Chambolle 1er Cru Night with Sasi

Sasi was back from Jakarta, and a few of us, William and Gina, Martin and Joyce, Sasi and Devi and myself, got together for a little catch-up. This time, the theme was Chambolle. We had three bottles and a few extras all served blind as usual.

• 2006 Domaine Jean-Marc Pillot Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot 91 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru

  A little warm by the time I got to it, but I thought this was a very decent wine, and well representative of both its vintage and its terroir. Lovely nose. A layer of toast, some earth, mineral, white fruit and some Chassagne honey tones. Palate had a nice clean feel to it, but had unmistakably 2006 size and richness, along with just that little touch of heat on the edges, not so much that it distracted from the other qualities of the wine though. Lots of minerality here - chalky, slatey flavours were laced through the creamily textured apple and sticky peach and apricot stone-fruit notes. Wonderful length on the palate. More toast, some spice, and more of that lovely, flinty minerality zooming through the back-palate all slightly powdered gunflint end. I liked this.

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• 2007 Château d'Esclans Côtes de Provence Les Clans 90 Points

  France, Provence, Côtes de Provence

  I always thought these Rosés were a little ridiculously priced. This bottle more or less confirms that. Good, but not fantastic - I would drink a good Rosé Champagne over this any day. You can get some real crackers at the price this retails at or just a little more. Colour was pretty, nose was very nice, with earth notes, flowers and a pure strawberry note and a little ripple of raspberry cream. Really charming. Palate attacked with a bit of heat unfortunately, but apart from that, it too had plenty of charm. More sweet strawberries and fresh cherries, showing some depth and weight beyond the usual Provencal Rosé, and a finish with a gentle spiciness and just that little bit of heat at the edges. To be fair, it should have been served a little colder, but overall, although it is a serious Rosé, and althrough I liked it quite a bit, I certainly did not love it so much as to justify a purchase in future.

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• 1994 Domaine Leroy Chambolle-Musigny Les Fremières 92 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny

  An excellent 1994 Burg. This had the beautiful aromatics that many of the wines in the vintage are starting to display, a real show-stopping nose - sour plums, haw flakes, dried strawberries, cherries, stewed tea, lots of flowers over a touch of earth. Lovely. Palate had a touch of 1994 hardness and woody herbiness, but the richness layered over that really belied the vintage. Typically plush, lush Leroy style, this had cherries and strawberries and beautiful flowers in the mouth, moving into a finish of great length that took off where the nose left off, with a lovely melange of black tea, haw flakes and sour plums. A really enjoyable wine, in a good place at the moment.

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• 2004 Domaine Thierry Beaumont Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Chabiots 87 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

  Unmistakably 2004 - the green monster reared its head on first sniff. Chinese herbs galore, with anglica root and earthy ginseng tumbling out of the glass. There was some nice stuff goiing on beyond that, with sappy cherry scents and some flowery nuances, but it was hard to get past the herbiness. Palate was just a little better. Some toast on the attack, some spice, more sweet cherries with a flowery lilt, all wrapped in a nicely textured, well-balanced package. That woodiness still haunted the wine though, all the way into its finish, which showed a distracting amount of herbaciousness. Not undrinkable by any means, I thought it had good typicity and nice fruit expression under all that 2004-ness, but the wine has to be taken as a whole, and as a whole, it was just not great.

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• 2006 Domaine Bertheau (Pierre et François) Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Les Amoureuses 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

  Best of the three Chambolles, edging out a very solid Leroy. This had the benefit of 2 hours or more in the decanter by the time I got to it, and had opened up quite nicely. Just served a tad too warm, which may have made the wine a little muggier, but still a really good showing. Nose was lovely. Nice flowery tones, some funky earth hints, a little toast, anise-led spice notes and darkish cherries, all very high-toned and quite arresting though. Palate really showed the quality of the terroir. Sweet and perfumy, it had more morello cherry notes, strawberries and some orange peel. Plenty of strength, yet it came across really light on its feet, with lots of charm wed to a nice sense of structure from fine, slightly powdery tannins. Finish slid in seamlessly, with a longish show if sappy fruit and a little bittersweet lift. Plenty of firmness here too. I think this really deserves a good decade or more in the cellar, but it was really nice to get a little snap-shot of a really good wine in its youth. The Amoureuses character was quite nicely showing even now - the qunitessence of Chambolle-Musigny.

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• 2002 Alois Kracher Grande Cuvée TBA #7 Nouvelle Vague 94 Points

  Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee

  Excellent. This was a really one-of-a-kind wine. No one quite makes wines like Alois Kracher, and the fact that no one could even place the country when this was served blind spoke volumes. Really powerful on the nose. Intense and complex, the glass just filled up with rich scents of nectarine, apricots, flowery orange blossoms, rich honey tones and a nice wafting darjeeling tea lift. Tons and tons of botrytis on the palate. Super rich, thick, almost viscous, yet it had enough acidity woven into its almost oily texture so that the wine never came across as cloying in spite of its massive weight. Again, really powerful, intense flavours here - honey notes galore, orange peel, orange marmalade, candied stone fruits, all moving inexorably through the mouth into a long finish where more of that lovely black tea note peeked out amongst the golden, honeyed flavours. This really derserved a lot more time and age in the bottle, but hey, this was as good an occasion to pop it as any.

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