Community Tasting Note

Paul S wrote:

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 - Prime of Life Dinner (Yan, National Gallery, Singapore): We have all become fans of Francois Bertheau’s wines in the past few years, so it was a bit of a treat to try his father’s handiwork – especially since the Bonnes Mares is probably the best wine in the family’s stable. This was the only wine on the night that came in two separate 750ml bottles rather than in a magnum format, but pours from either bottle still felt really alive for an almost 35 year-old Burgundy from a middling vintage. It had a beautiful nose, with perfumy wafts of dried flowers and orange peel floating about mature aromas of dried cherries and blueberries, then sour plums and earth – a lot of people actually guessed Chambolle with a pretty bouquet like that. The palate was a lovely mix of the soft and the firm. Fine tannins had already mellowed into a creamy mouthfeel, but there was also some muscle left, with a nice strength showing in the wine’s flavours of cherry and blueberry seasoned with a flush of dried flowers and spice. Actually, very strong for 1981 I thought, with a nice succulence on the midpalate and decent acidity keeping the wine on its feet nicely. There was just a touch of austerity showing in the long finish, and this was nowhere as silkily elegant as the recent Francois Bertheau examples. However, all that apart, it was really pleasurable and full of charm – a wine that I enjoyed tremendously. Probably time to drink up.

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