Wine Group Dinner #169 - 2009 Gevrey Chambertin Grand Crus

Again our group met in our usual venue, the excellent downstairs private room at Urbane and our Chef prepared a great black truffle menu based on Canberra district grown truffles. The wines were all 2009 Grand Crus from Gevrey other than the initial white wine from Colin-Morey and were opened 2 hours before the start of dinner and not decanted.

Served with a beautifully seared fillet of farmed Murray Cod, Beurre Blanc Sabayon and Black Truffle.

• 2008 Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey Chevalier-Montrachet 95 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

  Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. A delicious wine with real potential for improvement the 2008 Colin-Morey Chevalier Montrachet has a pale green gold colour and a pure nose of white peach and nectarines with touches of lime and white flowers. The palate is has lovely clarity of fruit with excellent drive and mouth feel leading into a fine finish that just drops away a little at the end. There is a sense of more to give with time in the cellar underpinned by plenty of material and a terrific purity.

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Served with Braised Jumbo Quail, Artichoke as Custard, Quenelle and Crisps, Black Truffle.

• 2009 Domaine Ponsot Griotte-Chambertin 93 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru

  Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. This wine had a lovely clear red cherry colour and a nose of freshly cut red cherries, wild strawberry and touches of citrus. The palate is round and rich with a suggestion of surmaturite yet still with a fine finish with a sense of creaminess to the texture. Delicious yet without the complexity expected at this level.

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• 2009 Faiveley Latricières-Chambertin 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru

  Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. This wine showed a pale red cherry colour with some brown at the edges and a complex nose of dark cherry, raspberry, rose and mineral and spice touches. The palate is quite linear yet there is lovey scented fruit balanced well by that mineral edged character that gives length and precision. A lovely wine in the austere Faiveley style.

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• 2009 Domaine Robert Arnoux / Arnoux-Lachaux Latricières-Chambertin 95 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru

  Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. This wine has a clear dark cherry colour and a complex nose of strawberry, redcurrant, roses and touches of limestone bearing earth and spice. The palate is richer than the Faiveley yet is complex, pure and round with a fine mineral finish and sense of balance. This is a lovely Latricieres.

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Truffled Skin Chicken Breast, Truffled Stock Jus, Asparagus and Shaved Truffle.

• 2009 Olivier Bernstein Chambertin-Clos de Bèze 94 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru

  Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. This wine is immediately notable for its dense dark cherry colour and rich nose of black and red fruits with touches of compote character, earth and game. The palate is similarly rich and verges on surmaturite with touches of fig and dark chocolate yet there is still good balance and a fine finish. There is that Bernstein glossiness that is immediately attractive but which can be a little too much of a good thing ! Still this is a delicious wine of a particular style.

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• 2009 Faiveley Chambertin-Clos de Bèze 96 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru

  Wow this is a step up ! The colour is a deep cherry red and the nose is immediately forthcoming with red and black cherry and raspberry, redcurrant and allspice. There are touches of rose and earth. The palate is complex and mouth filling with great shape and length that lingers nicely. A really delicious CdB.

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• 2009 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin-Clos de Bèze 97 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru

  Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. Another step up and an altogether lovely bottle of this regularly beautiful wine in so many vintages. The colour is a deep and dark cherry red with a great nose that is fine yet jumps out of the glass to reveal red and black cherries, wild strawberries, roses, allspice and hung game. The palate is rich and spherical with plenty of density yet a persistent fine line of soft fruit and balancing tannin. I love the sneaky line of fruit that goes on and on ! Terrific.

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Seared Duck Breast, Truffle and Duck Reduction Sauce with Joel Rubechon's Mash with Black Truffle.

• 2009 Domaine Bruno Clair Chambertin-Clos de Bèze 95 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru

  Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. There is a coolness about this wine that takes a little time to understand after the wines that went before yet there is plenty of material and a sense for the first time that here is a wine for the decades. The colour is a deep cherry colour and the nose is reserved but with time reveals dark cherries, raspberry, wild strawberry with touches of autumn herbs and allspice. The palate is dense and quite strict but shows plenty of nuance all backed by a coolness of fruit and a fine structure leading into a finish of fine persistent tannins and limestone and earth. Excellent yet still quite reserved.

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• 2009 Domaine Ponsot Chambertin-Clos de Bèze 97 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin-Clos de Bèze Grand Cru

  Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. In this wine the Ponsot richness works beautifully with complexity, seduction and finesse. The colour is deep, dark cherry red and the nose a liqueur of dark cherry, wild strawberry and redcurrants with plenty of allspice, limestone and touches of autumn herbs. The palate is spherical with that liqueur character yet there is great grip and persistent that holds it all together and creates a sense of lightness on the lingering finish. A complete and lovely wine.

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• 2009 Domaine Armand Rousseau Père et Fils Chambertin 96 Points

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Chambertin Grand Cru

  Wine Group Dinner #169, Urbane Restaurant. The only Chambertin of the evening this wine shows a coolness and reserve after the Beze yet there is more spice and mineral complexity that is revealed with time in the glass. The colour is a medium density dark cherry red and the nose has initial reserve yet the characters of dark and red fruits, roses, cinnamon and allspice, touches of cumquat and then game and earth are all revealed. The palate is cool and structured with layers of flavour and a persistent game and limestone inflected earth character that leads the finish. This is a wine that is lovely now but which clearly has more to show with a long sleep in a cool cellar.

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This was a beautiful dinner where all courses balanced a magnificent flight of wines perfectly. The White Burgundy was as it should be - no tricks, no taints and properly sealed against oxidation. The 09 Grand Crus were with 2 exceptions very open and attractive now and we suspect will continue to be for many years into the future. All had a lovely purity and lack of artifice that reflects the quality of the fruit in 2009 yet while a couple came close to showing some overripe characters they all were fine expressions of Pinot Noir. The 2 wines that showed reserve equally had plenty of evidence of great times ahead. All in all a great night !
Thank you to the staff and management of Urbane who continue to care for us and the aspirations of our group with a great sense of detail and quality.