Sweet and unpleasantly cloying red fruit. Alcoholic and confected to boot. No.

Really, really grapey. Lots of sweet fruit and a bit leaner and a touch more acid than the 2012 Royer Sables. You know, this would have been a decent start to a wine, if the finish were not so marred by a streak of nasty and unpleasant oak.

I really wanted to like this more, but there was such an unpleasant 2004-red-Burgundy-like streak of green to it that I couldn't. Not enough fruit and stuffing here to hold up to this husk of green acid. Not a great drink.

This is a nice, serviceable example of a bottle of syrah. As Côte-Rôtie this is much more underwhelming. A reasonable dose of oak that isn't too bad (although I would certainly prefer less of it). Decent ripeness and a touch less acidity make this a somewhat soft wine, and a bit of heat on the finish is also distracting.

Blueberries and overly sweet, with lots of confected red fruit. I had forgotten that pinot noir could have residual sugar at all. By the way, throwing a bunch of oak on top of that doesn't do this any favours.

There's a incredible amount of smoke on the nose and palate of this wine, coupled with a lot of sweetness and tons of brown spice. Kind of like a really sweet barbecue sauce? Moderately confected (but still showing candied red fruit), this is drinkable in small doses.

Today, I learned that there's confected sweet fruit in wine, and that there's overconfected sweet fruit in wine. What did they do, put corn syrup in this? Simply awful. I wouldn't even call this pinot noir.

Really austere and black fruited. Despite the scale of this wine, there's something here that manages to hold everything together. Fruit that is just a little bit on the underripe side so that it's a touch tart actually help give this some lift. Not the most expressive, this is a bit clunky, but very good nonetheless.

Super thick wine, showing a really high amount of viscosity. The initial impression I had of this wine was that it was a bit overripe and overdone, but in fact, the comically massive (and slightly bitter) tannins on the back end serve to lift this out of the depths of cloyingness into a serviceable bottle of wine. I do wish this could be more like the Phelps I've had from the earlier eras.

Pretty much everything wrong with modern Napa cabernet can be found in this bottle. Overly sweet, overly oaked, overripe, and just plain overdone. Identifiable as modern red wine only. A triumph over varietal and terroir. "Uncle!"